Will Bickford Smith

Working on school system reform in Australia.

[Matt Forde @mattforde]

I always fly the England flag during tournaments.

For France ‘98 I made a massive St George’s Cross out of a double bedsheet and red gloss and hung it on the front of our house. I think my mum was relieved when Argentina knocked us out.

I find it mind boggling that people who love seeing other country’s flags displayed in England get squeamish when, during a tournament, we fly our own.

Sadly there’ll be regressive movements who want to misuse the flag. But that flag belongs to all of us. Don’t let a narrow strand of yobs wrestle it away from the rest of us and define who we are.

Every country has its faults. The danger is that many progressive English people allow our shortcomings to be the dominant narrative about our country, rather than the things we should be proud of.

To them, being proud to be English feels toxic. Even anti-English in its nature.

That mindset allows the far-right to flourish. It shouldn’t need saying but there’s so much to love about England.

Everyone should be allowed to be proud of where they’re from. We don’t think it’s weird when Scottish, Mexican or Haitian people wave their flag. We don’t think they should be burdened by their history or defined by their government of the day.

Also, it is meant to be fun. We don’t have to be so serious all the time.

So there is that.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[Daisy Christodoulou @daisychristo]

There is a lot of excitement at the moment about using AI to personalise learning resources, but I am not convinced.

Yes, it is true many students are interested in Taylor Swift & Lionel Messi more than electricity, algebra or verbs.

That does not mean we can teach electricity, algebra and verbs through the medium of Swift & Messi.

https://t.co/xWA1wmoT4P

[Robert Colvile @rcolvile]

Britain doesn’t need the state to take shares in business, it needs to let those businesses actually bloody operate - eg building factories, labs, housing, not having crippling energy bills, not seeing workers and profits taxed into oblivion. (Not seeing profit as a bad thing!)

[Peps @PepsMccrea]

🚨New paper released today:

10 Common SEN Mis(Interventions)—An Evidence Summary

https://t.co/8lQNH00Co4

Supporting students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) is a vital and growing challenge for schools. But it’s not straightforward. Learning is complex, marketing claims are confident, and the evidence is often hard to access. As a result, we can sometimes end up adopting approaches which are less effective than we initially think.

For some, this may well be uncomfortable reading. As a profession, many of us have put time, effort and belief into these things, and lots will have seen students who looked like they were getting something from it. However, it’s essential that we temper our intuition with evidence, because ultimately: our most vulnerable students deserve it.

This new paper co-authored with @Barker_J is an attempt to raise the visibility of the best available evidence around several commonly used SEN interventions. For each, we provide an overview of what the research says, offer a more informed approach, and provide a suite of rigorous links to help you get started.

We hope it will serve as a useful resource and over time: push us to be even more 'evidence demanding' as a profession.

As ever, let me know what you think. If you have pushes or suggestions for how this paper could be better, hit reply and give it to me straight.

👊

[Daniel Hannan @DanielJHannan]

I sense that this is out of temper with the times but, for once, I am on Rachel Reeves’s side. Civility matters in politics and, if we stop policing the boundaries, things slide very quickly. I’m afraid I don’t see it as remotely brave to shout at a woman while you drive away.

[Will Bickford Smith @wbickfordsmith]

@C_Hendrick @Education_NI @paulgivan It's just so deeply unserious.

[Mark Lehain @lehain]

Grim reading but not a surprise to many school leaders.

P.S. NEU's effective income is far more than the £86m here, once you account for the "pooled facilities fund" in each LA. At £2 or £3 per kid, they get literally millions more and it's not captured in their accounts.

[Will Bickford Smith @wbickfordsmith]

@tombennett71 Love this!

[Will Bickford Smith @wbickfordsmith]

We always said the Early Career Framework reforms needed sustained commitment from government over the long term, with lots of learning and tweaking along the way. Great to read about the progress and impact now being seen across the country.

[Tes magazine @tes]

Exclusive: New teachers are learning significantly more from the updated Early Career Framework than in previous years, polling suggests
https://t.co/brcBStQYSg

[Rachel Wolf @racheljanetwolf]

I don't think Brexit is still shaping politics. I think the causes of the Brexit vote are still shaping politics, and at some point - since those voters still waiting for the serial changes they've been promised - we need to stop being surprised by this!

[The Royal Family @RoyalFamily]

A very special delivery for David Attenborough, beloved by people (and animals) everywhere 💚

To honour Sir David’s 100th birthday, His Majesty The King is supported by a cast of stars from British nature to relay his handwritten message in time for the celebration at the Royal Albert Hall.

Watch David Attenborough’s 100 Years on Planet Earth on @BBCiPlayer.

https://t.co/yZojhLlUXp

[Paul Kirschner @New_Old_Paul]

Dear @OECDEduSkills - Please stop with the 21st century skills nonsense! You - including or maybe especially @SchleicherOECD - have done enough damage. Spend your time and our money studying things that actually exist and that can make a difference.
https://t.co/sLgDO8r6zL

[Will Bickford Smith @wbickfordsmith]

UK politics is full of people saying “something must be done” without doing the hard work to define what and how it would be delivered. Virtually no one offers ready-made solutions for rollout, so this is exciting from @restate_thinks, @ce_pickles, @jo3hill et al.

[Charlotte Pickles @ce_pickles]

How do you fix a problem like Whitehall?

Stop leaving it to someone else... That's why @restate_thinks is doing something different.

Today we've launched our new 'Plan for government'

I've explained why we're changing tack 👇https://t.co/dlAwvR0sla

[Natasha Porter OBE @NPorter_]

Only 9% of people in prison have 5+ GCSEs and only 2% have passed 2+ A levels. About 2/3 of adults in prison are functionally illiterate.

Academic attainment is one of the most powerful protective factors.

[Nick Gibb @NickGibbUK]

My article in the Daily Telegraph about EEF research that demonstrates the importance of setting children by prior attainment in maths.

https://t.co/8LYVeOlF1K

[Matt Clifford @matthewclifford]

It's deeply weird that the unsustainability of our long-term fiscal position isn't a bigger part of our national conversation. We're so bad at paying attention to slow moving catastophes (cf. economic stagnation).

[Iain Mansfield @IGMansfield]

Great piece by @daisychristo debunking the idea that England's more rigorous school curriculum and assessment caused the decline in mental health.

TL:DR: Scotland + Wales have parallel declines - despite implementing opposite education policies.

https://t.co/wdMcUWpCkU

[BBC News (World) @BBCWorld]

Back to books - Sweden's schools give up digital learning https://t.co/rnb51C6dQ0

[Doug Lemov @Doug_Lemov]

"Our lack of a systematic, sequential, & shared curriculum induces low literacy & low wisdom. That poses a deep danger to civic competence and thus to democracy itself."

Tour de force by Willingham & Hirsch.

https://t.co/St29stiXzS

[David James @drdavidajames]

I've written an article with Sophie Winkleman on why we must save textbooks in schools. You can read it on my Substack here https://t.co/cTGOWIfZTK or in the @spectator