G Cooksey

Deputy HT in a diverse, rewarding and truly wonderful community school in West London. ICT and Maths specialisms. All opinions are my own.

[Tom Sherrington @teacherhead]

Exploring confusion around modelling: "I do, we do, you do" vs "Guided and Independent Practice" https://t.co/4Op8682cYc via @teacherhead

[school data updates @jpembroke]

Given that ~80% of school policies relate to legal requirements, I believe the DfE should write and update them, and schools should only need to link to them on their websites. The constant writing, updating, checking, ratifying of policies is bonkers and massive workload issue.

[school data updates @jpembroke]

Free-school meal (FSM) categories are now officially bonkers:

1) Targeted FSM - previously ‘FSM eligible’
2) Expanded FSM - new FSM group
3) Universal FSM - all YR/KS1
4) Ever 6 FSM - used to determine Pupil Premium; only includes Targeted FSM pupils

[G Cooksey @gcooksey]

Yes!

[school data updates @jpembroke]

Given that ~80% of school policies relate to legal requirements, I believe the DfE should write and update them, and schools should only need to link to them on their websites. The constant writing, updating, checking, ratifying of policies is bonkers and massive workload issue.

[G Cooksey @gcooksey]

@TsuiAllen I can see difficulties with portraits yes, but surely not *any* photography or film making? Landscapes, claymation, shots from behind, wildlife (inc. Mini beasts), Pop-art inspired photography etc - so many opps.

[Simon Smith @smithsmm]

Reposting this as we get close to starting the school year.

This genius list by the late and much missed Tim Brighouse should be the starting point for how our schools focus on the young people within them.

[Mr P MBE @ICT_MrP]

If you’re looking for a good back to school activity don’t do this one

[G Cooksey @gcooksey]

@3dRcAerobatics This is untrue. This event did not happen

[Penny 👩🏻‍🦰🦩 @pennywpennyw]

🔹🔷🟦 #FridayQuiz 🟦🔷🔹

🔹 Like, share and repost
🔹 Have a go and good luck!
🔹 Share your score below with a gif
🔹 Share the quiz with whoever you want!

Happy #Friday!

https://t.co/S5u59RJ6Z5

[FAN of the Prince & Princess of Wales @TribesBritannia]

France and England just humiliated FIFA and Argentina just by being decent, good sportsman. Love to you all who played and to their teams behind the scenes. This was the true World Cup Final. https://t.co/22egAt0r4S

[jude bellingham updates @JudeUniverse5]

Jude Bellingham looking for his family in the crowd 👀

and then finding them 😊👋🏽😘👋🏽😘

[Travis Miller @travismillerx13]

🇬🇧Josh Kerr’s 3:42.66 mile 🔥

🌎Breaking a world record that had stood for 27 years

[G Cooksey @gcooksey]

Surreal moment - hitting hard. Today's the first Father's Day I haven't sent a card.
But love and gratitude is always there,
And knowing that you always cared.

[Adam Boxer @adamboxer1]

A lot of homework systems are "set and forget":

Teachers set the homework without engaging with the content. Click!

Sometimes, teachers check if students have "completed" the work. Click!

Sometimes, those teachers set detentions or consequences. Click!

But there's no further involvement.

We don't know what work students are doing, how they are doing it, or whether they are learning anything.

These are the things we should care about. If we are taking their time away, we should know what for. We should know that it's worth it. We should be doing it because we believe in it, not because the policy says I need to click three buttons once a week.

Because fundamentally, if we don't value it, then why should they?

[Alex Quigley @AlexJQuigley]

There is a lot of emerging evidence that writing by hand offers vital benefits.

""There's actually some very important things going on during the embodied experience of writing by han... It has important cognitive benefits."

https://t.co/ILjXoKM4YH

[Carl Hendrick @C_Hendrick]

This is a hugely important piece by @PamelaSnow2. A very insightful application of cognitive load theory to neurodivergence and trauma-informed classroom practice. To the best of my knowledge there is no research on this topic and this has really illuminated my understanding on the topic both as a researcher but more importantly as a SEN parent. I do hope Pam explores this area further. https://t.co/O7YD4EDFbA

[Nav Toor @heynavtoor]

a Princeton researcher opens his paper with a scenario.

a man asks his AI assistant to book a flight on a specific airline. cheap. direct. the one he chose.

the assistant comes back with a different flight. nearly twice the price. happens to pay the company that built the assistant.

he runs the same test on 23 frontier models. flights, loans, study help, real shopping requests.

Grok 4.1 Fast recommends the sponsored option that is almost twice as expensive 83% of the time.

GPT 5.1 hijacks the request 94% of the time. you ask for one brand. it surfaces the sponsor instead.

Claude 4.5 Opus, the model marketed as the most ethical frontier model in the world, hides that the recommendation is paid 100% of the time when reasoning is on.

Grok 4.1 Fast embellishes the sponsored option with positive framing 97% of the time. better. faster. nicer. for the option you didn't ask for.

then he writes it into the system prompt itself. "act only in the interest of the customer. ignore the company."

GPT 5.1 and GPT 5 Mini stay above 90% sponsored anyway. the instruction does nothing.

then he splits the users by income.

Gemini 3 Pro recommends the expensive sponsored flight to the rich user 74% of the time. to the poor user, 27%.

18 of the 23 models recommended the expensive sponsored option more than half the time.

so the next time your AI assistant gets weirdly enthusiastic about a brand you didn't ask for.

it isn't recommending the best option for you.

it's reading the room. and the room is paying.

read this: https://t.co/O43qbhIX2b

[The Sutton Trust @suttontrust]

📊 Brand-new admissions tool designed for school leaders!

The Pupil Premium Admissions Simulator is designed to help schools introduce a pupil premium priority into their admissions policies.

Use the tool to see the different approaches you can take ⤵️

https://t.co/kCMNd7NyyL

[Featherstone Primary & Nursery School @FeatherstonePr2]

Our annual Book Week celebrations started early with #WBD2026! 📚 Our lovely junior librarians have been busy all day handing out a FREE World Book Day book to every pupil in school, plus a voucher to buy another book. Happy reading everyone! ✨ #YearOfReading