Matt Koster-Marcon

It's heartbreaking to see Twitter become so toxic. Twitter was instrumental for Learning Ladders reaching schools globally. But we stopped using it for ads very shortly after the Musk takeover, and hardly use it at all nowadays. bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-… @LearningLadder5

@TrooliFibre Still no internet - avoid this company like the plague. Just called customer services and had the least helpful person I've ever had the misfortune to speak to. #TrooliAwful

@TrooliFibre Still no Internet in SO41 either, been 30 hours and no comms, nothing. No 5 star review from me either 🤬

Thank you for the fantastic 5-star review, Douglas! 🌟 We love hearing from happy customers, and we're thrilled to have delivered fast, reliable speeds to your home in Fife. Enjoy those ultra-fast 2Gbps speeds! trooli.com #fttp #feedbackfriday #customertestimonial

Moving on...hope to see you there. #ukedchat #headteacherchat #primaryrocks #edchatUAE

@data_rita You may want to correct the massive typo.

Take back control of your data! Discover who has your information and restrict access with the Rita extension. Start earning from your data today. #datacontrol #earn #privacy

@prestonmissc Sh/we do 1st of every month just to be sure !

@MatthewKoster Only August 1st? 🤔

@9th_M0nth @implausibleblog Baffles me and I live there

Desmond Swayne, "The reality is that when the size of our defeat became apparent, I had some difficulty coming to terms with it" "I have no doubt that the Labour government were going to abandon the Rwanda scheme, they made that absolutely clear, and they have every right to do it. But I do think the house will come to regret not having such a deterrent to hand.. Had it been allowed to develop, it could have been such a deterrent" So an admission that spending £700 million wasn't enough to make Rwanda a deterrent 🤷‍♂️

@Headteacherchat There were certainly raised eyebrows and a few questions when I taught Reception (less for primary), but generally I found most said it was a good thing. To my face anyway 🤣

Do stereotypes against male primary school teachers still exist? When I was training, I was told that 'Male teachers aren’t right for early years'.

@rebelEducator Currently, that their (local state) school doesn't go bankrupt.

What is your greatest wish for your child’s education?

@itvfootball No

England go in level at the break 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Has their performance improved from the opening games? 🧐 #Euro2024 | #ENGSLO

One for my local candidates: How, what and when will you provide the funding needed for our local schools? Our annual £ per pupil is amongst the lowest in the country, AND it's been cut in real terms. @DesmondSwayne @LabourNFW @jackdaviesld #NewForestWest @Lymingtontimes

Your vote counts. Your voice matters. Don’t miss your chance. The deadline to register to vote is 11.59pm on 18 June. Only 5 days left.

@naomicfisher Yet these are the characteristics we then desperately want/need/seek/train later in life. Encourage them, nurture their gifts, teach them to be smart and to find the right moments. We surely support them best by teaching them how to use their gifts. youtu.be/BPX9v8F547k

Some kids see straight through the things which others don’t. They see the power structures between adults and children, and ask why the adult gets to give out the stickers (and decide who gets them) whilst the children have to wait. They see how unfair it is that adults can say ‘that’s enough cake’ and expect to be obeyed but if a child says that to an adult, they’ll be laughed at. They see how adults say ‘we can’t afford a new toy’ but then spend money on the things they want. And they point it out. They are exceptionally clear sighted. This doesn’t make childhood easy. For childhood depends on a degree of accepting ‘this is just how things are’. It requires you to not ask questions and instead to follow the crowd. It requires you to keep listening even if you think it’s a waste of your time. To sit where everyone else is sitting, and to look in the same direction, and put your hand up and not to say ‘no thanks, I’d rather hang upside down over there’ Getting through childhood requires children to ignore what they see or pretend they didn’t notice. And some children just can’t do that. They see the world so clearly, and they can’t let things lie. They are the truth tellers and that isn’t easy to live with. They have a tough time at school because they always ask Why? But when we listen rather than telling them to be quiet, their perspective challenges us to think deeper. Not to do things ‘because that’s just how it is’. They open up a new way of seeing the world to those around them. They provoke change wherever they go. To have a clear-sighted child is a gift, even though it can take a while to appreciate your luck. The hardest job as their parents? To resist the voices telling us that we should make every effort to cloud their vision.

@GillianKeegan x.com/MatthewKoster/…

There you have it. Labour's first substantial education policy. Teachers being forced to brush children's teeth. You couldn't make it up. Labour are unfit to run our education system. 🧵 1/3

I'm dipping back into twitter for the election and cannot quite get my head around how blatantly *some* people state utter lies as fact.

@GillianKeegan @Conservatives What's your response to the IFS who say your proposals are a £3.5 billion cut to the total schools budget? “A reduction in the overall schools budget on this scale has not been delivered since the mid-1970s" On top of the huge reductions in capital spending since 2010?

The choice in this election 👇 Tax cuts for first-time buyers, all working-age people and pensioners under the @Conservatives. A £2,094 tax hike for every working family under Labour.

Not the existential threat of climate change. Not fixing the NHS. Not tackling poverty and inequality. But the creation of wealth he won't even tax fairly? Sad to see this from a Labour leader. Real hope real change anyone? #VoteGreen

@naomicfisher But you'll know all this much better than me I expect, so I'm just ranting on twitter. What's needed is a proper conversation about impact, and strong evidence of intended efficacy before using any tool.

@naomicfisher As a parent I don't find them at all helpful. They can never explain why they got them, even when positive.

Something has really changed recently in our schools. A level of scrutiny which was impossible a couple of years ago is now routine. A child does something wrong. The teacher gives them a behaviour point which they get on their app, although they may not know for sure immediately since they aren’t allowed to look at their phone. Getting a behaviour point is in itself a punishment, they are designed to be aversive and kids tell me they dislike getting them. Their parent also gets an alert to let them know - something which many parents describe as highly stressful, since they get alerts at work about something they can do nothing about. That behaviour point is now saved on the app. In some schools, behaviour points are projected onto the whiteboard in ‘default’ setting, so everyone can see. They are usually in red. Over time, they are added up, meaning that there is a mounting pile of behaviour points. You can get positive ones too, and sometimes you can buy things with the positive ones, or they cancel out the negative ones. Some parents punish their children for behaviour points, I know of parents who take away consoles or stop children from doing after school activities as a consequence. Schools may also have sanctions, particularly if you get too many in a day. The punishments make no difference to the mounting total, however, because they don’t clear the slate. This means that everyone has a total and towards the end of the school year those totals can be linked to rewards and privileges. You might be excluded from the school trip because you had a really bad start to the year. Sometimes the whole year totals are also used. I’ve heard of schools doing assemblies to let a whole year group know that they are the worst year behaviour-wise, and that as a consequence no trips and events will be organised for them as a year. Some year groups are the worst every year. All of this has become possible in the last few years due to the introduction of apps. I know they have an effect on how anxious kids are, because I hear about it. I know feeling constantly monitored is part of why some kids become increasingly distressed by school. I know it is an unprecedented level of sharing of behavioural information with parents in real time and parents say they can’t opt out because the apps are also used for communicating important information about school. What I would like to know is the evidence that these systems work. This is a level of monitoring of children’s behaviour which was not possible before - so what is the payoff? Are we seeing better behaviour across the country as apps are introduced? There is definitely a downside - so where’s the evidence for the upside?