Alison Critchley

@PaulGarvey4 @MrTeece_ Agree. And if you can organise the same for all staff you’d really be on to a winner!

@MrTeece_ Allow parents to take one week’s holiday, outside of what school determines are crucial times. No-one will suffer. Problem greatly reduced, pressure is taken off HTs and relations with parents improve no end. Stop vilifying parents.

95 % Attendance overall which is good but yesterday 88% and today 82% that's not all illness that's parents going on early holidays. The contract is broken and schools are fighting a losing battle with no resource to address it. Something has to change.

Missed this previously (HT to ⁦@MaryMyatt):⁩ “I know what my friend Tim would have said about the curriculum & assessment review. We talked about the need for it often,” says Mick Waters. And note the ‘forgotten third’ centre-stage … schoolsweek.co.uk/unfinished-bus…

🧵We would never expect a child to hurry up and walk earlier, or expect their teeth to fall out earlier or be able to crawl or stand earlier or eat solid food earlier so for goodness sake why are there so many unrealistic expectations linked to academic knowledge and content?

A useful timeline and reminder how the Conservative government torched the ‘creative’ curriculum. Music, Drama, D&T and Dance all experienced approximately a 50% reduction in entries since 2010.

Child Poverty % (children living in households below the minimum wage) Denmark 2.4% Finland 3.2% Norway 3.6% Sweden 3.6% The UK 32.1% All four of those countries have child benefits, paid by taxing the rich, that make it almost impossible for a child to be in poverty.

@JohndickensSW Not disputed. And a wide range of factors that contribute to that. But we wouldn’t write about “crap schools”, and it is equally unhelpful to refer to “crap councils”. Language matters.

@Ali_Critchley There are *a lot* of councils extremely crap at issuing EHCPs on time - and that’s putting it nicely!

A timely reminder of a potential difficultly with holding schools to account on inclusion based on some of the data we currently look How do you account for those schools in crap council areas who have to wait years to get plans? schoolsweek.co.uk/send-two-in-fi…

We pay more per hour for our dogs to be looked after than we do for our children to be cared for, nurtured and educated. Hourly rate below Dog walker/carer £15 per hour Nursery Professional 8.50-11.80 per hour Parents should be outraged, we all should be outraged at this.

The media told me a lot about the multi-millionaires who tragically lost their lives in the yacht sinking, just as I learnt plenty about the billionaires who lost their lives in the titanic sub I will never know anything about the migrants who lost their lives in the channel

We’ve got a falling primary aged population resulting in more space in primary schools - let’s give the children who are furthest behind an extra year in Reception to make up for what they’ve missed.

And,perhaps even more importantly,it is why the #curriculumreview needs to ensure that the curriculum and assessment framework works for lower achieving as well as higher achieving pupils. I know @BeckyFrancis7 will be on to this.

@NGAEmmaK @NGAMedia Congratulations and good luck! Your wise words will be much missed in education circles.

After 14 years at the helm of @NGAMedia I step down tomorrow: quite some day for me. Will miss so many lovely people: members, staff, partners So thrilled that NGA is in such a great place, supporting schools and trusts to govern well. Onwards & upwards

A 15 yr old inter-railing is seen to be a child causing such outrage around it while a 15 yr old unaccompanied boy of minoritised identity escaping violence and seeking asylum is processed as an adult, and housed with older strange men in the UK putting them in danger. Diff rules.

In this new austerity moment, we face a desperate fight for the rights of children with special educational needs - powerful and spot-on column by ⁦@johnharris1969⁩ theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Staggering that this headline is still up, @BBCNews. Samantha Holden was a woman and mother, who her family described her as a “kind and beautiful soul who will be forever loved”. This is why I’m passionate about educating newsrooms to give dignity to dead women in reporting ⬇️

Less than 30 hours ago a woman and her 3 children were burnt to death in their home A man was arrested at the scene Police are treating it as murder Is it in the front pages? No😢 (apart from the Mirror!) Is it on the BBC News app this morning - No 😢 No, it’s a “domestic”

Also, 100% of respondents believe enrolment for ‘free school meals’ should be automatic for all those entitled. Tell us what you think. Complete this survey - surveymonkey.com/r/RD87NKS - and give us the data we need to take to local and national decision-makers and influencers.

@Lem_Exeter I suspect though that 10+ years ago many of those failing would be younger students in Y9 and Y10 “practicing” the exam. So by Y11 most children would have passed. Now everyone is doing it “for real”. So the nos leaving school without these key quals has massively increased.

@Lem_Exeter Do you have any information about how much worse the problem has become since early entry to English and Maths was effectively abolished? It has always been the case that only around 70% of those sitting the exam are allowed pass.

For too long our education system has failed a huge number of forgotten pupils. In our research we find that without grade 4s in both English & maths GCSEs, the odds of success are stacked against you: in terms of education but also health and criminality. theguardian.com/education/arti…

It’s much easier to build strong children than to fix broken adults. Child poverty is a scar on our society. Not only does it harm our children’s life chances, it damages our country - its safety, its economy and its reputation - as a whole.