Phil Perry
@theviolethour.bsky.social
Head of English // NPQLT/LL // ECT Mentor // “Only in silence the word, only in dark the light, only in dying life: bright the hawk's flight on the empty sky.”
Reposted by Phil Perry
💡 NEW BLOG💡
‘The glamour of vocabulary teaching’
Did you know that ‘glamour’ and ‘grammar’ have the same roots? There is a magic in words that it is vital pupils learn.
alexquigley.co.uk/the-glamour-...
‘The glamour of vocabulary teaching’
Did you know that ‘glamour’ and ‘grammar’ have the same roots? There is a magic in words that it is vital pupils learn.
alexquigley.co.uk/the-glamour-...
The glamour of vocabulary teaching
The start of a new school year has a familiar magic to it. New classes, new exercise books, and shiny new resolutions. It is the natural moment to try small, deliberate improvements to teaching that c...
alexquigley.co.uk
September 5, 2026 at 8:18 AM
💡 NEW BLOG💡
‘The glamour of vocabulary teaching’
Did you know that ‘glamour’ and ‘grammar’ have the same roots? There is a magic in words that it is vital pupils learn.
alexquigley.co.uk/the-glamour-...
‘The glamour of vocabulary teaching’
Did you know that ‘glamour’ and ‘grammar’ have the same roots? There is a magic in words that it is vital pupils learn.
alexquigley.co.uk/the-glamour-...
Reposted by Phil Perry
Reposted by Phil Perry
1/6 Regional gaps matter. London is the real outlier. The South isn’t uniformly better. The more useful question is what conditions make equivalent educational success harder to secure in some places than others.
🚨 NEW: There’s been no progress in addressing regional imbalances in GCSE attainment, with the gap between London and the rest of the country continuing to grow.
Our analysis of today’s results finds that regional gaps in both top grades and passes are largely unchanged 🧵⬇️
Our analysis of today’s results finds that regional gaps in both top grades and passes are largely unchanged 🧵⬇️
August 20, 2026 at 11:02 AM
1/6 Regional gaps matter. London is the real outlier. The South isn’t uniformly better. The more useful question is what conditions make equivalent educational success harder to secure in some places than others.
Reposted by Phil Perry
🚨 NEW: There’s been no progress in addressing regional imbalances in GCSE attainment, with the gap between London and the rest of the country continuing to grow.
Our analysis of today’s results finds that regional gaps in both top grades and passes are largely unchanged 🧵⬇️
Our analysis of today’s results finds that regional gaps in both top grades and passes are largely unchanged 🧵⬇️
August 20, 2026 at 10:14 AM
🚨 NEW: There’s been no progress in addressing regional imbalances in GCSE attainment, with the gap between London and the rest of the country continuing to grow.
Our analysis of today’s results finds that regional gaps in both top grades and passes are largely unchanged 🧵⬇️
Our analysis of today’s results finds that regional gaps in both top grades and passes are largely unchanged 🧵⬇️
Reposted by Phil Perry
It’s set to be a gorgeous evening to spend in nature.
But with recent wildfires affecting parts of the UK, please leave the BBQs at home and help keep wildlife and wild places safe while enjoying the spectacle.
But with recent wildfires affecting parts of the UK, please leave the BBQs at home and help keep wildlife and wild places safe while enjoying the spectacle.
August 12, 2026 at 10:01 AM
It’s set to be a gorgeous evening to spend in nature.
But with recent wildfires affecting parts of the UK, please leave the BBQs at home and help keep wildlife and wild places safe while enjoying the spectacle.
But with recent wildfires affecting parts of the UK, please leave the BBQs at home and help keep wildlife and wild places safe while enjoying the spectacle.
Reposted by Phil Perry
BBC News leads, rightly, with the drought. The tone is serious, the content detailed. But no mention of man-made climate change let alone climate emergency (have to wait for explainer afterwards). No mention of 20% of clean water supply lost by disastrous privatised companies.
August 10, 2026 at 5:22 PM
BBC News leads, rightly, with the drought. The tone is serious, the content detailed. But no mention of man-made climate change let alone climate emergency (have to wait for explainer afterwards). No mention of 20% of clean water supply lost by disastrous privatised companies.
Reposted by Phil Perry
A reality check to the Government on the climate crisis.
Heatwaves this year estimated to have killed thousands of people.
The BBC didn't stream this emergency conference at all despite the urgency & their constant coverage of Reform - thank you to Sky.
www.youtube.com/live/QnygX67...
Heatwaves this year estimated to have killed thousands of people.
The BBC didn't stream this emergency conference at all despite the urgency & their constant coverage of Reform - thank you to Sky.
www.youtube.com/live/QnygX67...
Green leader Polanski delivers 'urgent message to Burnham'
YouTube video by Sky News
www.youtube.com
August 9, 2026 at 9:06 AM
A reality check to the Government on the climate crisis.
Heatwaves this year estimated to have killed thousands of people.
The BBC didn't stream this emergency conference at all despite the urgency & their constant coverage of Reform - thank you to Sky.
www.youtube.com/live/QnygX67...
Heatwaves this year estimated to have killed thousands of people.
The BBC didn't stream this emergency conference at all despite the urgency & their constant coverage of Reform - thank you to Sky.
www.youtube.com/live/QnygX67...
Reposted by Phil Perry
Literally, people are inaccurately described as ‘illegal’ by the people reading out the news, and there isn’t even a notion that anyone might push back on it. That’s institutional capture. Deep xenophobia taken as culturally neutral. It’s so dangerous.
August 8, 2026 at 9:49 AM
Literally, people are inaccurately described as ‘illegal’ by the people reading out the news, and there isn’t even a notion that anyone might push back on it. That’s institutional capture. Deep xenophobia taken as culturally neutral. It’s so dangerous.
Reposted by Phil Perry
Again @daisychristo.bsky.social is out here taking sense among some new madness! Bang on we haven't got the growth in the economy, no amount of tracking 'neet' kids at primary is going to help there.
The UK economy has problems. There's been barely any per capita GDP growth or real income growth in about 20 years.
Policymakers would be better off finding solutions for this than getting primary schools to make lists of children at risk of unemployment.
substack.nomoremarking.com/p/schools-ar...
Policymakers would be better off finding solutions for this than getting primary schools to make lists of children at risk of unemployment.
substack.nomoremarking.com/p/schools-ar...
Schools aren’t to blame for the NEET crisis
When learning more doesn’t help you earn more
substack.nomoremarking.com
August 8, 2026 at 10:19 AM
Again @daisychristo.bsky.social is out here taking sense among some new madness! Bang on we haven't got the growth in the economy, no amount of tracking 'neet' kids at primary is going to help there.
August 4, 2026 at 10:48 AM
Diagrams and literature always mix well!
Today is Venn Day, in celebration of the mathematician John Venn, born on this day in 1834. To commemorate the occasion, here’s a poem in the form of a Venn Diagram.
August 4, 2026 at 9:43 AM
Diagrams and literature always mix well!
Reposted by Phil Perry
*NEW* Episode 2 of Operation Education is here! We explore moving classes from ‘compliance’ to ‘buy-in’. We zoom into the nitty gritty, concrete actions teachers can try the next time they’re in the classroom. Let us know your thoughts: how do you get from compliance to buy-in?
July 23, 2026 at 5:58 PM
*NEW* Episode 2 of Operation Education is here! We explore moving classes from ‘compliance’ to ‘buy-in’. We zoom into the nitty gritty, concrete actions teachers can try the next time they’re in the classroom. Let us know your thoughts: how do you get from compliance to buy-in?
Reposted by Phil Perry
When I rented privately I spent every penny I had to keep a roof over my head, I ate less, never went out, saw friends less and had terrible mental health. While I paid a landlord's mortgage, said landlord has at least 5 properties locally despite a housing shortage. The bottom pays for the top
What's a really obvious policy that could save people millions of people money *and* save the government £2 billion a year?
July 23, 2026 at 10:19 AM
When I rented privately I spent every penny I had to keep a roof over my head, I ate less, never went out, saw friends less and had terrible mental health. While I paid a landlord's mortgage, said landlord has at least 5 properties locally despite a housing shortage. The bottom pays for the top
Reposted by Phil Perry
England have lost. Our focus always needs to be not on why that is but on domestic abuse.
July 15, 2026 at 9:49 PM
England have lost. Our focus always needs to be not on why that is but on domestic abuse.
Reposted by Phil Perry
‘…we need to achieve a minimum of 40% street tree canopy cover, and preferably more, before we start to really feel the benefits of nature’s most advanced air-conditioning technology.’
Me, for Big Issue, on tackling urban #heatwaves…👇
www.bigissue.com/opinion/heat...
Me, for Big Issue, on tackling urban #heatwaves…👇
www.bigissue.com/opinion/heat...
July 11, 2026 at 11:34 AM
‘…we need to achieve a minimum of 40% street tree canopy cover, and preferably more, before we start to really feel the benefits of nature’s most advanced air-conditioning technology.’
Me, for Big Issue, on tackling urban #heatwaves…👇
www.bigissue.com/opinion/heat...
Me, for Big Issue, on tackling urban #heatwaves…👇
www.bigissue.com/opinion/heat...
Reposted by Phil Perry
Lynda Barry did not squeeze your heart and simultaneously explain the point of all art with the barest of line drawings so you could tell me that AI is "inevitable."
June 25, 2026 at 1:57 AM
Lynda Barry did not squeeze your heart and simultaneously explain the point of all art with the barest of line drawings so you could tell me that AI is "inevitable."
Reposted by Phil Perry
"Boys were telling female members of staff to 'get back to where they belong'"
👉The manosphere’s influence is growing - can teachers fight back?
A difficult but important read from David Robson this morning.
www.tes.com/magazine/ana...
👉The manosphere’s influence is growing - can teachers fight back?
A difficult but important read from David Robson this morning.
www.tes.com/magazine/ana...
The manosphere’s influence is growing - can teachers fight back?
The rise of the ‘manosphere’, and its potential to incite aggressive behaviour, has become a national talking point. But what does research tell us about the scale of the problem and how schools shoul...
www.tes.com
June 3, 2026 at 6:29 AM
"Boys were telling female members of staff to 'get back to where they belong'"
👉The manosphere’s influence is growing - can teachers fight back?
A difficult but important read from David Robson this morning.
www.tes.com/magazine/ana...
👉The manosphere’s influence is growing - can teachers fight back?
A difficult but important read from David Robson this morning.
www.tes.com/magazine/ana...
Reposted by Phil Perry
Great, as always, from Young-Suk Grace Kim: Empowering Literacy Instruction:
Understanding and Applying
the Science of Reading–Writing
Connections 👇
www.thereadingleague.org/wp-content/u...
Understanding and Applying
the Science of Reading–Writing
Connections 👇
www.thereadingleague.org/wp-content/u...
www.thereadingleague.org
May 29, 2026 at 5:32 AM
Great, as always, from Young-Suk Grace Kim: Empowering Literacy Instruction:
Understanding and Applying
the Science of Reading–Writing
Connections 👇
www.thereadingleague.org/wp-content/u...
Understanding and Applying
the Science of Reading–Writing
Connections 👇
www.thereadingleague.org/wp-content/u...
Reposted by Phil Perry
University of Sussex planning to cut ~200 more jobs, with 500 having already taken voluntary redundancy www.timeshighereducation.com/news/sussex-... via @julietterowsell.bsky.social
Sussex’s plans to cut 200 jobs ‘causing strain and uncertainty’
Union fears remaining staff will face even heavier workloads as 500 jobs have already been lost over past two years
www.timeshighereducation.com
May 28, 2026 at 7:14 AM
University of Sussex planning to cut ~200 more jobs, with 500 having already taken voluntary redundancy www.timeshighereducation.com/news/sussex-... via @julietterowsell.bsky.social
Reposted by Phil Perry
Maybe ‘just in time’ won’t work so well in the world we are now in?
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
UK supply chain unprepared for major shocks such as war, report warns
Research by National Preparedness Commission calls for ‘worst-case scenario’ planning by European states
www.theguardian.com
May 24, 2026 at 5:14 PM
Maybe ‘just in time’ won’t work so well in the world we are now in?
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Phil Perry
Today was a missed opportunity for nature.
The UK Government has to do more.
The UK Government has to do more.
May 13, 2026 at 3:37 PM
Today was a missed opportunity for nature.
The UK Government has to do more.
The UK Government has to do more.
Reposted by Phil Perry
Thought this was a model response from @celiarichardson.bsky.social to a pretty harsh article in the Spectator about the National Trust
May 11, 2026 at 3:10 PM
Thought this was a model response from @celiarichardson.bsky.social to a pretty harsh article in the Spectator about the National Trust
Reposted by Phil Perry
*** NEW POST ***
When 'I Do, We do, You do' goes wrong - and how to put it right again.
open.substack.com/pub/enserm/p...
When 'I Do, We do, You do' goes wrong - and how to put it right again.
open.substack.com/pub/enserm/p...
I Do, We Do, You Do - Or Do We?
When good principles meet poor practice
open.substack.com
April 27, 2026 at 8:47 AM
*** NEW POST ***
When 'I Do, We do, You do' goes wrong - and how to put it right again.
open.substack.com/pub/enserm/p...
When 'I Do, We do, You do' goes wrong - and how to put it right again.
open.substack.com/pub/enserm/p...