Welcome to the 40th edition of the TOTR newsletter.
Wow! This is a significant milestone! If you have been reading these for a while, I just want to say a massive thank you - I really appreciate it!
Let's push off, shall we?
1. Quote to Think About
There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.
- Leonard Cohen
This is such a beautiful quote. No matter how dire a situation is, there is always hope. This one really pulled on the heartstrings.
2. An Insight Worth Considering
Recently, I read a report on school anxiety and the devastating effects it can have on young people. These were the top eight reasons:
· Feeling unsupported
· Pressure for good results
· Poor teacher relationships
· Struggling with concentration
· Exhaustion from health issues
· Friendship and bullying issues
· Conflicts with learning styles (like ADHD)
· Feeling inadequate among high achievers
Do you notice anything interesting about this list?
Every single item is relational or emotional before it's academic. Not one says "the curriculum is too hard" or "they don't like the subject." These are young people telling us they don't feel safe, seen, or able to show up as themselves.
And sadly, many of these challenges can be invisible, with only the most trusted adults knowing their struggles. This behaviour can often be pegged as poor behaviour, and the child gets hammered, further adding to their trauma.
And here's the uncomfortable truth: most schools still treat attendance as a compliance issue rather than a well-being signal. When a child can't walk through the door, that's data. It's telling us something about the environment, not just the child.
I don’t know how to break it to you folks: pastoral skills aren't a nice-to-have anymore – they need to become foundational to your teaching practice. Teachers, support staff, and school leaders need the time, training, and headspace to actually connect with students before expecting them to engage with content.
You can't Bloom before you Maslow.
Read the full report here: 😎👇🏾
https://www.youngminds.org.uk/parent/parents-a-z-mental-health-guide/school-anxiety-and-refusal/
3. Resource to Explore
The Global Equality Collective - founded by Dr Nic Ponsford is a multi-award-winning global community of over 90,000 inclusion, diversity and well-being change makers, including 400 subject matter experts, working together to equip, empower and educate.
Dr Nic is a mate of mine, and I have watched this company develop from an association of like-minded educators into a fully fledged tech company!
Diversity and Inclusion have been shown to make a real difference in students' well-being, especially for those with school anxiety.
I would urge you to take a gander around her website and take advantage of the free resources - they are ace!
4. The Small Thing That Helped Me This Fortnight
Noise-cancelling headphones – I know, I know - I'm really late to the party. My other ones went belly up, so I thought I would splash the cash and get myself some new ones. I thought it was a gimmick, but boy, was I wrong! The headphones really 'lock you in' without distraction. They are so immersive and so great for when you need to concentrate.
You don't have to spend the big bucks either - you can get a reasonably priced pair from Amazon. If you haven't tried them, give it a whirl - you won't regret it!
5. A Question to Sit With
'What am I doing regularly that keeps me busy but doesn't help me progress?'
Here's mine: reading books and tutorials about things I want to do, i.e., video-editing, but never putting them into practice.
As Denzel Washington says, 'Don't confuse busyness with progress.'
One more thing before you go:
Episode 6 of The Maverick School Podcast dropped!
This week I went to The Schools and Academies Show at London Excel — one of the biggest education conferences in Europe — to ask a deceptively simple question:
Is the education system still preparing young people for the world they’re actually walking into?
Using a mix of live conference audio, interviews, documentary-style narration and historical analysis, this episode explores not just what’s happening in education right now — but why the system looks the way it does in the first place.
Inside the episode, you’ll learn:
• Why the UK’s education system was originally built during the Industrial Revolution — and how it revolutionised the country
• Why the education system's greatest strengths make it so dangerously vulnerable to emergent AI
• The hidden safeguarding risk that most people never talk about and how it’s devastating our young people
• What young people and parents need to understand about navigating education and careers in the modern world
This episode celebrates all the hard work that educators put in and how most of us know the system has to change to help our young people.
I'm really proud of this one! 😎🙏🏾
If you care about the future of education, the pressures facing young people, or how we prepare the next generation for an increasingly uncertain world — this episode is for you.
Listen to it on your favourite platform of your choice 😎👇🏾
Apple Podcasts
https://lnkd.in/e8Q_PVJ7
Spotify
https://lnkd.in/eHQn4Mmt
Podbean
https://lnkd.in/eVuRmajB
That’s it for today.
The next newsletter comes out on Thursday, 28th May 2026.
Until then, take care.
Karl
