Jack Deasley
@jldeasley.bsky.social
22. He/him. PhD in 20th century British education history at UCL. Wycombe Wanderers enthusiast.
My favourite afternoon watching Wycombe in some time, and a real statement of intent as we go into the last few months of a turbulent season. Some thoughts...
open.substack.com/pub/jackdeas...
open.substack.com/pub/jackdeas...
Player Ratings: Wycombe 4-0 Doncaster
Homecoming hero Aaron Morley scores on his second debut as Wycombe cruise past a hapless Doncaster at Adams Park
open.substack.com
February 11, 2026 at 1:12 PM
My favourite afternoon watching Wycombe in some time, and a real statement of intent as we go into the last few months of a turbulent season. Some thoughts...
open.substack.com/pub/jackdeas...
open.substack.com/pub/jackdeas...
Utter privilege and honour to be on the mic at Wycombe on Saturday. I spent a good ten years often having to listen on the radio from Lincolnshire, so it’s an amazing feeling to be on the other end of it. Thanks so much to Matt Cecil and Luke Ashmead for making it happen.
youtu.be/Rimqw8UZZc8?...
youtu.be/Rimqw8UZZc8?...
Matchday Rewind: Wycombe Wanderers vs Doncaster Rovers
YouTube video by Wycombe Wanderers
youtu.be
February 10, 2026 at 6:51 PM
Utter privilege and honour to be on the mic at Wycombe on Saturday. I spent a good ten years often having to listen on the radio from Lincolnshire, so it’s an amazing feeling to be on the other end of it. Thanks so much to Matt Cecil and Luke Ashmead for making it happen.
youtu.be/Rimqw8UZZc8?...
youtu.be/Rimqw8UZZc8?...
Reposted by Jack Deasley
Please do share this doctoral opportunity with MA/MSt students - four years of AHRC funding to work on the history of children's play in Wales, supervised by me and the lovely and brilliant Dr Jacky Tyrie. Any questions get in touch! www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate...
History: Serious about Play: Childhood, Play and Policymaking in Wales, 1945 to the present (RS936) - Swansea University
We offer a wide range of funded and fully funded research scholarships in all subject areas. Explore your options and apply now.
www.swansea.ac.uk
February 9, 2026 at 12:46 PM
Please do share this doctoral opportunity with MA/MSt students - four years of AHRC funding to work on the history of children's play in Wales, supervised by me and the lovely and brilliant Dr Jacky Tyrie. Any questions get in touch! www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate...
This should be good! A niche angle on private schools moving into the state sector. Always an interesting discussion with PEPF and the report has been written by some great people, so I’m excited to read it
We're launching a report we're excited about - on the experiences of English private schools that converted to academies!
Come and join the panel chat and audience Q & A in Westminster, Thursday 26 Feb, 6pm onwards...🧵
www.eventbrite.com/e/state-expe...
Come and join the panel chat and audience Q & A in Westminster, Thursday 26 Feb, 6pm onwards...🧵
www.eventbrite.com/e/state-expe...
State Expectations: The independent schools which switched sectors
A panel and audience Q&A discuss the history and experiences of English private schools that converted to academies and free schools.
www.eventbrite.com
February 10, 2026 at 3:18 PM
This should be good! A niche angle on private schools moving into the state sector. Always an interesting discussion with PEPF and the report has been written by some great people, so I’m excited to read it
It may have been a 0-0 on Saturday, but waxing lyrical about Aaron Morley’s return was incredibly fun. Also shoutout to my younger brother, who is stitching together a little unbeaten run in the games he’s joined me for.
open.substack.com/pub/jackdeas...
open.substack.com/pub/jackdeas...
AZZA'S BACK! Mansfield 0-0 Wycombe
A big week for Wycombe didn't end with its fairytale potential, but it was a solid point on the road against the in-form Stags
open.substack.com
February 3, 2026 at 5:05 PM
It may have been a 0-0 on Saturday, but waxing lyrical about Aaron Morley’s return was incredibly fun. Also shoutout to my younger brother, who is stitching together a little unbeaten run in the games he’s joined me for.
open.substack.com/pub/jackdeas...
open.substack.com/pub/jackdeas...
A much happier read today after Wycombe's win over Wigan last night. Hopefully this offers a measured yet positive reaction going into the end of January...
open.substack.com/pub/jackdeas...
open.substack.com/pub/jackdeas...
Player Ratings: Wycombe 2-0 Wigan Athletic
Wycombe return to winning ways after cruising past lowly Wigan; their first midweek win at Adams Park since March last year.
open.substack.com
January 28, 2026 at 2:23 PM
A much happier read today after Wycombe's win over Wigan last night. Hopefully this offers a measured yet positive reaction going into the end of January...
open.substack.com/pub/jackdeas...
open.substack.com/pub/jackdeas...
If anyone fancies some pre-Wigan reading, here are my thoughts on Saturday afternoon's game at AP. Will try to keep it up as a way of adding more Wycombe content to BlueSky...
open.substack.com/pub/jackdeas...
open.substack.com/pub/jackdeas...
Player Ratings: Wycombe 0-2 Peterborough
The Chairboys tasted defeat for the first time since Boxing Day at the hands of a clinical Peterborough.
open.substack.com
January 27, 2026 at 5:13 PM
If anyone fancies some pre-Wigan reading, here are my thoughts on Saturday afternoon's game at AP. Will try to keep it up as a way of adding more Wycombe content to BlueSky...
open.substack.com/pub/jackdeas...
open.substack.com/pub/jackdeas...
Comprehensive Future on BlueSky!
We’re new on Bluesky after years on X. If you’re a UK educator, parent, or researcher interested in fair admissions, we’d love to follow you — replies welcome.
January 27, 2026 at 5:07 PM
Comprehensive Future on BlueSky!
With view to the minimal Wycombe content on BlueSky, and my boundless love for Fred Onyedinma, here are some thoughts on a first away win since October for the Chairboys:
jackdeasley.substack.com/p/player-rat...
jackdeasley.substack.com/p/player-rat...
Player Ratings: Northampton 1-2 Wycombe
Wycombe make it two wins from two in League One with just their second win on the road this season; a first since October.
jackdeasley.substack.com
January 19, 2026 at 5:55 PM
With view to the minimal Wycombe content on BlueSky, and my boundless love for Fred Onyedinma, here are some thoughts on a first away win since October for the Chairboys:
jackdeasley.substack.com/p/player-rat...
jackdeasley.substack.com/p/player-rat...
This from Gab Sutton! Can't help but feel that there was an elephant in the room when mainstream media outlets reported on Macc's win over Palace. They all ignored the failures of the EFL, Premier League, and structure of football finances that mean they're in non-league in the first place.
January 15, 2026 at 4:00 PM
This from Gab Sutton! Can't help but feel that there was an elephant in the room when mainstream media outlets reported on Macc's win over Palace. They all ignored the failures of the EFL, Premier League, and structure of football finances that mean they're in non-league in the first place.
Well worth a read. And when we're talking about reforms, answers are so tough in part because, as John says, 'spending cuts usually end up making things much more expensive'
With impeccable timing, the Maybe I'm Amazed Substack is back, and it's free maybeimamazed.substack.com/p/and-so-it-...
And so it begins: 2026 will be the year of a huge Special Needs battle, and this is why
Amid briefings, whispers and rumours, off we go: in an increasingly toxic atmosphere, basic educational rights look set to be one of this year's biggest issues
maybeimamazed.substack.com
January 3, 2026 at 11:44 AM
Well worth a read. And when we're talking about reforms, answers are so tough in part because, as John says, 'spending cuts usually end up making things much more expensive'
Great report about Lincs. The message from this has to be that people are hurt from a lack of investment in infrastructure & opportunity and an absence of understanding or care from Westminster. There's no poverty of identity or ambition - we've just been forgotten.
novaramedia.com/2025/07/26/f...
novaramedia.com/2025/07/26/f...
Farage’s Heartland: the County Turning Against Westminster | Novara Media
Novara Media’s Harriet Williamson travelled across Lincolnshire to find out why her home county has become a Reform heartland – and whether its people are being overlooked by media and Westminster eli...
novaramedia.com
December 30, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Great report about Lincs. The message from this has to be that people are hurt from a lack of investment in infrastructure & opportunity and an absence of understanding or care from Westminster. There's no poverty of identity or ambition - we've just been forgotten.
novaramedia.com/2025/07/26/f...
novaramedia.com/2025/07/26/f...
He's right: London is unfairly scapegoated by exploitative far-right politicians. But I can't help but feel like talking about its state as a business/financial centre etc. in this way obscures the extent of and reasons for regional inequality that gives populism so much of its traction
Populists attack London because it is ‘progressive and successful’, says Khan ft.trib.al/nTni2DD
Populists attack London because it is ‘progressive and successful’, says Khan
Rightwing attacks on one of the world’s most visited cities at odds with reality, says mayor
ft.trib.al
December 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM
He's right: London is unfairly scapegoated by exploitative far-right politicians. But I can't help but feel like talking about its state as a business/financial centre etc. in this way obscures the extent of and reasons for regional inequality that gives populism so much of its traction
Reposted by Jack Deasley
Interestingly, even The Times can't provide an explanation in this piece of why trail hunting 'addresses the countryside's needs' and nor does it deny what trail hunting's opponents claim: that the practice is often a cover for illegal fox hunting.
'A ban on trail hunting would not address the countryside’s needs. The proposed changes to safeguard animal welfare are welcome but most are performative and unenforceable' | ✍️ The Times View
A ban on trail hunting would not address the countryside’s needs
The proposed changes to safeguard animal welfare are welcome but most are performative and unenforceable
www.thetimes.com
December 23, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Interestingly, even The Times can't provide an explanation in this piece of why trail hunting 'addresses the countryside's needs' and nor does it deny what trail hunting's opponents claim: that the practice is often a cover for illegal fox hunting.
Reposted by Jack Deasley
NEW report from @nehaldavison.bsky.social and I.
Why have successive governments failed to tackle persistent inequalities in early years outcomes?
We set out 5 systemic policy making failures that lead to some children being 'left behind'.
🧵⬇️
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
Why have successive governments failed to tackle persistent inequalities in early years outcomes?
We set out 5 systemic policy making failures that lead to some children being 'left behind'.
🧵⬇️
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
Policy making blind spots | Institute for Government
The systemic policy-making failures that have contributed to a sharp ‘cliff-edge’ in attainment levels.
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk
December 17, 2025 at 11:19 AM
NEW report from @nehaldavison.bsky.social and I.
Why have successive governments failed to tackle persistent inequalities in early years outcomes?
We set out 5 systemic policy making failures that lead to some children being 'left behind'.
🧵⬇️
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
Why have successive governments failed to tackle persistent inequalities in early years outcomes?
We set out 5 systemic policy making failures that lead to some children being 'left behind'.
🧵⬇️
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...
Scandalous. As in the report, 'academic excellence that traumatises some pupils is not true excellence'
Parents' calls unanswered; children self-harming due to academic pressure; SEND and ethnic minority pupils singled out.
'No excuses' culture has lots to answer for
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Parents' calls unanswered; children self-harming due to academic pressure; SEND and ethnic minority pupils singled out.
'No excuses' culture has lots to answer for
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Mossbourne's Hackney school 'harmful' to some pupils, review finds
Review finds Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy's policies are
www.bbc.co.uk
December 10, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Scandalous. As in the report, 'academic excellence that traumatises some pupils is not true excellence'
Parents' calls unanswered; children self-harming due to academic pressure; SEND and ethnic minority pupils singled out.
'No excuses' culture has lots to answer for
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Parents' calls unanswered; children self-harming due to academic pressure; SEND and ethnic minority pupils singled out.
'No excuses' culture has lots to answer for
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Good to chat with @cherrycasey.bsky.social for this article. It's worth shouting about how a grammar school is now becoming the first ever state school to open up an affiliated fee-paying school abroad - and their intention to open more!
cherrycasey.substack.com/p/should-gra...
cherrycasey.substack.com/p/should-gra...
Should grammar schools be abolished?
Would it be an attack on working-class aspirations, given that not many working-class kids actually go there?
cherrycasey.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Good to chat with @cherrycasey.bsky.social for this article. It's worth shouting about how a grammar school is now becoming the first ever state school to open up an affiliated fee-paying school abroad - and their intention to open more!
cherrycasey.substack.com/p/should-gra...
cherrycasey.substack.com/p/should-gra...
“They are too easy to be gamed,” he said, adding that the way they had to be taught to get children through the 11+ meant they had become “educationally counter-productive”, and that they were “producing exam bots with no genuine love of learning”
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Training for the 11-plus may be making your child less intelligent, experts warn
Selective tests in their current form produce ‘exam bots with no genuine love of learning’
www.independent.co.uk
December 8, 2025 at 2:26 PM
“They are too easy to be gamed,” he said, adding that the way they had to be taught to get children through the 11+ meant they had become “educationally counter-productive”, and that they were “producing exam bots with no genuine love of learning”
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...
Reposted by Jack Deasley
"Given that the UK needs more graduates with languages qualifications, the task of universities is not to accelerate the decline of language learning but to find ways to bolster their student intakes."
The universities of Nottingham and Leicester are taking a swing at language departments. But those proposing closures have taken their eye off the ball, say four linguists
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/latest-threat-uk-modern-languages-yet-another-faux-pas
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/latest-threat-uk-modern-languages-yet-another-faux-pas
November 14, 2025 at 9:58 AM
"Given that the UK needs more graduates with languages qualifications, the task of universities is not to accelerate the decline of language learning but to find ways to bolster their student intakes."
Reposted by Jack Deasley
The University of Nottingham has announced the suspension of all Modern Languages and Cultures (MLC) programmes from September 2026.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
November 7, 2025 at 5:42 PM
The University of Nottingham has announced the suspension of all Modern Languages and Cultures (MLC) programmes from September 2026.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
An overdone & ineffective policy to re-engage disaffected young people. Children will now do compulsory tests in 7/14 years of their schooling. The exam-ification of our schools doesn't get us anywhere; tackling the root of why these young people are disillusioned does
www.gov.uk/government/n...
www.gov.uk/government/n...
Focus on reading in secondary years to drive up standards
Education Secretary confirms all pupils will sit a mandatory reading test at age 13 to drive up reading standards.
www.gov.uk
October 17, 2025 at 5:11 PM
An overdone & ineffective policy to re-engage disaffected young people. Children will now do compulsory tests in 7/14 years of their schooling. The exam-ification of our schools doesn't get us anywhere; tackling the root of why these young people are disillusioned does
www.gov.uk/government/n...
www.gov.uk/government/n...
Reposted by Jack Deasley
This week, the Society's President Lucy Noakes wrote in response to Bridget Phillipson's Labour conference speech - and its implications for history and the humanities in UK higher education bit.ly/3KBX7Fw
#Skystorians
#Skystorians
October 4, 2025 at 2:37 PM
This week, the Society's President Lucy Noakes wrote in response to Bridget Phillipson's Labour conference speech - and its implications for history and the humanities in UK higher education bit.ly/3KBX7Fw
#Skystorians
#Skystorians
Lower league football clubs are failed by the system. We need far better regulation of who takes over clubs and how wealth is distributed across the game; otherwise, the heartbeats of local communities and cornerstones of people’s lives will continue to die.
Morecambe FC run out of cash today.
And even now, staff who aren’t even getting paid are making sure everyone is looked after.
Reporting here for Sky Sports News - and by the way, the spread here is better than we get at loads of bigger clubs higher up the food chain.
And even now, staff who aren’t even getting paid are making sure everyone is looked after.
Reporting here for Sky Sports News - and by the way, the spread here is better than we get at loads of bigger clubs higher up the food chain.
August 5, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Lower league football clubs are failed by the system. We need far better regulation of who takes over clubs and how wealth is distributed across the game; otherwise, the heartbeats of local communities and cornerstones of people’s lives will continue to die.
Reposted by Jack Deasley
This is a disaster not merely for Morecambe but for the whole of football. Yet another club brought to the brink by an entirely unsuitable owner acting without any regulatory constraints.
July 1, 2025 at 8:30 PM
This is a disaster not merely for Morecambe but for the whole of football. Yet another club brought to the brink by an entirely unsuitable owner acting without any regulatory constraints.
Reposted by Jack Deasley
Do you have a fabulous MA student who is interested in the 1990s? Send this fully-funded 4 year AHRC doctoral studentship their way. They'll get to work with me (yay?) and the fabulous @jessamycarlson.bsky.social (yay!) www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate...
History: Fully Funded PhD Studentship in Early education, education, education: childcare in the policy and imagination of New Labour’s England, 1994-2003 (RS852) - Swansea UniversityMenu
We offer a wide range of funded and fully funded research scholarships in all subject areas. Explore your options and apply now.
www.swansea.ac.uk
June 23, 2025 at 12:55 PM
Do you have a fabulous MA student who is interested in the 1990s? Send this fully-funded 4 year AHRC doctoral studentship their way. They'll get to work with me (yay?) and the fabulous @jessamycarlson.bsky.social (yay!) www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate...