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James Murphy

@jamespmurphy.bsky.social
1.3K followers 818 following 1K posts

Teaching, learning and behaviour. Director at Thinking Reading. Working with secondary schools to eradicate illiteracy. Web: thinkingreading.com

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Ian Coldwater 🧊🚫 @lookitup.baby · 13h
BREAKING NEWS: “Do geese see God” is a palindrome
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Thinking Reading @thinkreadhq.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
In our podcast "Inside the Reading Gap" we hear from teachers like @vicgoddard who know reading problems in secondary schools can be solved - rather than accommodated.  You can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
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Redwall Feasts Bot @redwallfeasts.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
At the end of the table sat an appetizing loaf of wheat bread stuffed with cheese, mushrooms, carrots, and onions, alongside bowls of bilberries grown at the Abbey.
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Helen Barnard @helenbarnard.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A clarification: 👬People on Universal Credit 👬Workers 👬Taxpayers Are not distinct groups. c4/10 of those on UC work, many will pay NICs, some also income tax. Everyone pays VAT. Most people pay council tax. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
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Luke LeBrun @lukelebrun.ca · 26/09/2026
Tech companies suddenly decide they can, in fact, moderate content on their platforms after all
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Thinking Reading @thinkreadhq.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Teaching struggling adolescent readers requires a complex repertoire of skills - simply doing ‘phonics’ or ‘vocabulary’ won’t cut it.  Read more in our blog ‘Can’t Read, Won’t Read: Matthew Effects’ wp.me/p4hKgx-1u (4 min read)
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Not saying the BBC News has lost focus but they currently have a live stream of the UK's biggest vegtable competition on their front page.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Has it occured to him that someone saying "school wasn't for me" went to a crap school? Or wasn't taught to read properly at primary?
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Kristian Shanks @historykss.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It’s just terrible unevidenced uninformed nonsense from Burnham. Wrong on every level.
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James Murphy @jamespmurphy.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Exactly this. The idea that working class kids need something ‘different’. The utter snobbery and patrician condescension. I’m mostly centre left but this drivel from Labour is so tired, lazy and inadequate.
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Casket Based @cineblah.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I'm making a documentary about the RLNI situation and I am contacting various organisations. However I thought I'd turn to bluesky as well, I'm looking to interview people either connected to the RNLI, to refugees/those working with refugees and also with counter-protestors. Please share.
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James Murphy @jamespmurphy.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Happy equinox everyone
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Thinking Reading @thinkreadhq.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Looking for a new podcast to listen to on your commute tomorrow? Our podcast series "Inside the Reading Gap" is a succinct 4 part series. A key theme is that there is hope and reading problems are solvable. We explain what it takes & we show that teaching can change lives.
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Olena Halushka @halushka.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Worth reminding over and over again: if russia stops fighting, there will be no war; if Ukraine stops fighting, there will be no Ukraine.
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James Murphy @jamespmurphy.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
They are so good!
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Sean Jones KC @seanjones.org · 21/09/2026
Of course reparations for the slave trade is an utterly fanciful idea just so long as you ignore the fact that we paid reparations … to those who *invested* in the trade and not its victims.
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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Thousands of university jobs lost too, and barely a peep either.
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Thinking Reading @thinkreadhq.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Why can't some children read after 11 yrs of education? Some will say deprivation, lack of intelligence, poor motivation, presumed disabilities or parents. We show how those beliefs don’t hold water & that teaching is the solution: @daisychristo shares her expertise on "Inside the Reading Gap"
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James Murphy @jamespmurphy.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
If you care about public health, prisons, public spending, mental health services or education, this podcast will be helpful.
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Adam Lechmere @adamlechmere.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The toxic potency of Farage, that he can inspire people to attack lifeboat volunteers, the man dragging his slimy belly over England leaving a trail of hate and fear. This is the way evil appears, not with hooves but a blazer
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James Murphy @jamespmurphy.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Sigh. Why is every Reform headline them saying ‘I’ve done nothing wrong’?
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Olena Halushka @halushka.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Speak about Sumy. Speak about Kherson. Speak about Zaporizhzhia. Speak about Kharkiv. Speak about Dnipro. Speak about Kyiv. Speak about all towns and villages that russians are terrorizing daily, killing people, destroying businesses, wiping out homes and infrastructure.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Middle-class kids already do genuinely good vocational courses like degree apprenticeships. I just don't know what problem they're trying to solve. www.thetimes.com/uk/education...
thetimes.com
Lucy Powell: Middle-class children should take vocational subjects
The education secretary says that curriculums tailored to the needs of the local economy should not be rejected because of snobbery
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James Murphy @jamespmurphy.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
They didn’t seem to have these hesitations when they were jailing frail elderly women . . .
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Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Oh wait, someone has thought of this before!
18 U.S. Code § 597 Expenditures to influence voting U.S. Code

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Whoever makes or offers to make an expenditure to any person, either to vote or withhold his vote, or to vote for or against any candidate; and Whoever solicits, accepts, or receives any such expenditure in consideration of his vote or the withholding of his vote- Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if the violation was willful, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.
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James Murphy @jamespmurphy.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
First Sunday of September, the Feast of St Ignoranus, which we celebrate by the traditional reposting of researchED slides with no context, by people who weren’t there, and don’t know what was said about the slide.
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Caroline Keep @ka83k.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Finding it really telling right now we CAN arrest people holding signs peacefully about their political views. But we CAN'T arrest men beating women with literal sticks at Reform UK for expressing their views. So freedom of speech includes violence now for certain groups?
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Louie Stowell @louiestowell.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
My first cartoon for adults for a while, on the Dover business
A one panel cartoon showing three male-looking figures in all black wearing balaclavas, so you can only see their eyes. Below it says: 'Spontaneous' protest. The figure on the right is saying: 'OMG, SO EMBARRASSING, WE ALL WORE THE SAME OUTFIT!
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Postcard From The Past @pastpostcard.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
It rained all day yesterday so we went to Barnstaple - never again. We also got our T.V. working. Someone has to sit with the aerial on their head.
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James Murphy @jamespmurphy.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
It’s as if he’s trying to put The Onion out of business
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James Murphy @jamespmurphy.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I think we are underestimating the restraint he showed in not calling Lake Trump
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Thinking Reading @thinkreadhq.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
When a child doesn't learn to read we hear things like poverty, lack of intelligence, poor motivation, parenting & presumed disabilities are the reason. We talked to experts & show those beliefs don’t hold water & that teaching is the solution. Thanks to @SWLiteracy for sharing his expertise. .
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 25/08/2026
This girl I used to waitress with in Austin, we moved to New York together in 2003 on a literal Greyhound bus. Shared a fifth floor walk-up studio that, when it rained, had more leaks in the ceiling than we had pots and pans. We used to get drunk and smoke off the fire escape and do “sad-offs.”
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William Shakespeare @shakespeare.lol · 25/08/2026
[Exit Queen.]
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Postcard From The Past @pastpostcard.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
My dear Dad Please, please forgive me for not saying good-bye, but Dad I just could not. I know that this was the best way to do it. I love you very much and always will. Jean
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James Murphy @jamespmurphy.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Peaceful Sunday evening. Might put this on a Christmas card :-)
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Ben Newmark @bennewmark.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Typically excellent, particularly the focus on what's realistic and not nostalgic utopianism. I'd also add that "academic" study is not just utilitarian. It can be a source of immense joy and beauty and children not being able to access their cultural inheritance and entitlement is profoundly sad.
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Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
This is important too from @thenerve.news. If you read that viral news piece from one anonymous student reproduced in Unherd, Times & Telegraph & pumped out as FB/Insta ads, you need to read this. What Professor Jason Arday's students actually thought: www.thenerve.news/p/jason-arda...
thenerve.news
Students remember Jason Arday: ‘People would say how much they were looking forward to his classes’
A viral article by an anonymous student suggested the academic was a “terrible” teacher. Undergraduates at Durham, where he taught between 2019 and 2022, tell fellow alumna Michaela Makusha that their...
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James Murphy @jamespmurphy.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
To MAGA, Trump is Reacher. The tough guy who dishes out justice by disregarding the rules.
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James Murphy @jamespmurphy.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Children catch up remarkably quickly if they are taught with a rigorous programme and tutors having high expectations of themselves. If you think that would work best n your school, you know what to do.
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Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
13 years since the huge Sarin attacks in Damascus. It's really hard to underestimate what a huge catalyst that was for a denialist network that has spent the last 13 years twisting themselves into knots to find ways to deny the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime.
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
I wish media outlets would describe Nathan Cofnas as a racist rather than a "self-defined race realist" which doesn't mean anything to most people. His writing meets any definition of racism however narrowly and cautiously drawn.
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Daisy Christodoulou @daisychristo.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
“Primaries are a rare example of an English public policy success. We risk undermining that success by making them compensate for state failures elsewhere.” www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
theguardian.com
Could you predict which children will be Neets? No – and it’s unfair to ask that of teachers | Daisy Christodoulou
The idea of government adviser Alan Milburn sounds laudable. But it’s asking too much of a system already struggling to meet society’s demands, says education writer Daisy Christodoulou
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sianushka.bsky.social @sianushka.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Want to know more about Posh George’s Reform connections in his early years? Or why so many Reform types have their businesses registered in a shabby office in Tivat, Montenegro? You read it here first! My July story for @opendemocracy.net www.opendemocracy.net/inside-refor...
opendemocracy.net
Inside Reform and George Cottrell’s world in Montenegro
Why are some of Britain’s most controversial Reform-linked figures all operating out of a grubby office in a town of 11,000 people in the Balkans?
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James Murphy @jamespmurphy.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
The alternative is not teaching them all to read. In which case each functionally illiterate school leave will cost the taxpayer an average of £215,000 over their lifetime.
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Thinking Reading @thinkreadhq.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Episode 2 of our podcast considers the links between poor literacy & imprisonment, the challenges of the prison environment for improving literacy skills. Thank you to @charlie_taylor6 HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for sharing his incredibly important insights. Listen to "Inside the Reading Gap".
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John Cocker @joecocker.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
On this day in 1942, a 10 year old Dutch Jewish girl arrived at Auschwitz with her mother and sister (5) where they were murdered in the gas chamber after selection. Her father perished in the camp on the 1 Sep 1942. Her name was Betje Kalkoene Please support @auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social
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Mark Goodrich @markgoodrich.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Have listened to the first 3 episodes of this podcast this evening and would highly recommend to any teacher whether you are a literacy specialist or not. Great work from the @thinkreadhq.bsky.social team in putting this together- punchy, clear and well-structured with great expert voices.
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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Calling it a bubble is to miss the point. Go to where a community suits you, and where you suit the community. Where you can get what you want. I don’t want fights any more. I want facts, freedom and fun - peppered with interesting information. Is that a bubble? Maybe, but a good one. 4/4
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Dr Zubaida Haque @zubhaque.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
We need to separate two distinct failures: 1/Schools stayed closed longer than they needed to bec the govt failed to put in strong mitigation measures to make them safe 2/Johnson failed to invest properly in helping children recover – a failure that led Sir Kevan Collins to resign as “catch‑up tsar”
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