• #RunningInSquares 11th Jan – 24km & 16⊞

    This was an epic run in the snow. Total change of route mid way through as we were making incredibly slow progress in knee deep powdery snow. Gave us immense respect for all those starting the Spine Race this weekend. Speaking of which, if you haven’t been watching dots already this weekend then here are…

  • #RunningInSquares 5th Jan – 11km, 9⊞, 1⛰️ & 2📍

    I love running in snow. It’s a hell of a workout. Didn’t go far today, ran the length of the hill behind our house, but I was the first idiot covering most of it so was running in 1-3 ft of undisturbed snow for much of it. Distance: 11km. New squares: 9. New peaks: 1….

  • #RunningInSquares 3rd Jan – 13km, 5⊞, 1⛰️ & 1📍

    Snow and ice, a first trig point, and a bump to the head! Distance: 13km. New squares: 5. New peaks: 1. New trig points: 1. SD9807 takes in the Saddleworth village of Delph. I almost always take the footpath along the river, rather than the high street. It’s quiet and another nice bit of industrial…

  • #RunningInSquares 2nd Jan – 13km, 9⊞ & 2⛰️

    A beautiful January day to start ticking off squares & peaks. Glad I didn’t go out yesterday with fairly significant flooding in the local area. Distance: 13km. New squares: 9. New peaks: 2. First up was my home square of SD9905. The local playing fields were looking picturesque in the morning sun & frost. The…

  • 2025 – Running in Squares

    I’m 45, √2025=45, time for a 2025 square based running challenge! I’ve ordered a custom OS Map centred on my village. 20km² = 400 map squares to visit. I’m going to attempt to visit them all. On foot. From my front door. Inspiration via @MElcoate. I’m planning on taking a photo (square of course) in…

  • Teacher Strikes – Explaining Union Apathy (IMHO)

    Looking back on my near 20 years of paying union subs and working with unions in leadership I can think of a few reasons for apparent apathy in the teacher strikes voting.

  • How To Get Started With Mastodon – Educator Edition

    So you’ve decided it’s time to get started with Mastodon but don’t know where to begin? Whether you’re dipping your toe into the ‘fediverse’ or leaving Twitter behind forever, this is a quick guide from my experience of leaving edutwitter and re-finding some joy in social media.

  • Secondary Accountability Measures 2022

    Originally posted as a LinkedIn article, this looks at the publication of the 2022 Secondary accountability measures. The first such results published for 3 years.

  • The School Funding Crunch (Data Trends)

    This post was written as part of my day job for Community Brands / Assembly: https://assembly.education/school-funding-crunch/ Introduction Balancing academy and MAT budgets has never been more challenging than it is now. This month’s Data Trends looks at the factors affecting budgets, and what MAT leaders can do in the world of data, curriculum & IT. …

  • 2022 GCSE Exam Results (Data Trends)

    This post was written as part of my day job for Community Brands / Assembly: https://assembly.education/exam-results-2022/. Introduction  Last week saw GCSE/BTEC results published to join the A-Level results. Today’s news summary rounds up links to in-depth analysis from around the sector.  A-Levels Recap  The CAGs and TAGs process through 2020 and 2021 saw huge grade inflation…

  • How to Analyse Your School Exam Results (Data Trends)

    Originally published for Assembly Data Trends series: https://assembly.education/how-to-analyse-exam-results/ It’s been three whole years since we’ve had exam results in England, and what three years it has been! This issue of Data Trends provides 7 top tips on how to analyse and report on your school or MAT exam results this Summer, from our former Vice…

  • A-Level Results 2022 – Regional Analysis

    Originally posted as an article on LinkedIn this post analyses the first release of A-Level results in August 2022, with some evidence of Covid related differences.