Towards the Light

It can be hard to see the light right now. There is a dark heavy feeling over the weeks, months, and possibly years ahead. Our schools are struggling with rising costs and increasing needs. Reports of shortfalls in budgets, staff recruitment issues, and increasing social problems have become the everyday business of all our schools.
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All Change

The start of a new school year is generally a period of change within a framework of well practised systems and expectations. Well it was until about two and a half years ago. 
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What is next for SEND policy and practice?

Many politicians have a fondness for looking back, hoping to find solutions for today’s problems in actions of the past. With a focus on grammar and ‘knowledge rich’ curricula, the marginalisation of skills-based learning, and the back-and-forth reintroduction of grammar schools, it is hard at times to see even a spark of a new idea.
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Looking for HOPE

We live in unsettled times. The events in Europe over the past weeks, along with the pandemic, force us to reflect. It’s easy to take for granted the things we have and the way we live, it’s generally only when life as we know it is interrupted that we think about the small things that make it what it is.
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What unites us, is much greater than what divides us

We have a long involvement with HOPE (Hospital Organisation of Pedagogues in Europe) and their president Jan encouraged me to write a post for their upcoming newsletter. I could not disappoint him, but where to start? There is so much happening in the world at the moment and not all of it is good.
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After the Storm

It is not just the weather that’s been stormy, and although the winds are calming, at least for now and power is being restored, there’s still a lot of clearing up to do. This may describe events post Storm Eunice – but it could be said to describe this phase of the pandemic.
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Emotionally Based School Avoidance

Back to school - but for some children and young people, it’s not that easy. For some, the New Year signals a fresh start and new challenges. Schools are welcoming students back despite the continuing COVID19 disruption; doing their best to safely teach, support and care for their students. But for other students taking that step back into the classroom will be hugely overwhelming. So much so that despite their very best efforts they simply won’t make it back the first week...or the week after.
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