If you're unhappy about the election results then here's something you can do!
It's only a small start but it's something.
No system will never get it right as a friend of mine pointed out in this article.
However I feel better if I've done something instead of just moan!
It's that 'having-fun' thing.
.
Friday, 7 May 2010
Even Esther didn't get in!
What a strange way of voting!
Esther didn't even break into the top three! She came forth with only 4 % of the votes.
Martin Bell was right - it's bloody hard to get elected as an Independent but for me in a lot of cases its the only way to be.
What a contrast: Esther is turned down and John Woodcock gets in!
And people are proud of our "Democracy".
And now we face a future of having a very inexperienced career politician as our MP.
What chance do we have of real support for local issues?
Let's find out about what he's made of.
Will he help reverse the dreadful Academy decision?
Will he promote much needed diversity in the Barrow manufacturing industry?
Esther didn't even break into the top three! She came forth with only 4 % of the votes.
Martin Bell was right - it's bloody hard to get elected as an Independent but for me in a lot of cases its the only way to be.
What a contrast: Esther is turned down and John Woodcock gets in!
And people are proud of our "Democracy".
And now we face a future of having a very inexperienced career politician as our MP.
What chance do we have of real support for local issues?
Let's find out about what he's made of.
Will he help reverse the dreadful Academy decision?
Will he promote much needed diversity in the Barrow manufacturing industry?
Thursday, 6 May 2010
Outstanding Photographs
I was visiting Allan Wilson's Gallery in Brogden Street when I spotted a collection of some of his Skateboarding Photographs.
He kindly sent me these to display here on my blog.
For me they put across the excitement of this sport and the enjoyment there is to be had now at Lightburn Park now that this facility has been built.
Visit Allan Wilson's web site at allanwilsonphotography.co.uk or far better visit his place in Brogden Street close to the town centre.
He kindly sent me these to display here on my blog.
For me they put across the excitement of this sport and the enjoyment there is to be had now at Lightburn Park now that this facility has been built.
Visit Allan Wilson's web site at allanwilsonphotography.co.uk or far better visit his place in Brogden Street close to the town centre.
If you vote Tory
Be prepared for the biggest shock of your life when you find out just what they are planning and the social unrest it will produce.
The Conservatives at the next election won't dare show their faces.
It will be a field day for the rest of us!
By then we will know the score on cuts and global warming and be better placed to vote wisely (does this ever happen!) .
Who knows what the next election will be like!
I can imagine the debates being a lot more fiery, next time round!
The Greens might even get in on the act!
What fun!
The Conservatives at the next election won't dare show their faces.
It will be a field day for the rest of us!
By then we will know the score on cuts and global warming and be better placed to vote wisely (does this ever happen!) .
Who knows what the next election will be like!
I can imagine the debates being a lot more fiery, next time round!
The Greens might even get in on the act!
What fun!
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
The Greens are still at it!
Can one of the Greens please explain the rationale for running such a good campaign in an area where they have no hope of winning.
Furthermore they have someone who comes close - but not close enough I agree - to what they want - Rabone , Liberal. He, with a good hard push, could get in. Sadly the Liberals here seem to be a dozy lot and haven't campaigned half as well as they could. The Greens far outclass them - however:
I had got the impression that the Greens were an intelligent and farseeing lot. But no.
This is the trouble with party politics; people are encouraged to be blind and just vote for their party - it's a nice simple mantra.
Why can't they be more farseeing and work together with others that have very similar interests, instead of spitting the vote.
This happened when I ran for County. Had the Liberals and Greens voted for me when I was standing for all they wanted, then I would have got in.
But no they vote for others who got less than me and none of us got in.
People seem incapable of using their heads and thinking clearly.
It will be interesting to see how close Rabone gets and whether if you add the Green vote this would have tipped the balance.
The Labour guy is in my opinion a waste of time as a person - Just parachuted in to win a relative safe seat, but no experience of life to speak of - a real yes man and the Tory is no better with little drive of his own - just a cog in a machine.
What will happen at the next local elections?
Who will stand against me when I stand for the Town and District Councils as I plan to, at the next opportunity. And which area, if any, will want me?
I certainly don't plan to make all the effort I did last time. I reckon I can spend the time - a whole year I spent - more effectively actually doing things for the town with others than trying to get myself elected!
Furthermore they have someone who comes close - but not close enough I agree - to what they want - Rabone , Liberal. He, with a good hard push, could get in. Sadly the Liberals here seem to be a dozy lot and haven't campaigned half as well as they could. The Greens far outclass them - however:
I had got the impression that the Greens were an intelligent and farseeing lot. But no.
This is the trouble with party politics; people are encouraged to be blind and just vote for their party - it's a nice simple mantra.
Why can't they be more farseeing and work together with others that have very similar interests, instead of spitting the vote.
This happened when I ran for County. Had the Liberals and Greens voted for me when I was standing for all they wanted, then I would have got in.
But no they vote for others who got less than me and none of us got in.
People seem incapable of using their heads and thinking clearly.
It will be interesting to see how close Rabone gets and whether if you add the Green vote this would have tipped the balance.
The Labour guy is in my opinion a waste of time as a person - Just parachuted in to win a relative safe seat, but no experience of life to speak of - a real yes man and the Tory is no better with little drive of his own - just a cog in a machine.
What will happen at the next local elections?
Who will stand against me when I stand for the Town and District Councils as I plan to, at the next opportunity. And which area, if any, will want me?
I certainly don't plan to make all the effort I did last time. I reckon I can spend the time - a whole year I spent - more effectively actually doing things for the town with others than trying to get myself elected!
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Funding cuts threaten schools' knife-crime programmes
From the Guardian today.
This is the kind of thing that we all need to be on the lookout to protect.
It seems to me that groups of people need to get together ready to step in and fund these types of projects out of our own pockets if the government are so blind as not to see their importance.
Surely a group of one hundred people could work together and support this kind of thing.
How about starting a fund here in Ulverston - I'll put up a fair amount for starters! (Don't infer that I've got cash to spinkle around willie-nillie - I have changed my attitude to cash in recent years - I reckon I can earn some when required and don't need a lot at present)
Any takers?
This is the kind of thing that we all need to be on the lookout to protect.
It seems to me that groups of people need to get together ready to step in and fund these types of projects out of our own pockets if the government are so blind as not to see their importance.
Surely a group of one hundred people could work together and support this kind of thing.
How about starting a fund here in Ulverston - I'll put up a fair amount for starters! (Don't infer that I've got cash to spinkle around willie-nillie - I have changed my attitude to cash in recent years - I reckon I can earn some when required and don't need a lot at present)
Any takers?
The three main parties' attitude to EDUCATION
It's good to receive something on the election that for a change isn't "Bla Bla Bla I'm the best" and tells you nothing! Here at least you're invited to use your brain!
I've just received what I thought was a balanced view from a moderate but active teaching union - the NASUWT:
What the parties are pledging for education
CONSERVATIVES:
1. All headteachers will be given the power to pay good teachers more in order to attract the best teachers and subject specialists.
2. Teacher training will be reformed with the expansion of Teach First and the introduction of two new schemes: Teach Now for people looking to change career and Troops to Teachers to attract ex- service personnel into teaching. In addition, the entry requirement for taxpayer funded primary school teaching will be raised and graduates will need at least a 2:2 to qualify for state funded teacher training.
3. Reinforce discipline by strengthening home-school agreements and giving teachers new powers to deal with violence in the classroom.
4. Key Stage 2 tests and league tables will both be retained and made more rigorous and technical academies will be introduced to develop vocational learning.
5. Academy schools will drive forward education reforms with any good education provider given powers to open an academy and all existing schools given the opportunity to become academies. The academy programme will also be extended to primary schools.
6. School inspection will become more rigorous and will focus only on the areas directly related to teaching and learning. Any school that is in special measures for more than a year will be taken over by an academy provider.
7. Parents will have the power to take over and run schools threatened with closure.
NASUWT’s comments in brief
The rhetoric of opportunities and high standards of education for all is right, but the policies intended to deliver it are wrong.
The Conservative mantra of freedom for schools and teachers is seductive but deceptive.
Freedom comes at the high price of, among other things, abandoning national pay and conditions of service for teachers and allowing all schools to select their pupils.
The education manifesto is a patchwork of policies, littered with contradictions.
This education manifesto is not about giving power to the people. The massive expansion of academies is about throwing state schools to the mercy of the free market to gamble with, and profit from, taxpayersʼ money.
LABOUR
1. Secure the recovery by supporting the economy now and more than halve the deficit by 2014 through economic growth, fair taxes and cuts to lower priority spending.
2. Spending increased on Sure Start and free childcare services, schools and 16-19 learning.
3. An expansion of free nursery places for two year olds and introducing 15 hours a week of flexible, free nursery education for three and four year olds.
4. Ensuring that every pupil leaving primary school is secure in the basics, with a 3Rs guarantee of one-to-one and small-group tuition for every child falling behind, and in secondary schools, a personal tutor for every pupil and a choice of good qualifications.
5. A choice of good schools in every area and, where parents are not satisfied, the power to bring in new school leadership teams, through mergers and takeovers, with up to 1,000 secondary schools part of an accredited schools group by 2015.
6. A guaranteed place in education or training until 18 for every young person, with 75 per cent going on to higher education or completing an advanced apprenticeship or technician level training by the age of 30.
NASUWT’s comments in brief
For the last 13 years, the Labour Government has focused on rebuilding the education infrastructure through unprecedented investment and positive workforce reform in partnership with trade unions.
That investment is clearly set to continue.
The proposal for the chains of providers and the number of schools involved had been signalled prior to the publication of the manifesto.
The NASUWT welcomes the commitment that these chains will operate under national pay and conditions of service but there is no evidence that structural change is the key to raising standards. We, therefore, continue to oppose the governance and management of schools being handed over to external providers.
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS:
1. Invest £2.5 billion in a ‘Pupil Premium’ to boost education opportunities for every child.
2. Guarantee special educational needs (SEN) diagnostic assessments for all five year olds and improve SEN provision and training for teachers.
3. Improve teacher training by expanding the Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP) and Teach First.
4. Establish a fully independent Educational Standards Authority (ESA) to oversee the examinations system, school inspection and accountability and the curriculum.
5. Reform the curriculum by slimming down the bureaucratic Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and inflexible National Curriculum. Scale back Key Stage 2 tests at age 11 and create a
General Diploma to bring GCSEs, A levels and high quality vocational qualifications together, with14–19 year olds given the right to take up a course at college, rather than at school, if it suits them better.
6. Introduce an Education Freedom Act banning politicians from getting involved in the day-to-day running of schools.
7. Replace academies with ‘sponsor- managed schools’. These will be commissioned by and accountable to local authorities and could be run by educational charities and parent groups.
8. Give schools and colleges more freedom over teachers’ salaries, while ensuring that all staff receive the minimum national pay award.
NASUWT’s comments in brief
The screening of every pupil at the age of five to identify their special educational needs (SEN) could have unintended consequences unless a comprehensive package of support is also guaranteed to meet any special educational needs (SEN) identified.
The proposal to allow every 14 year old the right to choose to attend college rather than school is puzzling. The direction of travel for 14-19 education and training is increasingly based on collaboration between schools and colleges. There is a risk of placing too much emphasis on the place where a pupil is educated rather than the nature of the curriculum they receive.
These proposals, together with those to extend parental leave rights and the provision of 20 hours of free childcare, are ambitious but need to be properly costed if they are not to become a pious wish list.
I've just received what I thought was a balanced view from a moderate but active teaching union - the NASUWT:
What the parties are pledging for education
CONSERVATIVES:
1. All headteachers will be given the power to pay good teachers more in order to attract the best teachers and subject specialists.
2. Teacher training will be reformed with the expansion of Teach First and the introduction of two new schemes: Teach Now for people looking to change career and Troops to Teachers to attract ex- service personnel into teaching. In addition, the entry requirement for taxpayer funded primary school teaching will be raised and graduates will need at least a 2:2 to qualify for state funded teacher training.
3. Reinforce discipline by strengthening home-school agreements and giving teachers new powers to deal with violence in the classroom.
4. Key Stage 2 tests and league tables will both be retained and made more rigorous and technical academies will be introduced to develop vocational learning.
5. Academy schools will drive forward education reforms with any good education provider given powers to open an academy and all existing schools given the opportunity to become academies. The academy programme will also be extended to primary schools.
6. School inspection will become more rigorous and will focus only on the areas directly related to teaching and learning. Any school that is in special measures for more than a year will be taken over by an academy provider.
7. Parents will have the power to take over and run schools threatened with closure.
NASUWT’s comments in brief
The rhetoric of opportunities and high standards of education for all is right, but the policies intended to deliver it are wrong.
The Conservative mantra of freedom for schools and teachers is seductive but deceptive.
Freedom comes at the high price of, among other things, abandoning national pay and conditions of service for teachers and allowing all schools to select their pupils.
The education manifesto is a patchwork of policies, littered with contradictions.
This education manifesto is not about giving power to the people. The massive expansion of academies is about throwing state schools to the mercy of the free market to gamble with, and profit from, taxpayersʼ money.
LABOUR
1. Secure the recovery by supporting the economy now and more than halve the deficit by 2014 through economic growth, fair taxes and cuts to lower priority spending.
2. Spending increased on Sure Start and free childcare services, schools and 16-19 learning.
3. An expansion of free nursery places for two year olds and introducing 15 hours a week of flexible, free nursery education for three and four year olds.
4. Ensuring that every pupil leaving primary school is secure in the basics, with a 3Rs guarantee of one-to-one and small-group tuition for every child falling behind, and in secondary schools, a personal tutor for every pupil and a choice of good qualifications.
5. A choice of good schools in every area and, where parents are not satisfied, the power to bring in new school leadership teams, through mergers and takeovers, with up to 1,000 secondary schools part of an accredited schools group by 2015.
6. A guaranteed place in education or training until 18 for every young person, with 75 per cent going on to higher education or completing an advanced apprenticeship or technician level training by the age of 30.
NASUWT’s comments in brief
For the last 13 years, the Labour Government has focused on rebuilding the education infrastructure through unprecedented investment and positive workforce reform in partnership with trade unions.
That investment is clearly set to continue.
The proposal for the chains of providers and the number of schools involved had been signalled prior to the publication of the manifesto.
The NASUWT welcomes the commitment that these chains will operate under national pay and conditions of service but there is no evidence that structural change is the key to raising standards. We, therefore, continue to oppose the governance and management of schools being handed over to external providers.
LIBERAL DEMOCRATS:
1. Invest £2.5 billion in a ‘Pupil Premium’ to boost education opportunities for every child.
2. Guarantee special educational needs (SEN) diagnostic assessments for all five year olds and improve SEN provision and training for teachers.
3. Improve teacher training by expanding the Graduate Teacher Programme (GTP) and Teach First.
4. Establish a fully independent Educational Standards Authority (ESA) to oversee the examinations system, school inspection and accountability and the curriculum.
5. Reform the curriculum by slimming down the bureaucratic Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and inflexible National Curriculum. Scale back Key Stage 2 tests at age 11 and create a
General Diploma to bring GCSEs, A levels and high quality vocational qualifications together, with14–19 year olds given the right to take up a course at college, rather than at school, if it suits them better.
6. Introduce an Education Freedom Act banning politicians from getting involved in the day-to-day running of schools.
7. Replace academies with ‘sponsor- managed schools’. These will be commissioned by and accountable to local authorities and could be run by educational charities and parent groups.
8. Give schools and colleges more freedom over teachers’ salaries, while ensuring that all staff receive the minimum national pay award.
NASUWT’s comments in brief
The screening of every pupil at the age of five to identify their special educational needs (SEN) could have unintended consequences unless a comprehensive package of support is also guaranteed to meet any special educational needs (SEN) identified.
The proposal to allow every 14 year old the right to choose to attend college rather than school is puzzling. The direction of travel for 14-19 education and training is increasingly based on collaboration between schools and colleges. There is a risk of placing too much emphasis on the place where a pupil is educated rather than the nature of the curriculum they receive.
These proposals, together with those to extend parental leave rights and the provision of 20 hours of free childcare, are ambitious but need to be properly costed if they are not to become a pious wish list.
Sunday, 2 May 2010
Support the Head Teachers
This letter has been forwarded to me as a former teacher.
The NUT are a fairly militant and main stream Union.
They are supporting the National Association of Head Teachers who most people would describe and a very responsible union who only would take action under extreme circumstances.
They see the SATs as being counterproductive, and I agree fully with their view.
What happens in primary schools is a switch in the teaching emphasis in the last year, year 6, to one entirely geared to achieving good SATs results.
This puts a strain on both pupils and staff.
Pupils in my view stop being educated - encouraged to be inquisitive and enthusiastic about learning - in favour of being coached to do well in a set of exams.
Over the last five years the Head Teachers have done all they can with the present Labour Government to persuade them to drop this kind of testing.
I hope you will support this petition to get the message across and support the stance of the NAHT which is currently in the news.
Please sign our petition to end SATs
Well over 30,000 people have now signed the NUT and NAHT's petition to end SATs. As our boycott of SATs in 2010 approaches, we're asking for your help to boost our wider educational campaign. If you haven't already, please go to www.teachers.org.uk/petition to sign the on-line petition.
If you've already signed up then please try to encourage at least one friend to sign up too - feel free to send this email on to non-teachers.
More support for our campaign
You can check the front page of the NUT website for highlights on the SATs campaign and go to www.teachers.org.uk/assessment for more detailed information and resources.
We are very pleased to have recently received support from children's authors such as Michael Rosen, Alan Gibbons, Roger McGough, Beverley Naidoo and Ros Asquith (see the campaigns section of the website).
Robin Alexander of the Cambridge Review wrote in the Guardian on 27 April calling for politicians to 'Ditch the discredited dogma that there is no alternative to SATs'.
Please do what you can to support the campaign for an end to SATs!
Yours sincerely,
NUT GENERAL SECRETARY
The NUT are a fairly militant and main stream Union.
They are supporting the National Association of Head Teachers who most people would describe and a very responsible union who only would take action under extreme circumstances.
They see the SATs as being counterproductive, and I agree fully with their view.
What happens in primary schools is a switch in the teaching emphasis in the last year, year 6, to one entirely geared to achieving good SATs results.
This puts a strain on both pupils and staff.
Pupils in my view stop being educated - encouraged to be inquisitive and enthusiastic about learning - in favour of being coached to do well in a set of exams.
Over the last five years the Head Teachers have done all they can with the present Labour Government to persuade them to drop this kind of testing.
I hope you will support this petition to get the message across and support the stance of the NAHT which is currently in the news.
Please sign our petition to end SATs
Well over 30,000 people have now signed the NUT and NAHT's petition to end SATs. As our boycott of SATs in 2010 approaches, we're asking for your help to boost our wider educational campaign. If you haven't already, please go to www.teachers.org.uk/petition to sign the on-line petition.
If you've already signed up then please try to encourage at least one friend to sign up too - feel free to send this email on to non-teachers.
More support for our campaign
You can check the front page of the NUT website for highlights on the SATs campaign and go to www.teachers.org.uk/assessment for more detailed information and resources.
We are very pleased to have recently received support from children's authors such as Michael Rosen, Alan Gibbons, Roger McGough, Beverley Naidoo and Ros Asquith (see the campaigns section of the website).
Robin Alexander of the Cambridge Review wrote in the Guardian on 27 April calling for politicians to 'Ditch the discredited dogma that there is no alternative to SATs'.
Please do what you can to support the campaign for an end to SATs!
Yours sincerely,
NUT GENERAL SECRETARY
An amazing way to view the art work on the railings at Gill Banks
Someone - I don't know who yet - has taken about 12 photographs of the art work here and skilfully pasted them all together to give a very long photo. Then Chris Dennett has taken this and created this dragable magnifying glass to show us the detail.Brilliant stuff.
A big
Thank You
A big
Thank You
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