Resolutions
January could be a long, dark month brooding over the resolutions that didn’t make it past the first week. Fortunately, it is one of the most popular months for conferences.
Over the past few weeks, I have attended IncludEd, Black Men Teach, BETT and the BAMEed network’s first SEND conference last Saturday.
As a trustee of BAMEed and co-founder of BAMEed SEND, I need to be part of the conversations to find better ways to support inclusive education. But since I stopped posting on X in August (proving that lasting resolutions can start anytime), keeping up with what’s happening in the digital staffroom has been more challenging.
Should I post on Bluesky, Threads, Instagram, TikTok or Facebook instead? This guide from education resource platform TeachThought doesn’t make it any easier to decide, citing twenty platforms to choose from.
And if I can’t find the time, how is a teacher to? Balancing a meaningful online presence with daily responsibilities is challenge enough, and this Twinkl blog about teachers’ new year’s resolutions reminds us that work-life balance is something many educators struggle with.
If your current workplace is not supporting you to get over the ‘post-holiday slump’, its author Bex Johnson also reminds her readers that they have until the end of February to resign.
Let’s hope the sector leadership’s resolution to tackle workload is one they stick to.
Revolutions
Change is certainly in the air. In the past week alone, we have had government calls for a digital revolution in the public sector, an update to the climate and sustainability strategy and the announcement of a free service called DFE Connect, designed to bring key information for schools into one place.
Meanwhile, the education select committee has extended the response time for its inquiry into the SEND crisis and how mainstream schools can be more inclusive. And this time accessible and easy-to-read formats were published simultaneously. Revolutionary indeed!
And over on Channel 4, Jamie Oliver is whisking up a revolution of his own. Almost ten years since he launched his ongoing campaign on school food, the celebrity chef has moved on from turkey twizzlers and is now stirring up awareness of dyslexia with a new documentary.
Promoting the programme, Oliver (himself dyslexic) said: “We can’t leave kids’ futures up to luck. We need the education system to update so everyone has the best possible chance in life.”
So far, so resonant with the government’s opportunity mission. We’ll have to wait and see how much they eat it up.
Evolutions
As a SEND specialist, I understand the need for courageous advocacy for the holistic development of all students. So it’s good to see so much of it happening.
Last week, the NEU once again called for a move to end SATs in primary schools to reduce the burden of assessment. This would be a significant shift, yet somehow it feels far less radical than it did just six months ago. Perhaps the Overton window is slowly widening, if not altogether shifting.
There is a lot of common sense coming from the DfE, but much as I hate to say it, this government seems to lack the kind of radical appeal Donald Trump so effortlessly conveys. In his second inaugural address, he announced a “thrilling new era of national success”. We have ‘a blueprint to turbocharge AI’. Not quite the same ring.
Meanwhile, the curriculum review promises ‘evolution, not revolution’. Ofsted reform? ‘Evolution, not revolution’. A national care service? Same three words. Warm homes? Same again.
And yet the need to reimagine and revive education and the wider public sector it depends on couldn’t be more urgent. 2025 must be a pivotal year, during which a bold and visionary approach must be outlined and start to be delivered.
There’s probably a thread on X somewhere that says all this and better, but I’m thinking my own thoughts and having my own conversations.
And I find my time online is better spent cruising the DfE’s increasingly busy feedback page. At least there’s proof that voices are heard and change is happening – albeit incremental.
Your thoughts