Vice Principal for Oulton Academy. Views are my own.
Pontefract, England
Joined November 2012
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Ben Barnes retweeted
It’s a horrible, long, drawn out process. Which can make you doubt your abilities and question every interaction. It can trigger safeguarding reviews on several levels, Dfe and ofsted, not forgetting the schools own internal reviews.
Ben Barnes retweeted
The complaints culture in schools is now out of control. The threshold is way too low for firing in emails or calls and expecting affirmative responses. It seems it has become the main pastime in some people’s lives. I don’t know how school leadership teams with it tbh.
Ben Barnes retweeted
The way we help students with stress is to help them to master that stress or see the trigger as less stressful, not by confirming that the source of their anxiety must be avoided at all costs.
“Academic accommodations for anxiety convey two harmful messages. First, they imply that the feared situation is truly dangerous. Public speaking, testing, or lunch with classmates are too risky for a student. Second, they suggest that the student can’t withstand the distress. Those messages increase anxiety.”
What a fantastic article!! Eliminating things that cause anxiety don’t teach students how to cope with difficult situations and can heighten anxiety in the long term!! Avoidance is a TEMPORARY solution but can be harmful in the long run!
This article is well worth the read: tc.columbia.edu/articles/202… @BostonGlobe @TeachersCollege
Ben Barnes retweeted
Let's pick 100 random students with toilet passes
£50 to a charity of your choice says that 90 of them could sit through a film in the cinema without going to the toilet
Ben Barnes retweeted
Are ADHD, ASD, SEMH, over-diagnosed leading to a SEND crisis in schools? podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcas…
Ben Barnes retweeted
Just punched the air at Gavin and Stacey, what an ending #GavinAndStacey
Ben Barnes retweeted
🔑 Quickly paste without formatting: Press Ctrl + Shift + V (Cmd + Shift + V on Mac) to paste text without any of the original formatting. Ideal for clean, consistent notes or documents, saving you the hassle of reformatting! #TopTips #EdTech #MarginalGains
Ben Barnes retweeted
We should be shocked by the behaviour that many students and staff are expected to endure in their everyday lives in school. Children need and are entitled to a place that is safe, calm and dignified free from disruption and harassment.
Excluded children still deserve a full time education option. Councils are obliged to place all excluded students in AP. No excluded child is outside that system.
Which is why we need more investment in high quality post-exclusion destinations PRUs, AP etc. We also need more investment in in-school specialist units where children with chaotic behaviours can be supported to re-integrate, without threatening the well-being of others.
'Inclusion' must be understood properly- it can't just mean 'keep them in the classroom,' or everyone suffers. Sometimes, the best inclusion work is done *external* to the classroom.
We should be shocked by these figures - children need to be in school learning and some need extra support to do so.
New Ministers now have an opportunity to tackle this as part of their fresh drive to move towards a much more inclusive education system- speed up SEND assessment & identification, boost children’s mental health support, get alongside children &families who are struggling.
We cannot continue to stick our head in sand about the scale of the problem or its impact on some children’s life chances.
That means focusing on why this is happening and doubling down on support for schools and teachers, and parents and children, to reduce exclusions and suspensions.
Ben Barnes retweeted
A *lot* of messages I get from teachers and school leaders is about the problem of families refusing to support the school when it tries to intervene in their child’s behaviour. It usually boils down to ‘everyone should follow the rules apart from my Billy, he’s the exception’ My advice is almost always: Hold. The. Line. You cannot run a school to please every parent who puts pressure on you. If you do, the culture disintegrates.
Blimey!
We don’t have pre-pandemic data on this question, so we can’t say if this has got worse, but lots of teachers asked for the question as they felt it had… (via @teachertapp)
Ben Barnes retweeted
SUSPENSIONS. Quick reminder:
1. Schools with challenging intakes need more disciplinary responses than ones without
2. Suspensions are one way to help reduce exclusions
3. Schools that need to suspend, need to suspend
4. If they don’t, the environment gets much worse for children
5. Not all behaviour issues can be resolved by a kind word
6. Criticising a school for above average rates of exclusion, demonstrates a misunderstanding of what ‘averages’ means
7. Don’t shame schools you couldn’t run
Ben Barnes retweeted
Me as a teacher: Don't leave anything blank. Do anything you think might be sensible with the numbers. The only way you're definitely going to get no marks is if you leave it blank.
Me as an examiner: OH FML, IF YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO IT WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE IT BLANK???
Ben Barnes retweeted
The government should clamp down on vaping right now. Ban all flavoured vapes, ban all marketing, young people are vaping far, far more than they ever smoked. There is an epidemic of nicotine addiction in young people that is being ignored.
Ben Barnes retweeted
How was your lunchtime today ? Here’s ours @q3langley ! #ChristmasFamilyLunch #AllIWantForChristmasIsYou #goodrighttrue – at Birmingham, England
Ben Barnes retweeted
Mark your calendars... the countdown is on! 🇦🇺🙌 #ImACeleb
ALT An image of a piece of wood in the jungle with the date 6/11/2022 and the time 9pm.
Ben Barnes retweeted
‘Trauma informed’ has become the new ‘it’s not their fault, let them do it.’ Scrap the policy; start again. What behaviour do you need? Teach that to them. Insist upon it. Hold them to account. Reteach. Sanction consistently.
Ben Barnes retweeted
.@mrjamesob rebukes Kwasi Kwarteng's mini-budget:
'If the scales don't fall from your eyes today they never will... they think you are so pathetic that they are going to give people like me more money and have you believe that they are actually helping you.'
