Blakey @fuzzyteacher

@red__utd Tevez

@_onlyscott Darmian and Macheda

A teacher's teaching quality has very little impact on school achievement (less than 10%). The remaining 90% is due to characteristics associated with students.

Neurodiversity is a common term in education- and society. But it lacks precision both in definition and usage. And that really matters in the real world. For a start 'neurodiverse' is not a clinically recognised or used term, eg in the DSM-5. It was coined by the sociologist Judy Singer in 1998, as an advocacy term for people with ASD and very closely related conditions. 'Neurodivergent' describes an individual whose brain functions differently from the majority. Clinically recognized examples include autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, Tourette syndrome, and others. These are formal neurodevelopmental diagnoses. Crucially this means people who have been born with a life-long condition. It does *not* include people with anxiety disorders, or dementia, or PTSD, or depression etc. It doesn't mean 'everything'. There is no diagnosis 'neurodiverse'. It is a purely vernacular term, with multiple meanings depending on who is using it and who you talk to. Clinicians diagnose specific conditions, like ASD. And of course even clinically diagnosable conditions like ASD, ADHD are subject to intense debates about how the category is defined, is it too broad or narrow etc. Diagnostic criteria can vary from country to country, LA to LA, school to school. And so can the response strategies. What a lot of people outside of either the education or clinical sectors don't realise is that this is an area that is crying out for high quality research, clarity, transparency, and honesty about what works, and when, and when it doesn't work. We are often talking about very different things when we use the same words carelessly. The common use of 'neurodiverse' matters; it is often heard in advocacy discourse, the media, etc. but frequently misunderstood. It doesn't mean 'a little bit different'. We are all different from one another. People who claim to be 'a little bit autistic' may very well simply misunderstand that some of the characteristics they identify in that category are also perfectly normal-spectrum qualities that many people have. Liking your house to be tidy doesn't mean that you are neurodivergent. Being a stickler for details doesn't mean you have OCD. If the term means 'everything' then it means 'nothing.' It has become fashionable for people to self diagnose and self-refer as neurodivergent, even in the face of little evidence. Because it confers, for some, a sense of being special, different, or interesting. And of course in a sector where we rightly seek to support people/ students who need reasonable accommodations in order to promote inclusivity, the *incorrect* assignation of an unmet need leads to unfair advantages over those who do not receive those accommodations. A small but growing group of activists now campaign on the platform that almost any mental health difference indicates neurodivergence, but this is a huge definitional drift, without any clinical basis. You see a lot of this activism in education, often perfectly well-meant. Singer herself would have disagreed strongly with this. The reason this matters is that if we treat all mental health problems, all behavioural disorders, all learning problems, as having lifelong neurological foundations - which they absolutely do not- then we create a narrative that indicates all individuals face insurmountable obstacles in modifying the behaviours associated with the condition. Some children identified as dyslexic, for example, are simply deficient in high quality reading instruction. But if you treat every child that behaves unsuccessfully in the classroom as being neurodivergent, then you create a circumstance where we treat them as the victims of irresistible compulsions, rather than human beings with the ability to learn to take responsibility, to grow, to change their habits and attitudes. It is also a substantial abandonment of our commitment to only use evidence info strategies with children- especially the most vulnerable. In other words, not all forms of SEND are indications of neurodivergent conditions. And most certainly aren't. Sadly, as in so many fields, many of the strategies recommended for children with any form of SEND, including forms of neurodivergence, lack substantial or credible evidence bases. There is a lot of well-meant money being spent on approaches that simply have no basis in research, impact or other outcomes. This is an area that cries out for high quality evidence bases, and evidence informed approaches to support students with genuine need, not activism that leads to treating all children as incapable. But the energy of that activism, married to evidence, could produce something spectacular for those who need help the most, and I hope we see this happen in the future.

Dylan Wiliam calls Cognitive Load Theory “the single most important thing for teachers to know.” This guide summarises core CLT ideas and highlights six high-impact strategies for reducing overload. It focuses on the classroom levers teachers can pull right away. CLT goes much deeper, of course — transient information included — but these strategies offer some of the fastest gains. 💪 Free HQ copy if you want it: jamieleeclark.com/graphics

@rovercrc The Great Reset has begun.

The best teachers I've seen don't use a wide range of activities. They do a few things, and they do them well. They hone them, practise them, and know exactly when each one should be used and why. The students become habituated to them, and learning goes through the roof.

@RogersHistory Seems like a basic set of requirements to negate chaos. Can't see an issue here.

JUST IN: AFTERMATH OF TOMMY ROBINSON MARCH YESTERDAY These hooligans don’t even have respect for their own country, look at the state they left the streets in.

Anti migration and multiculturalism people enjoying food stands that exist only because of migration and multiculturalism is 👌

@stats_feed Things you wore as a teenager have come back into fashion

@MrHtheteacher Need more blokes to act in this way. A simple (and sincere) "all ok?" goes a very long way.

Get married, have kids, and stop partying into oblivion. Leave a legacy, be courageous. Happy Sunday God Bless all the parents out there 🙏

Before Brexit, the UK was a member of the Dublin III Regulation. This allowed the UK to return asylum seekers to the EU country they had first arrived in or had strong connections to. Since Brexit this is now not an option. I wonder how many of these protesters voted for Brexit.

Farrukh @implausibleblog

a year ago

Ed Davey, "I'm afraid Nigel Farage helped cause this problem in the first place" "Brexit has meant we're not able to force the French to take illegal immigrants coming over on small boats back"

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Lucy Connolly was not a hero, nor was she a political prisoner. She is, however, a case study in the psychological disorder of fake victimhood created and manipulated by politicians with a far right agenda. (Screen shot via @mikecmorgan)

Actual Conservative front bench politicians are calling for the government to overturn a not guilty verdict returned by an independent jury in respect of a political rival. Trump levels of partisan, anti-rule of law authoritarianism.

The fees at the public school attended by Jeremy Clarkson are over £40,000 a year. Every time he tells us how well he's done despite his poor A-levels, he's just confirming what we already know about the class system.

6 weeks off in summer is great. Retweet this to annoy someone who really begrudges all that time off teachers get.

The first trial of creatine in Alzheimer’s disease was just published and the results are big. Patients took 20 grams of creatine monohydrate daily for 8 weeks. Brain creatine levels rose 11%, and cognition significantly improved across multiple domains, including memory, reading, and attention. Nearly every participant stuck with the protocol. No drug, no major side effects. Caveat: it was a small, single-arm pilot study with no placebo group, so results must be interpreted cautiously. Still, encouraging signs from a humble supplement.

For all the Brexiteers howling betrayal! - You won! - You've had 9 years to deliver a British economy outside the EU that's better for our country & failed - You said immigration would be lower outside the EU - its rocketed Even a child can see its logical and common-sense to plug the wholes in the pitiful deal Johnson and Frost negotiated. That closer relations with our neighbours is better for the environment. On the ECHR - it is not part of the EU! It's a treaty that protects the human rights and fundamental freedoms of people, and has 46 members via the Council of Europe. The UK played an important role in the birth of the ECHR, with our lawyers and Churchill key drafters and advocates - in the spirit of 'never again'. #Brexit