“Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel”
Windmills of your mind.
EduTwitter is a merry-go-round, an ever spinning waltzer churning round and round.
Month after month the the same people spin out their never-ending mantras. If you don’t agree with them you are the enemy, you hate teachers.
Pens, haircuts, uniform, silent corridors, exclusion on and on. Trotted out at regular intervals to keep their twitter stock high. Unmet needs used as a punchline to their approving audience.
If you disagree, you are slapped down, if you dare to criticise you are shaming schools. Dissenting voices from the one true way are turned into pariahs.
The problem is I disagree with most of it. I am the enemy. …
Some children do have unmet needs, I see it every day with our pupils with communication and interaction difficulties.
Some schools do have ridiculous, expensive uniform policies , which despite their arguments bear little relation to the world of work.
Not wanting silent corridors does not mean that all is chaos and there are no standards.
Some schools do exclude too easily (I’ve seen it happen in our local secondary school when it was academised.) exclusion is thrown around as a threat for often quite minor misdemeanours.
I also get there is a difference between secondary and primary.
I’ve also seen a wide range of successful schools, many that I’ve nicked ideas from and some that I’ve hated.
I visited @chrisdysonHt’s school, it was great but I wouldn’t want to replicate it. It was its own unique phenomenon, powered by the force of nature that is Chris. Our school is very different and that’s OK.
We’re stuck in a loop and we’ll never agree, fact is dig a little deeper and our differences are often rather less than they seem. Cut the sides and the hyperbole and we’re not really that far apart even though sometimes people try to make it a chasm.
Being Brave! a first time headteachers blog. 