I reblog this with sadness. Sadness that a headteacher should feel motivated to write in this vein; sadness that the argument of this piece is essentially true. The keyword here is, I think, sadness.
Category: education
The Letter David Gauke will not be expecting and won’t want to receive – blueannoyed
“Tired? A young man like you…?”
“I stopped explaining myself when I realised other people only understand from their level of perception.”
This is a very valid take on the quandary we face whenever someone who is not an acquaintance, relative or friend sees fit to pass comment on us.
In my case the condition is not M.E. – that is my little brother’s burden – but equally difficult to explain to someone who has not experienced my illness. Do we heed the call to arms; and risk appearing defensive, aggressive, apologetic, malingering or just plain pathetic? Or do we say nothing, slink away or tell ourselves that the better part of valour is discretion?
In my experience and life, for what it’s worth, it depends on the situation.Choice, free will and the better part of valour are wonderful things: exercise yours, here, today, by reading the excellent piece I share today.
Please consider following the author, and please appreciate their work by liking it.
The pay machine in the car park is on the go-slow and I’m making small talk with the two pensioner ladies waiting in the queue behind me. “It’s a bit like me in a morning,” I quip. “A young man like you?” they chuckle back, unaware.
Now I’m not about to correct and start lecturing two octogenarian ladies in the middle of a car park. In fact initially I feel a little guilty – why am I moaning when they are the old people with the aches and creaking bones
And why would they know any different anyway? I’m having an OK-ish day and they can’t tell I have something like M.E based on our 30-second interaction. And I’ll never see them again, so does it matter? Should it really get to me?
Rewind two weeks and I’m in an exercise class, trying out different things to help my…
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The Council plans closures of Children’s Centres and Nurseries – Have your say at the consultation meetings
An opportunity for concerned parents, professionals and Council Tax payers in Birmingham to lend their voices to the children of Birmingham.
While the Council may have sparse room for manoeuvre, they can register the displeasure and dissatisfaction of the people of Birmingham.
It is true that children cannot vote; however, the adult population can, at parish, municipal, regional and national level; and in Birmingham there was elected a council opposed, in principle, to cuts of this nature that are being enforced by a divisive and hostile UK Government.
The Education, Health and Welfare provision of the United Kingdom only work when predicated on an understanding that the economy serves society, not the other way round.
They say:
The way that we deliver children’s centres, health visiting services and parenting support services in Birmingham is changing. Have your say on our proposals for a new service model that will bring these services together, for you, in your local area.
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22/7/14: The Day in Trojan Horses.
The ‘Report into allegations concerning Birmingham schools arising from the ‘Trojan Horse’ letter’ authored by Peter Clarke CVO OBE QPM was published today, Tuesday 22 July 2014, and can be found here.
Also published today on this theme:
• Trojan horse: teachers may face misconduct hearings, says Morgan (The Guardian, 22/07/14)
• ‘Disturbing’ Trojan Inquiry Findings (BBC News, 22/07/14)
I am grateful to The Guardian for their live online coverage of the Statement by Nicky Morgan on the Trojan Horse Letter debated in the House of Commons today, Tuesday 22 July 2014. The Telegraph and The Sunday Times, neither of which would sit on gogwit’s coffee table, should also be mentioned for running this story when it was being written off as right wing, Islamophobic, racist fiction.
I have used the local press as a source of many stories offered today on Gogwit’s Blog, I make no apology for this.
Local parliamentarians have spoken out on the “Trojan Horse” issue today Birmingham Hodge Hill (Birmingham schools ‘feel like the Balkans’ – The Guardian, 22/07/14) and yesterday Birmingham Perry Barr (Stop pretending Trojan Horse plot is fake, urges Birmingham MP – Birmingham Mail, 21/07/14).
The output from three news sources on one sunny July day. The content requires no further comment from gogwit at this time.
Other local news: Today many students are graduating from local universities and many local school children have begun their summer break. I wish them all the very best.
Unemployment Figures vs Numbers Jobless.
I’m posting this link to evidenceuk.info to EvidenceUK.info’s blog which uses ONS data to show how the headline figures on unemployment in the UK do not, perhaps, tell the whole story and, indeed, may well under report significantly the true jobless numbers, with 47% of those not employed not receiving Job Seeker’s Allowance, hence not included in the headline stats.
There is a link to further info relating to zero hours contracts within the piece, or via this link to evidenceuk.info which suggests such contracts have tripled under the present government.
This piece also states that the number of JSA sanctions imposed during the first 3 years of the current government has doubled against the number imposed by the governments in the 10 years before the current Coalition was formed. A clear implication of this evidence is that the UK unemployment statistic is not a credible measure of unemployment. Equally clear is the implication that the headline statistic is being skewed downward by a policy of withdrawing JSA and pushing people into underemployment – example here being zero hours contracts.
Gogwit’s Pick of the #LoveTAs Timeline…
Various posts on this subject have appeared in Gogwit’s Blog since June of this year.
Here are a few of them…
Let’s stand up with UNISON to champion the unsung heroes of the schools system
Teaching Assistants in Woolwich ask the Public to Support Them
Cheryl Drabble’s “Dear Mr Gove…”
If you Tweet, make Friday 29 November a day to praise Teaching Assistants – using #LoveTAs – they are not teachers but they are key to the consistent delivery of inclusive education – day in, day out – in UK schools. Do not let the leaders of your local schools make the mistake of seeing them as a soft target for saving money: those savings will likely prove short-lived and, over time, costly.
Use the hashtag #LoveTAs on 29/11/13!
Related articles
- Teaching Assistants – A Class Act (inpoliticalnotts.wordpress.com)
Let’s stand up with UNISON to champion the unsung heroes of the schools system
please read this; view the video and join the thunderclap.
support teaching assistants – help make the head and governors of your local school think twice about treating their TAs as a soft target for cutting costs.
This Friday, the UK’s largest education union, UNISON is planning a special day of celebration of teaching assistants (TAs) as the unsung heroes of education.
With tremendous changes within the schools system, teachers and support staff face increasing amount of pressures for the delivery of decent education to children. Earlier this year, it was reported that the government asked the teachers review body to look at teachers’ contracts – with a view to them taking on duties currently performed by teaching assistants. This summer, the value of teaching assistants came under sharp attack from the influential think tank, Reform.
Teaching assistants (TAs) carry out a huge variety of tasks, working with teachers to help children learn and develop to be the best they can be.
They provide one-to-one support for children who need additional help. One-to-one support are often not provided by a teacher due to the importance of delivering lessons…
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‘The Champions’ to save UK Education System.
A majority Liberal Democrat government would enlist the services of the fictional ’60s Geneva-based Nemesis organisation to save the UK education system from total meltdown at the hands of the ruthless megalomaniac known only as ‘Pob’ (in under an hour including commercial breaks.)
Craig Sterling, Sharron Macready and Richard Barrett would be among the first wave of ‘Superhuman Heads’ to combat the evil forces of the shadowy Enemies of Promise, it is rumoured (or rumored in the US.)
Nemesis spokesperson Tremayne speculated; “The general plan would be to crash plane-loads of teachers in the Tibetan Himalayas and leave them to find their way home. This seems to have done the trick for Craig, Sharron and Richard.”
Mr Clegg said; “I think that free schools should follow the national curriculum and employ qualified teachers” to his reflection in the bathroom mirror.
Young People Respond to the Strike by Teachers in London, UK.
It is my pleasure, and privilege, to share the following link with you.
Islington Community Theatre – 17 October 2013
It is a different response to the strike by teachers in London which took place on 17 October 2013CE.
Please watch, please comment, please share.
Gogwit – The Gogwit.
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