How and why?

The Government is gradually integrating Children’s Centres into connected Primary Schools by ensuring that their budget and funding is now  accessed through the school.

Children’s Centres are being more closely scrutinised with respect to their value for money! This ignored the value that they provide to the community which they serve AND their value to schools in terms of identifying and implementing support for children and families before they even enter nursery.

Therefore when the Government is ready, it can cut the umbilical cord with ease. This will mean that their are systems in place already which will allow schools to take over the Children’s Centres, as well as, the funding for the necessary refurbishment. After refurbishments the funding will cease on the grounds that it was originally Sure Start funding.

What does this mean?

No Children’s Centres means no expense to the Government.

No Children’s Centres means no service provision for families.

Access to Educational Physiologists (E.P.s)

Access to E.P.s is becoming harder and research has shown that serious conditions, such as, Autism are increasing. Logic tells us that we would need better, more frequent access to E.P.s rather than less!

Early Years teachers and support staff are expected to continue to teach in a ‘Care in the Community’ type classroom. This makes the curriculum harder to deliver because teaching AND managing behaviour which is common to children of that age, as well as, behaviours caused by special needs and serious conditions is impossible without the right type of support .

Using Ofsted to force state schools to become Academies.

Ofsted criteria has just changed. AGAIN! The goal post has been moved. What would have been deemed a good before is now going to be closer to satisfactory. What was satisfactory will now be classed as a failing school! What happens to failing schools? They are FORCED to become academies!

Previously, the Local Authority had support systems in place to help failing schools. However, they are currently in a position where they can offer little or no support so the forced change shouldn’t be too hard!

What will this mean?

The result will be that more schools will fail Ofsted and be forced to link with, and then become, an academy! This will of course is in the name of raising standards.

Which schools will be affected?

Secondary schools have been in the news for restructuring along academic lines e.g. running vocational courses alongside GCSE and A’ Levels.

Eventually the Government’s aspiration is for local businesses to invest in the vocational courses and employ school leavers directly. An example of this may be that schools near Heathrow are supplied with the ICT to train students to use systems, such as, Galileo and DCI. This will put students are in a position where they can leave and be employed with the skill set that the employer needs. A ready made workforce. Sounds good doesn’t it?

The pros

Students are employed quickly.

Students go from school to employment without gaps in between the two.

Students will be skilled at the onset.

Airlines save money in terms of recruiting, employing staff who are not trained to their requirements.

Government has no expenses in this area.

The cons

Those who lose out are the students.

They are trained for one job only.

They will have little room for manoeuvre elsewhere in the job market.

The employers, for these reasons, are at an advantage because employees are less likely to change their job no matter how poor the pay or conditions are.

Some aspiration!

What will it mean for us?

There will be more stakeholders. These will include the Government, parents, governors, employers and local businesses.

Under academy status teachers are no longer protected by the Government set Pay and Conditions. Thus Unions will have less clout in negotiations.

What is to stop academies changing the school year so that schools are operational ALL year? They could give permission for children to take their holidays during any 2 weeks of the year. This could be the same for teaching and support staff. The parents would be happy as their holiday child minding problems would be taken care of. Thus school staff will be required to work for longer hours. Academies have been known to force staff to run clubs after school and during lunch time.

What’s wrong with any of this?

The change is justified as all other industries get 2 weeks of holidays per year. Thus why should school staff get more? Little do they know that school staff are NOT paid during the holidays! They are paid for the days they works but the wages are paid on a monthly basis. Thus although they physically get a wage each month, it is not earned for any of the time which is not classed as teaching time.

With these changes in mind, there may be a token amount given initially to remunerate staff and soften the blow. However, eventually that will be absorbed in the salary. Also any increases in wages will be kept low so that over time, these increases will vanish over time.

But hey…we can make it up because we will then be working until we are 66 years old!

Gold star

Over the last few years more and more ‘parents’ seem to be talking about their children ‘still’ living at home. Here are some of the reasons that I’ve heard about: -

1. They can’t afford to rent,
2. They can’t get a mortgage,
3. They’re unemployed
4. It’s simply cheaper to stay at home

As far as I can see there seems to be a few different scenarios. This is how I see it but please do let me know if you have a different view.

• Parents are happy for their children to stay with them until they ‘settle down’ with someone.
• Parents want their children to move out and stand on their own two feet.
• Parents feel lumbered and do not want to support their children into their 30′s or beyond.
• Parents are willing to let their children stay with them if they help contribute whether it’s by paying bills, giving something in terms of rent etc.

What do you think?

Is it OK to support your children unconditionally until they leave the nest?

Should they contribute and relieve their parents of some responsibilities when they are old enough?

Over the last 3 years I have been covering PPA, rather than, being a class teacher. I ended up teaching a lot of R.E. and P.E. and I ended up really enjoying teaching R.E., especially in Middle School. The children are able to articulate their thoughts, ask questions, reflect and more. It was truly amazing!

One lesson stood out the most. The lesson was called ‘Deep thoughts about deep ideas.’
The objective was for the children to know about Hindu concepts of the atma (the true self).
They also needed to understand the Hindu belief that God is within the heart and conscience.

We discussed the soul and the various words that can be used to describe it. We also talked about the fact that many religions talk about the soul or the spirit. Many of the children had heard of it.

Here are some of the things that the children said: -

Fred said that an example of the soul not needing a body was shown in Harry Potter. Moaning Myrtle lives in the in the toilet.

Dave said that the soul’s trapped in the body.

Vijay said if the soul doesn’t have a body it can live but if the body doesn’t have a soul it can’t live.

Danielle said that “the soul controls you. When you die it gets re-born into another body.”

Sandy said “it’s like a ghost. It leaves the body when you die”

Tommy said “the soul leaves the body when you die and goes somewhere. If you’re knocked out you see yourself on the floor but you’re see-through and like a silky wall. If your heart stops you see your soul raise out of your body and you go to heaven.”

Natalie said “A child could see the soul that came out of the body of the dead person” so we discussed that many people believe children’s minds are more open to this kind of thing and others believe that our minds becomes closed as we get older. Thus we lose the ability to see things like this. We discussed that others believe it’s not possible at all.

Ben said “It helps you make hard decisions. The soul helps you face your fears.”

Ali remembered the episode of Tom and Jerry when Tom died and 9 souls came out. They all showed different feelings – playful, bossy etc.

Tammy said the same as Ali but she remembered a similar episode from Garfield.

It may not read as well as it felt. The lesson was buzzing. The children were so into it. their hands were shooting up all the time because they wanted to explore their ideas together. They felt curious, safe & most of all, they all showed respect for all faiths as they spoke. It was amazing!

1. Dr. Kradjian writes to his patients about milk. Is it really good for us?
2. Is cow’s milk pure?
3. Is human milk pure?
4. Is there a link between diabetes and milk?
5. Is there a link between Leukaemmia and milk?
6. The link between BIV, BSE and milk explained.
7. What are the benefits of drinking milk? Is it a deterrent to good bone health?
8. The link between race and lactose intolerance explained

This post has been inspired by a few friends of mine who are going through or have been through a ‘tricky’ patch with their partner.

Let’s look at some scenarios. I will portray a simplistic outline of the situation that I know about. I am aware that there are 2 sides to every story. I guess, nobody will ever know the whole truth, in any situation.

In my mind, gender isn’t important. Actions are the same regardless of gender. Thus I refer to the people as x and y

Person one

• x comes home later and later everyday.
• They fear coming home due to the questioning they’ll face
• They pretend they were late due to transport issues
• They were out doing the very things they promised they’d give up to make their relationship work
• They’ve taken out a loan without their partner knowing

Person two

• x pretends to go away on conferences
• x waited til the child was born and then acted on their frustrations and began an affair
• x got found out after ‘getting spotted’ otherwise it would have carried on
• x now says the affair is y’s fault

Person three

• x pretends to go to work
• x left their phone lying around
• y heard it ‘ping’ with a text
• y saw the text and then went through older ones
• y found months of romantic, intimate, explicit messages between x and z
• x and y have a 1 year old child

Person four

• x is violent towards y
• x gives y a specific amount of money each day which covers bus fare only
• x handles all paperwork
• x handles all financial issues
• x wont release y in the evening to meet the needs of their child
• x demeans y in front of y’s family and their child

Person five

• x sends all their income to their parents
• x’s partner and kids are left with very little money
• y has to feed the children rice with salt to flavour it as they don’t have money for vegetables
• x wont entertain the idea of giving the parents less money so the partner and kids had a little more money to eat better

So which of these are OK?

All the situations highlight lies, broken trust, some form of adult abuse, neglect, emotional abuse of a child/children or neglecting children. Could you forgive or forget?

I am not saying that partners are disposable and we should get rid of them at the first sign of trouble or when we find something we dislike. However, there are some things which take you to a place you can’t return from.

If the damage is irreversible and the couple have a child; wont the child will be worse off if he/she lives with both parents who stay together regardless of being unhappy? If the child witnesses a lack of trust, lack of care, lack of duty, lack of intimacy; will they not pick up on it and be scarred? Will their idea of relationships be warped? Will it affect their self esteem?

Children are so impressionable.

Are you doing the right thing if you stay with your partner for the sake of the kids IF you’ve reached the point of no return with him/her?

I did some research on links between domestic violence and child abuse at the NSPCC a few years ago. The results showed a link.

Many authors explain that children who witness sexual, emotional or physical domestic violence, suffer emotional abuse themselves. This is over and above any direct abuse or neglect that they may or may not experience.

This could be seen as a controversial post and I apologise now if the content upsets you. Although I know it is a very personal topic and there are probably things involved that I have not considered, I thought it was worth posting.

I hope you find it useful in some way.

The world is a huge place, it is overpopulated and more of us are making babies. It may sound strange to link materialism to having children but I think there are people out there who are materialistic in a different way. They feel the need to have a child as a possession. Something to tick off the things to do list. There are others who have children and it’s not planned. There are others who had no choice in the matter and of course there are those who look after children in the family because the ‘birth’ family could not manage for whatever reason.

Some couples have difficulty conceiving or seeing the pregnancy through. There can be a number of reasons or causes but often the result is that they cannot have their ‘own’ child. Can you hear the materialism, issue of ownership creeping in here? The popular alternative is IVF. That way it can be ‘their’ child regardless of how it comes about.

I am going to ask an ‘out of the box’ question. Why? Why bother? Why not manage a different way? Why am I saying this?

Well, there are so many things to consider. Some of these are: -

• Money spent on the procedure
• Having to undergo so many internal examinations
• Harm caused to the body of the mother
• Stress and anxiety every step of the way
• Pain endured
• The lack of certainty re whether it will work or not

So why do so many people go for IVF or another method that will mean the child is biologically theirs?

Does it stem from what Margaret Thatcher instilled? The attitude of mine mine and mine! Excuse the politics!

Anyway, why not adopt? There are so many children who are without parents.

I’ll leave you with a radical thought. Why not go one step further? Why not adopt from the onset regardless whether you can or cannot have your ‘own’ child/children?

There have been so many conversations about the snow and the madness of the country coming to a standstill. Here are a few I’ve chosen to begin a bit of a debate. Please add your comments in the reply box below the post.

This country’s so rubbish. Why can’t we cope with a little bit of snow!

The country wasn’t exposed to snow (of this amount) in the last TWO decades. They’re trying to cope with weather that was so infrequent but has since been experienced many times within the last 2 years! Am I right? This is what I recall: -

October 08 (life continued and some of celebrated a ‘white’ Diwali)

February 09 (we came to a standstill as the snowfall wasn’t expected)

December 09 (schools carried on as usual) and

Jan 10 (schools closed)

Looking at the dates above we need to get used to experiencing snow more often. Scary!

~~~~~~~~

School are naff. They’re closed. We have to arrange time off, childcare etc.

Employment changed from people living and working where they lived; to commuting to work. Thus if you live far away from the school you work in and can’t get in; it may be OK if this applies to one member of staff. However, what if half of your staff can’t get in? You have to close! There’s no other way. Or can you see a way forward?

Previously, before schools were under LEA control, they communicated more and helped each other out more. This co-ordination has now gone! Otherwise, teachers would have gone to work at a school that was local to them. For example, if they lived in Watford but worked in Edgware; if they couldn’t get into work because of weather conditions, they’d go to a school in Watford and work there for that day.

If we did that now, it would work as long as the staff lived and worked within the same borough. If not, there’d be issues around safety as boroughs only know about CRB checks done within their borough. However, many people don’t live in the borough that they work in so it wouldn’t alleviate the situation. Would it?

Additionally, some schools were closed on Wednesday 6th Jan and Thursday 7th Jan but opened on Fri 8th Jan. Parents who lived really close didn’t send their children in. It snowed again today, Wednesday 13th Jan and so many children were away. Is there much point in keeping a school open for only a third of the children to attend? If we close we get slated for it and if we’re open and continue teaching as normal, the majority of the class will miss out on the work. What  to do?

~~~~~~~~

Schools are so crap. They won’t let the children play in the snow.

Snow was so rare; we used to rush to get the children out in the snow to experience it. Schools (even in England) have been sued for children breaking limbs in the snow. As a Head, would you take that risk? Especially, when all schools aren’t blessed with a budget for learning equipment let alone money to pay out in compensation.

I have only touched on a few issues that are being discussed recently. Also I’m sure I’ve not covered all the views in this post so feel free to share what you think using the reply button below this post.