Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 14/11/2025Every week, I speak to schools going above and beyond (with too few staff, too little money, and enormous stress) to do right by their children. I also see children being pushed out of schools and into specialist provision because the school can’t (or won’t) meet their needs. 010
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 14/11/2025Children should attend school with their neighbours, friends, and teammates. To make this possible, they need to have their needs met. This can’t be the sole responsibility of schools (who have enough on their plates), but they clearly play a vital role in meeting needs. 120
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 14/11/2025Clearly, for some children, there is a need for specialist provision. For the vast majority of children, they should be able to attend their local school (where their friends go, where transport is logical/affordable, where they are part of their community). 100
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 14/11/2025By the end of the decade: 📈 One in every 20 children will have an EHCP 📈 Special school placements will cost councils £8bn (According to the CCN) 100
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 14/11/2025There’s an over-reliance on higher-cost placements/specialist provision, including private school places, according to The County Councils Network (CCN). In 2014/15, there were 109,000 children in special schools in England. Now, there are 194,000. 100
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 14/11/2025Another day, another sign our SEND system is utterly broken. At the start of this year, there were 638,745 EHCPs in place. That’s up 10.8% from the same time last year. However, it’s not just EHCPs that are breaking budgets... 110
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 09/11/2025This is from a school that excels in many areas, and I understand why these things happen. However, it ties in with the broader point I often make: we’ve moved away from humanity and connection, replacing them with systematisation and automation. 020
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 09/11/2025Nothing says “well done” like a failed mail-merge. 100
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 09/11/2025I’m part of the last generation to experience childhood without a smartphone. I learned how to “swim in the digital deep” as an adult who got to play as a kid. Seems to work well. 000
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 09/11/2025Last weekend, a machine cut a duplicate key for me. This weekend, a machine processed my lunch order. I didn’t need to speak to another human. Is this progress? 010
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 09/11/2025As a care-leaver, my eldest was automatically entitled to significant benefits. I encouraged and supported him into part time work. The ‘benefits’ he’s gained from this are immeasurable. 010
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 04/11/2025Full report… www.northwalessafeguardingboard.wales/wp-content/... 000
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 04/11/2025From the Child Practice Review (CPR) looking at Neil Foden, the former head teacher and "prolific sex offender who harmed many children". Will lessons be learned? 110
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 02/11/2025For the families I work with… Their children didn’t play when they were little. They were too hungry, scared, terrified. They were trying to survive. I no longer have any doubts about the importance of play. 010
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 01/11/2025All while charging Local Authorities £85,617 per pupil, per year. 000
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 17/10/2025In Wales, over a period of 18 months: “...14 people have not been killed on Welsh roads because of 20mph and 98 will have avoided a hospital visit for a serious injury.” Proud to live in a country where research and policy override politics. 100
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 03/10/2025Ooooh... new book from Charlie Mackesy out this month. 😍 010
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 18/09/2025There's no parent-blaming here. My youngest chose to stay home and watch TV instead of walking the dog. But I do worry. Where did all the kids go? 110
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 18/09/20255pm, after school, on a mild September evening. This purpose-built facility in our village is empty. Not a child in sight here, or on the two surrounding playing fields, or in the two nearby playgrounds. 120
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 17/09/2025Keep school at school. Keep home at home. For children with trauma, this is often essential. 010
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 17/09/2025Why do schools do this? An email goes out asking, “Are you nervous about being back in school?” on the same day they’re putting a child into a “lunchtime lockdown” for chewing gum (a well-known regulation strategy for children with trauma). 000
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 14/09/2025From an interview with Peter Lamont, author of Radical Thinking. 000
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 12/09/2025All three of my kids were shown graphic videos of Charlie Kirk’s assassination yesterday. They’re three different ages, in three different education settings (two of which have phone bans), across three local authorities. One of my kids doesn’t have their own smartphone. 100
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 10/09/2025Would you say that's the primary driver of this increase? 110
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 10/09/2025UNDERSTANDING behaviour is not EXCUSING behaviour. 👉 Going below surface-level behaviour is not dismissing behaviour 👉 Being radically curious about behaviour is not accepting behaviour 👉 Accepting what drives behaviour is not endorsing behaviour 031
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 08/09/2025As our kids return to school, I’m thinking of all those wonderful security blankets in the form of humans who work tirelessly with our kids. Children with trauma want a better life. That starts with never feeling that scared again. 030
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 07/09/2025Is this sustainable? From Lana Hempsall in The Spectator. 100
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 06/09/2025www.tes.com/magazine/ne...tes.comTom Bennett: strict rules ‘dovetail perfectly’ with inclusionThe DfE attendance and behaviour ambassador defends his record and tells Tes why he wants to check on teacher-training providers 000
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 06/09/2025“A more substantial factor for me was the fact that staff and leaders said they felt safer and better trained,” [Bennett] said. 110
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 05/09/2025Fostering doesn’t have a recruitment crisis. It has a retention crisis. From Mary Wakefield in @thespectator1828.bsky.social. 000
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 03/09/2025We don’t have a behaviour crisis. We have an understanding children crisis. 020
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 02/09/2025The job of adults isn’t just keeping children safe. It’s helping them feel safe. 130
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 12/08/2025My son recently finished secondary school. He was there for 5 years. I never met any of his teachers. 210
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 12/08/2025We need an education and social care system that *knows* children. Knows them on an individual basis. Knows their family. Knows their story. We are moving further away from that with each passing day. 010
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 12/08/2025I’ve found that those times without tech (or at least communal/shared tech, such as TV) are often the best parts of my day. It feels like we’re together. 000
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 11/08/2025Thanks, Katie. Good to hear I’m not the only one. Do you feel you’re in the minority amongst the families you know? 100
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 11/08/2025Can we normalise kids not taking mobile phones into their bedrooms? We have this as a house rule (even when friends come over), and we’re very much in the minority. 110
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 09/08/2025I’m watching one of my kids thrive in part-time work. After so many years in education, where the consequences of behaviour are illogical and unnatural, the consequences of actions in work make perfect sense. Seems a much better way of learning. 010
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 08/08/2025That’s so lovely to hear. It’s the book I recommend the most. I jumped at the chance to help with writing the next one! 110
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 08/08/2025The original A-Z was my go-to as a foster parent. Countless times I turned to it when I didn’t know what to do, and was given strategies and hope. It also helped me feel less alone, at points where I felt more alone than I thought was possible. uk.jkp.com/products/th... 100
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 08/08/2025The news is out... following the success of the original A-Z of Therapeutic Parenting, I’m pleased to share I’ll be writing the follow-up A-Z (for teens and tweens), alongside the brilliant Sarah Naish, Sarah Dillon, and Sair Penna. 120
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 01/08/2025Is anyone else seeing this? Is anyone else worried? Is this just the way the world is today (no big fuss), or should we be doing something about this? 010
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 01/08/2025I bump into my boys, who had gone out earlier to play cricket. They’re both sitting on the ground, on their phones. 100
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 01/08/2025My youngest messages her friends, but they don’t want to go out because they’re busy with their game consoles, smartphones and VRs. She’s not too bothered, because she’ll just watch TV instead. 100
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 01/08/2025The streets are quiet, aside from the odd dog walker. I pass one child, on their own, riding their bike. For the rest of my hour-long walk, I don’t see another child. 100
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 01/08/2025I just took an early evening walk around my village. Lots of families live here. (Our primary school has two classes of 30 for each year group.) You wouldn’t know that—because none of the children who live here are outside. 100
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 24/07/2025From The Rights of the Reader by Daniel Pennac. 020
Gareth K. Thomas ❤️🩹 @garethkthomas.bsky.social · 24/07/2025“If we want our sons, our daughters, all young people to read, we must grant them the same rights we grant ourselves.” 120