iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 9h

Accepted and deleting my scolding post which I know feel bad about!

Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

I have this conversation with children I teach a lot. "This essay is supposed to change you. The answer isn't the point. The work is."

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

4/n by a schools demographic context is to say we accept different standards for different children. And it is to children ofsted should be primarily accountable to. We absolutely should not accept lower standards for pooter children than richer ones whatever the root cause..

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Stuart Lock @stulock.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Yes! Do not have lower standards for poor children.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Our ridiculous chickens are even more ridiculous than we thought. They are frizzles.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

He's halfway through his final term. Of course they are. This is just business doing business.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I have recently re-read Dracula and it is.. well wild. It's both glorious and gloriously bad. If it was just a short story that finished with Harker trying to leave the castle it'd be up there with best of all time..

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I know right? They're so cute. Like a little new romantic band.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Our ridiculous chickens are even more ridiculous than we thought. They are frizzles.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Please tell us about all these beautiful pens.

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Claire Harley @claireharley.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Very interesting Saturday! Loved being at @knowledge-hub.bsky.social ‘s conference hearing from such an amazing group of speakers!

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Willerby @welcometowillerby.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Jack and the Great Heathen Army. A Willerby Story. There's a very good reason Willerby was never in the Danelaw. Find out why here.. willerby.substack.com/p/jack-and-t...

Screenshot of text from the linked story.

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James Murphy @jamespmurphy.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

All of this. ⬇️ So much of recent policy from this EdSec looks and sounds like it cares, but it’s the fruit of a mindset that we tried - and failed - twenty years ago. The answer, as Ben articulates so clearly, is not to have different standards but to give greater support where it’s needed.

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Simon Knight @simonknight100.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

🎉👇🎉 The only thing I’d add is that we also need to be looking harder at the social characteristics, that contribute to the challenges experienced by schools, as something that requires a broader social response. Too often we are expecting schools to hold a wider remit with insufficient support.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

1/n I am very much on record as not being an Ofsted fan but this is a worrying direction. This isn't the Premier League. Their primary aim shouldn't Be To Be Fair. It's to drive better schools for children. Bear with me for nuance. www.theguardian.com/education/20...

theguardian.com

England school inspections to be overhauled again after barrage of complaints

Exclusive: Education secretary sends Ofsted back to ‘drawing board’ as teachers raise serious concerns about new system

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John Watts @wattsgoingon.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

.....to a very challenging timescale (esp. as the pandemic landed in the middle of the process). What we didn't need, or want, was a lowering of the standard we were ultimately aiming for.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

14/n nobody can do their best work when they're scared they'll lose their job and not afford rent or mortgage. I get that very well. But the right answer can't be to lower standards for some kids. Fin.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

13/n so the answer isn't to make it easier. It's to make sure that the staff doing the work get the help they need to do it.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

12/n I've been and heard about too many awful steamrollers where a schools had a negative judgement and the response has been to pile on the teachers and leaders as if they were solely to blame when in reality these are the people who stayed in the trenches by choice because they cared so much..

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

11/n almost finished. The takeaway is to be honest about judgements on a narrower range so they're more reliable. Don't decimate those that work in a school that gets a negative judgement. Help them.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

10/n ofsted should not judge based on demographic. I get why people think they should. It's the danger of a little knowledge. It's disturbing to see Lucy Powell talk about discovering that there's a link between poverty and negative ofsted judgement as if this was something we didn't already know..

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

9/n I've send this happen in schools. High standards. High accountability. Good behaviour. Improving results. People relax. Time to introduce a more comparative approach and a disaster that happens so fast you wouldn't believe it if you weren't there.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

8/n the danger here is because things aren't on fire we think we can relax and sort of experiment. This isn't how it works. We know what works. We must keep doing it. We have so many examples of what happens when we relax standards. Things can get worse very quickly..

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

7/n we also need to be very very wary of the context right now and what I'd call, hesitantly, complacency and perhaps even luxury belief. We are riding high on international comparisons. This isn't accidental. It's happened because we've taken behaviour seriously. And curriculum..

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

6/n I trust we can pull out exemplars for system learning through this. Perhaps if we got to a point behaviour was good enough across the system we could get more judgemental on the other stuff but I don't think we are there yet. If kids are scared in a school then other stuff can probably wait..

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

5/n since you're still here, here's my proposal. We have two judgements. Pass and fail. This is on safeguarding and behaviour and we get way way tighter on this. Behaviour is safeguarding. If pupils behave badly they aren't safe. I can live with everything else as narrative within a framework..

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

3/n the knife edge between the old 2 and 3 was a particular problem, largely because of very very different responses to schools that I think might well have got a different grade in a different window with different inspectors. But saying we are going to be influenced in judgement..

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

2/n. I have spent most of my career in cat 3 and 4 schools in areas of enormous challenge. It is very very hard. We need greater recognition of how hard it is and less fire and brimstone scorched earth responses to negative judgements. I've seen the hugely damaging effects of this first hand..

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

theguardian.com

England school inspections to be overhauled again after barrage of complaints

Exclusive: Education secretary sends Ofsted back to ‘drawing board’ as teachers raise serious concerns about new system

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

"So you want to know now, how I've been?"

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Alex Bellars 🇪🇺🇵🇸🇨🇦🇬🇱 @alexbellars.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#FridayFive 1. Another One Bites The Dust. Queen 2. Black Widow. Iggy Azalea 3. These Boots Are Made For Walkin'. Nancy Sinatra 4. One Way Or Another. Blondie 5. This Means War. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

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Ian Goldsworthy @iangoldsworthy.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

The Rake’s Song - The Decemberists Henry Lee - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds with PJ Harvey Something For The Weekend - The Divine Comedy You Oughta Know - Alanis Morrisette I’m Still Standing - Elton John #fridayfive

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Simone Beach @simonebeach.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#FridayFive 1. Kill Bill. Sza 2. Misery business. Paramore 3. Lost ones. Lauren Hill 4. Final warning. Skylar Grey 5. Follow the waves. Melissa Auf de Maur

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Victoria @mrssteaches.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

1. I Will Survive, Gloria Gaynor 2. Irreplaceable, Beyoncé 3. Flowers, Miley Cyrus 4. Another one I had but can’t remember because I spent ages googling The Script lyrics but none of them worked 5. The one I’ll think of when I press reply #FridayFive

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I think that's fair. He's doing a lot of good stuff. But whether he can stick a landing.. but I think he just might have earned a "let's see."

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Helen @helenpins.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Nancy Sinatra: These Boots Are Made for Walkin The Chicks: Goodbye Earl Rhianna: Take a Bow Kelis: Caught Out There Alanis Morrisette: You Outta Know #FridayFive

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Do we all need to at least entertain the possibility Burnham is Quite Good at Politics? That this isn't necessarily going to be the same crash and burn cycle we've seen since.. well Cameron messed up?

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Willerby @welcometowillerby.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

More books sent today.. we aren't going to reprint this one. Last chance to have a copy of the first ever Willerby book.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

#FridayFive is vengeful. 1. Karma Police. Radiohead. 2. Thank you Aimee. Taylor Swift. 3. You're So Vain. Carly Simon. 4. Yes. McAlmont and Butler. 5. The Mariner's Revenge Song. The Decemberists.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

There's something about the old world understatement. A veneer of politeness over the most unimaginable horror. "Thank you. I have had a good life."

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Esther Ransom was a little too before my time for me to remember a lot about her, but to me the episode of That's Life with Nicholas Winton is one of the most profound pieces of television I have ever seen.

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Richard Dare FCCT MA CTeach @richarddare.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

HE ALWAYS KNOWS 👀

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Hard not to get angrier and angrier at Man City. If they did win an appeal they'd destroy the PL totally. They just don't care. Every step of the road they've walked has been brazen. They don't seem to get they're bees destroying their own hive.

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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

My ideal day is for everyone to go out for a day and a night and I spend the whole day cleaning with music and podcasts on and then drink beer and get a takeaway. On days like this I like to walk in and out of rooms just to see them tidy.

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