Whenever someone writes to schools, asking for attention to a new request, they do acknowledge that it’s probably a ‘busy time of year’. How true this is; at any time of year, though.

As we worked towards a day of activities for all our Year 5 pupils based on the festival of Eid, we had our concerns. We wanted to be sincere, for the activities to be meaningful and to avoid even a hint of condescension.

Possibly the least sexy title for any blog post I have ever written; I hope it has still brought in some readers. Some think there is a conflict between encouraging a love of writing and trying to create a classroom of 'greater depth' writers; do they have to be mutually exclusive?

As we approach May Day, the internationally recognised day for celebrating the victory won by the ‘honest, decent, working family’ to a limit of an eight hour working day, I am still musing on the possibilities of proposals, suggestions and policy statements to increase the length of the school day.

Children do falsely portray some things to their parents – they describe their perceptions rather than the forensic truth, perhaps. I have known children tell their parents, and their parents question me, on why assembly is ‘always Christian’. The answer, were the assertion to be true, would be;

So; longer is better, automatically? You might remember a TV series, ‘Never mind the quality, feel the width’, the name suggesting volume is better than standard. But, just because it is easy to count something, is something longer necessarily better? Is it true, I ask, for sausages?

In the first education white paper for six years, you might expect something big, new and possibly even revolutionary. What we seem to have is more on academisation and a reinstatement of a minimum school week. We are bound to ask what either will guarantee for children in our school, and what these…

When the margin is so fine, a small variation in either income of expenditure can make a disproportionate difference. We have been continually prudent in budget planning and spending, and sometimes run very close to the surplus / deficit line, but it leaves us little margin each year.

It might just be never too early to start planning. Some people buy all their Christmas presents by the end of October. Some have next year’s holidays booked. Some have picked the name of their future babies. In schools, we start planning and preparing for next year nice and early, too.

We need a ‘Cillit Bang!’ that works on boys’ writing. Looking back over the last 6 years we have all the statistical evidence we need to see a recurring gap between girls’ and boys’ attainment and progress in writing. Why is it so resistant to change?