Alex Ford

So Hive have apparently started selling thermostat “holiday mode” as a subscription service!! I mean seriously, every thermostat I’ve ever had has had an “away mode” timer. This is peak enshittification.

Just recorded a debate with Robert Tombs about he and his allies’ attempts to block the Church of England’s Fund for Healing, Repair and Justice. Radio 4 Sunday (tomorrow) 7.10-8.00. Good to be given the opportunity to present some counter-propaganda.

BBC report sanitises the overt racism: It notes that organisers warned marchers not to talk to journalists, then gives the "anti-immigration group"'s own sanitised description of itself. It does not report they chanted "England for the white man" in the streets. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is one of the most holy sh*t stories I’ve ever read in my life. www.vanityfair.com/story/jared-...

Government: You can't do that. Google: Fuck you. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Proper shocking stuff here

Children know if you are asking questions that have only one right answer. They also can tell if you are genuinely interested in their questions. (Don't say: do you have any questions? Try: what questions do you have?).

Trump oligarch Mark Zuckerberg has suspended the No Kings Instagram account in the middle of the national day of action.

Middle class, white, neurotypical kids, and others from nurturing homes of all kinds -rightly- get second chances. It is up to all of us, via the state, to offer those to everyone else.

I will always be grateful for the following that turned my life around. Free school meals. Kinship care from 14 after missing some school. Free piano lessons at school so I could do Music A level. Free undergrad and PGCE with maintenance. The thing is...

Everyone should have a *right* to consider a university education and be supported. If you have difficulties in your childhood, by definition not of your making, you might not have the expected school qualifications.

I have literally never wanted a graphic novel more

What is this ridiculous line of questioning on R4 PM right now about the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition?! It was a bit busy… it’s not exactly Farage’s donations

Why is Nigel Farage back on air? Ofcom bans politicians from presenting news programmes, but GB News claims Farage's show is just 'current affairs' despite him using it to defend Reform's £72m in donations. Close the loophole now.

First exciting find from the back garden. Looks like a lead musket / pistol ball and a bundle of rolled lead (and maybe a button / horse tack). Civil War link maybe? Garden was right next to where Fairfax troops stopped in 1643. Interested in any theories

Integrating some of the elements of this fantastic unit into my sources ITE session for next week. Really excited to be teaching this and great to get TIHPS work to a new-teacher audience! @carolinepennock.bsky.social @ciscstudies.bsky.social @kerrylouisehistory.bsky.social

Super exciting to see all these local forums growing!

Our Yorkshire History Forum will be in Northallerton where our regional adviser @petejackson.bsky.social will be hosting primary and secondary teachers of history on November 16th. Free tickets (thanks Arete Learning Trust!) available here www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/2001582693...

SHP Kent is set to launch on November 19th with the legend that is Jason Todd, tickets available now from store.leedstrinity.ac.uk/product-cata...

So much going on from @1972shp.bsky.social at the moment! Regional forums popping up all over the place, a superb SHP Understanding event coming soon at @britishlibrary.bsky.social and resources being developed from older projects!

A stone cold banger here too: "The skills our discipline has taught for generations, unfashionable, slow, and cumulative, turn out to be the operating requirements of an AI-saturated information world."

This is a great read and has lots to say about the kinds of history we need in schools too

The film Meta removed from Instagram… bsky.app/profile/roel...

For the non Dutch speakers Roel Maalderink made an excellent satirical video about Meta’s pervert glasses and Meta has removed the film from Instagram (film in following skeet) www.ad.nl/tech/meta-ha...

The TEACHER SURVEY should take 15-16 minutes and asks about your views on the topic and pupil knowledge / misconceptions. It is fully anonymous. york.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... The PUPIL SURVEY is separate because it needs a teacher permission slip to be completed.

Hi #historyteacher people. I am hurtling towards PhD research deadlines and looking for any TEACHERS and PUPILS who might help out by completing a survey about GCSE American West. Aim is to explore pupil metanarratives about Indigenous peoples and US expansion. Thread has more on the surveys.

This is super interesting. Rev. Samuel Marsden, who is credited as the person who brought Merino to England (he was a parson at Botany Bay) was the curate at the church my wife is now a vicar in. Until recently there was also a small statue to him in Horsforth. @histassoc.bsky.social TH204

Typically great piece from Jane Card on teaching popular interpretations and why this matters. Well worth a look for those seeking to bolster interpretations work ahead of curriculum change @histassoc.bsky.social TH204

Taking part in Alex’s research will be massively helpful not only to him but to the wider community as we move towards looking at reforming history qualifications.

This also contrasts so well with what the Any Human Ever project fails to do. Where Terry wants to help kids wrestle with complexity, AI encourages us to seek simplicity and, in doing so, erases the very people is claims to be rescuing from anonymity. www.andallthat.co.uk/blog/fabrica...

Really interesting piece from the fantastic Terry Graham which describes using Tiya Miles’ All That She Carried to wrestle with resistance, survival, historical traces, evidence and the processes of construction. Nice to see the impact of #TIHPS on this too. @histassoc.bsky.social

I've been devising a resource for @engmediacentre.bsky.social for @poetrydayuk.bsky.social on Thursday 1st Oct - a simple, doable activity fuelled by fabulous poems that take an unusual angle on the theme of 'Wonder'. If you're an English teacher, watch out for it on EMC website - up by Monday!