Wednesday 6th January 2016

[HindleA]

Revenge delete

[citizenJA]

Fuck off again. This is the whole answer.

Andrew Gwynne:
I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. Although we all understand how universal credit is intended to work, does he not understand that there is an inbuilt disadvantage for those areas that were universal credit pilots, such as the Tameside part of my constituency? As universal credit is phased in across the country, these cuts will hit the areas that were the early entrants to the programme much harder than other parts of the country.

Justin Tomlinson:
We are seeing that people on universal credit are more likely to progress into work and to secure more hours, and I will come on to that in more detail later.

Well. I've written it down. It's a head-shaker, rude and inaccurate. We are all responsible for our words and actions. It's disgraceful for an MP, Tomlinson in this case, to bear false witness against people who're not in a position to respond. These are some people trying to survive on a fraction of what Tomlinson lives on. Disgraceful, you don't do that to people.

[55DegreesNorth]

Enough serious political chat, anyway - what about the DRUMMOND PUDDLE??

Bizarre. Thats the pedestrian bridge over the central motorway in Newcastle, between Jesmond and the Toon. I often walk that way when going to the match. Good publicity for Drummond Central.

[Tubby Isaacs]

This is our future.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/05/nyreg ... .html?_r=3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Charter school apparently doing great. Then someone accidentally sent out a memo saying "we want to get these 16 kids out".

The age of these dangerous troublemakers? Er, 5 or 6.

Did they become terriying delinquents at lawless state schools, with veteran unionized teachers? No, they've been in this charter school, where "great teachers" overcome everything.

The principal has gone off on leave. He was the 3rd since it opened in 2013.

I rather feel that we, or rather my son and several other pupils in his now ex primary have been a victim of a similar policy. A harder line on temporary and even permanent exclusions appear to have been taken since September. We were threatened with a permanent exclusion at the end of the first half of the autumn term, at which point what remaining trust we had in the school evaporated, although pressure on the lad had been increasing, and his mental well-being was been badly affected - I'd go so far as to say that his desire to please us by doing something he hated was tormenting him.

Anyhoo, we're home schooling while we decide the next step, but it certainly won't involve any school in the MAT that run most of the primaries around here, the leadership of which are obsessed by SATS. I guess that a bright, sociable lad struggling with ASD sensory and language processing issues, and, we've subsequently discovered through a private psychologist, very high levels of clinical anxiety was too much bother for them, so we could f*ck off on our own. And like I say, we're not alone - I know of several families that are having overt pressure on them to remove their kids or have actually withdrawn them, all just in the last few weeks or months in one village school.

/rant.

That is awful. Really sorry to hear about this.

I assume this is an academy?

[citizenJA]

Paul Flynn ‏@PaulFlynnMP 31m31 minutes ago Lambeth, London
Day of orchestrated treachery as resignations were timed for news outlets with
cunning malevolence to wound elected leader and party.

He's not mincing his words.

Making me wonder if the 'shadow minister' who apparently talked about such tactics to Radio 4 is still a shadow minister?

This crap gotta stop now. Who's going to provide government representing the people? The Tory government aren't good leadership, get them out. We have to have something to replace their inadequacy with. What are you Labour MPs thinking? You find group solidarity now. You can do it - a lot of you were there for Ed Miliband, you stand with the elected Labour party leader and shut up. We need a better government, you're it. Stop messing around.

[ohsocynical]

Russell Benson ‏@russellbenson 55 mins55 minutes ago

@bbclaurak your tweets in 2016 so far
Floods-2.
EU-12.
Saudi/Iran/n.korea-0.
Doctors strike-0.
Reshuffle-54 (fifty-four)

[HindleA]

Read Tweets and get indigestion.

[ohsocynical]

Punches thrown at Tory Party meeting: candidate “put in a headlock”

https://tompride.wordpress.com/2016/01/ ... -headlock/

Here you are CJA. Something to cheer you up...

[ohsocynical]

Night night all......

[citizenJA]

Night night all......

Goodnight, Ohso

[citizenJA]

California is having flooding too, I haven't looked yet to see if the mountains were getting snow, that'd be helpful longer term.
Goodnight, everyone
love,
cJA

[Tubby Isaacs]

http://schoolsweek.co.uk/childrens-comm ... y-ramadan/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is awkward. Ramadan falls in June- exam season. Children's Commissioner unwisely said the exams might be moved. Mail will be all over this.

The excellent Janet Downs BTL points out that Wakefield has already prepared for this, and isn't anticipating any exams being moved.

[Hobiejoe]

@hobiejoe

That sounds really really stressful. Hope you find a good solution for your lad and yourselves.

Thank you, steep learning curve for all of us, challenging but enjoying it. Got him signed up with a very good online school for six hours a week to keep him in touch with the English/Maths/History/Science curriculum - seven kids in a class using business online conferencing software with a teacher leading the classes and the sprog sat in front of a laptop, with headphones and microphone - it's slightly odd hearing half a lesson. Pretty good so far, interesting mix of kids. We fill in the rest - I'm a geography graduate in Devon, so most trips have a field trip aspect to them, much to the kids' chagrin, MrsHJ is the daughter of English teachers, and we try and cover cultural and general science stuff.

I certainly didn't realize how much of a network of home schoolers there is, around 60,000 at anyone time, apparently. And I never realized how easy it is to take a sprog out of school - a single sentence letter informing the school if you want to be terse. The law only requires that a child receives an education, doesn't say you have to be in school to do so. But still slightly surprised to not have heard anything from the DCC inclusion officer yet.

[rebeccariots2]

Chris Ship Retweeted
Jonathan Reynolds MP ‏@jreynoldsMP 17m17 minutes ago
For the record @HackneyAbbott, I was a trainee solicitor when elected, having gone to law school as a mature student and single parent (1/2)

Chris Ship Retweeted
Jonathan Reynolds MP ‏@jreynoldsMP 16m16 minutes ago
@HackneyAbbott And I think you're a total sell-out for sending your own kids to private school (2/2)

This is the point where my mum would have rolled up a copy of Womans Own and threatened to flay us alive with it if we didn't stop bickering.

[rebeccariots2]

Retford Times ‏@Retford_Times 13h13 hours ago
IN COURT: UKIP candidate sentenced for using false signatures on election papers http://tinyurl.com/gsurnre" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Hobiejoe]

This is our future.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/05/nyreg ... .html?_r=3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Charter school apparently doing great. Then someone accidentally sent out a memo saying "we want to get these 16 kids out".

The age of these dangerous troublemakers? Er, 5 or 6.

Did they become terriying delinquents at lawless state schools, with veteran unionized teachers? No, they've been in this charter school, where "great teachers" overcome everything.

The principal has gone off on leave. He was the 3rd since it opened in 2013.

I rather feel that we, or rather my son and several other pupils in his now ex primary have been a victim of a similar policy. A harder line on temporary and even permanent exclusions appear to have been taken since September. We were threatened with a permanent exclusion at the end of the first half of the autumn term, at which point what remaining trust we had in the school evaporated, although pressure on the lad had been increasing, and his mental well-being was been badly affected - I'd go so far as to say that his desire to please us by doing something he hated was tormenting him.

Anyhoo, we're home schooling while we decide the next step, but it certainly won't involve any school in the MAT that run most of the primaries around here, the leadership of which are obsessed by SATS. I guess that a bright, sociable lad struggling with ASD sensory and language processing issues, and, we've subsequently discovered through a private psychologist, very high levels of clinical anxiety was too much bother for them, so we could f*ck off on our own. And like I say, we're not alone - I know of several families that are having overt pressure on them to remove their kids or have actually withdrawn them, all just in the last few weeks or months in one village school.

/rant.

That is awful. Really sorry to hear about this.

I assume this is an academy?

In the last year or two - it was part of a federation of four primaries, now part of http://www.academiessouthwest.org.uk/. Led by Kingsbridge Community College, who took over the federation and Dartmouth Academy (one that E-Act had to give up) at the same time.

The Kingsbridge people are pretty aggressive about results. A friend, who was a County youth worker before being pushed out, organized Ten Tors teams http://www.tentors.org.uk/ for local kids, as Dartmouth Academy didn't, but they supported his work with minibus loans, storage facilities &tc, the HT was on the committee they set up. A training/team building weekend in the Lake District had been arranged for the Easter holidays, funded at least partly by the kids. ASW took over the school, and, as I understand it, any kids who hadn't reached a sufficient grade in their mock GCSE's were to attend extra lessons over the holidays, regardless of whether they had saved up for and paid for a trip that would add immeasurably to their life experiences.

I'm sure the wording from on high was carefully phrased to avoid allegations of coercion, but I'm also pretty sure the trip didn't go ahead, and even if it quite a few kids didn't go, despite having paid.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ho ho, what a Ledge he is!

http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2016/01 ... n-as-mayor" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

See picture of him signing tube office closures pledge.

Never seen it till now. cf Clegg and his broken pledge. Clegg to be fair never had sole power like Johnson.

[RogerOThornhill]

http://schoolsweek.co.uk/childrens-comm ... y-ramadan/

This is awkward. Ramadan falls in June- exam season. Children's Commissioner unwisely said the exams might be moved. Mail will be all over this.

The excellent Janet Downs BTL points out that Wakefield has already prepared for this, and isn't anticipating any exams being moved.

I'd have loved it if she'd answered Suella Fernandes by saying "Well, Nicky Morgan has said that we're a Christian country, so we're ignoring it".

They're not really going to move exams surely? I thought multi-culturalism was a thing of the past and only Labour bent over backwards to appease those Muslim types.

[Tubby Isaacs]

They won't move the exams but they'll enjoy riding in and rescuing the situation from lefty educational establishment.

Wonder if Suella had been briefed to ask that question?

[Tubby Isaacs]

I rather feel that we, or rather my son and several other pupils in his now ex primary have been a victim of a similar policy. A harder line on temporary and even permanent exclusions appear to have been taken since September. We were threatened with a permanent exclusion at the end of the first half of the autumn term, at which point what remaining trust we had in the school evaporated, although pressure on the lad had been increasing, and his mental well-being was been badly affected - I'd go so far as to say that his desire to please us by doing something he hated was tormenting him.

Anyhoo, we're home schooling while we decide the next step, but it certainly won't involve any school in the MAT that run most of the primaries around here, the leadership of which are obsessed by SATS. I guess that a bright, sociable lad struggling with ASD sensory and language processing issues, and, we've subsequently discovered through a private psychologist, very high levels of clinical anxiety was too much bother for them, so we could f*ck off on our own. And like I say, we're not alone - I know of several families that are having overt pressure on them to remove their kids or have actually withdrawn them, all just in the last few weeks or months in one village school.

/rant.

That is awful. Really sorry to hear about this.

I assume this is an academy?

In the last year or two - it was part of a federation of four primaries, now part of http://www.academiessouthwest.org.uk/. Led by Kingsbridge Community College, who took over the federation and Dartmouth Academy (one that E-Act had to give up) at the same time.

The Kingsbridge people are pretty aggressive about results. A friend, who was a County youth worker before being pushed out, organized Ten Tors teams http://www.tentors.org.uk/ for local kids, as Dartmouth Academy didn't, but they supported his work with minibus loans, storage facilities &tc, the HT was on the committee they set up. A training/team building weekend in the Lake District had been arranged for the Easter holidays, funded at least partly by the kids. ASW took over the school, and, as I understand it, any kids who hadn't reached a sufficient grade in their mock GCSE's were to attend extra lessons over the holidays, regardless of whether they had saved up for and paid for a trip that would add immeasurably to their life experiences.

I'm sure the wording from on high was carefully phrased to avoid allegations of coercion, but I'm also pretty sure the trip didn't go ahead, and even if it quite a few kids didn't go, despite having paid.

Academies are supposed to be all about experiences like Ten Tors. And their superior management would never scheduled a clash like that!

[Eric_WLothian]

You know the whole thing about the Tunnocks Tea Cakes, with them removing the lion? Apparently it was just a publicity thing. The lion is on the box and is still there. There was never one on the foil.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... ts-boycott" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Anybody in the LBC area can ask the oracle why the nat supporters were up in arms:

ALEX Salmond is to host his own radio show on LBC starting later this month, it has been revealed.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/alex-salmo ... -1-3992846

A good question might be "Why do cybernats want to boycott a product that has (allegedly) dropped a Scottish symbol while they are happy with a similar product (from Lees) which has never had such a symbol?"

[RogerOThornhill]

They won't move the exams but they'll enjoy riding in and rescuing the situation from lefty educational establishment.

Wonder if Suella had been briefed to ask that question?

Probably. Bit of an odd question to ask the Children's Commissioner - not really her area at all.

[Hobiejoe]

That is awful. Really sorry to hear about this.

I assume this is an academy?

In the last year or two - it was part of a federation of four primaries, now part of http://www.academiessouthwest.org.uk/. Led by Kingsbridge Community College, who took over the federation and Dartmouth Academy (one that E-Act had to give up) at the same time.

The Kingsbridge people are pretty aggressive about results. A friend, who was a County youth worker before being pushed out, organized Ten Tors teams http://www.tentors.org.uk/ for local kids, as Dartmouth Academy didn't, but they supported his work with minibus loans, storage facilities &tc, the HT was on the committee they set up. A training/team building weekend in the Lake District had been arranged for the Easter holidays, funded at least partly by the kids. ASW took over the school, and, as I understand it, any kids who hadn't reached a sufficient grade in their mock GCSE's were to attend extra lessons over the holidays, regardless of whether they had saved up for and paid for a trip that would add immeasurably to their life experiences.

I'm sure the wording from on high was carefully phrased to avoid allegations of coercion, but I'm also pretty sure the trip didn't go ahead, and even if it quite a few kids didn't go, despite having paid.

Academies are supposed to be all about experiences like Ten Tors. And their superior management would never scheduled a clash like that!

Indeed. As Roger would say, I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked!

Although their glossy flagship school is all about the life-enhancing experiences and exotic trips. It just seems that the under-performing plebs in Dartmouth need a bit of tough-love. It, of course being in no way their fault that a school that has had troubles in the past, and despite being thought of as a pretty posh sort of town, there are many social issues that we suffer from that the yachties and holiday home owners never see. Not least that, for reasons or mechanisms I can't work out the town, in the form of the large, and ground-breaking when built post-war, Townstal estate, receives a sizeable number of problem tenants from Plymouth and Torbay unitary authorities.