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‘Educate and Celebrate’ – Birmingham Pupils release EP to celebrate LGBT-Friendly Schools!
“Einstein’s planet” becomes first exoplanet discovered using new detection method
Birmingham Campaign For State Education Meeting – June 11th
Melissa Benn, education journalist and author of ‘School Wars’, will be speaking at the next
Birmingham CASE (Campaign for State Education) public meeting on Tuesday 11 June 7.15 at the T&G Offices, Broad St, Birmingham (opposite Novotel).
7:15pm
Tuesday 11th June
T&G / Unite offices, Broad Street, B15 1AY
Unite building is accessible with a manual wheelchair but unfortunately the lift is too small for motorised wheelchairs. Accessible toilets are available at the venue.
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Needed Right Now: A ‘Keep Safe’ Phone-Line (KSL) to Stop Female Genital Mutilation in Britain
Female genital mutilation is an abhorrence, yet little to stop it has been done even in countries like Britain. With the summer ‘cutting season’ upon us, there is an urgent need to move beyond moralising, to finding real, practical ways to eradicate FGM. One approach would be to have a single-number national phone-line, co-ordinated to cover all aspects of FGM and similar abuse, as the first point of call for everyone whether concerned professionals or neighbours, family friends and neighbours, and even (older) children themselves.
Since this article was written the NSPCC have introduced a free FGM hotline which can be used by anyone, anonymously or by name as preferred:
0800 028 3550, or email fgmhelp@nspcc.org.uk
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Head Teachers’ Association joins Teaching Unions in Declaring ‘No Confidence’ in Current UK Education Policy.
The National Association of Head Teachers’ annual conference in Birmingham over the weekend of 18/19 May 2013 displayed little warmth or confidence in the education policies of a government which claims to be giving school leaders greater freedom and flexibility in the management of their schools.
The Education Secretary was visibly taken aback by the angry and derisive response from head teachers in a question and answer session on the Saturday. Ahead of the conference he had been likened to a “fanatical personal trainer” who urges schools to jump higher and run faster…(paying) no heed to “the damage he is causing to the body or the system”.
Faced with this, Mr Gove fell back on the lament that he was striving for higher standards in schools. Told of the stress caused to the profession by current policy initiatives, including the inspection system, his response was:
If you think Ofsted is causing you fear I am grateful for your candour, but we are going to have to part company.
Russell Hobby of the NAHT has gone on the record to draw worrying parallels between colossal and damaging failures due to similar policies already in place in the NHS, notably the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust scandal, warning:
of the dangers of management by data, we need only turn to the more human tragedy of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust, where patient care was sacrificed to meet the targets.
The same forces are rising within education. The effects will be more subtle but equally devastating.
This comes at a time when the current government’s preferred system for the delivery of education to school age students, academies and free schools, are under fire, losing credibility, and subject to calls for tighter scrutiny amid concerns of financial irregularities by certain leading providers.
“Hit Me Harder” – Luke Webley
Very pleased to share this new track/video by my talented friend Luke Webley. I’m enjoying this, hope others may also.
The Big Top
My late father, Ross, told me many tales of the Big Top and the Big Top site. Great to read about it here. Thanks.
With the war moving into its final year, Clarion, along with the rest of the residents of Birmingham, were reflecting on the damage done to their beloved city. An area in the heart of the shopping centre had been particularly badly hit, and a circus and fairground were erected on the bombed site. This provided some well-needed relief from the trauma of war, and provided an accessible venue for the many emerging talents in the city.
In 1944, the Choir were proud to present a performance of Professor Edward Dent’s new score of John Gay’s “The Beggar’s Opera” at the Big Top in New Street, Birmingham, as part of the Brighter Birmingham programme, produced by Tom Harrison, with accompaniment on harpsichord by Katharine Thomson.
Read more about
Birmingham’s Big Top here.
‘Statistical Methods’ underpinning UK Education Policy
‘Statistical Methods’ underpinning UK Education Policy
Whether they are (Lies, Damned Lies and) Statistics or the Emperor’s New Clothes, pretty insubstantial.
Gove’s claims of teenagers’ ignorance harpooned by retired teacher | Politics | guardian.co.uk
An excellent read. Showing, yet again, that the evidence base for current UK education policy does not hold water, much less stand up to the most basic scrutiny.
Gove’s claims of teenagers’ ignorance harpooned by retired teacher | Politics | guardian.co.uk.
The man is an absolute disaster. One might be tempted to advise him to pay less attention to the UK’s relationship with the European Union and more time focussed on his brief. The danger of that is he might actually do more damage given the opportunity.
The education secretary, Michael Gove, has come under fire for citing PR-commissioned opinion polls as evidence of teenagers’ ignorance of important historical events.
Gove’s department has admitted he cited polls originating from Premier Inn and UKTV Gold press releases, prompting the Labour MP and historian Tristram Hunt to label him “Mr Sloppy”.
In a Mail on Sunday article published in March, Gove said: “Survey after survey has revealed disturbing historical ignorance, with one teenager in five believing Winston Churchill was a fictional character while 58% think Sherlock Holmes…
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