Thanks. Will listen to it tonight.

What show?

Also, bugger off? It I post a pic, it’s what I want to show.

God I really struggle with that film.

I wouldn’t hate this so much if it was actually stylish.

Hmm. Was thinking about this as I passed the British Royal Legion tent in MH just there. I love the idea of the poppy, a symbol of solemn remembrance, subtle in presentation. I don’t wear them, as I really can’t where I’m from. But the idea, wonderful. But they’ve been corrupted a long time now.

Cutting the thread to include @stephenkb.bsky.social point about teachers. Most, thankfully, are committed, highly motivated, generous with time and near experts in their subjects. A minority, aren’t. Doesn’t matter why. The problem is with teacher shortages, it’s harder to get rid of the bad apples

I can take it and I’ll weather it, as it’s my choice. But also, I’m mid 30s now and know the value I bring to the job. I’m just arrogant enough to realise that. So few 22 year olds can feel like that without the support that I make up for with more experience.

Which brings us back to capacity and choice. I’m pretty good at my job. At times I’m honestly fantastic. The students know they can talk to me or send me any work and I’ll take time to get to it. But I’m also completing an intense course to make myself consistently excellent, and that’s crushing me.

…need to have an equal if not greater passion to support and help the students themselves.

Which also feeds into how so many teachers are not great, for obvious reasons, at the beginning of the career, and not being supported to make exceptional teachers after the first year. Which then ties into how too many come as purely lovers of their subjects, without realising they…

And the issue is a lack of incentive to improve, combined with idiotic SLT (not mine, or my last school, some of ghr very best people I’ve worked for), creating an environment where so many leave due to feeling like crap, as they’re not helped enough, and solutions only come as more work.

That part is useful when linking it to possible migration patterns in the future, thereby linking it to history and maths by doing statistical analysis of former migrations. But I got to teach that to a year 10 class as I made it up on the spot for a cover as the work left was a third repeat.

bsky.app/profile/step... this is the other point. Why teacher retention, more than recruitment, is so vital. You want to keep the excellent teachers, create a surplus, and then kick the bad ones out. The issue for a lot of schools is desperation at a lack of bodies, meaning more bad being kept.