Early Years News

From Early Year News

Angela Ahern writes:

I attended Early Education's Annual Conference in Sheffield at the weekend. The theme was "Trusting children's thinking: reflecting on Dispositions for Learning". The keynote speakers were Professor Cathy Nutbrown : School of Education, University of Sheffield and Mick Waters : Director of Curriculum, QCA.
Cathy Nutbrown's talk was entitled "Respectful educators, capable learners". Cathy is an interesting and stimulating speaker, quoting Christian Schiller, Alec Clegg and Robin Tanner, amongst others. She expressed her view that education should be through the Arts, encouraging creativity and expression. Art - in terms of music, dancing, painting should be seen as a pedagogy. "Creative children need creative adults with wide eyes and open minds". Creative education in this sense is an "orienteering expedition, not a route march", with adults as "orienteering guides", providing tools and resources for the journey and opportunities to be a pioneer. Creative assessment is seen as a series of checkpoints on the learning journey.
Cathy quoted from an essay by Fulgham (1990) entitled "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten", "live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance - every day -some". Put things back where you found them and clean up your own mess - have milk and cookies at 3.00pm followed by a nap - hold hands and watch out for traffic - what else do we need to know?

Mick Waters from QCA has been described as the "Mick Jagger of the education world", so the audience weren't too sure what to expect, and he did not disappoint. Mick had separately also decided to quote Fulgham, so had to find another poem to illustrate his point, which was essentially that it is vital that educators do not lose their playful joyful spirit! Mick advocated applying the principles of early years education in secondary schools. He commented that to some "education is seen as a cold shower - unpleasant and hateful but good for you". He made the point that the curriculum should fit the learners, not the other way around.
Mick had helpfully made a list of childhood essentials, "make, do and mend........
*a collection
*tending plants
*taking things to bits
*caring for creatures
*enjoying the weather
*an adventure
*being in a club
*making something to use at home or at school
He posed the question, "is there anything living in your classroom?"
For further information on Mick's view of the early years curriculum, see the QCA website.

The conference heard from Felicity Thomas and Stephanie Harding from Earlham Early Years Centre, Norfolk in the afternoon, who have developed their own way of planning and assessing young children through focusing on their dispositions for learning, such as curiosity, persistence, co-operation, being rich and flexible in communication and playfulness.

The conference closing address was given by Margaret Edgington, who is the Vice President of Early Education. She stressed that those of us who work in the early years need to be firm about what are our non-negotiables, such as a curriculum that encourages an orienteering approach rather than a route march through targets, and to stand by and defend these - to both the Government and Ofsted - where applicable. She urged us to trust our own thinking - we are the connoisseurs of young children's learning and we need to exert our spirit strongly!

Next years conference will be held in Swansea and is entitled "Childhood Regained".
Look forward to seeing you there!

Peace march from Brighton or Seaford

This is a chance to get some fresh air and exercise, even if you think the United Nations has a rather poor record in securing world peace (Korea!) the sentiment is right. I will probably start from Seaford rather than Brighton.

The walk will start at the entrance to Brighton pier at 8.30am with a send-off from Brighton's Mayor for Peace. We aim to end up at Beachy Head for the Plaque install at 6.30pm attended by Eastbourne's Mayor for Peace. The Mayor of Seaford (Also a Mayors for Peace town) will meet us at around 1.30-2pm at the Seaford Museum.

We shall carry the plaque on a bespoke carriage all the way except for the Ouse crossing at Newhaven where we plan to have a lift to bring us from the western to the eastern bank thus saving us the extra two miles inland for the bridge crossing. At all times we shall use the coastal path.
The Peace Memorial commemorates all who lost their lives in the wars of the last hundred years, whatever their gender, age or nationality, military or civilian, and invokes the wording of the United Nations Charter, "...we the peoples of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war ......". It is sponsored by Eastbourne United Nations Association and Eastbourne for Peace and Liberty.

No Academy in Midhurst or Easebourne

Letter to Pat.Arculus@Westsussex.gov.uk the grandly titled "cabinet member for education" for West Sussex. You can write too if you live in West Sussex and you are concerned:



I am concerned at the haste with which the academy proposals in West Sussex, in particular in Midhurst/Easebourne, are being railroaded through. Once the decision has been made the academies will be outside the control of local people and as we saw recently in Barrow ignoring the concerns of local people can lead to councillors losing their seats.

If councillors are seen as out of touch with local people and abdicating responsibility for education to unelected religious bodies local people may well feel councillors do not deserve their support or trust.

As a teacher I am also concerned that teachers' organisations have not been consulted about this drastic change in their wages and conditions of service. New staff at the academies will not have the wages and conditions of service laid down in the STPC document and local agreements with teachers' organisations will be torn up.

Onwards and upwards = the NUT pay campaign.

The National Executive today unanimously agreed:

1. to reaffirm its committment to the decision of annual conference to ballot members for discontinous action

2. to discuss timescales for a ballot and also of forms of strike and non strike action at its next meeting in 2 weeks time.

3. to seek a meeting with Govt to put forward our demands on pay and on workload.

4. to congratulate div and assoc secs for the work done so far and encourage them to work for the petition ( deadline May 23rd) and the lobby of Parliament on June 9th.


Discontinuous action means that the NUT will be able to act in UNISON with other unions in the public sector. The government has said it want to "listen" and "feel our pain" so feel this Gordon!

Mayday!

A strange way to celebrate Mayday by electing a load of Tory councillors. I have taken for going for a walk every time Boris appears on the box. However there was one small bit of good news from a friend in Cumbria:

THE anti-academy campaign has sensationally ousted veteran Barrow Borough Council leader Bill Joughin in the local elections.

And his deputy, Jack Richardson, only managed to hold on to his town hall seat by one vote after three recounts.

The Tories were shaken by this result. They had ignored local feeling against the academy and they have paid the price. It also shows people who stand up and fight can beat the Tories while New Labour goes down to ignominious defeat.

How was it for you?

Read about action in your area in Classroom Teacher

You can also email in about action in your area to classroomteacher@yahoo.co.uk

Hull

Bristol

Coventry and Birmingham

Huddersfield

London

Brighton and Eastbourne

St Helens

Worthing

Ipswich

Bolton and Manchester

and the new Classroom Teacher 5

Gordon Brown "disappointed."

Gordon Brown has said he is "disappointed" that teachers are going on strike. This week the government has cut corporation tax from 30 to 28 percent thus handing over billions to the fat cats. 50 billion has also been handed over to the bankers. Then they pretend they haven't got the money to pay the teachers.

Teachers are beyond "disappointed." Some are getting angry and as Steve Sinnott put it, "Gordon, you wouldn't like us when we're angry!"

Verifiabilitiyify your nucular program

I caught CNN when they televised at length Brown looking embarrassed and Bush ranting that Iran cannot be trusted and demanding of Aminadinajad - "Verifiabilitiyify your nucular program"

Another country he can't trust apparently is Al Qaeda although he did look a bit confused at that point and then conceded they were a bunch of people rather than a country. Though the guardian of the free world still looked unsure.

And now here is something quite long about Obama - but quite good which is my reason for forwarding it.

Democrats Raise Hope for Change — Populist Rhetoric Conceals Pro-Corporate Policies
By Alan Jones
The race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination remains unresolved, with just a few primaries left. Obama appears to have an insurmountable margin. However, neither candidate is likely to gain the 2,025 delegates required to secure the nomination. This sets the stage for an all-out fight at the August convention, as unelected “super-delegates” will probably decide the outcome.

Hillary Clinton, trailing in delegates, can only win the nomination by trying to fatally injure Obama's campaign to convince the super-delegates he cannot win against John McCain. Her campaign has used thinly-veiled racism to attack Obama. Furthermore, she made the astounding claim that only she and… John McCain are "qualified" to act on national security, not Barack Obama.


Incredibly, the Obama campaign found itself on the defensive on issues such as NAFTA in a state like Ohio, which has been devastated by job losses because of the "free trade agreements" signed by Bill Clinton's White House.


The Clintons have a huge rap sheet of attacks against working people, from welfare rights to democratic rights, NAFTA, selling out on healthcare reform, and supporting Bush's war. Yet, Obama's camp showed its timidity toward the establishment by refusing to go on the attack against the Clintons' record, largely because they don’t disagree with these policies.


Obama's Politics
Obama’s spectacular primary victories were a reflection of the increasing rejection of the Republicans’ policies over the past seven years among large sections of the population. Obama has electrified youth and African-Americans, and is organizing rallies of tens of thousands with his message of "change" and "hope."


There is a sense of history being made and of another barrier being demolished, with an African-American so close to winning the Democratic Party’s nomination.


Obama, much more than Clinton, is able to appear as a Washington outsider who represents real change, as well as appearing to be "antiwar" because he expressed opposition to the war while Clinton was supporting Bush's war drive.


Aside from the hopes for a better future projected onto his candidacy by millions of Americans, Obama is very vague when it comes to putting forward specific social reforms or actual changes. In reality, Obama is a thoroughly big business candidate, having been vetted by the corporate elite that control U.S. politics. If elected, he will bitterly disappoint his supporters by carrying out pro-rich, anti-worker policies.


Obama is not the product of the civil rights struggles or any real political movement. In many ways, his political origins have more in common with Colin Powell, Bush's former Secretary of State, and a whole new generation of black leaders who have been loyal servants of the establishment.


This alone, however, does not explain the sudden shift of a large section of the political establishment behind a man who, four years ago, was in the Illinois state senate. Obama's political backers include Senator Ted Kennedy and such pillars of the establishment as former National Security Advisor and Cold War hawk Zbigniew Brzezinski, Rupert Murdoch's New York Post, The Los Angeles Times, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, and Warren Buffet, the second richest man in the U.S.


In the aftermath of U.S. imperialism’s debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan, a growing section of the U.S. ruling class is looking at Obama as the multicultural face that can signal to the world a shift from the policies of Bush’s unilateralism into those that would combine selective military force (in the name of a "war on terrorism" against "rogue regimes", etc.) with more diplomacy and the use of alliances.


In an editorial endorsing Obama, the Los Angeles Times commented: "An Obama presidency would present as a distinctly American face a man of African descent…No public campaign could do more than Obama's mere presence in the White House to defuse anti-American passion around the world" (2/3/08).


Contradictory Features
There are contradictory features reflected in the Obama phenomenon. On the one side is the genuine hope for change felt by millions of working people, while on the other side there is the desire of sections of the establishment to use Obama to create a more “acceptable face” to promote U.S. imperialism’s policies internationally.


Underlying the present political developments is a sharpening class polarization in U.S. society, which is compounded by a deepening economic crisis. This is fueling illusions that the Democratic Party and Obama represent some kind of "change." This reflects a shift of consciousness to the left and is an anticipation of an increase in social struggles in the coming turbulent period of American politics.


In the absence of a real political alternative from the labor or antiwar movements, the mass of workers and youth will need to go through the experience of a Democratic presidency to dispel their illusion that the Democratic Party - a party owned lock, stock, and barrel by the corporate establishment - will affect changes to benefit working people and bring an end to the squandering of untold trillions in Iraq and other wars.


When these illusions are shattered, many more will begin to understand the necessity of building a serious movement of working people in the streets, as well as the need to break from the two parties of capitalism and build our own political party.


Growing Populism
As the primary fight heated up, both Clinton and Obama were forced to try to tap into the broad anti-corporate anger that exists among large sections of the working class and even the middle class.


In speeches in economically hard-hit states, like Wisconsin and Ohio where there have been massive job losses, Obama spoke about the enormous inequality that exists in the U.S. and the fact that the rich are getting richer while everyone else is struggling to get by. Obama called for "shared sacrifice and shared prosperity."


His populist rhetoric provoked a reaction from the big business media, who warned Obama against stirring up "class warfare." Clearly, the establishment press realizes there is a danger of the Obama campaign igniting the deep reservoir of social discontent.


The Democrats seem poised to make gains against the Republicans in Congress in 2008. Whoever gets elected president in 2008 will be faced with colossal crises, both at home and abroad. The Obama campaign, while fostering illusions of change and hope, is not the vehicle of social change that the liberals imagine, but signals the opening of a new period of political and social instability.

Teacher Support Network

Message from the TSN:

Hello, I’m the digital media manager for Teacher Support Network. Just came across your blog. Neat stuff. You’re an active internet user and a teacher. I’m looking to develop new ways for teachers to get more involved using online community building tools. I just wanted to send you a personal invite to get involved in some of our upcoming things



Outside of our tools on our site http://teachersupport.info, We also have some entry points set up on the social network sites.



On Facebook:

Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Teacher-Support-Network/8348473439

Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2385602766

Would enjoy your participation and feedback. We’re also looking to get more teacher bloggers involved with TSN’s online work to create more teacher bloggers, or at least more participants talking about issues facing UK educators. We’re in the midst of creating some new online tools and would be neat to have you on board to maybe look at some of them as we’re developing them.



Anyway, any input is welcome. Thanks in advance



Andrew Lyons
Digital Media Manager
Teacher Support Network

Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, London WC1H 9BE
Direct Line: +44 (020) 7554 5242 Fax: +44 (020) 7554 5239
Email: andrew.lyons@teachersupport.info

Steve Sinnott 1951-2008

NUT General Secretary, Steve Sinnott, died suddenly on 5 April, 2008. He was my age.

Acting General Secretary, Christine Blower said: “Our hearts go out to Steve’s family at this sad time.

I know that he would have wanted the Union to go ahead with all its campaigns because he believed in all of them with his heart as well as his head.

At a later stage we will have the opportunity properly to remember Steve Sinnott, to honour his achievements and to celebrate his life.
For now, the best way to mark our respect would be to maximise the effect of the campaigns to which he was so committed.”

Teachers support the strike

The TES online survey shows massive support from non NUT teachers for strike action. Their union leaders should wake up and pay attention!

Source: TES online survey of 7,336 teachers, of whom 3,521
were NUT members

Is the one-day strike on April 24 a good idea?

All teachers Yes 62% No 38%
Non-NUT members Yes 52% No 48%
NUT members Yes 73% No 27%
(The same proportion of NUT members said they intended to
walk out on April 24)

Will it cause your school to close?

All teachers Yes 47% No 53%
Non-NUT members Yes 39% No 61%
NUT members Yes 55% No 45%

School Rules OK?

Our local swimming pool has three rules. Here they are:

1) Do not do anything dangerous.
2) Obey any instruction given to you by staff.
3) Enjoy yourself.

The third one isn't even a rule but just intended to create the right atmosphere.

Any school could manage with such a set of rules. Any pupil could understand them.

Alternatively our school had a rule "pupils may only wear flesh-coloured tights." One of our very few black pupils made a complete idiot of the head who tried to enforce that one!

NUT conference 2008 The Easter miracle

I thoroughly enjoyed NUT conference. Bill Greenshields’ presidential address was inspiring with its emphasis on the class basis of British society and his more-or-less unflappable demeanour made for a well-organised conference. Sometimes his avuncular chairmanship put me in mind of an uncle from my youth, Joe I think his name was.

The way the conference worked, the Executive Priority motion meant most calls for action were ruled out of order. This gives the National Executive an enormous opportunity to display flexibility. With an apparent left numerical majority on the Exec (depending on how you calculate these things) they must prove to be our flexible friends and not the government’s.

On Sunday on the tram there was a lot of talk about the Jerry Glazier Easter Miracle where Jerry apparently saw the light on the road to Damascus and ended up agreeing with Martin Powell-Davies on the need to link action on class size, workload and pay together.

After the Classroom Teacher http:/classroomteacher.org.uk discussion on Sunday I look forward to April 24th and recruiting new activists from the first-time strikers who will be involved. The classroom teacher flyer will be available for people to download and print out

The WSTA delegation had a gender balance of 7:2 which reflects the gender balance of the union. Other delegations can do likewise and perhaps the National Executive too.

We recorded our thoughts on the conference blog http://wsta1.org.uk from which you will see that two first-time delegates who are supply teachers were moved to see the consideration the union is giving to their plight.

Some people are gay. Get over it.

I started teaching in 1979 and I wouldn't have put up a poster like this then. I put one up in my room this week and all the comments have been positive. Some pupils were quoting it to each other as a criticism and a suggestion they might like to heed its advice.

Have some Madeira M'dear

This song is by Flanders and Swan and was very funny when they used to do it:

She was young, she was pure, she was new, she was nice
She was fair, she was sweet seventeen
He was old, he was vile, and no stranger to vice
He was base, he was bad, he was me!
He had slyly inveigled her up to his flat
To view his collection of stamps
And he said as he hastened to put out the cat
The wine, his cigar and the lamps

Have some madeira, m'dear
You really have nothing to fear
I'm not trying to tempt you, that wouldn't be right
You shouldn't drink spirits at this time of night

Have some madeira, m'dear
It's really much nicer than beer
I don't care for sherry, one cannot drink stout
And port is a wine I can well do without
It's simply a case of chacun a son gout
Have some madeira, m'dear

Unaware of the wiles of the snake-in-the-grass
And the fate of the maiden who topes
She lowered her standards by raising her glass
Her courage, her eyes and his hopes
She sipped it, she drank it, she drained it, she did
He quietly refilled it again
And he said as he secretly carved one more notch
On the butt of his gold-headed cane

Have some madeira, m'dear,
I've got a small cask of it here
And once it's been opened, you know it won't keep
Do drink it up, it will help you to sleep

Have some madeira, m'dear,
it's really an excellent year
Now if it were gin, you'd be wrong to say yes
The evil gin does would be hard to assess
Besides it's inclined to affect me prowess
Have some madeira, m'dear

Then there flashed through her mind what her mother had said
With her antepenultimate breath
"Oh my child, should you look on the wine when tis red
Be prepared for a fate worse than death"

She let go her glass with a shrill little cry
Crash! tinkle! it fell to the floor
When he asked, "What in Heaven?" she made no reply
Up her mind, and a dash for the door

Have some madeira, m'dear,
rang out down the hall loud and clear
A tremulous cry that was filled with despair
As she paused to take breath in the cool midnight air
Have some madeira, m'dear,
the words seemed to ring in her ear

Until the next morning, she woke up in bed
With a smile on her lips and an ache in her head
And a beard in her ear 'ole that tickled and said
Have some madeira, m'dear

Supply Teachers - shock troops of education

I received a letter from my MP the other day in which he put forward the basic argument that allowing “flexibility” in the employment of agency staff made it possible for agencies to provide employment and any restriction of their “flexibility” would lead to a reduction in employment prospects.

I was inclined to ask this Tory MP, “what are you, New Labour?” because you couldn’t put a Rizla between the policies of the bosses’ parties on this issue.

It is of course a downright lie that paying people less and taking away their entitlement to pension benefits leads to more employment. What it does do is to keep the private agencies afloat. Without them schools would need some system of Local Authority supply lists. This is a system that was sacrificed on the altar of privatisation.


The conference motion on supply teachers contains the line “calls on the executive to campaign vigorously”. Yet this motion stands in the name of the executive! On those grounds alone it deserves your full support. The prospect of the executive trying to galvanise themselves is to be welcomed.

For many teachers supply teaching has been a way of reducing their timetable prior to retirement now that early retirement has become virtually unobtainable and retirement on the grounds of ill health is virtually impossible unless you are actually dead.

Paradoxically, supply teachers are often the shock troops of education, sent in to hold the line when nobody else can. Have you ever covered a class and found out within five minutes exactly why the usual teacher is off with stress-related illness? Supply teachers do this all the time.

And yet they are criminally underpaid and denied their pension rights in the name of “flexibility”. If they are not directly employed by a school the agencies will not pay a penny towards their CPD and they have to rely on their own resources to keep abreast of developments in education. The only people who provide free CPD for supply teachers are the NUT.

Whether the National Executive campaigns “vigorously” or in their more usual
less-than-vigorous manner, we need to fight for supply teachers. School reps can make their colleagues aware of the injustice affecting people who work at their side. The fat cats in agencies pay them less, rob them of pensions and pocket the difference.

It will help all of us in the fight against the creeping privatisation of education

If you want to help galvanise the executive contact classroomteachers.org.uk

This is not just vandalism

One of the features of East Grinstead is the Art Deco Caffyns building. Although it is a bit of a local landmark and stands out from some of the ghastly buildings around it, it has never had a perservation order on it.

Now it is to be demolished when it could have been preserved because a food shop is opening. This is not some teenager writing on a toilet wall. This is not just vandalism. This is M and S vandalism.

Florida Republican Guard

The Americans want free elections in Cuba and they are sending over Jeb Bush and the Florida Republican Guard to supervise them.

(Two jokes for the price of one)

Woodard Corporation snubs parents and teachers

From the WSTA blog

Teachers and Parents oppose academies.
150 parents and teachers concerned about the threat to turn Littlehampton, Boundstone and King’s Manor into academies attended a meeting organised by the WSTA on Thursday 7th February..

The local authority's spokesman Robert Back was listened to in polite silence. He argued that although Academies had been corrupt and inefficient in the past they would be very different now. He also argued that the academy was “the only game in town.” The private sponsors Woodard Corporation refused to send anyone to speak to us.

Alistair Smith and Hank Roberts spoke on behalf of the NUT and got a very positive reception.

Alistair pointed out the dangers of Academies where historically the Local Authority has lost all say in the running of the school with the LA having one governor and the sponsors having the lion’s share.

He also stressed the social divisiveness of Academies. “Academies,” according to Lord Adonis, “are the 21st Century’s Grammar Schools.”

Hank Roberts pointed out that sponsors generously donating two million pounds can get upwards of 18 million pounds of public money for their trouble and frequently excessive profits are made through “consultancy fees” and the provision of equipment for the school. They are not sponsors but spongers.

Private businesses are colonising the state-funded education system.

Everyone who spoke from the floor was opposed to privatisation and not taken in by any of the promises. nor did they accept the arrogant assertion "there is no alternative". That is not a spirit in which to conduct a consultation. It is undemocratic...and anyway it is something Margaret Thatcher used to say a lot.

There was also discussion about the spread of religious schools without any popular demand. Hank warned of the proliferation of separate schools for children whose parents have different religious views and the potential divisiveness this will bring about.

Teach boys to stab?

I see Norman Tebbitt has done it again - this time saying all boys should be taught to shoot. He always was barking but he seems to have become worse. Obviously what we should do is teach them to stab while we are at it

I wonder if he does it so that Boris will look sane by comparison. He has got a job on his hands if so.

It is on a par with the other Tory policy of paying members of your family to do nothing. I know a lot of teenage boys who need no incentives to do nothing.

McDonalds A levels

From the WSTA weblog
We have news that McDonalds are introducing their own A levels and we have an exclusive preview of the paper:

Is McDonalds?

a) a vicious anti-union low wage employer?
b) a fast track to a heart attack?
c) fun in a bun?
d) animal cruelty incarnate

If your answer was (c) congratulations you now have a Mc A
level.

(before the Millionaire McLawyers get on the McPhone this is
a joke of course)

Woodard Corporation takeover of schools

Teachers are up in arms about the transfer of three schools to the Woodard Corporation. this is the press release I was busy with yesterday:


Teachers in West Sussex are planning a campaign against proposals to turn three of the County's secondary schools into Academies, starting with a Public Meeting on Thursday 7 February at 7.30pm in the Assembly Rooms, Worthing.

Dave Thomas, local Secretary for the National Union of Teachers, said:
We are opposed to Academies in West Sussex because:
they undermine democratically controlled Local Authorities,
they put schools in the hands of unaccountable sponsors,
they threaten teachers' pay and working conditions,
they will introduce three more schools of a faith character, with minimal consultation and a reduction in parents' choice.
At a meeting of West Sussex NUT held on Wed 16th Jan, the following motion was passed unanimously:
'WSTA is opposed to the establishment of Academies in West Sussex. It further deplores the lack of consultation by the Woodard Corporation and WSCC with the staff and their representatives in the schools concerned, namely, Boundstone CC, Kings Manor CC and Littlehampton CC.'
The meeting was attended by NUT members from all three schools and from other schools throughout West Sussex.
The public meeting is open to parents, teachers, support staff and others with an interest in state education to allow them an opportunity to air their concerns.

Workload and Pay

from Classroom Teacher

Hands up all those who have had this experience. We called a meeting at school to discuss the issue of workload. And at the beginning of the meeting I had to read out all the apologies of people who could not come because they were too busy!

For teachers "excessive workload" means workload which seems to serve no educational purpose. Colleagues who voted to boycott the SATS on grounds of workload were coming in every weekend for rehearsals of the school play. The obvious benefit for the pupils of the school play outtrumped the demerits of SATS.

I think if people are going to refuse excessive workload they have to have some confidence the union will back them. And that would require a ballot.

At conference the Executive argued against a ballot on workload because it would confuse the issue and we needed to concentrate on getting a result in a pay ballot.

Then there was a bit of a hiatus and this week a decision has to be taken, a "robust" decision perhaps? Woe betide the NUT leadership if they come up with an invertebrate decision instead.


There is a discussion about this on the TES website
You can join in here

Action and Change for Teachers

A group of teachers who backed Martin Powell-Davies’ recent stand in the NUT Vice-President election met on Saturday January 12th . The meeting discussed what needs to be done to build action to defend teachers’ pay, cut our relentless workload and to halt the break-up of local authority education.

A leadership we can rely on

One thing that still holds us back is the lack of a fighting union leadership that teachers can rely on to build the united action we need. Martin’s campaign helped keep up the pressure on the NUT Executive to call the promised national ballot for strike action on pay. We hope that the Executive will vote to get the ballot under way when they meet at the end of January. By then the Government should finally have announced the miserly salary awards that they expect us to put up with for 2008-2010.


Building support for classroom teachers

Most teachers, struggling with the daily grind in schools, will know nothing about the debates within the Union. But they know they need support in standing up to the demands of bullying managers and the pressures of observations, league tables and performance management. Hard-pressed school reps know they need support in organising their school group and explaining union campaigns in a way that grabs classroom teachers’ attention.
Many hard-pressed Union Secretaries and officers will feel the same way. Too often left on their own to try and build school-by-school action in isolation, ground down by a rising mountain of individual casework, they also need support in building strong local Associations that can defend teachers and also to help bring in new members, especially young teachers, into activity.
It’s this vital task, of helping to develop a strong network of classroom teachers, school reps and campaigning union officers that the meeting agreed had to be our first priority.

A campaigning newsletter

We agreed to build our network by launching a new campaigning newsletter, “Classroom Teacher”, to circulate to schools, both by e-mail and as printed copies that teachers can distribute to their colleagues. It will focus primarily on the main pay and conditions issues facing classroom teachers and the campaigns we can build to defend ourselves.

The newsletter plans to be sharp and snappy, written by, and for, classroom teachers, reflecting the daily pressures we are under but also building confidence that together we can take action to turn the tide. We plan to put names to the articles reflecting the range of teachers involved in the network. At the same time, we hope to have room to include some more detailed commentary for teachers who also want to read something a bit more analytical about the problems we face. We also want to invite teachers to send in their own articles and comments and to be a real part of a growing network.

We hope that the newsletter can develop in to a larger bulletin – which will mean appealing for finances too. It will certainly be regularly produced so that ‘Classroom Teacher’ will be there in staffrooms at least every half-term for teachers to read.

A first flyer has been produced based on a Lewisham NUT newsletter “Too Much Work, Too Little Pay” which went down well at a recent national NUT Secretaries meeting. A further leaflet on the pay campaign should be out shortly.

The ‘Classroom Teacher’ network

The newsletter will advertise an e-mail, this blog and our website which will allow teachers to get in touch with the campaign and also post their own comments on our blog. We also have a Classroom Teacher account on youtube.

We have also set up a classroom teacher e-group which will allow members of the network to easily contact each other and exchange views and information.

We hope that teachers will forward our newsletter to colleagues and develop its circulation. We
want to make sure we know where it is being read, get feedback on what teachers have thought of it but, above all, get new teachers to join the network and write their own comments and articles.

Where there is support, we will also organise national or regional meetings around particular issues or campaigns so that we can bring teachers together and help plan a way forward. We can also produce material to be distributed at NUT Conference, although our main focus is going to be on classroom teachers rather than national NUT events.

We hope this initiative can help build a network of classroom teachers working together to defend our colleagues and to build a union ready and prepared to take action to change our pay, our workload, our union and our schools.

Contact:
classroom.teacher@yahoo.co.uk
Martin Powell-Davies 07946 445488

Preview Newsletter

The CPD newsletter going into schools soon can be seen
here

Channel 4 political awards

The characters listed for this award are as follows:
Of those available I would probably opt for the anti-war protestors although this is technically voting for myself!

Tony Blair: Call 09011 27 27 01
or Vote by email

Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness: Call 09011 27 27 02
or Vote by email

Ken Livingstone: Call 09011 27 27 03
or Vote by email

Alex Salmond: Call 09011 27 27 04
or Vote by email

The Countryside Alliance: Call 09011 27 27 05
or Vote by email

Anti-Iraq war protestors: Call 09011 27 27 06
or Vote by email

Don't use their premium rate phone lines, you can vote for free.

http://tinyurl.com/3yl9gh

What is the betting New Labour have full time staff phoning in day and night?

Yule

A subtle understated Christmas message from my pupils.

Defend Tommy Sheridan

Thin blue line?

I consider it quite ironic the police are seeking the right to strike when their strike-breaking role is well documented.

However they should be supported. Public sector workers should be pleased that the present generation of police officers have seen the light when their predecessors were content to be Thatcher's boys in blue.

State Britain

“State Britain”, (an irreverent reference to Tate Britain) recreates Brian Haw's anti-war protest in Parliament Square. It has won the Turner Prize although most of the media coverage references an earlier work by Mark Wallinger which amused the tabloids who could show him dressed as a teddy bear.



"a bold political statement with art's ability to articulate fundamental human truths" is how the somewhat pompous judges described it. However Mark Wallinger praised Brian Haw's "tireless campaign against the folly and hubris of our government's foreign policy". He added: "Bring home the troops. Give us back our rights. Trust the people."



He added: "I think it's regrettable that people have been so quiescent about what the Serious Organised Crime Act has done to people who want to demonstrate. It is against Magna Carta, and that was produced in 1215, before democracy. It's important these freedoms are fought for and preserved."

The painstaking detail with which Mark Wallinger reproduced the protest meant it cost rather more than the 5000 pound prize itself but it is important that a protest which has been attacked with all the force of the corporations and their parliamentary mouthpieces has achieved this recognition.

--
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Blog
http://www.derekmcmillan.com/weblog
http://www.socialistteachers.org.uk/weblog

Oxford Union grovel to Nazis

The spirit of Chamberlain is alive in Oxford. The Oxford Union pick and choose who they honour. David Irving was imprisoned for voicing pro-Nazi views in Austria where it is illegal. Therefore the Oxford Union honoured him.

Many people, British subjects and British residents, have been locked up without charge or trial in Guantanamo. The Oxford Union studiously ignores them.

A wee bit two faced perhaps.

Incidentally if fascists "must be allowed freedom of speech" would you say the same of paedophiles? Should they be offered a platform as well? I know people disagree with their views but surely the same argument would apply to them? It is a fake argument.

And how much freedom do the liberal democrats expect to get in a BNP concentration camp as a reward for patronising Griffin?

Socialism 2007

I attended Socialism 2007. It was a great opportunity to meet old friends and in particular to meet people campaigning against cuts in the NHS who are experiencing the same things we are in West Sussex.

My daughter, whose first Socialist Party event it was, reprimanded me for not teaching her the words of "The Internationale"!

Nasty one Cyril

Sir Cyril Taylor GBE, chair of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust has advised the government that there are 17,000 bad teachers who ought to be sacked. It is surprising that Chris Woodhead isn’t suing him for identity theft as he made the self-same spurious claim ten years ago.



The figure is based on OFSTED assessments of teachers. This scientific evaluation is based on a ten minute glance at the work of a teacher who may have been teaching for ten or twenty years. Moreover OFSTED inspectors define lessons as “satisfactory” and by sleight of hand unelected individuals like Cyril translate that as “bad”. A few elementary lessons in the English language would not do him any harm.



I run a helpline for stressed teachers in West Sussex and half of the time the source of their difficulties is senior management who are themselves being bullied by “advisers” and politicians like Cyril demanding impossible targets.



His solution, to sack bad teachers and “go out and recruit fantastic teachers” shows what a fantasy world he lives in. Spend a couple of hundred thousand pounds on training a teacher and as soon as he or she has difficulties you throw them on the scrap heap. Then you replace them with “fantastic” – ie fantasy, mythical – teachers…. from Hogwarts presumably.

All teachers will encounter professional difficulties at some stage in their career and if they get help and support they can overcome them. They get that help and support from other teachers as a rule. Certainly not from people like Cyril. What are they for?

Save the NHS demo

Why Militant was expelled from the Labour Party

The Cane

The late Chris Woodhead was wrong to think educational theory is pointless. Everybody has a theory of education. The taxi driver who took me from Moodlemoot to Milton Keynes station certainly did.

I won’t bore you with everything he said when he found out I was “one of those politically-correct nancy boys called teachers” but it would be no exaggeration to say he wants every classroom to be like a less pleasant version of Guantanamo “to teach the little c*nts to behave.”

I don’t know how many of his passengers get in his cab and tell him how to be a cabbie. Perhaps a lot of them do which would explain why he is so bitter and twisted.

I was not going to go into the detailed educational theory involved so I told him three things:

I went to a school where the school bully was caned every week, sometimes every day. He went in a bully and he came out a bully with a sore backside. It did not help his victims.

My brother went to a school where the cane was used much more often than it was in mine. The behaviour at his school was substantially worse than it was at mine by any measure. The opposite of his theory.

I was caned for drawing a cartoon. It did work. I have never drawn a cartoon since.

It was all anecdotal of course but better than nothing. The temptation after a tiring day was to let him have his say. If everybody does that he will assume everyone agrees with him, “even some ponce of a teacher I had in here the other day!”


(Yes I know Woodhead is still alive but a man can dream!)

Militant 1964-1997

Mass rally on Saturday 13th October,
Assemble in Clair Park,
Perrymount Road,
Haywards Heath
at 9.30am
(Admittedly Nicholas Soames will be there but come anyway!)

New Labour and torture

An astonishing 30 percent of Americans in a recent poll thought that torture was justified. The British government does not torture but it exports the job of torturing to other governments which is just as bad....arguably worse.

It is everybody's nightmare to be tortured but a democratic government which hands over the job to undemocratic governments is disgusting beyond belief.

I can't believe I used to be a member of the Labour Party. What has the party of Keir Hardy become?

Local Accident and Emergency Services

Both major parties aim to cut NHS spending.




The Conservative Party has hypocritically opposed the closure of - for example - the Princess Royal Accident and Emergency department. At the same time they promise massive tax cuts. which can only mean cutting services and so-called "efficiency savings", "cutting out waste"

The Sheffield Survey conducted by the Medical Care Research Unit concluded that "Increased journey distance to hospital appears to be associated with increased risk of mortality. Our data suggest that a 10-km increase in straight-line distance is associated with around a 1% absolute increase in mortality."

To put it another way, more people will die.

The demonstration against the cuts to Princess Royal is on 13th October. Oddly the website does not have the venue but it will be posted here asap.

Save the Princess Royal!

Well that is a rather unusual sentiment for me. I mean the hospital not the parasite.

Martin4VP on youtube

The smoking video on teachertube

Teachertube is rather more difficult than youtube. For example it does not give readymade embedding code.... but it is worth persevering!




Click here if the video does not appear on your browser!

Signs of the Times

Oh well probably there are better ones but these are good for a small smile anyway.

Martin, Hank and Veronica

The general meeting of the West Sussex Teachers Association nominated Martin Powell-Davies and Hank Roberts for the Vice Presidential roles in the NUT.

Veronica Peppiatt was nominated as NUT Executive member for West Sussex and Surrey.

The young teachers' rep pointed out at the meeting that members have been waiting since conference for the union to call a strike over pay and they are beginning to wonder what is going on.

A member who had previously attended the assertiveness training course and came to the meeting very angry with the union about the condition of supply teaching in the county.

By the end of the meeting she was our delegate to the black teachers' conference and one of our delegation to annual conference.

She began on the outside looking in. She ended up on the inside looking out.


Our supply teachers are becoming radicalised by their treatment by West Sussex County Council.

WSTA on page three.

The latest edition of Learning Report was launched at the TUC. It is an annual publication about Learning Reps and has a feature on West Sussex Teachers' Association and our use of the internet and Moodle.

Click here for the whole report

Click here to jump straight to page three!

Brown and Thatcher

far flung request for the helpline

West Sussex helpline is for stressed teachers in West Sussex to contact the union and the teacher support network when they need help.

However we do get calls from other areas.

The furthest flung query to the WSTA helpline this week was from a teacher in Wales who had found our number on the internet. She wanted to know whether it was part of her job to chase up absences. It was rather flattering but perhaps more NUT branches should consider having a helpline of their own.

The reply to her query is here

In short of course schools follow up on pupils who are absent but the paperwork is not done by teachers so they can concentrate on teaching.

Randomly Shocking Monkeys

This is the second randomly shocking monkeys video and based on Bill Hicks' tirade against advertising. It is very good.



Sponsored by the Coca Cola Death Squads in Guatamala - where they used death squads to kill off union activists.

Also sponsored by the Lambert and Butler Cancer Unit and McDonalds Obesity campaign (self explanatory)

And "New Kiddie Arsenic" which is a Bill Hicks invention.....so far anyway.

Youtube metube everybodytube

I have become addicted to Youtube and its little sister Teachertube. The latter concentrates on instructional and thought-provoking video. However Teachertube does not have the bandwidth of Youtube so when I put videos on it, I usually go out for a walk while it uploads.

Anybody can have a go and the contributions reflect that – not always in a good way. The number of people who think they can sing or think they are funny seems to be about 20 times the number who really can or really are.

If you go on Youtube try searching for “derekmcmillan1951” and you can comment favourably or otherwise! However the main thing is to have a go yourself. Webcams are about £10 in the shops or a lot less on ebay and in fact I didn’t even need a webcam for anything I have done so far.

It is so easy to use Moviemaker or VirtualDub to make presentations I will be getting my pupils to throw Powerpoint away this year. The fact that most pupils in school respond “Oh no not again” when you suggest they make a Powerpoint tells me the time is ripe for this.

If you have never watched Mock the Week on TV, or you have missed an episode it is available on Youtube. The clips are usually rather small, one round of the show – usually enough to raise a smile. The same goes for virtually every program I can think of. There are clips from (and parodies of) Dr Who, Blake’s Seven, Star Trek.....just type in any program you can remember basically.

And you will also find out more about Paris Hilton than you could possibly wish to know. However you can flag videos as offensive and eventually Youtube will remove them.

They have guidelines on explicit sex and on offensive content. However, I have to say that I have found them to be soft on Fascism and soft on the causes of Fascism. If enough people complain (small hint) the more egregeous excrescences will be removed.

Dihydrogen Monoxide

I have just been reading this website about Dihydrogen Monoxide. Talk about scary. Apparently it is all over the place. It’s in our food and it is impossible to wash it off. It is used in poisons and in nuclear power plants and it kills thousands of people particularly if they go swimming because by now it is in the reservoirs and even in the sea.

Worrying eh?

(with apologies to everybody)

WSTA on youtube

Gullible is not in the Dictionary

There is a video clip on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OruQy-X32O0

It is an unexceptional clip about religion and gullibility by a teenager. What was exceptional was the response. If you search youtube you will find hundreds of responses from the religious right going over the top in their criticisms, denying her right to have an opinion and literally threatening to kill her.

So much for Christians turning the other cheek!

Make Poverty History?

It hasn't happened and I cannot claim to be very surprised.

In the nineteenth century there was appalling poverty and people reacted to it. they didn't react by holding a chamber concert and trying to persuade Gladstone and Disraeli to wear "make poverty history" wristbands.

They said "you are rich because we are poor. We are poor because you are rich. We need to turn the world upside down."

This is not exactly volume three of Das Capital but it is the beginning of a theory which could make poverty history for real.

http://socialistparty.org.uk

Alan Hardman Cartoons

Cardiac Arrest

My experience is commonplace. I had a heart attack and I was rushed to my local hospital. That hospital A and E is being closed. If I were to have another heart attack (and it’s on the cards) the ambulance would have to travel further.

The latest report from Sheffield Medical Care Research Unit concludes, “Our data suggests that increasing journey distances for all emergency patients may lead to an increase in mortality for some.” For every six miles further you have to travel there is a one percent increase in mortality.

Twenty years ago we were campaigning against the closure of our local hospital. The Labour Party (yes the Labour Party) was at the forefront of that campaign. Now it is New Labour spearheading the attack on the health service.

With astonishing hypocrisy – well they are Tories so astonishing is perhaps inappropriate – the Conservative Party is claiming to oppose the cuts in the NHS. When in power they drove through massive cuts in the NHS while Thatcher boasted she could be treated “at the time I want by the doctor I want” because of course she went private.

The conventional response from New Labour was heard on the radio immediately the report came to light. “The data is outdated and does not take into account innovations in medical technique.” The spokesman then went on to mention the medical procedure angioplasty as one of these new techniques. Actually angioplasty has been available since the 1990s. How can you tell if a New Labour spokesman is lying? His lips are moving.

So if I kick the bucket in the ambulance that will be one fewer person to oppose the cuts. A win-win situation for New Labour.

A level day

Of course the Telegraph and the Mail are saying the exams are getting easier. Certainly their job is getting easier, they just dust off last year's article. It would be nice to see what results the journalists got at A level and what the Telegraph and the Mail, or perhaps the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, was saying about "the exams all being too easy these days" at the time.

The journalists just suck these opinions out of their thumbs don't they. If more people are passing, the exams are easy. If fewer, then the schools are failing. If it is exactly the same "no progress in education - teachers to blame."

There is a simple anglo saxon term for these people but I am too polite to use it here.

Boycott Sun

Richard Dawkins on Channel 4

Richard Dawkins' new series on Channel 4 is as amusing and thought-provoking as his work always is.

It's a free country and Dawkins is entitled to his opinion. I think that horoscopes and tarot cards are a bit of a soft target after "The God Delusion" (which my whole family has now enjoyed). Most of the people who read them do not take them seriously. Even those who believe in astrology do not take the "Mystic Meg" stuff in the newspapers seriously. The horoscopes have traditionally been a job for a junior member of staff who can't be trusted with anything more important

And even people who believe in all sorts of nonsense will still trust their lives to orthodox medicine when it comes to the crunch. Even in Forest Row, you don't often hear "I've got a ventricular aneurism - have you got a healing crystal for that?"

I think there is a genuine problem with people thinking they can communicate with the dead and the way his program exposed some of the tricks employed by mediums was worthwhile.

Shop Signs - Edinburgh Blog

Shop Signs

Edin burger

Do you have the balls to wear this? (on a kilt shop)

Battered mars bars £1

And the Church of Scotland had its deliberately austere building opposite the ornate Episcopalian church enlivened by a tennis picture with the caption “love all”. What was missing was the asterisk “* with the exception of homosexuals, single mothers, communists and most of all those infernal Episcopalians opposite!”

Under Milk Wood – Edinburgh Blog

Under Milk Wood – Edinburgh Blog

The Plant Life production was the best I have seen. I have only ever heard it on the radio before. However I enjoyed it despite the inability of the cast to pronounce “sago”. I think they were wise not to attempt Welsh accents and the presentation was impressive – as was the poetry of course.

Dougie C – Edinburgh Blog

Dougie C – Edinburgh Blog

The history of Magic. Impressive prestidigitation. His act started out very tame and standard but then it became apparent that the simple tricks were just a diversion as he was building up to some very clever stuff. He even did the “catch a bullet in your mouth” stunt, except he did it with a paintball.

He also described the classic Indian Rope Trick – a rope appears to disappear up into a cloud, a small boy climbs up it, the magician follows him up and hacks him to pieces with a sword, climbs down the rope, puts the bits together, gives them a good kick and the boy comes back to life. He then did some very clever tricks with rope but not that one – no children were dismembered during the course of this act which was free.

Luke Wright – Poet and Man – Edinburgh Blog

“One of the first rules of stand up comedy is not to paraphrase Simone de Beauvoir” The only stand up comic with a bookshelf to which he referred during the act. The act was divided up into chapters and he kept the audience interested and involved for an hour. I even found myself buying his CD afterwards and other members of the audience walked away with “I glassed a swan” badges – a reference to one of the more surprising stories in his act.

Get Up Stand Up - Edinburgh Blog

Get Up Stand Up is put on by the WMD Awareness program. It has stand-up comedians, most of whom have their own shows, musicians and a film, the depressing “Anthropology 101 - The 'end of the world' lecture”

Geoff Norcott was a deaf comedian and very funny. One less good comedian ended on a very funny tagline: “I am going back now to finish off a video ‘anal lesbians’ – to be honest though it is not very good. They spent the first half hour making labels for all the things in the fridge.”

The underlying message of “Get Up Stand Up!” is serious:
The US is estimated to have spent around $4 trillion on nuclear weapons from 1940-1995 – and that does not include the cost of other WMD.
One in three children under 5 years old suffers from malnutrition.
Where do you think that money would be best used?

Ivor Dembina was a Jewish Comedian and can therefore get away with a joke about Auschwitz. “There is a plaque commemorating all the thousands of Jews killed there. Another mentions gypsies, disabled people, communists and gay victims of the Nazis. Zionists do not like that. They do not wish to be lumped with gippos, cripples, lefties and queers. It’s not your schwitz it’s our schwitz.”

He also went to synagogue to be given his “original name” which turned out to sound like “yidscock”. He was also given a Jaffa orange and told he had a place in Israel. When he asked to see where Israel was he was shown a place in Palestine. He said he wanted to go to Palestine as that was its original name. They suggested his father enroll him in a progressive synagogue down the road.

And they took back his orange.

In addition, one night “Get Up Stand Up” also had Bruce Kent (former CND leader) to give a less depressing perspective on the film. The film suggests we will lose the battle against global warming and nuclear war. He suggested many examples where people could make a difference.

Stewart Lee

Stewart Lee demonstrates the funniest moment on TV - David Jason falling over. And questions whether this is really the funniest the public could have chosen

“41st best stand-up ever”

His mother, however, thinks Tom O’Connor is a much better comedian as when she saw him on a cruise ship he went to a guy in the front row and aked him what he did for a living
“I’m in oil”
Back as quick as a whippet came Tom O’Connor: “Are you a sardine?”

He derided Channel 4, Big Brother, Russell Brand (boo!) and Carphone Warehouse for their pretended opposition to racism.

He went on to the issue of “political correctness gone mad” and quoted Richard Littlejohn’s objection to the police describing a murdered teenager as “a woman working as a prostitute” Richard Littlejohn insisted that she was not a woman but a prostitute. Stewart Lee had Littlejohn sneaking into the graveyard at dead of night to laboriously chisel on her gravestone….
“prostitute”
“not a woman who worked as a prostitute”
“a prostitute”
“signed”
“Richard Littlejohn”
“cunt”
“Not a man employed as a cunt.”

He also talked about the world before political correctness.
An Asian boy in his class at school was never called by name, but only ever as “black spot.”
People clubbed together to stop a black family moving into their street.
And the Conservative Party won the Smethwick by election on the slogan “if you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour”

David Zanthor - Edinburgh Blog

David’s act is a satire on magic shows with some genuine prestidigitation thrown in. He also has a myspace presence with an astonishing number of friends. A fair amount of his act involved talking about the state of his marriage in between a range of tricks most involving audience participation.

He made helpers from the audience feel welcome. He didn’t ridicule them and showed them how to do tricks. This would no doubt get him expelled from the magic circle.

It was a free show and well worth the time. The climax is surprising :)

Street performers - Edinburgh Blog.

The slack rope looks a lot more dangerous than the tight rope but the guy who was doing it spent his time casually chatting to the audience and telling jokes while juggling. It was impressive and great to be able to sit around a table – actually a barrel – outside a pub and watch it. A lot of the street performers’ art is in building up the audience response – telling them when to applaud and teasing them into applauding – but some of the acts are well worth the applause.

Things my mother told me

What did your mother say which you remember?

This comes from a discussion on a teacher website: INFET

"It is at times like this I wish I had listened to what my mother used to say."

"Why, what did she say?"

"I don't know. I didn't listen."

(Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

The earliest joke I can remember. (This dates me)

"Why do fascists wear black shirts?"

"Because they never wash their filthy necks."

She also used to say "there's a war on." to justify anything we couldn't have or to explain why we had to do as she said. I was born in 1951.

Chimera! wrote:

"If you break both your legs don't come running to me!"

and the enigmatic remark "If things don't alter

(.....long pause......)

they'll stop as they are."



Anyway there was a war on in 1951....there's always a war on....Korea I think.



Bad_Seed wrote:



When asked 'whats for dinner' it was always 'wait and see' every night we had wait and see for dinner.



plotter wrote:

"If he's the right man, you'll no be asking me if he's right."

"You really shouldn't eat sand from the sand pit"

deltafun wrote:

where should you eat sand from then?

Angua wrote:

Something like you would die if you had a bath when on your period was one of my mums. She was weird though.

untamedbeauty wrote:

Watch crossing the road.

Stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about! (She never did though)

plotter

deltafun wrote:

where should you eat sand from then?



Dunno - never thought to ask that!

deltafun wrote:

Would seem important to me lol

One wonders why mums would not say "don`t eat sand". The specifics of it being from a sand pit would seem to be something of a Moot point.

Probably because I did eat sand from the sandpit when I was little.



spiz wrote:

Because cats crap in sand pits. For similar reasons, don't eat yellow snow.

Always thought my Mum was quite normal - it was Grandma (Dad's mum) that said things like, in response to "Why?", "That's for me to know, and for you to find out". er, yes, that's what I'm trying to do!

And her sister's favourite admonition was "Oh, go in and get your breakfast."

deltafun wrote:

One would think that eating sand was a very bad thing to do regardless of the cat crap content lol

Angua wrote:

My mum used to randomly tell me to 'get on with my knitting' if I was asking too many questions or being generally irritating.

She is very weird though.

plotter wrote:

I don't think sand will hurt you as such, but the potential for animal crap in sandpits is reasonably high.

Plus, I didn't eat sand from anywhere else, just the sandpit Laughing

buntycat wrote:

We also had "waitensee" for dinner. It took me years to realise that this exotic sounding meal was actually 3 separate words.

My poor old mum worked a lot harder than I do, for far less money and even though in retrospect, I can see that she was often stressed and a bit fed up, she always found time to tell us an anecdote or dispense some wisdom.

With all the arrogance of the young woman, who is better educated than her parents (at the expense of their retirement savings), I was always convinced that I'd be a far cooler adult and of course a much better parent. Of course, I have failed on both counts and have a lot more respect for her.

wordy wrote:

if i ever commented negatively about something, for example i remember once saying a woman's dress was a bit 'tarty', she would say 'tarty is as tarty does'. Actually when i think about it, it's a bit Sartrean isn't it? He always said it's not what you say you are but what you do that shows who you are.

Her really annoying one is, if i ever complain about the consequences of something i had done, eg had 3 kids, she says, 'well, you would have them, wouldn't you?'

Actually, now i think about it, i think she's well annoying.

user1951 wrote:

"Thunder is caused by the clouds banging together."

"If you go out in the rain you will catch a cold."

"If the wind changes your face will be stuck like that."

(Of course a lot of things my mother said were perfectly sensible, "Never trust a Tory." "Don't put your hand in there." and "Those aren't her own!")

luvinit wrote:

We used to have wigwam and diddledams for tea...where did that come from?

Mum used to say she would put a brick on my head to stop me growing (cried for days), that there was only so much noise in the world and if i wasn't quiet she would have to kill my music box to stop me losing my voice before christmas, if you bit your fingernails you'd bleed to death when they ripped your stomach apart, children who didn't do the washingup would go to hell....I could go on...I have developed a very healthy distrust of all things my mother says.

Angua wrote:

They fuck you up your mum and dad . . .

Wink

'Keep away from men.

ha bloody ha.

Lots of stuff I never listened to and still don't (stuff like line your kitchen cupboards with kitchen roll).

A very effective piece of advice I received was from my more than anything else absent father:

Don't bite your nails, if you do pigs' trotters grow out of your nose.

I have never bitten my nails.

And from my Scotts Granddaddy....never ever give in, never ever give up.

And I never have. He is a wise old laddie.

user1951 wrote:

"They tuck you up your mum and dad." was the version I heard. Don't tell me it was bowdlerised Wink

And masturbation makes you deaf.

Eh?

Actually I think that one is catching up with me now.

Back to school?

I think only killjoys would put up "back to school" adverts before the holiday even started. There is every chance that this could backfire if people boycott the first store to put up a BTS advert.

I believe in school. I believe in education. I also believe in holidays however.

Click here

False accusation

There is a discussion on TES about a teacher falsely accused of molesting a pupil. Under current legislation this false and withdrawn accusation will nevertheless stay on his permanent record.

"I have recently been falsely accused of child molesting by a Year 10 pupil (girl, I am a male teacher). I have been through an ordeal that included being interviewed by the police under caution. Of course, it transpired quite quickly that it was an utter fabrication, but the pupil continues in the school as if nothing happened, she has not been disciplined. As this occurrence will appear in any enhanced criminal record check, I asked the Head teacher to get me a statement of denial from the girl or her family, which I doubt very much I will get (even though I've written it myself). I want also a letter of reference from the Head with special reference to this incident, to clear without reserves my innocence, so that I will have a fair chance of getting a job."

Another teacher commented as follows:

"So, if I read this correctly:

"Teacher annoys pupil. Pupil makes up false accusation (preferably sexual).

"Investigation insues.

"No matter what the outcome, the record goes into the CRB report if the teacher wants another job. This being bound to prejudice them?

"What the hell is going on? Should make us all VERY, VERY nervous and must surely affect working conditions. We should insist on CCTV everywhere and to NEVER be placed in a 1:1 situation with any pupil.

"This is guilty unless proven innocent, surely?"

This issue had the highest priority at annual conference. I know that NUT regional office are very supportive towards teachers who are falsely accused and anyone can ring the helpline and TSN for further support.

I am a bit dubious about the CCTV suggestion as this is open to even more abuse.

Sit down you're rocking the boat

For years the union leaders were telling us "not to rock the boat" so Labour would get elected. Then it was "not to rock the boat" so the Tories would not get back in.

I can understand why people would vote Labour to keep the Tories out. It is a bit like the French election when Le Pen was standing and people voted for Chirac under the slogan "vote for the crook not the Nazi"

I think that the policies of privatisation and war should be opposed and as Eric Heffer used to say, "a boat which can't stand rocking is unseaworthy.

Whether Tweedledum or Tweedledumber gets elected next time, the same policies will remain. The unions have to be independent and oppose those policies whoever is in power.

Many Unison members for example are heartily sick of pouring money into the Labour Party and then finding Labour is attacking them.

Twenty years ago we were campaigning (successfully) against the closure of our local hospital. The Labour Party were the backbone of that campaign. Now there is a campaign (more like a running battle) against the closure of one of our local hospitals. The Labour Party is the enemy, using every dirty trick in the book to justify the closure.

Filming bad behaviour does not make it go away

The suspension of Angela Mason for filming pupils without their consent in order to make money from a TV company has caused a lot of discussion on the TES website. On the whole posters expressed concern about the misbehaviour of pupils which is a serious issue for many of us.

However I think it is dishonest to brand everyone who criticises Angela Mason as "soft on misbehaving pupils." Come into my classroom and say that.

Filming people without their permission goes on too much as it is and certainly should not be going on in schools.

It has been suggested they could use "unedited footage" but this is naive. Pointing the camera is editing. I could film pupils quietly getting on with their work for an hour. What a riveting TV program that would make! Do you think the TV companies would give me a lot of money for it? And yet that could well be what you saw if you chose to point the camera in that direction.

And filming bad behaviour does not make it less likely. The evidence is all around us that people will film their own bad behaviour because they are proud of it.

Floods

A great flood is arising fast and one wonders how much of this island will remain above water. (hyperbole). Phrases like "a month's worth of rain in a few hours" are being bandied about and mobile phone and family video pictures of appalling scenes are on the net...not just the flood but the filthy mess afterwards.

I was impressed with the emergency planning which went into operation when the floods came. It is not like America where they couldn't care less what happened to the New Orleans poor and Barbara Bush even insulted them. Something in me feels proud of the RAF when they are rescuing people from rooftops rather than bombing unarmed civilians. I know which job I would prefer. Of course in the military they don't ask you!

We still spend more money on war than we do on defence against floods.

Should I start building an Ark and gathering together two of every animal?

Postal dispute

The Communications Workers' Union have asked me (and a few hundred thousand other people!) to circulate a leaflet about the postal dispute in view of the media misinformation on this subject.

It is here

"Not negotiable"

The GTC has opposed the excessive testing of pupils. On the TES website this has been met with a certain ironic celebration on the lines of "at last the GTC is doing something for its money" and about time too.

The government, as ever, uses the argument that SATs are "not negotiable". Is the term "not negotiable" ever used these days in its proper sense of being "valueless"? Or is it always used as term of authoritarian obduracy?

OFSTED sounds like a disease.

OFSTED sounds like a disease. It is a stress-related disorder teachers suffer from. We have just got over it. The overall result was OK but the cost in stress and lost sleep was not worth it. I had a lucky escape. One of their days was Wednesday and I don't teach at all on Wednesday. On the Tuesday one of my colleagues was very stressed out because her year 9s had been playing up and OFSTED came in. My year 9s played up but OFSTED didn't come in. I don't like feeling relieved when someone else is so unhappy. Schadenfreude.

However it is over now. There was a very subdued atmosphere on Friday for the morning of the INSET day because we were discussing the new performance management requirements and the input from County was entirely negative - you must do this, you will be penalised if you don't do that, etc etc. And they didn't mention professional development or fostering initiative or new ideas. It was all results driven and linked to pay. Payment by results in fact.

So there it is. One crisis over and another begins. I am quite philosophical about it sometimes and in despair at other times. And people look to me to "do something" about performance management. I am not the NUT rep at the school and the rep did ask some pertinent questions at the meeting.

Part of me wants to withdraw from union activity and go and dig the garden. And another part of me knows that would be giving up on life altogether. And fatal.

Victoria victorious

Victoria Wood's triumph at the BAFTAs put me in mind of her song, the Ballad of Barry and Freda.

The full text is here

But here is a taste:

Let's do it!
Let's do it!
I feel I absolutely must.
I won't exempt you,
Want to tempt you,
Want to drive you mad with lust.

No cautions,
Just contortions!
Smear an avocado on me lower portions.
Let's do it!
Let's do it tonight!

And he said:I can't do it.
I can't do it.
It's really not my cup of tea.
I'm harassed,
Embarrassed.
I wish you hadn't picked on me.

No dramas!
Give me me pyjamas.
The only girl I'm mad about is Judith Chalmers.
I can't do it.
I can't do it tonight.

And she said:Let's do it!
Let's do it!
I really want to run amok.
Let's wiggle.
Let's jiggle.
Let's really make the rafters rock.

Be mighty.
Be flighty.
Come and melt the buttons on me flameproof nightie.
Let's do it!
Let's do it tonight!

Let's do it!
Let's do it!
I really want to rant and rave.
Let's go,
'Cause I know
Just how I want you to behave:

Not bleakly,
Not meekly.
Beat me on the bottom with a Woman's Weekly.
Let's do it!
Let's do it tonight!.


("Woman's Weekly" is a magazine before anyone gets any arcane visions at this point!)

Nominate Martin for NUT VP

I received this today. I am delighted that Socialist Party Teachers have taken this step.

16 May, 2007
Dear Colleague:
The pressures facing teachers have never been greater. The demands on schools to ‘raise standards’ have created intolerable workload for staff and a joyless curriculum for our students. The divisions between schools are widening as this Government seeks to make comprehensive schooling run by a democratic Local Authority a thing of the past. Unless defeated, the twin attacks of an imposed pay freeze and new performance management regulations will further strengthen the grip of divisive ‘payment by results’ on education.

The National Union of Teachers has to show its members that we can turn the tide. With determined effort, school reps and local officers have won important victories through individual casework and local disputes. But the pressures only grow greater. The continuing stress of working in our underfunded and divided schools is taking its toll on teachers and on Local Association officers struggling to do the best they can to defend NUT members.

The 2007 National Officer Elections are an opportunity to strengthen our leadership. Local Associations need the support of a President who understands the pressures facing classroom teachers, can express their discontent, and help offer a strategy to take us forward.

We urge your Association to give one of your two nominations for Vice-President to Martin Powell-Davies. Martin will already be well known to many as Lewisham NUT’s Secretary since 1992. He has regularly been a pivotal contributor to Annual Conference debate and an articulate campaigner for teachers’ interests in school and public meetings, inside the Union and to the media. By electing him as Vice-President, NUT members can ensure that his skills and determination can also be used to strengthen the National Union.

Martin argued forcefully at Annual Conference 2007 that a strategy of defending members through individual school disputes alone is totally inadequate. As National Officer, he will campaign for the Union to lead from the front and build support for the national action that is required if we are to seriously tackle the national attacks we face.
The unanimous vote to prepare for national strike action to protect our pay was an important step forward. Martin will be campaigning within the Union to make sure that this policy is put firmly into practice, answering those who will try to find reasons not to stand firm, while forging links with other public sector unions to build strong united action.
Please do put Martin’s name forward at your Association meeting and/or in any ballot held for nominations by the closing date of September 30th 2007. If you would like to add your personal support alongside ours, invite a speaker to your Association, order copies of Martin’s campaign materials, or to donate to the campaign, please contact the address below.
Yours,
Alison Long, Assistant Secretary, & Gabby Mullins, President, Lewisham NUT
Tim Woodcock, Divisional Secretary, & Joanne Sanderson, Membership Secretary, Greenwich NUT
Robin Pye, Secretary, St. Helens NUT Jane Nellist, Joint Secretary, Coventry NUT
Linda Taaffe and Julie Lyon-Taylor, members of the NUT National Executive
Phil Clarke, NUT Young Teachers Advisory Committee

Bloggers of the World Unite!

The American military is deeply concerned that soldiers are "telling it like it is" to friends and family and this could harm recruitment.

On the pretext of reducing bandwidth and keeping the military networks free for their intended purpose they have imposed blanket bans on bloggers. Soldiers can only access the internet through defence department computers and often it is the way they keep in touch with friends and family. The trouble is they are not peddling the party line all the time in their blogs.

The corporate media lie about the war. The soldier bloggers have been doing something to redress the balance. The realities behind the gung-ho Fox News presentation of the war is unacceptable to the military.

The Selfish Gene

The Selfish Gene
Richard Dawkins
ISBN 0199291152
Publisher Oxford University Press

I have just finished reading this and it is a thoroughly
interesting book by a master in the field. One also gets the
impression that Dawkins is just a little mischievous in
upsetting existing prejudices, particularly religious ones.

The book is very easy to read and reduces some of the more
complex theories to an easily digested form. Contrary to
popular belief - the belief of those who haven't read the
book itself, just some reviews, Dawkins is far from
endorsing "Social Darwinism." Just because our genes are
selfish is no good reason for us to be.

Human history is full of examples of co-operation winning
out against competition. An example Dawkins does not use is
trade unionism. In the opening chapter he refers to trade
unionists as "selfish" - without making any reference to the
global corporations the trade unions are ranged against. You
can imagine how they would respond to individual employees
who wanted higher pay or better conditions. "You're fired"
is the standard response here. Trade unions emerged from a
realisation that the selfishness of the employers could be
met with collective bargaining.

And having said all that - read the book.

Sarkozy wins

Sarkozy has won the French election. He will cause a civil war. He says he now represents the French people although he calls the poor scum ("racaille") and urges the police to beat them up.

He intends to force through a neo-liberal agenda (worsening of working conditions and wages and the removal of workers' rights which have been successfully defended in France). He will do it with a vengeance and all the power of the gendarmerie. His claims to seek reconciliation echo Margaret Thatcher's "where there is discord let us bring harmony." Not many people confused her with Francis of Assisi for long!

Whereas in England we would grumble or write a letter to the newspapers when the government does something outrageous. They have this "out on the streets and build barricades" response in France.


And the first thing that happened when the teacosy won? Tony Blair congratulated him

Enough said really.

Notes on a Scandal

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and in many ways the film was even better with the superb performance by Judy Dench.

One of the most chilling comments on the story was from a teachers' discussion group, "I could recognise all of the staff!" and reading the book, I found myself saying "I know him, I know her, I know *two* of her."

Omar must not be deported to Libya

This is charming. Omar Deghayes has been imprisoned without charge or trial by the Americans. New Labour's response? Hand him over to the Libyan government which killed his father!

On Tuesday (1 May), The Brighton Argus carried a story about Save Omar’s request that Des Turner, the Deghayes family’s MP, goes to Washington to help secure Omar’s release.

The story has a link that you can click to show your support for Omar Deghayes and his family. PLEASE SEND IN A MESSAGE OF SUPPORT TODAY.

Here is the link (if you can't click it, try copying it and pasting it in):

www.theargus.co.uk/search/display.var.1365766.0.omar_campaigners_call_for_mps_support.php

You can read Tuesday's Save Omar story on-line (www.theargus.co.uk) and it is also copied below. The dossier of letters Des Turner is collecting for presentation to the Home Office was also brought to Argus reader’s attention. If you could get your letter to him within A WEEK that would be great (info about this letter in an 2.5.07 email called Letters to the Home Office: Bring Omar Home)

Supporters of Guantanamo Bay prisoner Omar Deghayes want an MP to fly to Washington to plead his case.
Campaigners from the Save Omar pressure group met Brighton Kemptown MP Des Turner on Saturday.
Mr Deghayes, a Saltdean law student and Libyan national, has been imprisoned without charge in the notorious detention centre since he was arrested in Pakistan in 2002.
His supporters want him to be returned to Britain rather than Libya, where they claim his life would be in danger.
His brother Abubaker said: "I hope we can act quickly enough to make sure Omar is not sent to Libya.
"Libyan officials have already visited him and Guantanamo and said they would kill him like they killed my father.
"I want to thank everyone for speaking out for justice for my brother. We just need the Government to listen."
Representatives of the Church of England, Brighton and Hove Muslim Forum, the Green Party, the Labour Party and Respect met Mr Turner at the Friends Meeting House to discuss how to secure Mr Deghayes' release to Britain.
In March, British prisoner Bisher al-Rawi was released after MP Ed Davey petitioned for his release in Washington.
Mr Turner said he would consider making a similar trip to the US - but said his Parliamentary duties come first.
He told The Argus: "It's something I'll be looking at. It is not easy for me to do - you can't just walk away from Parliament."
He has pledged to hand a dossier of letters from Mr Deghayes's supporters to the Home Office, asking ministers to approve Mr Deghayes's return to Britain.
He said: "We'll be stepping up the pressure on the Home Office in particular to get a decision on Omar's future location.
"It is quite clear it will be very helpful if the Home Office would agree to allow Omar back into the country. It could very well be what triggers his release."
Campaign spokeswoman Louise Purbrick said: "This is the broadest range of people we have brought together in a single room, people spoke on behalf of the Church of England, Brighton and Hove Muslim Forum as well as from Respect, the Green Party and the Labour Party.
"We felt that if we can act together to call for Omar's return we could win through the government bureaucracy."
Cori Crider from Reprieve, a legal charity that represents 37 Guantanamo detainees, stated: "The political tide is turning in the US against Guantanamo. The UK can help them close the place down by bringing back its residents. It has done so for Bisher al-Rawi already. The position that Guantanamo should close but that they have no responsibility to help its residents is untenable."
Hangleton and Knoll council election candidate Maggie Clifford, of the Respect party, said: "Omar should be home in the UK and it is a travesty that he continues to be held in Guantanamo Bay after five years in inhumane circumstances.
"I call on the MP for Omar, Des Turner, to visit Washington and add increased pressure for Omar to be brought home now. I also ask for his family to have access to information on Omar's well-being and contact with him immediately."

www.theargus.co.uk/search/display.var.1365766.0.omar_campaigners_call_for_mps_support.php