Both the Guardian and the TES have recently published articles that included the statistic that 57% of teachers believe that SEN in schools is being misdiagnosed. Even worse, the articles then went on to reveal that “nearly two-thirds (64%) thought that some parents who have a child with a learning issue that could be addressed… Read More
Last night, I slept soundly. I was not up late into the night, marking essays, setting three different types of targets. I did not toss and turn, fretting about the parent I should have phoned, the spreadsheets I should have filled in. I had no meetings to go over, no deadlines coming up. There are… Read More
Before you were mine, little ones, I painted my nails. I chose exotic colours – blue chrome and hot pink, sparkles and crackle and base coat and top coats, French polish and high gloss. My hands shone like peacocks, ready to show off to the world. But now my nails are short and unadorned, ragged… Read More
In just under a year, you will go to school. Three hundred and fifty-eight days. Eight thousand, five hundred and ninety-two hours. But right now you are huddled on my lap, legs horizontal across mine, head buried in my chest. I can see a drop of wetness glistening on your collarbone, catching the morning light.… Read More
I feel like I am standing on a precipice. This is one of those watershed moments, one of those times when the whole texture of your life changes; the world is not the same today as it was yesterday, as it was few days ago. Something has fundamentally altered. The air tastes strange. The sun… Read More
I was a teacher for over twelve years before my son was diagnosed with autism. Before he was born, I had taught countless pupils on the autistic spectrum, but it was not until my son’s diagnosis that I was able to fully appreciate the gaps in my knowledge. I hope the tips I am going… Read More
Dear Teaching, We’ve been together such a long time; I hardly know where I end and you begin. My body beats to the rhythm of terms and bells – the long, cold slog to the end of the winter and the inevitable Christmas cold, the summer term that should be easier, but somehow never is,… Read More
You think you’re grown-up. The hastily wiped-off lip gloss and false eyelashes that I confiscated before assembly beg the world to see it – but you’re not quite there. I can see the pudgy toddler cheeks hiding beneath the look of slight disdain. In place of perfectly arranged ‘scruffy’ buns, I can see where, once,… Read More
An academy is a state-funded school which is independent from local authority. They are run by academy trusts and have several ‘freedoms’ that non-academy schools do not. They have the ability to buy in services privately that were previously provided, and overseen, by the local authority. They are responsible for their own term times and,… Read More
I recently returned to my profession of twelve years after my second period of maternity leave: English teaching. I am the mother of two tiny people, a girl, aged one and a boy, aged three. Parenthood is a job that requires us to give up almost all of our time and energy for the well-being… Read More
Half-term Revel in the sudden silence of peach-pink skies. Swim, hazy-eyed, through the vibrant globes of water-coloured evenings. Curl around the fluent curve of shoulder-blades, And drift in the warm, buzzing hollow of lavish sleep. Wine-soaked nights brim with the clinking of expectant glasses. The glowing piano spills out its sound in pools of… Read More
I am sorry. I am a good human being – a good teacher, I think. I listen, I learn, I strive to be better. I know it is a great responsibility to shape young minds, young opinions. I thought I knew what it means to teach a pupil with autism. But experience has given me something… Read More