Dr Helen J Williams 🇪🇺🇵🇸
@helenjwc.bsky.social
UK Educator-Mathematics.
*NEW BOOK summer 2026* 👆🏼“Playful mathematics”- award winning: https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/playful-mathematics/book276080
Early Childhood Mathematics Group https://earlymaths.org/
Blogs:
https://info125328.wixsite.com/website
*NEW BOOK summer 2026* 👆🏼“Playful mathematics”- award winning: https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/playful-mathematics/book276080
Early Childhood Mathematics Group https://earlymaths.org/
Blogs:
https://info125328.wixsite.com/website
Pinned
Heads up for #earlyyears peeps and all those interested in #maths and young children
My new book due for publication May/June 2026
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
My new book due for publication May/June 2026
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Reposted by Dr Helen J Williams 🇪🇺🇵🇸
Imo 'school readiness' is a ridiculous concept especially now that so many of the early learning goals (the measure they use) are not developmentally appropriate. Honestly you should see the self-regulation goals because quite a lot of *adults* wouldn't meet them.
Government wants to raise 'school readiness' to 75% by 2028 - but experts have warned the education committee this target could leave poorer pupils further behind
schoolsweek.co.uk/government-s...
schoolsweek.co.uk/government-s...
School readiness target 'risky', experts tell MPs
Experts fear a focus on those 'closest to the line' as ministers impose 75% school readiness aim
schoolsweek.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Imo 'school readiness' is a ridiculous concept especially now that so many of the early learning goals (the measure they use) are not developmentally appropriate. Honestly you should see the self-regulation goals because quite a lot of *adults* wouldn't meet them.
“Magic moments only happen when you’re extremely well-prepared” - Freddie Mercury.
That, folks, is my mantra for early mathematics teaching: preparation rather than planning 👏🏼
#earlymaths #earlyyears #mathematics #teaching
That, folks, is my mantra for early mathematics teaching: preparation rather than planning 👏🏼
#earlymaths #earlyyears #mathematics #teaching
folks.is
November 9, 2025 at 6:59 PM
“Magic moments only happen when you’re extremely well-prepared” - Freddie Mercury.
That, folks, is my mantra for early mathematics teaching: preparation rather than planning 👏🏼
#earlymaths #earlyyears #mathematics #teaching
That, folks, is my mantra for early mathematics teaching: preparation rather than planning 👏🏼
#earlymaths #earlyyears #mathematics #teaching
@debrakidd.bsky.social - did you see this thread?
Here’s an answer to where is the vision in our curriculum review.
Here’s an answer to where is the vision in our curriculum review.
13.
Curriculum should be a public conversation about how we live together, not a delivery system for inherited abstractions. The Final Review turns that conversation off.
Curriculum should be a public conversation about how we live together, not a delivery system for inherited abstractions. The Final Review turns that conversation off.
November 8, 2025 at 9:35 AM
@debrakidd.bsky.social - did you see this thread?
Here’s an answer to where is the vision in our curriculum review.
Here’s an answer to where is the vision in our curriculum review.
Reposted by Dr Helen J Williams 🇪🇺🇵🇸
Excellent thread on the curriculum review process.
@suecowley.bsky.social - have you seen this?
@suecowley.bsky.social - have you seen this?
The 2025 Curriculum and Assessment Review Final Report was meant to “build a world-class curriculum for all.” In reality, it signals something quite different: the closure of curriculum reform in England. 🧵
November 5, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Excellent thread on the curriculum review process.
@suecowley.bsky.social - have you seen this?
@suecowley.bsky.social - have you seen this?
Does anyone know if there is any restriction on how late in the evening folk are allowed to let off fireworks? It’s gone 11 on a school night and my poor dog is still hysterically barking at the continual bangs. 😬😫🤦🏼♀️
November 5, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Does anyone know if there is any restriction on how late in the evening folk are allowed to let off fireworks? It’s gone 11 on a school night and my poor dog is still hysterically barking at the continual bangs. 😬😫🤦🏼♀️
Excellent thread on the curriculum review process.
@suecowley.bsky.social - have you seen this?
@suecowley.bsky.social - have you seen this?
The 2025 Curriculum and Assessment Review Final Report was meant to “build a world-class curriculum for all.” In reality, it signals something quite different: the closure of curriculum reform in England. 🧵
November 5, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Excellent thread on the curriculum review process.
@suecowley.bsky.social - have you seen this?
@suecowley.bsky.social - have you seen this?
Reposted by Dr Helen J Williams 🇪🇺🇵🇸
But here is a wonderful example of how assessment can enrich learning and teaching..
November 5, 2025 at 6:40 PM
But here is a wonderful example of how assessment can enrich learning and teaching..
Reposted by Dr Helen J Williams 🇪🇺🇵🇸
Bit depressing really that the end result of a wholescale curriculum review is "we'll have a bit more oracy and loads more tests." Where is the vision and ambition?
November 5, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Bit depressing really that the end result of a wholescale curriculum review is "we'll have a bit more oracy and loads more tests." Where is the vision and ambition?
Reposted by Dr Helen J Williams 🇪🇺🇵🇸
Tomorrow is #OutdoorClassroomDay! 🥳
No plans? There's still time to organise a great day! Discover some last minute ideas from @ltlnews.bsky.social and make sure to sign up to show your commitment to getting outdoors this Thursday!
Sign up: outdoorclassroomday.com
Ideas: ltl.org.uk/news/outdoor...
No plans? There's still time to organise a great day! Discover some last minute ideas from @ltlnews.bsky.social and make sure to sign up to show your commitment to getting outdoors this Thursday!
Sign up: outdoorclassroomday.com
Ideas: ltl.org.uk/news/outdoor...
November 5, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Tomorrow is #OutdoorClassroomDay! 🥳
No plans? There's still time to organise a great day! Discover some last minute ideas from @ltlnews.bsky.social and make sure to sign up to show your commitment to getting outdoors this Thursday!
Sign up: outdoorclassroomday.com
Ideas: ltl.org.uk/news/outdoor...
No plans? There's still time to organise a great day! Discover some last minute ideas from @ltlnews.bsky.social and make sure to sign up to show your commitment to getting outdoors this Thursday!
Sign up: outdoorclassroomday.com
Ideas: ltl.org.uk/news/outdoor...
@beckyfrancis.bsky.social @cassiebuchanan.bsky.social @jonhutchinson.bsky.social @jo-annebaird.bsky.social
Yes. The loudest voices are speaking entirely from a secondary perspective. If Becky Francis had listened at all to the discussion around ks1 Sats and testing young children she certainly wouldn’t be recommending more teachers use the non-statutory ks1 tests. Moreover they are not diagnostic!
November 5, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Reposted by Dr Helen J Williams 🇪🇺🇵🇸
I think this @schoolsweek.bsky.social interview demonstrates how the focus of the curriculum review was subject related and secondary focused. I don't think it actually deals with key issues around young people's engagement and wellbeing within the English system.
schoolsweek.co.uk/interview-be...
schoolsweek.co.uk/interview-be...
Q&A: Becky Francis on the big ideas in her curriculum review
Chair explains thinking behind year 8 tests, scrapping EBacc and triple science guarantee
schoolsweek.co.uk
November 5, 2025 at 6:50 AM
I think this @schoolsweek.bsky.social interview demonstrates how the focus of the curriculum review was subject related and secondary focused. I don't think it actually deals with key issues around young people's engagement and wellbeing within the English system.
schoolsweek.co.uk/interview-be...
schoolsweek.co.uk/interview-be...
What a lovely thread 🧵
For many years I have been posting little observations online. What you may not know is that for many years, artists have been illustrating them - for no reason other than they wanted to respond. Below is a thread of some of these beautiful, (by-real-people) drawings because they should be seen 🧵...
November 4, 2025 at 6:56 PM
What a lovely thread 🧵
Reposted by Dr Helen J Williams 🇪🇺🇵🇸
Once again… testing is not teaching.
Testing children does not teach them to read and it doesn’t encourage schools to teach children to read. It encourages schools to teach to the test.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Testing children does not teach them to read and it doesn’t encourage schools to teach children to read. It encourages schools to teach to the test.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Bridget Phillipson ‘ready to take on unions’ over year 8 reading tests
Education secretary says mandatory test needed to tackle ‘shocking outcomes’ for many working-class children
www.theguardian.com
November 1, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Once again… testing is not teaching.
Testing children does not teach them to read and it doesn’t encourage schools to teach children to read. It encourages schools to teach to the test.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Testing children does not teach them to read and it doesn’t encourage schools to teach children to read. It encourages schools to teach to the test.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Dr Helen J Williams 🇪🇺🇵🇸
If you're a member of the National Trust remember to vote for council members by midnight tonight.
Use the Quick Vote option.
Entryist pressure group Reform Trust is trying to seize control. Stop them
Voting is quick and easy if your membership card is at hand
secure.cesvotes.com/V3-3-0/nt25/...
Use the Quick Vote option.
Entryist pressure group Reform Trust is trying to seize control. Stop them
Voting is quick and easy if your membership card is at hand
secure.cesvotes.com/V3-3-0/nt25/...
Log In
Welcome to the National Trust 2025 voting website, hosted by independent voting service provider Civica Election Services.
secure.cesvotes.com
October 31, 2025 at 2:19 PM
If you're a member of the National Trust remember to vote for council members by midnight tonight.
Use the Quick Vote option.
Entryist pressure group Reform Trust is trying to seize control. Stop them
Voting is quick and easy if your membership card is at hand
secure.cesvotes.com/V3-3-0/nt25/...
Use the Quick Vote option.
Entryist pressure group Reform Trust is trying to seize control. Stop them
Voting is quick and easy if your membership card is at hand
secure.cesvotes.com/V3-3-0/nt25/...
I’ve just been given the heads up by the fab @accomplishedu.bsky.social to a lovely #maths book PERFECT for next week 👏🏼👏🏼 🎃 #backtoschool: youtu.be/tdViPybeP3c?...
🎃 How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin
YouTube video by Riko's Reading Room
youtu.be
October 31, 2025 at 5:53 PM
I’ve just been given the heads up by the fab @accomplishedu.bsky.social to a lovely #maths book PERFECT for next week 👏🏼👏🏼 🎃 #backtoschool: youtu.be/tdViPybeP3c?...
Reposted by Dr Helen J Williams 🇪🇺🇵🇸
This is the Royal equivalent of the amputation of a gangrenous limb to stop the rest of The Firm getting infected.
An act of self-preservation.
If it was integrity, then they'd have booted Andrew out years ago.
They didn't.
www.ft.com/content/a7d6...
An act of self-preservation.
If it was integrity, then they'd have booted Andrew out years ago.
They didn't.
www.ft.com/content/a7d6...
King Charles strips Andrew of prince title and ejects him from mansion
Royal subject to ‘censures deemed necessary’ in sharp change of tone by Buckingham Palace
www.ft.com
October 31, 2025 at 8:59 AM
This is the Royal equivalent of the amputation of a gangrenous limb to stop the rest of The Firm getting infected.
An act of self-preservation.
If it was integrity, then they'd have booted Andrew out years ago.
They didn't.
www.ft.com/content/a7d6...
An act of self-preservation.
If it was integrity, then they'd have booted Andrew out years ago.
They didn't.
www.ft.com/content/a7d6...
Reposted by Dr Helen J Williams 🇪🇺🇵🇸
"Responsibility, not rhetoric": really interesting post on Tom Bennett, inclusion law and the implications of a DfE advisory position: senddaddiaries.substack.com/p/sdd-guest-...
SDD Guest Article: When Behaviour Culture Collides with Law: The Danger of DfE Advisers Ignoring Equality Duties
Tom Bennett - described publicly as the Department for Education’s Behaviour Ambassador - published a post on X (fka Twitter) on 9 October that distilled a contested set of ideas about “inclusion,” “h...
senddaddiaries.substack.com
October 30, 2025 at 11:00 AM
"Responsibility, not rhetoric": really interesting post on Tom Bennett, inclusion law and the implications of a DfE advisory position: senddaddiaries.substack.com/p/sdd-guest-...
Rachel Reeves. What the actual …? 😬🙄
October 30, 2025 at 8:05 AM
Rachel Reeves. What the actual …? 😬🙄
Reposted by Dr Helen J Williams 🇪🇺🇵🇸
I don't know who to credit this image to, but anyway, they got the price wrong.
That 2/9d should read £122 million
That 2/9d should read £122 million
October 28, 2025 at 11:28 AM
I don't know who to credit this image to, but anyway, they got the price wrong.
That 2/9d should read £122 million
That 2/9d should read £122 million
Reposted by Dr Helen J Williams 🇪🇺🇵🇸
Fill in the blank! I couldn't teach without: ____.
October 25, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Fill in the blank! I couldn't teach without: ____.
Reposted by Dr Helen J Williams 🇪🇺🇵🇸
One for my #earlyyears friends. @ruthswailes.bsky.social @signoramac.bsky.social @helenjwc.bsky.social @drpam.bsky.social
Start with the child in the best possible environment. ☺️
Start with the child in the best possible environment. ☺️
In praise of Montessori multi age early education. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-national-montessori-early-outcomes-sharply.html #Montessori
National study finds public Montessori programs strengthen early learning outcomes—at sharply lower costs
The first national randomized trial of public Montessori preschool students showed stronger long-term outcomes by kindergarten, including elevated reading, memory, and executive function as compared t...
phys.org
October 24, 2025 at 7:41 PM
One for my #earlyyears friends. @ruthswailes.bsky.social @signoramac.bsky.social @helenjwc.bsky.social @drpam.bsky.social
Start with the child in the best possible environment. ☺️
Start with the child in the best possible environment. ☺️
Reposted by Dr Helen J Williams 🇪🇺🇵🇸
Thomas Hall School in Exeter now gives every pupil—from Reception to Year 11—a weekly forest school session, proving that the best learning often happens under the trees
Kids at this Exeter school now learn maths under the trees
Thomas Hall School in Exeter now gives every pupil—from Reception to Year 11—a weekly forest school session, proving that the best learning often happens under the trees
www.devonlive.com
October 23, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Thomas Hall School in Exeter now gives every pupil—from Reception to Year 11—a weekly forest school session, proving that the best learning often happens under the trees
🤣👏🏼🤣👏🏼
It’s a miracle that Catholic priests haven’t become extinct, given that they are unable to reproduce.
October 24, 2025 at 3:59 PM
🤣👏🏼🤣👏🏼