John Cosgrove
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johncosgrove.bsky.social
John Cosgrove
@johncosgrove.bsky.social
Husband, father, grandfather, writer and retired teacher.

I blog at https://johncosgrove55.wordpress.com/

Visit my Amazon Author page here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B001KDLZQE
It's increasingly clear that America is being run for the personal gain and glorification of one man. It's a personality cult.
February 7, 2026 at 4:48 PM
The DfE has acted on school exclusions for trivial reasons and served notice that internal exclusion must be "a short, structured intervention with meaningful learning." Some of us have argued for years that schools too quick to exclude harm pupils.
johncosgrove55.wordpress.com/2019/10/26/t...
The Last Resort?
(All names have been changed) Exclusion is a last resort, we are told, and justified because, “You can’t allow violent and disruptive pupils to stop others from learning.”  This is true. …
johncosgrove55.wordpress.com
January 29, 2026 at 10:43 AM
Just making coffee. Sparks flew from the milk frother which then died. So I got the old one from the back of the cupboard... and stopped. Hang on! What have I become? Who owns a BACK UP milk frother? 😱
January 24, 2026 at 8:53 AM
Frightening.
🔴A Year of Living Dangerously in Trump’s America

I no longer feel safe to speak or act freely in a country where people are being arbitrarily detained and killed and where the truth is becoming whatever Donald Trump says it is, reports @alexhh.bsky.social

bylinetimes.com/2026/01/15/a...
A Year of Living Dangerously in Trump's America
I no longer feel safe to speak or act freely in a country where people are being arbitrarily detained and killed and where the truth is becoming whatever Donald Trump says it is, reports Alexandra Hal...
bylinetimes.com
January 15, 2026 at 11:38 AM
Company providing residential care for young people makes £157,000 profit for every youngster. (From Private Eye.)
January 11, 2026 at 9:47 PM
Reposted by John Cosgrove
Make it viral.
January 8, 2026 at 3:22 AM
Reposted by John Cosgrove
Forensic analysis of objective video evidence. This is how you serve readers searching for clarity.
January 8, 2026 at 1:00 PM
"My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky..." On the first day of the New Year, an auspicious sight on the Helford: according to The Bible, a sign of God's promise that things will get better.
January 1, 2026 at 6:37 PM
Reposted by John Cosgrove
‘The best and most successful schools have a coherence that flows from the implementation of their basic philosophy, it doesn’t come about by accident’ @johncosgrove.bsky.social in @raesnape.bsky.social The Headteacher’s Handbook
December 30, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Short 🧵
2 cases from the Teaching Regulation Agency last Friday. First, HT ZZZ of [REDACTED], banned from teaching for malicious emails to staff and placing pupils at risk by illegal exclusions. With no explanation, his name, whereabouts and the date are all concealed. (continues)
December 23, 2025 at 12:20 PM
The TRA names and shames those it finds guilty. "Teacher ZZZ" of "REDACTED" must feel very humiliated and the 19 people whose details HAVE been published so far this month must be full of admiration for the TRA's fairness. (Here's a blog I wrote earlier.)
johncosgrove55.wordpress.com/2024/08/18/t...
TRA: NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE
This post was updated in November 2025 The teacher put on a red wig, sunglasses and a surgical mask. She hid her carving knife in a bunch of flowers and when the door was opened in response to her …
johncosgrove55.wordpress.com
December 21, 2025 at 1:58 PM
It's pouring with rain. There are 2 buckets catching drips from a leaky roof, just in front of the Reception desk at the GP surgery. "We'll have to be careful we don't kick the bucket while we're waiting," I joked to the woman in the queue in front of me. She didn't have a clue what I meant.
December 15, 2025 at 10:42 AM
I do like this.
Leaders of a Catholic church in Massachusetts kept a Nativity display with an anti-ICE message in place on Monday, defying an order from the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston to remove it. The display shows Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus missing, replaced by a sign reading “ICE WAS HERE.” trib.al/adPW46y
December 13, 2025 at 8:23 PM
To be honest, there isn't much to laugh at in politics today so Michael Glasheen, who is apparently in charge of anti-terrorism at the FBI Comedy Club, deserves our thanks. He is hilarious.
GLASHEEN: Antifa is our primary concern right now. That's the most immediate violent threat we're facing

BENNIE THOMPSON: Where is antifa headquartered?

GLASHEEN: ... ... ... we are building out the infrastructure right now

THOMPSON: What does that mean?
December 11, 2025 at 4:38 PM
In 2023 Ofsted rated Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy Outstanding in all areas. This week it suddenly discovers the "inflexible" behaviour policies, which it has encouraged and praised for years, harm children - as many of us have repeatedly pointed out. This dreadful organisation needs to go. NOW.
December 11, 2025 at 7:39 AM
A simple 8 word headline to remind us all that, yes, The Spectator really is as bad as you might expect for a periodical once edited by Boris Johnson and now under the stewardship of a certain Michael Gove.
December 10, 2025 at 11:25 PM
What a delightful headline to wake up to on a December morning.
December 10, 2025 at 7:54 AM
Anne Longfield has been announced as chair of the Inquiry into Grooming Gangs. Far more important than the identity of the Chair is what happens with the inquiry's recommendations. Will they be ignored, as so often in the past?
johncosgrove55.wordpress.com/2025/01/26/i...
If Only Someone Had Listened…
The first big child abuse scandal I knew of came to light in the mid 1980s. Dozens of children in a school in Cornwall were abused over a decade and their headteacher went to prison. The official r…
johncosgrove55.wordpress.com
December 10, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Reposted by John Cosgrove
It depends on how one is measuring ‘success.’ Because this is what we are currently dealing with. Pat McFadden, SoS for Work and Pensions expressed concern over this state of affairs at the weekend. I would suggest the government put all the factors together and respond cohesively. #EduSky
December 9, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by John Cosgrove
Northern Ireland is a fantasy land, far far far away from the reality in which Kemi Badenoch inhabits
December 8, 2025 at 10:49 PM
Reposted by John Cosgrove
Friends of @wombat37.bsky.social unite!

By quote reposting this, I’m hoping to make a virtual chain of people around Wombie. Full of love and happy memories of this great friend of ours, so he can feel us making a huge circle of love and care around him.

Are you in?
#CirleofLoveForWombie
a black and white photo of a couple holding hands .
ALT: a black and white photo of a couple holding hands .
media.tenor.com
December 7, 2025 at 7:04 PM
If you want to know what's going really badly wrong with SEND (and much else in education) in England, just note that the Gove -Gibbs -Wilshaw -Spielman -Oliver falsehood that the "best" schools are those with the "best" academic outcomes has been accepted as fact by our media.
December 7, 2025 at 1:14 PM
Congratulations to the fabulous Dorothy Lepkowska and welcome "SENDsationalfutures" a new magazine-website which launches this week with news, views and information about the SEND sector aimed at professionals and families. Check it out at: sendsationalfutures.com
SENDsational Futures | Navigating Special Education Needs for Parents and Schools
Navigating Special Education Needs for Parents and Schools
sendsationalfutures.com
December 2, 2025 at 10:14 PM
All this froth and indignation about Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer "lying" ought to remind us of how the press unfailingly called out Boris Johnson's apparent inability to ever tell the truth. Strangely, I can't bring up those memories or recall the headlines. Can you?
December 2, 2025 at 7:13 AM
Reposted by John Cosgrove
‘Children with SEND just have to survive school.’ How have we got here, #EduSky? And what are we (urgently) going to do about it? All of these children featured should be able to have their needs met, and thrive in mainstream state education.
November 28, 2025 at 1:12 PM