Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 21h1/4 Been thinking about a thread on whether schools can really meet every need. Both sides are right. You can't build a classroom of 1 for every child, the funding, staff & capacity just aren't there. & yet children are still being let down. Sitting with both is hard. 150
Reposted by Stuart RowntreeSpecial Needs Jungle @spcialndsjungle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026On SNJ Today: Education researchers at the University of Oxford have shown that children in special schools have thriving social networks and friendships—the opposite of how their experiences are characterised by politicians: www.specialneedsjungle.com/research-soc... 086
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Doubt these habits begin at 15. By Y6 can often see which chn don't have somewhere to go after school. Enrichment in primary isn't an extra - where pattern can still change. Schools can't compensate for society - even if asked to do so! But school is often only free, safe place left to belong... 162
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 26/09/20261/4 Seventeen years in, I keep returning to reading aloud. It's easy to treat it as the gentle end to a busy day. I've come to think it's some of the most important teaching we do. Children can't love the sound of a book they've never heard. 1182
Reposted by Stuart RowntreeSaganism @sagan.bsky.social · 22/08/2026“It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.” — Jacob Bronowski 314428
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 21/08/20261/3 I keep coming back to the calendar. If we’re serious about a more inclusive system, with better-trained staff, the answer can’t be more bolted-on CPD. What if we worked in 5-week blocks, 1 week off, with a 4-week summer, and built development into directed time? 220
Reposted by Stuart RowntreeIan Goldsworthy @iangoldsworthy.bsky.social · 21/08/2026This is a pretty decent article about why describing autism as a spectrum has made it so broad as to be useless if not outright harmful to people like my E Really glad @utafrith.bsky.social is persevering with sticking her neck out on this www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...bbc.co.ukA split in the spectrum? The ongoing battle to define autismThere is a continuing row over whether it matters if such a broad spectrum of people are defined as having autism 222
Reposted by Stuart RowntreeAsh Oro @ashoro.co.uk · 21/08/20261/ I am still watching the Middle East very closely. But there is another developing story I think needs bringing into the same picture: El Niño. Not because it tells us what the weather will be. Because it changes the assumptions we normally use to plan around it. #SeafarerMeteorology #ElNiño 14318
Reposted by Stuart RowntreeSaganism @sagan.bsky.social · 21/08/2026The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. ― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe 317845
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 20/08/20261/6 Regional gaps matter. London is the real outlier. The South isn’t uniformly better. The more useful question is what conditions make equivalent educational success harder to secure in some places than others. 101
Reposted by Stuart RowntreeCaroline Keep @ka83k.bsky.social · 20/08/2026Seems part of vastly wider attacks with unsupported evidence on autism and adhd. It just doesn't hold up to evidence. And bang on we should question quality, waiting lists but NHS already did that... 3 times. We should be implemented findings. www.gov.uk/government/p...gov.ukIndependent review into mental health conditions, ADHD and autism: interim report 141
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Wonder how much a lack of prior knowledge introduces vulnerability - lack of dialogic interrogation? Cognitive load meeting automation. Remove extraneous difficulty, but not the intrinsic intellectual work of retrieval, selection, struggle, revision - the mechanism through which schemas are built. 000
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 19/08/2026The Great ADHD Myth? 1/4 There were bits of this I nodded along to. We should question diagnosis quality, medication & the environments children are expected to cope with. But asking difficult questions isn’t the same as proving ADHD is a myth! www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...theguardian.comThe Great ADHD Myth? review – the most controversial show of the year is hereDr Max Pemberton isn’t uncompassionate or especially radical, but he assembles a team of medics whose stance on the condition is clear from the off. This is a documentary that will incense and offend ... 242
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 19/08/2026More time to listen to music during this break. Purcell is a vibe lately - old, restrained and slightly weathered. The repetition, ritual, stone rooms, candlelight in darkness. I'm more than ready for autumn. Melancholic indulgence for someone who loves to withdraw every now and again. 000
Reposted by Stuart RowntreeMrsVeriTea @mrsveritea.bsky.social · 18/08/2026Just wondering if anyone else is watching this, & your thoughts. #ADHD @ka83k.bsky.social @bennewmark.bsky.social @primarythink.bsky.social @hazelmpinner.bsky.social @suecowley.bsky.social @rlrossi64.bsky.social @psalisbury.bsky.social @stella-b.bsky.social @alienwife99.bsky.social 1153
Reposted by Stuart RowntreeSaganism @sagan.bsky.social · 15/08/2026“The greatest of all the accomplishments of twentieth-century science has been the discovery of human ignorance.” — Lewis Thomas 311935
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 12/08/2026As always, worth reading. I’ve been thinking a lot about the difference between how learning happens and how we choose to teach. Christian’s piece is useful here. Pupils constructing understanding doesn’t mean teachers shouldn’t explain, model, guide or practise with them. Distinction matters. 134
Reposted by Stuart RowntreeSirisha Rambhatla @sirisha-r.bsky.social · 08/08/2026100% true. Expertise associated with women is systematically undervalued. Knitting, weaving, and sewing each involve extensive programming, material science, and engineering design. Yet, these are not seen from these perspectives. 16215
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 08/08/20261/4 I think “future unemployment risk” is the wrong frame for primary schools. Too heavy & deterministic. Easy to turn into another label attached to children far too early. The better lens, for me, is future participation. 3213
Reposted by Stuart RowntreeKatie Finlayson @learnwhatyoulive.bsky.social · 04/08/2026Wales have updated their attendance codes for the first time since 2010. This includes more detailed categories which should shed light on arrangements like flexischooling and online provision. It also breaks the illness code into physical and non-physical illnesses: www.gov.wales/school-atten...gov.walesSchool attendance codes: guidance [HTML] | GOV.WALESThe codes that schools must use when recording attendance information. 252
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 04/08/20261/4 I’m not sure Britain ever "decided" skilled work mattered less. But we did build a system, especially in England, where academic routes gained clearer status, stronger institutions and greater visibility, then mistook that advantage for proof of greater worth. ⬇️ 240
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 04/08/20261/5 I believe strongly in more inclusive mainstream schools. I also think many schools are trying to hold together a SEND system that has been underfunded, over-bureaucratised and inconsistently implemented for years. But there is a risk we cannot ignore. ⬇️ 264
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 03/08/2026Rigour cannot mean insisting every pupil succeeds through same route. Relevance cannot mean abandoning worthwhile knowledge. A genuinely inclusive system protects entitlement while recognising different aptitudes, needs & destinations. One narrow definition of success will manufacture failure. 030
Reposted by Stuart RowntreeSue Cowley @suecowley.bsky.social · 03/08/2026I'm fascinated by how bits of edutwitter are responding to this. If people aren't keen, again *what is the solution* to disaffected learners who come out of school feeling like they've failed? If it's not more vocational pathways, how about making the current offer more relevant and engaging? 105411
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 02/08/2026Trauma-informed practice is not permissiveness. It means holding boundaries while recognising that some children need sustained safety, co-regulation and trusted relationships before they can meet them consistently. The real constraint is often staffing, time and specialist capacity. 161
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 02/08/2026This distinction matters. “Schools stayed closed too long” can become a convenient way of erasing who controlled mitigation, public health infrastructure and recovery funding. Schools carried the consequences of those failures, and pupils and staff are still living with them. 240
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 30/07/2026Nicole Ponsford articulates this really well. I’ve felt for a long time that school data telld us what's happening, but not enough about how pupils experience it. Inclusion needs attainment, attendance & behaviour data, yes. But also needs voice, belonging, trust & stories behind the patterns. 020
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 28/07/2026“I am a part of all that I have met.” Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses 010
Reposted by Stuart RowntreeSteplab @steplab.bsky.social · 27/07/2026🎉 Steplab Summer Reads - Giveaway #2 Win: 📖 Symbiosis by Claire Hill & Kat Howard 📚 Steplab whitepapers 💧 Steplab water bottle 🖊️ Notepad & pen To enter: 1️⃣ Follow us 2️⃣ Like this post 3️⃣ Repost Enter by 9:00am Friday 31 July. Winner announced the same day. Good luck! 11110
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 25/07/2026“Stuart had come in for potatoes. Unfortunately, he had already begun constructing a wider theory about supermarket design, civic decline and whether this particular branch felt sufficiently Nordic.” 020
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 22/07/2026Since @lucympowell.bsky.social has disabled comments. 1/3 From primary schools serving high SEND and high deprivation communities, the test is not new language but whether policy changes the conditions schools work in. Will accountability recognise complexity without making inclusion a data risk? 100
Reposted by Stuart RowntreeLucy Powell MP @lucympowell.bsky.social · 21/07/2026Absolutely thrilled to be appointed Education Secretary. For me there’s no more important job for any government than making sure young people have the best education, the best opportunities and the best future they can. Lots to do and I look forward to getting started. 0433
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 05/07/2026Optics have become a substitute for substance. 163
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 04/07/2026I've never been so disinterested and disconnected with a world cup before... 100
Reposted by Stuart RowntreeJames Murphy @jamespmurphy.bsky.social · 27/06/2026Tremendous resistance in politics and in Ed circles to the idea that we might need a lot of highly trained, impactful experts rather than the same people as before changing their job titles to become ‘experts at hand’. Expertise costs money and if we already had it we wouldn’t need reforms. 152
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 27/06/2026Biggest issue is staff believing the work is doable. SEND reform can’t just mean asking exhausted adults to absorb more complexity. Has to come with time, training, staffing, specialist support & fewer contradictory demands. Otherwise (as you know) buy-in won’t survive contact with Monday morning. 120
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 27/06/2026As a Teessider, this doesn't remotely surprise me... 110
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 27/06/2026This is the bit I keep coming back to. It isn’t about lowering expectations. It’s about whether the system recognises different starting points, routes and evidence of progress. If accountability only rewards one narrow path, inclusion will always be fighting uphill. 2246
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 27/06/2026Inclusion bases are being promoted at precisely the moment when EHCP systems, special school capacity and LA decision-making are under extreme strain. That does not make inclusion bases wrong. It makes resourcing, accountability and honesty even more important. 1/3 120
Reposted by Stuart RowntreeParkin and Tea @parkinandtea.bsky.social · 26/06/2026So we carry on tinkering around the edges arguing over how little we can feed the donkey today in the name of efficiency & thrifty government spending. Not investing in education of both children & adults seems to be the biggest own goal a country can make. Shooting yourself in both feet. /end 162
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 26/06/2026Agree. We need to be much sharper about evidence. But also about implementation. An adaptation is not good because it sounds inclusive. It has to match the barrier, be delivered well, be reviewed and be possible at scale. Otherwise schools collect adjustments that don’t shift access. Again. 120
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 26/06/20261/6 Today’s DfE guidance on inclusion bases matters. It recognises something many mainstream schools already know - that some pupils need more than ordinary classroom adaptation, but still deserve to belong in their local school community. 2103
Reposted by Stuart RowntreeSue Cowley @suecowley.bsky.social · 26/06/2026The pressure on schools to use certain approaches because of external accountability measures is a big part of why #inclusion is so difficult. I think we have to accept that some children struggle with the level of expectations being placed on them atm. That's not 'soft bigotry'; it's reality. 2234
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 25/06/2026Frustrating. Inclusion & attendance are not separate workstreams. The pupils most carefully held by inclusive practice are often those with the most complex barriers to attendance. Accountability needs to ask how schools are responding to that complexity, not pretend the two aims sit neatly apart! 041
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 23/06/2026Very useful framing from @jpembroke.bsky.social For me, the key tension is stakes. Once stakes dominate purpose, workload rises, accuracy becomes performative and access suffers. Assessment only earns its place when it helps teachers act more precisely for pupils... 210
Reposted by Stuart RowntreeSchool Data Updates @jpembroke.bsky.social · 23/06/2026From Insight data, it looks like there’s going to be a big increase in % achieving full marks in MTC. 37% last year; probably over 40% this year. 152
Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 23/06/2026Assessment matters. But high-stakes accountability can turn it into performance theatre. The issue is not individual teachers or schools. It is a system that rewards threshold focus and public signals over diagnostic use. We should protect assessment by lowering the stakes around it. 141
Reposted by Stuart RowntreeStuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 06/06/2026The White Paper hill I will die on: If accountability still judges schools mainly through attainment, inclusive schools carry the most risk. Unless measures adapt to recognise access, progress and complexity, inclusion is not just disincentivised, it is structurally penalised. 4186
Reposted by Stuart RowntreeRR @rlrossi64.bsky.social · 22/06/2026On which future PM is prepared to travel to US to meet the orange one : “Burnham Would go to Dunce Inane” 46718