Live event coming up...

I’m excited about this one.

I’ve watched Sammy Wright from the sidelines in his roles as author and education spokesperson. His first book, Fit, won the 2020 Northern Book Prize. His second book, Exam Nation, was published in 2024 and asks us to consider schools as communities rather than factories. Sammy is Head of School at a large secondary school in Sunderland, and sat on the government’s Social Mobility Commission from 2018-2021.

We’ve been exchanging brief emails over the last year or so, aware that there are crossovers between our work and words. My move away from the North-East of England and both of our busy schedules mean it has taken us until now to get our acts together and arrange a proper chat.

Sammy is keen to support my campaign to sell the remaining hardbacks of Unschooled and get it into paperback. I wrote Unschooled partly to help people like me feel less alone. But I also wrote it as a political tool, to try to change the educational status quo. So I’m delighted to talk to Sammy, because he sits inside the system, and it’s only when we have difficult conversations with people across sectors and society that real change can happen. Incidentally, I write in Unschooled about the relentless kindness of several teachers towards me and my daughters. I have mainly found teachers to be as frustrated with me about the lack of support for children with complex needs. I’m pretty sure Sammy and I will be nodding in agreement with each other.

Despite the years of wrangling I have had with local education authorities, I know that schools can be excellent places of learning. I worked as a classroom teacher for years. Two of my daughters attend school and they mostly love it. But I am also painfully aware that there is a shocking lack of provision for children who struggle to access education in the classroom. This doesn’t mean these kids don’t want to learn - currently I’m in conversations with my quietest daughter, who is lonely and isolated due to the lack of learning on offer for her. She is desperate to be part of a community, but there are many barriers in her way.

Sammy and I agree that it is important to keep redefining success. Success must be more than passing exams. It must be more than 100% attendance.

In Unschooled, I paint a picture of the reality for thousands of children who have been failed by our school system, as well as the desperate challenges facing families forced to fight for support. I’m interested to speak to Sammy about his perception of the SEND crisis from inside schools, just as I know he will be keen to learn more about how it feels to educate on the edge, as I do.

Please join us for this conversation on Wednesday 26th August at 12pm. Here’s the link:

https://open.substack.com/live-stream/326847

Bring your curiosity and your questions and we’ll try to answer as many as we can.

Also, a reminder that if you buy Unschooled this summer, I will gift you a subscription to my Substack. Paid subscribers get an extra personal essay each month, as well as full access to the archive and occasional audio and video treats. Just send me a photo of your receipt :-)

See you next week!

Caro