Thinking of moving house to 🦋 Might check in here every now and then to make sure it hasn’t burnt down

People sometimes say kids don't read any more. But as a children's author who visits schools up & down the country every week, I can tell you that if you give kids access to books, help them find ones they want to read, and let them read for pleasure - THEY STILL LOVE READING!!!

📢 Northern children's writers! Submit your work-in-progress to the @HachetteKids Children's Novel Awards by 13 January to win £3000 and a 9-month programme of mentoring and professional development, as part of the #NorthernWritersAwards. Full details at: newwritingnorth.com/northern…

I love cauliflower but it makes an unreasonable amount of mess when you cut it. The kitchen looks like I’ve burst a bean bag.

IMPORTANT PLS SHARE. It's rumoured the English £9,250 tuition fee cap may be raised this pm for the 1st time in 8yrs, as University's finances are strained. As student finance misunderstandings abound, I've bashed out a few notes to help... 1. Higher tuition fees WON'T change what most pay each year. For most, they're paid for you by the student loans company and you repay afterwards only if you earn over the threshold. The amount you repay each year (9% over the threshold) solely depends on what you earn not on what you borrow. 2. Increasing tuition fees will only see those who clear the loan in full over the 40yrs pay more. That is generally mid-high to higher earning university leavers only, so the cost of increasing them will generally be born by the more affluent. Most lower and middle earning university leavers will simply pay 9% extra tax above the threshold for 40yrs (and higher tuition fees won't change that) 3. The rise is tuition fees is likely to be trivial compared to the changes the last govt made for 2023 starters. 2023 starters had their repayment thresholds dropped to £25,000 (from £27,295/yr) and had the time they had to keep repaying for (unless cleared) extended to 40years from 30years. So these higher annual repayments for longer, increased by over 50% the amount many graduates will eventually have to pay back for going to university. Yet they were almost stealth changes because people can't intuitively feel the seismic impact. Changing tuition fees is a more obvious rise, but in reality has far less of an impact on the amount most will repay (though combined with the 2023 changes it does certainly up the cost). 4. The biggest practical problem for students isnt tution fees (even if raised) its the fact maintenace loans aren't big enough. English maintenance loans have not kept pace with inflation. I'd urge the govt to couple the tuition fee loans with bigger living loans - if not it is a real risk to social mobility, with those from the poorest backgrounds likely to be worse affected. I could write more, but will stop here, hopefully this gives an idea the issues are less straightforward than many feel.

Lenny Henry’s not going to feel the benefit of his coat when he goes out later #StrictlyComeDancing

Without our wonderful illustrators and designers our books would be a dull affair. Show your appreciation by making a vote!

Baking soda Search any ailment or DIY job online and I guarantee someone will suggest baking soda

The arts are the cake.

I’m always so sad when I hear English courses at universities are under threat… The creative industries in this country out perform the rest of the economy by double… #steamnotstem #creativeindustries

Writers, I think there are still a few of you left around here, please, for a talk I am putting together for schools, Where do you get your ideas from?

I hope @CraigDavid follows In Your Hands with a Cauliflowers Fluffy reboot. That would make a perfect primary school assembly song even better

This online creative writing course for primary teachers with @NewWritingNorth looks amazing! Please retweet and share the joy with any budding writers out there 😊 newwritingnorth.com/event/cr….

I was talking to a grandmother last week about schooling. ‘I can see the difference’ she said. ‘When my children were young, primary school was relaxed. If the weather was good, they went outside and ran around. If they were sick, they stayed at home. Now with my grandchildren they are seated in desks for more of the day and if they are ill, they are worried that they’ll lose their 100% attendance for the term. The pressure is on to pass their phonics test when they are six and then to learn their times tables at speed by the time they are nine. They feel it and their parents feel it too’. There’s lots of talk about SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) at the moment, and how increasing numbers of children are being identified as SEND. It’s less common to ask questions about what SEND really means, and whether the education system creates more children ‘with SEND’ as it becomes more pressured and rigid. For what SEND really means is that a child cannot learn in the way which mainstream education expects. They cannot keep up with expectations, either for academic work or for behaviour. SEND is something which happens in the interaction between a child and the education system. In a system where no 6-year-old is expected to sit still and learn to write their name, then a 6-year-old who just wants to run around outside isn't a problem. In a system where everyone is meant to be able to read by age 6, then they are. We know from research that if a child is young in their year, they are more likely to be identified as ‘having SEND’. We know that summer born boys are far more likely to be identified as ‘having SEND’ than autumn born girls. We know that the impact of this immaturity resonates through the years, with the youngest in the year doing less well at GCSE. We know that the number of children ‘with SEND’ is going up year on year. It's not really plausible that more children each year have difficulties in learning, nor that being born in August makes you more likely to have learning problems than if you are born a few weeks later in September. It’s far more likely that in the push to ‘drive up standards’ the education system is becomes less, not more, suited to how children develop and learn. It’s more likely that the system is penalising immaturity – and children are inherently immature. That isn’t a lack or a defect, it’s a defining part of childhood. As the education system becomes more rigid and pressured, we’d expect more children not to be able to manage without adaptations. This is exactly what we see. Those children are holding up the flag for all the others, saying that this system is not child-friendly and doesn’t take account of developmental needs and differences. What if, instead of having higher expectations of the children, we had higher expectations of the education system? What if those expectations were of flexibility, reducing pressure and prioritising lifelong learning and wellbeing instead of short-term testing? What if we saw the increasing number of children ‘with SEND’ as a sign that the system isn’t working for the many ways in which children develop, rather than a sign that more and more children have learning difficulties? We’ll never sort the ‘SEND crisis’ until we start looking at SEND as an interaction between children and the education system. The more rigid the system is, the more children it will fail. Illustration by @_MissingTheMark from the book A Different Way to Learn.

This is such a wonderful opportunity. If you write MG and you live in the North, what on Earth’s stopping you?

Calling authors/booksellers: fancy the chance to win 6 weeks FREE advertising across transport hubs in Essex / Kent / Staffs / East Riding courtesy of JMW media? Imagine just how many people will see it! To enter: follow me, retweet and comment with an emoji of your choice 1/3

But, if as the celebrities always claim, they’ve always wanted to write a children’s book, why do they need a massive advance? That budget could be used to fund school, library and festival visits and inspire many more children to want to read for pleasure. 1/2

What a thoughtful thread about celebrity authors. Yes, if celebrities learned about and shared the work of non-celebrities that could be really positive for every #kidlit reader. Thank you @Wonder_Bookshop