Jack Hunter

I retweet things

[OSINTtechnical @Osinttechnical]

US defense giants Lockheed and Raytheon are reportedly resistant to licensing Patriot missile production to Ukraine because they fear that Ukrainian manufacturers will be able to “improve the Patriot and then produce them at scale faster and for much less money.” -The Atlantic

[Tom Bennett OBE @tombennett71]

The fact that some people don’t believe that this is exactly what it can be like for many teachers, is part of the problem we face in fixing it. If you’ve never worked in a challenging classroom/ school, it’s easy to think behaviour isn’t an issue. https://t.co/1WIumABftb

[Adam Boxer (offline) @adamboxer1]

These are some of the things that I think mainstream secondary schools should be able to expect of the overwhelming majority of its students:

Turn up to lessons on time
Start work without talking to anyone
Bring your books and equipment to school
Don't call out questions, answers or comments
Don't get out your chair and wander round the classroom
Raise your hand if you want to say something
Talk politely to everyone (especially teachers)
Don't roll your eyes or kiss your teeth if challenged on behaviour
Pay attention to what the teacher is saying
Don't turn around to try and get your friend's attention
Complete your homework
Don't chew gum
Don't break the law (e.g. vaping on premises)
Don't use your phone
If a teacher asks you your name, say it
Walk calmly (if not quietly) in the corridors
Complete your homework
If someone says good morning to you, say good morning back
Hold the doors open for people if you can
Don't fight
Don't playfight
Don't swear
Comply with reasonable instructions (e.g. "please get your planner out" or "please follow along with class reading" or "please come over here.")

For many of the things on the list, students should expect a consequence (like a detention) for not following them.

I suspect most of the above sounds entirely reasonable to the public, and schools should not be pilloried for attempting to cultivate these behaviours.

This is not an exhaustive list. But these are the ways that students in the best-performing schools I have visited behave.

Are there a tiny minority of students who couldn't comply with this list? Absolutely.

Sometimes, those students need a different type of school environment, and we should (and often do) have high quality provision for them.

Sometimes, those students would comply if they were in a mainstream school where these behaviours were normal and enforced. High performing schools have the same number of
-"difficult" students
-students on free school meals
-students with EHCPs
than low performing ones (they often have more). Whatever demographic you pick, there will be a high performing school where those same students are behaving beautifully.

Of course, teachers and leaders also have their part to play in this but that, dear reader, would require a different post.

[Jo Morgan @mathsjem]

New! My 201st gems post. Ideas, updates and resources for maths teachers. 💎

https://t.co/7rWGJ6m8dL

#mathsgems #mathschat #teammaths #mathscpdchat #mathstlp

[Sam Strickland @SamStrickers181]

I wonder if Panorama will do a documentary on schools where behaviour is chaotic, unruly & unsafe coupled with why it’s chaotic, where leaders don’t take responsibility for behaviour and the impact of this on teaching, learning, recruitment & retention of staff & pupils…

[Adam Boxer (offline) @adamboxer1]

I get to visit lots of schools. On one visit, I noted that a lot of students were late to lessons. 60 minute lessons, and 10 minutes in students are still wandering the corridors.

Senior leader informs me that they know it's a problem, but aren't sure how to deal with it.

Do you set students detentions for being late?

No.

Oh, ok then. Let's try that.

<30% of students at that school get a 5 in English and maths.

>

[sami timimi @stimimi]

Watch as ADHDers flood social media with how ADHD brains are fundamentally different without realising no one tests the brains of anyone who gets the diagnosis - because no research can find it. Then those say this fact will be told how disgusting they are to point this out

[Adam Boxer (offline) @adamboxer1]

Part of the reason why Gove and Gibb were so successful is because they read everything.

Yes, they read Hirsch and Young and Willingham. Big books with strong academic leaning and gravitas. But they also read blogs by Christodoulou, Bennett, Old, Ashman and more.

They read BLOGS. Blogs!

At the time, those were written by front line serving teachers. Teachers who were smart and switched on and writing articles that were based on experience, evidence and ideology. There was an intellectualism and an uncompromising attempt at criticality and pushing the needle.

We don't have that any more. Philipson certainly never did it, and despite Powell and Burnham appearing genuinely interested in education, they don't seem to have done the work necessary to really get their heads around it.

I remember back in the day the DfE and Ofsted used to do roundtables where they would invite real teachers with real timetables and real students to come and have a conversation. There was expertise in the room, and a sense of "ok, just because that's what the chattering classes says, doesn't mean it's right or will work."

I don't know if we'll ever get that back, and instead we will just fall back on the old ideas that we've tried before.

Well, they didn't work then, and they won't work now.

[Joanne Jacobs @JoanneLeeJacobs]

Suspension or a restorative circle? Either way, the math worksheet is gone.
https://t.co/dIVfvYepIj

[Adam Boxer (offline) @adamboxer1]

https://t.co/NOPcwg90Tz

[Adam Boxer (offline) @adamboxer1]

Some schools are better than others.

Some schools get better outcomes than others.

Schools can get better.

Schools can get worse.

Good leadership makes a school better.

Bad leadership makes a school worse.

Good teaching gets better outcomes for students.

Bad teaching gets worse outcomes for students.

The fact that some of these statements are controversial is an indictment of our profession. Not only because they are basic and obvious facts, but because denying them allows us to make excuses. We blame the cohort, we blame the system, we blame THE MAN when in reality, we can just do better.

No school has "arrived", and all schools can improve. I've been lucky enough to visit around 100 schools. Some are better than others. True. But importantly, out of all those schools, there's only one I've visited that didn't have at least five clear, obvious, and straightforward ways for it to improve.

There are, by now, known routes to school improvement. Better behaviour, high participation lessons, robust curriculums and a long-term memory strategy. There are hundreds of schools that are absolutely crushing it, and improving outcomes for their students year on year.

We have models, we have known routes, we have the capacity. Those schools that are improving are doing it with the same resources and students that other schools have. It's perfectly possible.

But this stuff isn't cool or sexy. It doesn't involve the fashionable buzzwords or the trendy stuff that gets likes on LinkedIn. And it's more challenging than just decrying the system. So the good schools keep getting better, and the bad ones keep getting worse.

[Peggy Vimes @SamuelVimes10]

About 20% of UK 14 year olds don't have functional literacy levels. You can't put this cohort through technical education; It's 2026, we're not training farriers. You need level 2 skills in English and Maths to engage in this sort of work now

[Melissa S. Kearney @kearney_melissa]

This is a very important point re the way govts and schools collect & report data -
“Leaving family structure out of federal reporting creates a vacuum that gets filled by theories that treat any gap between demographic groups as proof of discrimination…Focusing only on race, ethnicity or income risks missing the family dynamics that can shape a child’s trajectory almost as much or more than those other factors.”

[TRIGGERnometry @triggerpod]

🇬🇧 When people say the UK is collapsing, this is what they mean…

Peter Hitchens doesn't hold back in this sharp breakdown: borrowing money just to pay interest, a wiped-out industrial base, a broken education system, and a justice system on its knees.

@ClarkeMicah lays out why the feeling that "nothing works" isn't an accident, it's decades in the making.

[Dale Chu @Dale_Chu]

“Two numbers that seldom surface in discussions about race in America’s schools: 80% of Asian children nationwide live with married birth parents, vs. 30% of black children.”

[Matt Bevan @MatthewBevan]

This is incredibly cool. Sydney Tower, shot through a zoom lens from Norah Head lighthouse.

[Michael Pauleen @MichaelPauleen]

teachers wait about one second after asking a question before answering it themselves. researchers have been timing this since the 1970s. stretch the silence to three seconds and answers get longer and more kids volunteer. the thinking you interrupt at second two was the point of asking

[Jenny Pickles #HopeAlwaysDefeatsHate ♥️ @JennyPickles1]

So @PaulineHansonOz, explain to me the two-way street that led this man to set fire to this woman and these children he once professed to love?

[Naureen Khalid @5Naureen]

Was chatting to two people at an event recently. One was a primary school teacher and the other a mother of two (one in Year 10, the other in 6). We got onto the topic of behaviour. They both said that the two saddest things about bad behaviour are

1. If the child isn’t supported to improve their behaviour, they may never realise they’re full potential
2. The disruption caused also affects the life chances of the other children in the classroom.

Couldn’t agree more!

@tombennett71

[Adam Boxer (offline) @adamboxer1]

Can teachers be trusted to formally grade student work and coursework in a way that is reliable and fair?

ABSOLUTELY NOT

That doesn't mean I hate teachers. It means I understand humans, and am not naive.