The Blog’s Sweet 16th

Every year, I seem to start out resolving to write more, and then, as my actual job of teaching becomes more and more exhausting, I tend to lose the habit. This year, after a good start, the blogging became intermittent after Easter and in danger of disappearing until the next new year’s resolution. But it’s worth one more effort to get back in the habit before then.

In particular, I will not leave it any longer to mark the anniversary of my blog which, at one site or another, has now existed for sixteen years.

In my sixteenth year of blogging, I wrote about the following:

 

The Previous 15 Years Of Blogging

• 15 Years (and more) of Blogging

 

Exclusions

• The truth about exclusions and suspensions
• Chasing Up Another Fake Statistic About Exclusions
• A new report on exclusions
• How misleading was The Economist’s video that discussed school exclusions?
• Do permanent exclusions cost £370k per excluded pupil?
• Are exclusion rates for black Caribbean students up to six times higher?
• New Exclusion Figures
• Why Do Some Ethnic Groups Have Higher Exclusion Rates? Part 1
• Why Do Some Ethnic Groups Have Higher Exclusion Rates? Part 2
• What do children get permanently excluded for?

 

Behaviour

• Are conduct cards a form of child abuse?
• “Just Give Them A Pen”

 

Education Policy

• How should policy-makers approach improving the education system?
• Why the SEND system does not work

 

Crime and Education

• Did Glasgow cut youth crime by ending suspensions and expulsions? Part 1
• Did Glasgow cut youth crime by ending suspensions and expulsions? Part 2
• Did Glasgow cut youth crime by ending suspensions and expulsions? Part 3
• A Report on Education and Offending
• Does it matter that there are a lot of young criminals?
• Does being expelled or suspended turn you into a criminal?
• The Commission on Young Lives report and young people in custody

 

Exam Results

• A Tale of Three Schools

 

I also reviewed the following books:

• Measuring Up by Daniel Koretz
• Authority, Responsibility and Power by R.S. Peters
• ASBO Teacher by Samuel Elliott
• What The Academy Taught Us by Eric Kalenze
• The Quick Fix by Jesse Singal

It’s been a bit of a turbulent year for education policy, with what must be a record for changes in education secretary. I had intended to write posts about a number of things that were out of date before I got round to writing them. At one point, an old teaching colleague of mine was schools minister, but he was gone before I had written about him. Things seem a bit more stable now, so hopefully this will give teachers a bit more time and space to respond to developments that affect them.

Thanks to Gwen for all her help and support with the blog. Thanks to everyone who reads, responds and shares blogposts.

Hopefully it won’t be long before I post again.