"hello world" is just a debugging tool.
I can't work out why this isn't doing what I want, so I'll shove a few random hello world printouts here and there to see which ones trigger...
And honestly, you don't really need to know that much technical theory to get a game of snake working.
And the theory you don't understand can be covered more easily when you have a concrete example to explain the theory from anyway.
I am increasingly convinced that teaching programming by working on bigger projects as early as possible is better for students.
"Hello world" style early tasks are dull, and completely fail to show the potential power of programming to students.
But coding up a game of snake? That's awesome.
Today I shall be going to work dressed as a person who loves reading books.
Not because I morally object to dressing up on world book day etc.
Just because I've been far too lazy to figure out a costume.
Why is that unsettling?
Children might "feel" that sweets are good for them, that doesn't make it true.
Same goes for adults. We (humans) frequently do things which are directly self harming because we think they're a good idea at the time.
In which case diversity is normal.
We wouldn't expect any individual to have the same traits as another.
What matters is not how we establish normal, but rather how (if) we can confidently identify outliers.
Establishing what neurotypical actually means is basically an impossible task.
The kind of traits we talk about in this area all fit on a bell curve, not a bar chart, "normal" in that case would usually mean within a certain standard decision of the mean.
You can't climb that ladder.
If you have a day off the top rung is impossible to reach.
Advil
Everyone: "the school exam system is out of touch with the modern world"
Exams:
Given that root, the quadratic formula gives us:
-3 = -b / 2a
and
-1 = (b^2 - 4ac) / 2a
Let a=1 (because if that doesn't give me integers I can just multiply up later)
Then
-3 = -b / 2
b = 6
and
-1 = (6^2 - 4c) / 2
4c = 40
c = 10
Both integers, yay!
So I guess it's
x^2 + 6x + 10 = 0
Horse and his boy could go anywhere between lion and last battle.
Can't argue with the rest of them though.
Always.
It's such a bad idea in anything other than the immediate short term as well.
By putting too much scaffolding in place at the start, you end up with a class full of students who think they are experts, but really know nothing.
For me, scaffolding is what I do when students are stuck.
But they all get taught the content in the same way, and are all presented with the same work in the same format to begin with.
Then a select few will get extra support, usually in the form of me talking to them.
The thing about scaffolding is that you should only install it in the first place if you really need to.
An ambigram that I cannot usefully describe without spoilers
New Scott Kim ambigram. Look at it upside down as well as the right way up.
Nah, it just means it fits into two different categories...
The most important part of any support system is where you place the line for giving support, and how you communicate clearly to people that they haven't crossed that line.
I created a Minute Cryptic for you to solve: A little melancholy (5)
Give it your best shot!
www.minutecryptic.com/custom/1e56f...
The boys stayed up late last night to watch the curling.
This morning, the first thing 12yo said to me was "what time is the curling on"
Those documents are not really written with parents in mind, they are part of the school accountability framework.
The language is technical, and the contents don't focus on the kind of things year 6 parents actually want to know about the school their child will be at next year.
Parents do visit the schools.
I'm sure the percentage of parents attending open evenings is way higher than 20%
What most parents want is to have a conversation with someone at the school, and get a general feel for the place.
The ofsted reports don't tell you anything really useful as a parent.
Schools placement is fundamentally about geography, not parental choice.
Reading an inspection document might be interesting, but for the vast majority of parents it can't impact their actual choice.
Straightforward today, but really lovely!
Minute Cryptic - 19 February, 2026
"Broadcaster’s question: “Is Jamie Oliver completely naked?”" (2,1,4)
🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣🟣
🏆 0 hints – 1 under the community par (61,043 solvers so far).
www.minutecryptic.com?utm_source=s...
@studymaths.bsky.social asked how we would teach it.
I would teach students how to sketch it well.
Plenty of things could go also wrong with a "find the gradient" process, especially with negative numbers involved.
That doesn't mean either approach is wrong.
Sometimes sketches are the efficient method.
Certainly with the example given in this thread a good sketch and some basic knowledge is all you need, no need to "formalise" anything here...
Sketch it well enough that it's obvious how to solve it with minimal effort.
Well that was fun...
12yo decided to try and pickpocket the first person he met, which went exactly as you might expect.
Then we met some wolves in the forest, completely harmless, until 9yo decided to have a chat to them and made them quite angry by being rude.
Just discovered that android has a "pause" feature on alarms, so I can turn it off for half term and won't forget to turn it back on again.
Brilliant!
