Dave McPartlin

I'll never forget my first Ofsted lesson observation, as an NQT, when they said I couldn't rely on this level of energy to engage and enthuse my class as it would diminish as I got older. I hope they get to watch this, 20 years later. 🤔

Now this is more my kind of banner on the school gates. #DareToDream

If you're a fan of football, @BenKnapmanEFL deserves a follow.

One of our children sang Penny Arcade to the Fleetwood fans before the Arsenal game & they absolutely loved him. He sings it because it was his grandparents' favourite & they passed away recently. Proud night for his family on a proud night for the town - & we all know his grandparents would be immensely proud, too. ❤️🥹🤍

Might have something in my eye 🥹 For all those lower league fans out there who've sat out in the cold with a few hundred others on a bleak Tuesday evening - always, always #DaretoDream. ❤️🤍❤️

DARE TO DREAM!!!!! ❤️🤍❤️🤍

A League Two side from a little fishing town up north just beat the Premier League champions on penalties. Every child in Fleetwood has just been shown that it doesn't matter where you're from or what you have - nobody gets to tell you what you can or can't do. #DareToDream

I was 16 before I really experienced a big city. And when I did, I felt like I didn't belong. That said, I was ridiculously excited about my first trip to Newcastle as the train rattled over one of the bridges across the River Tyne and the city loomed large. I remember getting off, walking through the station and feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the people everywhere. The size of the buildings was on another level compared to what I was used to. It was so much bigger and busier than I expected and, unusually for me, it wasn’t somewhere I felt confident. But after a couple of visits, I absolutely fell in love with the place. Around the same time, I had a brilliant trip to London with my family - it blew my mind and I was desperate to return. Then I went off to Durham University, where there were loads of people from different backgrounds with different views and interests. I missed my mates and felt out of my depth. At first, I didn’t feel like I belonged. I’d never spent much time with people that weren't from where I grew up and I'm embarrassed to admit that I even thought all southerners were posh (they’re really not!) I was self-conscious and I thought my working class roots stood out because of my strong northern accent (even though I was fiercely proud of being a monkey-hanger and of my hometown of Hartlepool). Nobody made me feel that way, I just somehow felt that places like that weren't meant for people like me. I quickly made new friends and realised that we’re all the same underneath it all. And all different. And that’s a good thing. That’s why we drive through the night in minibuses, stay in youth hostels and take packed lunches on our trips to London - we make it cheap enough that every child can go and see their capital city. It’s why we got massively carried away and applied for funding to take twenty of our kids to New York. I’ll always be gutted we couldn’t take them all, but to Dare To Dream is to Dare to Fail. So, from this year, on top of the usual school trips we do, we’re adding to the experiences. Year 5 will still go to London, but we’re starting a Cities List: Y1 - Preston Y2 - Manchester Y3 - Liverpool Y4 - York Y5 - London (Y6 - PGL Residential) The plan might change along the way, but the point won’t. There’s a big, wide world out there, and our children have as much right to a place in it as anyone. And hopefully, when they come home, they’ll know just how lucky we are to live in our little part of the world - with our green spaces, fresh air and walks along the front. Not only that, but we have people who will do anything for their neighbours, a real sense of community and a sense of pride in our small but mighty Fleetwood. #DareToDream

I'm in.

Just cleaning the mud off my jeans and coat. My son promised to score his first goal in front of me for my birthday and we agreed a joint celebration if the unexpected actually happened. Sure enough, after dozens of games without a goal, he ran with the ball from the half way line and smashed it in and was I was so proud of him. Wasn't sure if he'd remember the agreement in the heat of the moment, but he came running up to me firing fake bullets and I had to uphold my end of the bargain by hitting the deck as he approached. Think the other parents thought I was just massively overreacting and was bit embarrassed, but this was massively outweighed by sharing a special moment together. ⚽️😂❤️

Great day today. Possibly one of the best lunchtimes we've had, 400 kids & not one incident - OPAL Play at it's absolute best & worth all the effort. Then a great parents evening & a delicious M & S picky tea with staff to say thank you for all their hard work. Went home feeling very proud.

I'm often told our school doesn't look much from the outside, so I did a little video....

Twitter is so much nicer without the bots.

As headteachers, we owe it to our colleagues to speak up about the challenges we all face in education. They’ve stepped up again and again and again through immense and relentless challenges. Our school is probably in the best place it’s ever been, everyone is working incredibly hard and we are reinventing and innovating constantly and I’m really proud of our staff and what we have. But it’s a precarious balancing act, held together by people bringing their all, every single day, and I worry that it's not sustainable. They’re human. They get tired and their hard work, loyalty and commitment simply cannot keep plugging the funding gaps forever. The system is breaking. We need more money. And we need more heads saying so. Doing well doesn’t mean all is well.

I think we need to start talking about the impossible challenges that teachers are facing.

Trump has to go.

Very much enjoyed our most recent catch up @FrankStanChat, thanks for having me on the show. You must pop by for another coffee soon! open.spotify.com/show/6v27Bo…