Please rush messages of support and solidarity to Giles Thomas, NUT school rep at ThomasG@hamsteadhall.com

We understand they are attempting to open the school for some year groups so there will be an opportunity to leaflet parents.

There will be a picket line from first light.

Address: Craythorne Avenue Handsworth Wood Birmingham B20 1HL

To some it may seem heartless, but surely it’s obvious: If we really, seriously want to eradicate female genital mutilation (FGM) we have to move beyond the moralising – essential as it is – and follow the money. And we must understand the market. Yes, female genital mutilation is irreducibly a moral and cultural issue. But, absolutely correctly, no modern western state can leverage, or justify, much in the way of legally imposed moral and cultural determinism.
Culture change on its own is difficult. It’s money which talks.

Dear All,

I never imagined when I got up in the early hours of the morning on April 8th to get something off my chest that it would have such an impact. My idea was simple – 1oo Academics, 1000 teachers. I imagined it would take weeks to get to this point. It took 100 hours for 1400 people to sign. They keep on coming in- almost 4000 parents and teachers have signed.

The link to sign is at http://www.thinking-about-education.co.uk .

Last week we made front page headline news in The Independent and the same evening , the Channel 4 news. I will continue to campaign to keep this issue in the minds of the media so that parents and children are able to hear what research says about the education system.

 To those of you who have already signed I cannot thank you enough. We have stood, shoulder to shoulder, from public school to PRU…

I saw light shining in the heart of the rain,
The moon fought great clouds in the heart of the rain.

We rise – always in hope that we will not fall,
Even though there is beauty in the heart of the rain.

Our eyes allow us to see, but they also speak to me,
Heavy with untold stories thriving in the heart of the rain.

Saffron stained hands clutched olive stained breaths leaving lungs,
As Jerusalem declared it’s love for Srinagar in the heart of the rain.

Your soul flutters at the centre of this unending storm,
Maybe it wrote its sweet stories in the heart of the rain.

The river cried out it’s melancholic song in the night,
The light echoed back verses of love in the heart of the rain.

The lion slept in African plains who cradled him in their arms,
As the sheep learnt to…

Trickles of purity at the source,
Meet our crimson grace,
Carrying love from one brother to the next,
From this sisters, to yours,
Fragile-strong tales of a broken youth,
Mesmerize tired eyes.

Your skies taught me shades of blue,
Contrasting starkly  against the greys of my youth,
The black of your nights reflected in my eyes,
And our light became one,
Because in-between those peaks of home,
Our heart’s collided for the very first time,
Now our struggles are one.
And our need to resist is beating strong,
Pulsating through our veins,
I know that you hear it too,
Because every time they send you up in flames,
My heart feels the warmth of the ground around you,
And waiting for you to set your roots again, I cry.
But tears are not warm when our hearts are on fire,
They settle on the peaks like snow,
Fading only when…

The ‘consultation’ on Michael Gove’s back-of-a-very-large-envelope curriculum is due to finish on Tuesday 16th April. The online forms for doing so are not user friendly and have some leading questions (quelle surprise) so the attached documents have been created by campaigners over the primary and the secondary history curriculum to help.

Then we will need to discuss where next for the campaign. A great chance will be the Defend School History Seminar on Saturday 20th April, with speakers such as Tristram Hunt MP, Kevin Courtney and Louise Raw (see facebook group for more details and to sign up: https://www.facebook.com/events/260473070756644/ )

Andy

InclusivePrimaryHistory.pdf

Completing the History NC Consultation crib sheet.docx

(satire – or is it?)

The UK government has scrapped plans for all of UK society to come together and pay for the ceremonial funeral of ex-prime minister Margaret Thatcher after realising there is in fact no such thing as society.

The dramatic U-turn came after research by the Daily Mail and the Sun newspapers revealed there were so many illegal immigrants and feckless work-shy scroungers in the UK, that there would not be nearly enough hard-working, striving bankers left in the country to pay for the funeral.

In a short statement, a spokesperson for the coalition government explained the reasons for the decision:

Obviously it would be wrong to expect the funeral to be paid for by society if – as Lady Thatcher herself confirmed – it doesn’t actually exist.

So we’ve asked the many diligent bankers in the UK who selflessly keep the country afloat with their…