Do you remember this sketch? youtu.be/9X1cKMKcHmg?...

…and if I find it impossible to be successful in ways you want me to be, or are trying to force me to be, then I’ll find ways to be successful on my own terms.

Very possibly. It would be way down on my list of things to try to address it.

Do you think the threshold after which a school needs to be registered should change?

I’d be rock throwing if I named on here. I’ve made comment at review stage occasionally when asked by a publisher and am discerning about who I read. I don’t doubt the effort. I’ve just read some bad stuff (which people are free to say about mine too).

Publishers can do what they like. It’s only my view, and I’m commercially naive so what do I know. When I select a book to read it is certainly something I consider and it surprised me that more wasn’t made of my credibility when writing.

2/2 The point about establishing authority still stands. Not easy to do, but my experience was that one publisher did that very thoroughly and another did not.

I didn’t say that. It was an example that pointed directly to my credibility. Even then, I might have been doing a good job, but to a reader it raised obvious questions as to why they should read anything I had to say. Ofsted grades, however imperfect, only really apply to headteachers. 1/2

For example, the first time I was approached to write a book our school was rated RI by Ofsted. I replied to the offer to say that until I could run my own school effectively I had no right to offer advice to others.

Very good points, Bernard.

That looks like a well-loved book.

Very important point. I remember Sir Kevan Collins saying years ago that most research EEF were wrangling with explicitly excluded SEND from the cohort as it “corrupted the data”.

I’m sure they’ll recognise the superb work that you and your team have done and continue to do.

There is also a freedom for special schools to be particularly radical and innovative and still be successful in terms of the Ofsted framework that mainstream schools simply don’t have.