They’re busy trying to out strategise Reform and have forgotten to make policy decisions based on what’s best for the nation as opposed to what might tempt the odd Reform voter. It’s so depressing because it’s so obvious what the consequences are likely to be. I feel politically homeless atm.

Good grief

I feel as though there’s a narrative dismissing truly child-centred practice—under the guise of a valid pedagogical approach—but in reality, it’s frequently driven by box-ticking and funding pressures.

Completely agree. Rigid structures, inappropriate environments, and unrealistic expectations pushing children on before they’ve secured the foundations, it creates gaps that are difficult to close, leaving some children on an endless cycle of struggling to ‘keep up’…

Zero shame. Zero embarrassment. Utterly depressing.

Yeah, my lecturers from the late ’90s would be having kittens. That said, we were trained to plan everything—plan it, write it down, ideally in different colours, and add post-it tabs for extra points. We may have over-focused on written evidence, but it did train us to assess, plan, do, review

I found that difficult to phrase because I don’t want to unfairly criticise teachers who put a lot of thought into creating resources. My concern is more about the risk of inflexibility when relying too heavily on pre-prepared or downloaded PPTs—it can sometimes feel like the tail wagging the dog.

Unfortunately I think that they can be used in that way. I’m sure infrequently, but I certainly know of inflexibility arising bcs of pre prepared/internet downloaded PPTs that get doggedly followed in the same way as a highly prescriptive scheme.

I heard an anecdote recently of a newly appointed HT asking staff to put their hands up if they ‘planned’. The *ahem* older staff put their hands up and the younger said they used PPTs. I wonder if that’s representative (prob not) and if it is, what (if anything) it says about teacher training?

Totally agree with what you say & additionally (It may seem simplistic) treating children as humans—each with unique starting points, circumstances, and developing brains—rather than as mini robots. Having the time and space to build relationships with children and their families is a game changer.

I despair at this practice—delivering PPTs or prescriptive schemes and assuming each cohort/child is the same as the last. It reduces teaching to delivery and learning to passive absorption.

Completely agree, I think this is something that has always been understood by EY educators.

Yep! I hear you. 6 year old twins. Even accompanying toast has to meet differing and exacting standards of toastedness.

Thank you again for this. I found a particularly pertinent podcast acknowledging the difficulties faced by some professionals within the sector.

Thank you Nathan, that looks really interesting. I’ll read later today.

I had exactly the same & now I have pretty much exclusively Guardian posts unrelated to EY