iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Yes, and I'd add that support has to reach the schools taking the kids others won't - which is a real thing. If the accountability system makes inclusion look like weakness, the support never gets there. Same bar, more help, and some credit for keeping the door open...surely?

3/3 So maybe context belongs in what happens after the judgement, not in it. Same standard, but more help, time & stability for schools where it's hardest to reach. Not sure I've got that right, but it feels closer to "help them" than where we've been frustrated before...

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2/3 Behaviour is safeguarding, agreed. My worry with pass/fail is schools that take the kids others won't - and that's a real thing. More need can mean more visible incidents even when the response is really good. If we judge the incidents not the response, we risk rewarding the door being shut...

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 19h

1/3 Really interesting thread & I agree with more of it than I expected. Same bar for every child, yes. Working in an area of high deprivation every day is deeply challenging. Lowering the bar would be the opposite of kind. But a couple of things I keep coming back to...

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Love a bit of Linkin Park, but I've recently gone down a hyperfocus rabbit hole with Pilotpriest, Digital Moss and Lorn...

Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 19h

Fantastic that you are involved in this, Jonny!

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Reposted by Stuart Rowntree

Jonny H @poppop.studio · 20h

Good morning #EduSky England! The DfE has published the tender docs for the SEND CPD!! Sadly I'm not allowed to share it with y'all. I've now got 2 weeks to find some more strong partners to join our lead, tech, and some delivery. I've got good contacts with a MAT, Parent carer forum...

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

October - December is the best time of the year, no competition.

Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

4/4 Being honest when needs pull against each other is the caveat we all need to be immovable with. Sometimes a teacher has to choose & that's the job, not a failure. Won't fix the system but it's the bit that's ours. The rest needs funding & training that isn't in our remit, sadly.

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

3/4 What feels possible is making the everyday default work for more children. Predictable routines, fewer pointless transitions, calmer spaces, clear scaffolds, staff who understand why a child's struggling. Most of that is knowledge & consistency more than money...

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

2/4 I think the bit that frustrates me is the ideal we measure ourselves against. Every child, fully adapted, every opportunity. It's not achievable & chasing it wears good people down. But that doesn't mean nothing's possible.

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

1/4 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.

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Oh yes, Isabelle. That's an important distinction. I don't want label to be gateway to help, but that's absolutely different from saying it doesn't matter & hope you know that! For a child who has worked twice as hard to keep up, being understood, & understanding themselves, is its own help.

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

True. Cost of unmet need is real & don't want to minimise that. It falls hard on families. PSC & ongoing reading assessment theoretically are that screen. Acting on that fast, without waiting for a label, is the win. Tricky not to make the label the gateway to help. And funding...

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Funding largely follows identification, not need. Screen everyone and demand for assessment and top-up would surge into high-needs budgets already in deficit. Without new money, it's the same pot cut thinner. More chn named, less for each, & schools' notional SEND budgets stretched...

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Most SEND isn't a condition you can screen for; it's the gap between what a child needs and what's on offer, and that shifts. A screen at 8 would label some, miss others and lengthen waits without adding provision. Better would be teachers who notice and a graduated response that acts fast.

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Reposted by Stuart Rowntree

Special Needs Jungle @spcialndsjungle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

On 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...

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Having trauma-informed training a few years back was a moment of change for me. It has really helped me think on my feet and have a much deeper toolkit when reaching out to pupils, parents and even colleagues.

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I think that's the heart of it. We've made school the filter for every need and the lens for how childhood is going. For most children that can be held, but for those who don't feel safe there, it means being unseen and unsupported. Society's lack of third spaces is something for us all to ponder.

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The flex is often smaller groups, adjusted timings, adults deployed by need. Obviously, none of that comes from a course. But it costs, and schools funding it themselves are making a choice that accountability rarely recognises. That's what's consistently challenging now...

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Which suggests "more CPD" is sometimes a request for something else such as time, a colleague to plan with or permission to do less of something... If we answer a capacity problem with a knowledge solution, we add to the load we were meant to ease and that's really squeezing the system lately.

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Doubt 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...

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I think the values shift has to be visible in what leaders change, not just what they say. If inclusion means every teacher overhauling every lesson, it won't hold. Change the defaults once in routines, environment, shared resources, behaviour norms, etc. Then every lesson inherits it...

Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Agreed. The useful question for each support is "what is this for?" If it's helping a child learn something, plan to fade it. If it's giving them access, it absolutely stays, and removing it isn't independence, it's a barrier. Naming which is which would help pupils, teachers & families alike.

Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

4/4 In schools serving communities with high need, there's a quiet risk of confusing kindness with lowering the bar. The children who rely most on school for books, vocabulary and experiences are the ones who can least afford us to do that, but challenge must be graduated.

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

3/4 Behaviour policies often focus on what happens after something goes wrong. I wonder how much is really decided earlier, in the greeting at the door, the predictability of the routine and whether a child believes tomorrow really is...a fresh start.

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

2/4 I've been thinking about scaffolding. We're good at putting it up. I'm less sure we're always as deliberate about taking it down. If support stays in place too long, does it quietly become a ceiling rather than a step?

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

1/4 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.

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Sounds like we teach in a very similar way, Mark.

Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Thanks, Jonny. And apologies - that's something I'll ensure I do in the future.

Saganism @sagan.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Reposted by Stuart Rowntree

“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

A black and white portrait of Jacob Bronowski wearing round glasses, a suit, and a patterned tie, holding an open copy of his book, The Ascent of Man.

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

3/3 The trade-off is real: childcare, support-staff contracts, SEND transitions, safeguarding, assessment windows, transport, funding. But those are system-design problems, not reasons to preserve a calendar built for a different era. Fewer long slogs. Better recovery. Better-trained staff.

Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

2/3 The key is that this cannot mean “more school” by stealth. Keep roughly the same academic load, use the extra capacity for enrichment, participation, sport, practical learning etc, and protect PPA + CPD properly. Training has to become infrastructure, not goodwill.

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

1/3 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?

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

No. I can see the carpet in this image.

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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

And gaudy plastic items that are flagrantly discarded with reckless abandon...