Buses, Tories and Thatcher

Unfortunately, lots of them come along at the same time

All the right wing tweeters getting upset about the lack of respect for Thatcher reminded me of one change she helped to instigate that I noted with sadness in the 80's. Her "children" Cameron and Osborne have continued implementing such wonderful policies as destroying the public sector, privatising anything that moves and casting another generation onto the slag heap.

But it made me think of one very practical example I lived through of how Thatcher's "grand ideas" completely changed one small but important aspect of our society.

In the 80's I was commuting into Waterloo, then taking two buses to get to the school I taught in, on the Old Kent Road.

When I started doing those journeys every bus had a driver and a conductor. As the Tory cuts took effect I saw the progressively deteriorating effect on travel in London. It may be apocryphal, but the Thatcher quote about only failures needing to take a bus, seemed to be evident in their transport policies.

"A man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure"

Slowly the friendly conductor, who helped on board the old, the infirm and the young parents with kids, was got rid of. It took longer at each stop because no-one was there to direct and the driver had to take the fares, creating long hold ups of cars behind the bus. Pretty soon the drivers alone in their cabs got frightened of the passengers and heavy duty plastic screen were put in between them and the people getting on. Queues and travel in London got slower.

Once that minimal contact between driver and passenger was eliminated with tickets bought before getting on, the driver became dramatically more distant. Old people who might have been helped by a conductor, now got thrown around as driving became more erratic and less connected to the people in the bus. I saw the service deteriorate around me.

In other words buses became much less of a service to the people who used them. Important people didn't need them anyway.

So much of what happened under Thatcher was the elimination of care and public service. It's all happening again.

"One man's overstaffing is another man's care and attention"

The public sector is again being dismantled. The teams that have grown to support the people they serve are being broken up, individuals made redundant. Things that matter to ordinary people are being scrapped because the "important" ones, the millionaires in cabinet have no need for them.

That's the way it is. Let's face it, when you next get on a bus how likely is it that George Osborne will be sitting next to you. His oyster card will only be used to buy the oysters to accompany his champagne.

Time for the Shadow Secretary of State for Education to leave the shadows

Those of us who believe that Michael Gove is effectively destroying the life chances of the majority of learners in this country, have a hard job ahead.

Most education professionals believe that almost all of his "reforms" on governance, on exams, on teaching, on the curriculum,  etc etc only serve to return state education to the inequities of the 50s and 60s.

Most of us believe that the underlying intention of them all is to privatise schooling and to remove any democratic and local involvement. 

Yet, when the BBC's Daily Politics show did a "half term report" on the Government, the contributors gave Gove full marks, "an unqualified success." None of these people were educators, few had ever experienced state education. Like the majority of media presenters and commentators they are products of the private schools and send their children to these elite institutions too.

When I heard Stephen Twigg, the almost supine Shadow Education Secretary, speak at an event, I was amazed by his approach. He is a good speaker, showing all the hallmarks of a career politician. But what he actually said was nothing more than anodyne and apple pie. He used good trigger words, "fairness" "justice" and "transparency". But what he really had to say was that most of Gove's "reforms" would be left untouched.

We could do with a bit of help from the Labour spokesman. Anyone who follows him on Twitter, @StephenTwigg, will see that he seems to go to a lot of picnics but rarely tweets about education. In fact, unlike most politicians, he rarely replies to tweets addressed to him.

Has anyone actually told him he is the Shadow Secretary of State for Education?
Do a picture search for Stephen Twigg on Google and you get as many of Michael Portillo as Stephen himself. Was unseating Thatcherite Mick the last thing he did?

When the BBC thinks Toby Young is an expert on education, when discussion in the media is led by those with no experience of state education and when the Labour Party Education spokesman is really just Mr Govelite, those of us in education have a long and steep road to rescue education in 2015. 

Frank discussion not playground brawl

I have written here many times about the lack of basic courtesy that is often Twitter's hallmark.

I have been guilty many times. I have so enjoyed making fun of Danny (Beaker) Alexander. So many times in fact that I feel perhaps I should be paying him royalties. I am afraid I have also let my spite go to extremes when the nonsense of Govian education policy bites us once again. So because I don't know these people personally, I have been rude but hopefully not offensive?

Trouble is, once you meet people here, or at least talk to them in thoughts bigger than 140 characters, it becomes harder to be merely rude at their expense. It's that basic courtesy thing. Also just because you disagree on politics doesn't mean you won't share a love for John Martyn, Western Cape Pinotage or Anne Tyler.

So I have talked at length with some politicians, bloggers and educationists whose views on the Tory road to the future I violently disagree with. Isn't it better to state your view, correct theirs where you can but continue the conversation?

I love finding the slightly acidic quote or picture that backs up my gut feelings and gets others looking and commenting too.

I also feel we all need to be aware of criticism and adapt our own comments and views when someone takes the trouble to point out mistakes, or misinterpretations. Sometimes we should just keep quiet.

Recently lots of people were tweeting about something Churchill is supposed to have said re. the Arts. You know the one - "What then are we fighting for?" Trouble is I used that a long time ago and many people came back and told me that this was one of those myths we all like to pass on. Didn't jump up and correct because the underlying thought resonated, Tory Arts cuts are counter-productive.

Bit like the myth that I still repeat even though people tell me it is apocryphal. The one about the Tory Cabinet minister forced to travel on London Underground for the very first time? The story goes that he asked his secretary to book him into the Dining Car. Works, because we all feel that the cabinet millionaires just aren't aware of what ordinary people experience. And no, it wasn't Boris Johnson.

So, I want to listen, be amused, be engaged and occasionally be corrected. And like almost everyone else on Twitter, I want to be loved too.

But the people who go out of their way to insult and criticise without explanation of their own views should simply be blocked.

Twitter is an amazing medium for ordinary people who do not have access to a newspaper column, radio programme or TV spot. When I comment on the work of an author, directly to that author via Twitter, I am privileged if they respond. Even more so when they are interested enough in what I say to follow me here.

When a politician responds I can be blunt but I don't agree with insults just to provoke that response. 

As an ex teacher, and someone who has worked within education all my life, I prefer the staffroom discussion to the playground brawl.

Power and wealth attracts the corruptible

Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect all who seek it.

FRANK HERBERT, Chapterhouse: Dune

When I worked with education in South Africa on behalf of a UK charity I was able to bring resources that were not readily available to Heads and teachers there. Over a five year period I managed to secure computers, software and much more for schools that were still struggling to provide books in classrooms and feed their learners. £1million of resource that included science labs for township schools and connections with wealthier partner schools in England. 

As part of the deal I often escorted British Headteachers on tours to SA. I asked colleagues in Cape Town and Gauteng to host visits, put on a show at the school etc. Because what we were offering these schools was so valuable to them it was sometimes easy to forget that this power may have forced them to change their timetables and adapt to fit around us. 

On my return to the UK I often felt very guilty about the power we had because of the wealth we also had. I hope I used this primarily for the benefit of the learners in the SA schools. But the contrast between my situation and theirs was based on the finances available to me.

I feel the Coalition government has completely lost sight of the people their power affects. Their comfortable situation, their money, their personal resources have blinded them to the plight and the wishes of the people they were elected to serve.

While most politicians I believe really do want to serve their community, sadly for many, the exercise of power has become the only ambition they have. 

Power gradually extirpates for the mind every humane and gentle virtue.

EDMUND BURKE, A Vindication of Natural Society

The well bred seem intent on spreading poverty wider and further.

I have only felt really hungry over an extended period of time once in my life.

At College, near the end of term and determined not to ask my parents for any more support, I spent three weeks surviving. My diet consisted of “bread and spread” and little else. I didn’t feel healthy, I didn’t feel able to participate in College life and I felt continually depressed. But it wasn’t cold outside, I had no dependents and I had mates who occasionally bought me a beer. I also had a point to make.

When I was teaching in an inner city school in the seventies, I often came across kids who came to school starving. Many bought a bag of crisps on the way in or came with nothing in their stomachs and waited for free lunch for their first meal of the day. Many of us had a packet of biscuit bars that we used to give these kids so they had something to eat at morning break. Not a large group of students but too big to institute a feeding programme of "bread and spread" but enough to worry about especially during the Winter months. This "teacher charity" is on the rise again.

The next time I encountered real and long term hunger was while I worked for a charity in South Africa. The country is a real land of contrasts. I worked with schools seeking to develop the use of technology in the 21^st century. Some of the schools in our network were seemingly modelled on Eton with playing fields, bell towers and refectories. The majority I went into were hacked out of township wastelands.

One I had much to do with was a school where both educators and learners generally spoke isiXhosa at home, but had to teach for the most part, in English. Most of the staff could converse in Afrikaans too. Yet the majority of the kids were on province sponsored feeding programmes. “Bread and spread” (generally jam) was handed out at the end of the day and that was the meal they looked forward to. Kids who came well dressed in their school uniforms, you could see were hungry before they went back to their “shacks”.

This situation was hammered home to me many times. I took the school’s drum and dance group to the Commonwealth Education Ministers Conference where they performed for the well fed and self satisfied representatives. Afterwards the Venue provided each of the 30 kids with a packed lunch. To a UK kid nothing special but the individually wrapped sandwiches, chocolate biscuits etc etc was heaven for this group.

On another occasion (see earlier blog) I spoke at an Indaba at the school celebrating their new IT Lab. We cooked a meal for all the participants and the local community and school. This meal of chicken, pap and steamed bread was more than just an event for the kids it was vital sustenance. It took me a long time to realise that the staff too were often short of decent food.

You sometimes see in UK restaurants the option to take home a “doggie bag” of leftover food. Eat in SA and leftover food is often handed out to the street kids or parking watchmen.

So when the Tories sneer at the poor in the UK and say nobody is starving, I am simply horrified that we can actually see foodbanks in our cities and the hungry children back in our schools.

They have already downgraded the Labour government's commitment to eradicate child poverty in 2020 by announcing new non-income indicators of poverty. They are planning to stop monitoring child poverty.

I never thought we would be discussing the problems of hunger amongst our people

The well bred seem intent on spreading poverty wider and further.

Boy Bloggers, Tory Think Tanks & an Absence of Expertise

I have been blocked by only a few people in my four years on Twitter. One thought he spoke for the left in the Independent and although I only made one comment criticising his casual rudeness about isiXhosa, I was blocked.(see an earlier blog)

Another speaks for whatever right wing hurrah is the current obsession and really does write, speak and tweet like a privileged school kid emerging from his darkened room. 

I think both stopped the link because I disagreed with them and said so. Both enjoyed the thrill of being little heroes to their respective followers and while dispensing criticism was their game they hated it when an argument was made that didn't fit their perception.

Then there is Toby Young, @toadmeister. Not only is his opinion sought on everything on the basis that he thinks he knows everything, but our government gave permission for him start a school and inflict himself on children! It was almost a badge of honour to be blocked by him.

I think blocking has to be used for a definite reason. Usually because of offensiveness or persistent unpleasantness. Unfollowing seems to me to be the right course of action in most cases.

I follow many people who have views I radically disagree with, but that seems to me to be the point. Hear an argument, dispute it when you can but still engage. Clearly, there might be exceptions. I don't follow anyone who blatantly supports racist organisations for example.

There are however, people on Twitter, (and most are male) who seem intent on becoming their own version of mini-celebrities. Unfortunately this medium and the news media encourage them by giving them access to speak about subjects they have no expertise in, only prejudices about.

These boy bloggers often delight in a series of throwaway insults to get attention. Sadly this is sometimes as prevalent on the Left as the Right. As a teacher, it reminds me of the playground behaviour of the loudest kids who can't argue a point successfully so end up shouting insults. I sometimes wish Twitter could be more like a staffroom conversation rather than the one behind the bike sheds.

To be frank many of the supposedly political bloggers are far more interested in building a media presence than arguing a point constructively. Tweet enough rudeness, blog enough rubbish and say you belong to a ThinkTank or a "political blog"  and #SkyNews and #BBCNews seems happy to invite you on. You can then spout crap to millions of viewers who don't know your "claim to expertise" is based on nothing but writing awfulness on awful websites.

So. I offer you a new ThinkTank from the comfort of my Basingstoke Sofa. It is available for comment on any and all topics especially education.

But like @MrHarryCole and his pub bore friends I will talk at length about anything. I may not know anything about the subject, but I will be happy to splutter cliche, nod enthusiastically and claim my appearance fee.

Isn't that what think tanks are for? Contact me at....

WRESTLING YETIS : 3 generations: 3 "jobs for life"

When my father retired at the age of 60 from a lifetime of work, he pretty soon got bored. He had worked for the AA before volunteering for the army at the outbreak of war in 1939. After time in North Africa and Italy he returned to the UK and passed the entrance exams for the Civil Service Commission. He spent the next 30+ years working on projects to do with Careers and Training in the Civil Service. My mother did a variety of jobs, but usually in retail, and part time. At the age of 60 he had his works pension but no state one yet. Living in a Council House they could afford to live reasonably but not lavishly. The problem was he was bored, so he walked into an admin work agency and walked out with a new job the same day. A temporary post led to a permanent one at the age of 61. He stayed there for 6 years using the same skills as he had learnt in the Civil Service. He never had a problem finding a job where he could demonstrate loyalty and hard work.

I worked in various jobs (office, school caretaking etc) before going to a Teacher Training College. With certificate in hand, I went straight into a Comprehensive on the Old Kent Road in London and stayed there for 17 years. Classroom teacher, head of department, senior manager progression. My loyalty was to the school and the community it served. A tough environment but a rewarding one. I didn't apply for another job outside until I had been there for 15 years. I moved on to another school's senior management team in a leafier part of the world and then worked for an Education Charity which received a major part of its funding from Labour Government programmes. After a few years there I got involved in work with African schools which became my personal "mission" and made me feel both valued and valuable. I raised in three years almost £1m from companies and trusts to be used to develop skills in African classrooms. Funding for my post ran out and I was threatened with redundancy but transferred into a new project that was totally dependent on government funding. With the emergence of the Coalition this project was scrapped and within 3 months I was made redundant.

After a lifetime of showing commitment, enthusiasm and loyalty, plus a bank of skills based on global experience of education, fundraising and media work, I had high expectations of finding a job quickly. 2 years later I have no full time job and although my days of consultancy continue I am now certain that I value being part of a team. Having to constantly "sell" myself for every job is frankly depressing. 

I grew up in an environment where demonstrating commitment and loyalty were seen as a crucial part of the job. In today's workplace the individual who is forced to re-imagine and sell themself repeatedly.

My son left University in 2010 with a First Class Honours Degree. When he started his course in Film Studies he knew that full time permanent jobs were not the norm in the creative industries but he expected to earn enough to develop and hone his skills and his career. Within a few weeks of gaining power the Coalition scrapped the UK Film Council which was the source of hope for many hoping to work in British Film and also a major contributor to the economic health of the nation.. Much of the work of the Arts Council has been reduced or scrapped too.

He has had many successes with film and theatre projects (see below) but paid work is very limited. Arts employers offer unpaid internships or expenses only jobs, so wthout comfortably off parents this field is closed to many youngsters. The Job Centres are arranged to find poorly paid and temporary jobs. He has only managed to claim Job Seekers Allowance for a few weeks in the last year because every time he does something to further his career, he is not "available for work" and has to come off.

A great example of this is he was shortlisted (and then won) a film competition on "Conservation of Water". The American company organising this paid for him to attend the event in Los Angeles and a few other industry related days. This was a great opportunity to make links with film makers and funders and develop his skills. Because he was not "available for work" for a week he lost several weeks JSA. Absurd.

But the biggest loss for him is the inability to join the "contributing society". He is not part of a team. Like me he is not able to demonstrate and learn loyalty and commitment. His only priority in work is himself and the desperation he feels about being able to start on the road. He left University with massive debt but nowhere near what the next generation of students are going to face.

They will have no sense of belonging to anything, no sense of being part of a team, no hope and no choices. Any job will do. And they are not able to start the long journey to a pension or buy a property.

My father worked and served all his life and had the opportunity to continue contributing until late in his sixties, using the skills and ideas he learnt and developed at work.

I worked in jobs where loyalty and commitment were important and my skill set was immense, but before I have reached sixty I am out on a limb, feeling I have lots more still to offer but nowhere to show that.

My son can't even start on that route, and he has yet to feel that commitment to anything other than himself is worthwhile. In his early twenties- but he can't get a worthwhile job and seems to have no hope of finding one. I think the film he wrote and directed "Wrestling Yetis" sums up how important it is to feel enthusiastic about the your job and your future.

Wrestling Yetis  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLMkL-sDgzI

Fun and Games IUOW Competion Winner 2011 

ICT Questions for School Governors. What do we now teach? ICT, Computing, Computer Studies, Computer Science?

1. BYOD Is there a Bring Your Own Device school policy?
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ukschools/archive/2012/02/14/some-thoughts-on-byod-in-education.aspx
http://www.slideshare.net/samgliksman/building-an-effective-school-byod-plan   
http://cybraryman.com/cellphones.html 
 
2. Social media a. Is there a school Social Media policy? b. Is the school community encouraged to be involved?  
http://edudemic.com/2012/06/school-social-media-policy/ 

3. How is Twitter etc used by the School to communicate with stakeholders? 

4. Who runs the accounts?  
http://www.bee-it.co.uk/downloads/guidance-and-research/doc_details/647-how-to-use-twitter-in-schools-.html 
 http://edudemic.com/2012/04/100-ways-to-use-twitter-in-education-by-degree-of-difficulty/

5. Cross curricular and whole school use of ICT How is this reported to parents and encouraged in departments? old but still relevant
https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/Exploiting%20ICT.pdf

6. 
a. Have learners expressed an interest in coding/programming in class?  
b. Is there after school activity for advanced computing available? 
c. How will it be included in the more general “ICT” curriculum? 
d. Are staff sufficiently skilled?  
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17373972 

7. Hardware acquisition.
a. Is there a school policy regarding new types of devices? e.g. Tablets, IWBs, Raspberry Pi, (small single board computer) etc?
b. Is there a replacement and upgrade policy in place?  


8. How will Computing, Computer Studies or Computer Science be introduced to School Curriculum as a standalone subject? Don’t Call It "Computer Science" If We Really Mean "Computer Programming"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jul/10/digital-literacy-roundtable
 http://codemanship.co.uk/parlezuml/blog/?postid=1109  

 9. How does ICT Training take place?
a. For department use
b. For social media
c. For Internet Literacy
d. For e-safety  
http://www.esafety-adviser.com/Resources/Parents%20Online%20Safety%20Newsletter%20-%20Edition%201.pdf 
http://www.kenttrustweb.org.uk//Children/safeguards_esafety.cfm 


10. Are all staff fully aware of and acting in compliance with Data Protection Act?
http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/sector_guides/education.aspx 

Gove : Secretary of State for Academies and Free Schools

As the wordle of his Jan 4th 2012 speech shows, Gove no longer cares about the majority of kids in state schools. He seems to see his role as simply to promote one form of governance. He has insulted teachers, leaders and governors in schools struggling to create good opportunities for their learners in LA supported schools.

He is the true ideologue. Those of us arguing for a comprehensive system and curriculum are not the "idealogues" that the DfE tweeted about earlier today.

Why Status Quo fans never listen

Back in the seventies, I had a year off my studies to be President of the Goldsmiths Student Union. Previously, I had been the Social Secretary and had a wonderful year indulging myself with strange bookings for big events (2000 capacity) and smaller ones for a few hundred. Some of the LPs the companies sent to me cause supercilious sniggers even now. The Pink Fairies debut album, anyone?

I tried all nighters with a staggering range of acts that included people like Mungo Jerry on the same bill as Lindisfarne and various heavy metal bands. Some worked fantastically but to this day I still shudder at the image of the night Status Quo and John Martyn shared a stage. John was near to tears as his gentle set was ruined by the jeers of SQ fans who wouldn't listen to anything that didn't have the same riff in every song.

When I took over as President there was an incredible range of issues on the table for the NUS. Grants, creche facilities, accommodation, Gay Rights, Fights against the National Front and many others. Within the student council I tried to organise we had every shade of student politics, SWP, Tory and even one NF man. Full union meetings were a circus which I tried to organise without the whip.

I soon realised that politically I had a lot to learn. Whatever I tried to do, someone would tell me I was fighting on the wrong side. On one occasion, clear directions from NUS meant although I could speak against him, I couldn't stop the NF guy speaking. Unfortunately he was a damn good speaker. He loved the fact that I had allowed him to speak and made a great show of thanking me. Next day a very edited version of our debate was in the Daily Telegraph, making it seem as if I had supported the NF line, rather than one person's permission to speak.

I tried to get them to print a retraction. Instead a conversation I had with the education editor was misreported yet again.

There is no point in Labour trying to win the support of the right wing press. They will always report what they want, to bolster what they want and will always denigrate the views of the left.

I learnt as President that socialist arguments are never listened to by right wing media and that Status Quo fans are too stuck in the past to listen to anything that challenges their viewpoint.

Why I love my Kindle

One year on a quick blog about why I love my Kindle but sometimes don't. No massive research, no facts and figures, just a response.

What I don't like first:

1. I miss being able to pass on my book. Did this in lots of ways- to friends and family, holiday bookshelves, station cafe etc.
2. Being able to remember the book by checking the cover or the summary on the back of the paperback. With the Kindle it is far more complicated and often I completely forget what the book was I intended to read.

BUT what I do like in no particular order:

1. The ability to get most books within a few seconds. I read a review of a children's author's fantasy series and was able to download the first book immediately. My local Waterstone would never have had the complete collection.
2. Checking out referenced stories easily. I read online about a young American writer who had only published online. Got to start reading her that day.
3. The absolute treasure of "free" classics. So many books I may well not have bought to read, I have downloaded and read when I can. Always wanted to read Sherlock Holmes stories again. Done. Hadn't read Jane Austen for 30 years. Done. Re-read Jack London. Done.
4. New writers. There is a wealth of free books on the Amazon site by either new writers or authors giving away one book to drag you in. Have found some real gems in amongst the rubbish and enjoyed reading other people's reviews.
5. Storage. This really is a boon. Hundreds of books sitting there. Begging me in.
6. Ease of use. When I read hardcover books now, I can't help but think "wish it was on my Kindle". They are so bulky especially when you try and read in bed.
7. The battery life is amazing. It really does last a month.
8. And it is easy to read, hold and use
9. Synchronising between Kindle and Android is great too.

I still buy printed books. Love the feel of them and still like the disposability but the Kindle fulfills most of the needs I have as a very avid reader.

As an educationist I can genuinely see them or their equivalent replacing many books in the Library. The same way that reference books have largely been supplanted by the web.

So, yes I love my Kindle!

Coalition, Cockroaches and the Welfare State

During my time working in Africa for schools, I spent a week in a village in Tanzania. Villagers had no electricity or running water in their homes but the school I stayed in did. However, the week I was there, the power went down and this stopped the water running too.

Night time was never fun. I had never used a mosquito net before so each bedtime was a complicated process with no light and cackhanded attempts to seal myself into my bed sanctuary. I have to be honest and tell you I am not brave about insects and the first night the bombardment of mosquitoes attacking my little sacred place terrified me. Only a few bites in the course of the week though and my privileged western access to anti-malaria tablets meant I would be safe.

What frightened me more each night was the floor full of cockroaches. Lights off and I could hear them, torch on and I could see them scurrying into the walls. Hated it, hated them. I would lie in bed and feel them creeping up on me while the mosquitoes buzzed around trying to break down my little place of safety.

But I knew I would be OK. I had the net to protect me, the bloody expensive tablets inside me and a torch to turn on whenever I felt I wanted the roaches to run away.

This is where my thoughts on the coalition come in. We used to hear about the wonderful theory of "trickle down", the idea both Thatcher and Blair seemed to espouse. As the rich got richer, the poor would also see the benefits. But we know now "trickle down" is just the rich pissing on the poor. And that's exactly what the coalition is doing.

They are taking away ordinary people's malaria tablets, mosquito nets and light as they destroy the NHS, housing benefits and education.

I really do feel the same about the coalition as I did those bloody cockroaches.

Unfortunately, lots of them come along at the same time

Something said recently by David Cameron, set me thinking of the Thatcher years. He had said so many of Thatcher's ideas were now being recognised as great, suggesting I suppose that he and Gideon fully intend to continue implementing such wonderful policies as destroying the public sector, privatising anything that moves and casting another generation onto the slag heap.

But it made me think of one very practical example I lived through of how Thatcher's "grand ideas" completely changed one aspect of our society.

One person's economy is another's quality of life

In the 80's I was commuting into Waterloo, then taking two buses to get to the school I taught in, on the Old Kent Road.

When I started doing those journeys every bus had a driver and a conductor. As the Tory cuts took effect I saw the progressively deteriorating effect on travel in London. It may be apocryphal, but the Thatcher quote about only failures needing to take a bus, seemed to be evident in the transport policy concerning them.

A man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure

Slowly the friendly conductor, who helped on board the old, the infirm and the young parents with kids, was got rid of. It took longer at each stop because no-one was there to direct and the driver had to take the fares, creating long hold ups of cars behind the bus. Pretty soon the drivers alone in their cabs got frightened of the passengers and heavy duty plastic screen were put in between them and the people getting on. Queues and travel in London got slower.

Once that minimal contact between driver and passenger was eliminated with tickets bought before getting on, the driver became dramatically more distant. Old people who might have been helped by a conductor, now got thrown around as driving became more erratic and less connected to the people in the bus. I saw the service deteriorate around me.

In other words buses became less of a service to the people who used them. Besides, important people didn't need them anyway.

So much of what happened under Thatcher was the elimination of care and public service. It's all happening again.

The public sector is now again being dismantled. The teams that have grown to support the people they serve are being broken up, individuals made redundant. Things that matter to ordinary people are being scrapped because the "important" ones, the millionaires in cabinet have no need for them.

That's the way it is. Let's face it, when you get on a bus how likely is it that George Osborne will be sitting next to you. His oyster card would only be used to buy the oysters to accompany his champagne.

Remembering Racism in South Africa (and so much more)

An article by Victor Dlamini (link at bottom) reminded me of the privileges accorded to me as a visitor during my time working for a Charity in South Africa.

Between 2003 and 2008 I worked supporting the introduction of new technologies to the "formerly disadvantaged schools". In inverted commas because for most "formerly" was entirely the wrong word. The key initiative I worked with is a wonderful organisation that produced outcomes envied across the world and I have written in many places of our partnership work. As a visitor who spent 1/3 of the year in Africa, I was able to benefit from many advantages. The exchange rate only one of them. However, as recently reported in Trip Advisor, South Africa is one of the friendliest places on earth.

I worked with schools in many different communities across wealth and racial divides. The coloured community, which still describes itself this way, faces as many problems as the Xhosa. Schools are still poorly equipped and lacking the resources that many take for granted. I also worked with schools that were still largely white and when I visited often reminded me of visits I have made to Eton! Fantastic grounds and buildings, rowing teams and swimming pools.

I worked especially closely with some Xhosa schools in Guguletu and Khayelitsha. I loved the enthusiasm and warmth of the staff who were sometimes teaching classes of 50 learners. On several memorable occasions I took classes in ICT or Maths, speaking English to students who need that language for school work but went home to speak isiXhosa. 50 kids or more stretches ability and patience. In my attempts to be part of these groups I tried to involve myself in all aspects of school life. I managed to secure over £1/2m of support, product and sponsorship for schools here.

I was asked to formally open one school's ICT Lab on a blazingly hot Cape Town day, in a large tent erected just for that purpose. This was a big event for the whole local community and many were invited and turned up for hours of celebration, talks by education officials, local politicians and me! I went for a celebratory meal with the whole of the staff a few days earlier. It was then that they explained to me that they were expecting several hundred guests and they would be providing lunch, all cooked by the staff themselves. Chicken, pap, steamed bread, tripe, spinach etc. prepared on school grounds and on portable gas cookers. I couldn't resist! To their astonishment I said I wanted to help. They tried to tell me as the main guest, I shouldn't but agreed it would be original. Only condition, it was customary to bring a knife.

Two days later I was collected at my central Cape Town hotel at 4.30 in the morning. The early morning ride round Khayelitsha collecting some teachers without their own transport, being handed mugs of tea and various breakfast foods at every house was one I shall never forget. Not least because my "driver" was the young ICT technician who had rigged the biggest stereo system in his boot and decided that the time we were together would be my introduction to kwaito.

Arriving at the school by 6am we set to preparing food. They wouldn't trust me with the chicken, so I was set to washing spinach at an outside tap. 5 plastic sacks full of the stuff. I also got to stir the chicken as it stewed in pans.

I was presenting at 12, so I had to get changed into my suit just before, as the other guests arrived. When I emerged, hands clean and freshly scrubbed,the "important people" had arrived. I did my friendly thing and talked to all, practising my very limited isiXhosa and Afrikaans.

At one point, one of the officials, from the coloured community, took me aside. He said he had to warn me about the food. He said it was never a good idea to eat food in these "black schools" as you could never trust it, and that I as a foreigner would probably suffer. He also said that he often pretended to be Muslim, so that he could excuse himself. I am sure he meant well, but this expressed so neatly the lack of understanding between the different communities in the Western Cape.

I told him I had helped prepare the food he was being offered and I could guarantee it's hygiene and the care taken in providing it.

I have been taken many times to restaurants off the beaten track by my best friend in South Africa, the Principal of one of the biggest schools in Southern Africa with over 2000 learners. As part of the coloured community he had been on the stage with Nelson Mandela at one of his first ANC rallies in the Western Cape after his liberation. He took great pleasure taking me into places where as he said, ten years earlier he would have been refused admission. Yet when I started to arrange network meetings for schools wishing to join my schools association, I was always startled when white and black principals from the same area would admit this was the first time they had ever sat and talked.

My principal friend was shocked the first time I took him with me into Khayelitsha to visit a Xhosa school. The communities do not mix on a day to day basis. One Saturday evening colleagues from a Khayelitsha school took me out for a meal and drinks in bars in Guguletu. All of us were middle aged and the looks we got from the youngsters out on the town were of the "look at the oldies" type, rather than look at that Umlungu. Later in the evening we sat in a small informal bar. A group of men drinking with gusto on another table were clearly discussing me. Comments and gestures made that clear. To be honest I was a little worried. My colleagues however, showed no concern. When I asked them what the situation was they patiently explained that most of the men were Heads and teachers from local schools and one of them remembered me from a school visit. Racial sterotyping? Our group suddenly got much larger for the rest of the evening.

I loved my experiences and the people in South Africa. I met people from all communities dedicated to creating a new South Africa, one with opportunities for all.

But the legacy of apartheid still continues to cast a long racist shadow in so many ways.

Ubuntu: "I am what I am because of who we all are."

Partnership Project Unites African and UK Schools

Victor Dlamini http://www.citypress.co.za/Columnists/The-Cape-of-backdoor-racism-20110507

Kwaito

On being rude on Twitter (and Johann Hari)

I have written here several times about the lack of basic courtesy that is often Twitter's hallmark.

I have been guilty many times. I have so enjoyed making fun of Danny (Beaker) Alexander and Nick (#noddingclegg) Clegg. I am afraid I have let my spite go to extremes when the nonsense of Govian education policy bites us once again. So because I don't know these people personally, I have been rude.

Trouble is, once you meet people here, or at least talk to them in thoughts bigger than 140 characters, I find it harder to be merely rude at their expense. It's that basic courtesy thing. Also just because you disagree on politics doesn't mean you won't share a love for John Martyn, Western Cape Pinotage or Anne Tyler.

So I have talked at length with some politicians, bloggers and educationists whose views on the Tory road to the future I violently disagree with. Isn't it better to state your view, correct theirs where you can but continue the conversation?

I love finding the slightly acidic quote or picture that backs up my gut feelings and gets others looking and commenting too.

As an ex teacher, but someone who has worked within education all my life, I prefer the staffroom discussion to the playground brawl.

I also feel we all need to be aware of criticism and adapt our own comments and views when someone takes the trouble to point out mistakes, or misinterpretations. Sometimes we keep quiet.

Yesterday lots of people were tweeting about something Churchill is supposed to have said re. the Arts. You know the one - "What then are we fighting for?" Trouble is I used that a long time ago and many people came back and told me that this was one of those myths we all like to pass on. Didn't jump up and correct yesterday because the underlying thought resonated, Tory Arts cuts are counter-productive.

Bit like the myth that I still repeat even though people tell me it is apocryphal. The one about the Tory Cabinet minister forced to travel on London Underground for the very first time? The story goes that he asked his secretary to book him into the Dining Car. Works, because we all feel that the cabinet millionaires just aren't aware of what ordinary people experience. And no, it wasn't Boris Johnson.

So, I want to listen, be amused, be engaged and occasionally be corrected. And like almost everyone else on Twitter, I want to be loved too.

Johann Hari wrote his Indy column today about how Ed Miliband needs to be better understood, to be clearer in the way he speaks.

I objected to one line, which I think was supposed to be a casual throwaway joke about isiXhosa, one of the languages of South Africa.

"In interviews,(Ed M).... will casually back up his points by referring to "the IFS", or "the OBR" – which may as well be in Xhosha click language for all it means to most people"

isiXhosa speakers hate the way those who can't reproduce the intricate sounds of their language make fun of it. He can't even be bothered to spell correctly the language of 8 million people in South Africa, 18% of the population. (Xhosa not Xhosha) Using this for his "funny" wasn't and I objected to it in the comments and on Twitter. He promptly blocked me, blocking any debate or discussion.

In South Africa the plethora of official languages in that multi-cultural society, is often the subject of the satirists.

Pieter-Dirk Uys has been satirising African politics, society and language since and during the days of apartheid. I sat in one of his performances and although my Afrikaans is limited his jokes still made me laugh and often made me cry. He told one story of problems caused by having to use all 11 official languages on signs. "Imagine someone approaching a gate and seeing all the official versions of "Beware of the Dog". By the time they had read to the bottom, the Zulu speaker would have been bitten!"

Made me laugh as this was in the context of a man who had lived through the changes, loved his country and continued to humourously criticise all he felt was still wrong.

If Twitter can add value to our perception of the world and society we need to engage in the debate and still see the humanity in the people we criticise.

I feel sorely let down by Johann Hari in that endeavour. Quite a few have responded to me by DM or in open tweets. Several comment on this growing trend. "one of those cause journalists whose main cause is his career". By "blocking he is as bad as some of those he criticises. Criticism obv OK as long as it isn't of him!"

Well yes. My thoughts too.

Johann Hari Independent Article

Pieter-Dirk Uys

all 11 official languages

Why did that chicken cross the road?

The answers that people might give now


Teresa May: I am proud of our police force and it was not their fault that the chicken lost its leg

Douglas Adams: 42

Descartes: It's not pink, it's not spam

Gaddafi's security chief: Give me just five minutes alone with it and I'll find out!

Hamlet: That is not the question

Ken Clarke: I fell asleep, what was the question?

Margaret Thatcher: this chicken's not for turning

Buddha: If you ask this question, you deny your own chicken-nature

Nick Clegg: I told it my principles were on the other side

Stephen King, Education and Coalition Horror

In the nineties I taught ICT in a small mixed comprehensive in Berkshire. Having arrived there from an inner London school, I noticed a lot of differences between the kids from the two areas. If you have ever played Monopoly you will have a notion of the value of the Old Kent Road and lots of the kids who lived there didn't put a much higher value on themselves. My first few weeks in the Berkshire school on the edge of a country town was spent getting used to the accents and them getting used to mine. The country yokel cry of "Please Sir" I really thought was their attempt to take the piss out of my London voice. The willingness to stand up when asked also came as a bit of a shock. These kids were different to the multi cultural environment I had spent the first 17 years of teaching in.

Stephen King : 49 books and counting

We got used to each other though. One of the things that was exactly the same in both schools, however, was the way in which boys had distinctive tastes in literature and English teachers just couldn't understand it. In my new school most of the English Department was female throughout my time there. Every year when learners chose the novel they were going to read and write their GCSE Book review on, the same problems emerged. Lots of the boys wanted to adopt a Stephen King Horror and most of the staff tried to dissuade them.

There was the underlying feeling that "King was trash" and something more "literary" and appropriate should be selected. In the last few years we have heard a lot about how the Harry Potter books have got kids reading, well 20 years ago I think King did the same thing for teenage boys.

Running ICT access meant I got lots of students asking me for assistance when they were doing research. A common complaint was the hostility many felt when a King book was their choice. Some of them kept at it, often choosing the nastiest title they could find, just to be awkward. A bit like fumbling with fags behind the bike sheds, or trying to get to porn sites in the ICT Lab. All bravado.

But I have always loved Stephen King's books. I love the ability to tell a story that starts with real life events and real life people that you care about and want to learn about. Rarely do I pick a King book up and not want to keep going until I reach the end of the story. Some of his novels are sensational rubbish but some of them I would seriously place among the best written in the English language. And for anyone who has never picked up one of his stories and has a snobbish view of them, read one: that's a challenge!

I would say Misery, Dorothy Claiborne and Hearts in Atlantis are among the best. The novellas such as Stand By Me and Shawshank, superb.The horror is subsidiary to the suspense and character development in most of his writing.

So to go back to the nineties. I was called to arms! I thought I should take up the cause of the King and argue my point on behalf of all the boys who wanted to do their review of one of his.

When I got my chance to put my case and talk about the language, the writing skills, the story telling ability, I was a bit shocked. At the time I did this, none of the teachers had read any King. It wasn't part of their cultural background. It wasn't what they knew. They had no experience of reading what the people they were responsible for liked or kept them going. They dismissed the aspirations of this group of boys who wanted to read what they wanted to read, not what someone else foisted on them. Hopefully, most of these boys went on to read a much bigger collection of literature but often the set books became hated books because they were made to read them.

I have this relationship with Dickens. Bleak House was my set book at A level. I was told to read it. Never did and still haven't up to this day.

So, a few points there but a wider one. Watched Andrew Neil's Posh and Posher yesterday. Apart from the fact that Mr Neil needs someone to explain to him what Comprehensives really are and do, and that if all the private schools were closed as Labour should have done in 1997 then education for all would be so much better; apart from all that it is pretty damn clear that all the millionaires from Eton and Oxford and Cambridge in the Cabinet have no idea what people in UK are really like.

No idea at all. They don't share our relationship with the world. Osborne needn't worry about cuts, his Trust fund will carry on isolating him. Gove can carry on organising the world so that schools reflect the education he suffered. Because none of them are really linked in to what people really want or see. There is good stuff going on in our communities. Stuff that the millionaires don't see, don't understand and don't care about.

Reminds me of Stephen King and the English teachers.

TIES - the novel. Free Intro chapter

Its funny how someone can learn so much about themselves from telling someone else. You start to talk and you start creating a person who you want to exist. You begin by making things up. Then the way you tell the story means that it really does become true. The person you are talking about becomes the one you want to be. Love has a funny effect on everything

He picked up the tie and ran its softness through his fingers. Silky, smooth and such a contrast to the haze of colours that seemed almost deliberate in their sensual assault. He would never have worn this tie in any other situation but the one he was about to become a willing part of. For so many years now he had worn the easy forgotten but nonetheless declaration ties. Crisp and unaccentuated. Eyes were drawn to them but did not linger. Nothing there to draw conclusions from except the quality, the very essence of a wearer who didn’t need to try. The few times he had stepped away from this notion of the inscrutable he had been acutely, irrevocably embarrassed. Not just for himself but also for all the eyes that had rested on the affirmation round his neck and moved on rapidly in case they were forced to learn much more than they wanted to know. But now the tie was finally resurrected because it was time to meet its maker.

He had never even once considered throwing this tie away. Many other experiments, gifts and novelties had been discarded or disposed of when they became splattered with the residues of a great night out. Some had been used to tie the tops of rubbish sacks closed that had been filled with worn out shirts and trousers. Some had never even shared the wrinkled privileges of his neck. Yet this one tie had survived all the style rebellions, even if its place had slowly been re-ordered like layers on a computer graphics program or the objects in a PowerPoint presentation. The thought made him think that metaphor was good. Some computer presentations looked lean and right, others were cluttered with detail that distracted and diminished. Too much business, too much of everything. A lot of ties seemed to have the same effect. But this only made him worry was he talking metaphors or similes? Never sure but always worried. Worry seemed to hang from him, dripped down his carefully ironed shirt front, left him bathed in the sweat of regret.

Still this tie was so many things to him. Yes, it reminded him of some bitter memories from a time in his life when he felt uncertain about certainties, uncommitted to his commitments. Had there been another time like that? When had he ever felt so powerless and yet so totally involved? She had let him believe the impossible; she had encouraged dreams that wouldn’t last half a minute in the cold light of a New Cross sunset or the warm haze of a Nyanga daybreak. Yet she never lied. She talked to him of Chris, she told the fluid stories that made up the cold river of her life. She told him what Chris was and who he was and what he could do in anger or in sorrow. Or in both.

She had sought out his new; uncluttered and genuine warmth but never made him warm. She had brokered sympathy and affection, shown it but never let it move on. He could accuse her of nothing. She had always told the truth however much it hurt him. She needed somewhere to hide, someone to hide her. She asked for his help and he had given her everything, always knowing it would never be enough. He was compensation and he compensated for what she missed but he never once replaced or completed. She loved him honestly. She treated him to honesty but it was never enough for him. He showed what he felt but always held that final passion in check. Her need was not the same as his. He could satisfy hers, while she would never do the same for him.

She told him how much she loved Chris while living in his bed. She let him touch her, caress her and care for her but never let it slide down the wet and oily slope to more. She never allowed him into the silky forest of her desires. He was grateful for her bounty and her beauty. He knew if they were ever found together in this innocence they would not be understood. He knew that Chris would take him to blame, would turn his fierce cruelty on him first and her continuously and forever. The fragile structure of his care would be ripped beyond repair. Because although she had to now, for the present she could never really get away. Neither did she want to. His softness and kindness was just an interlude, a brief escape from what she really needed. However hard he tried to show that warmth and love was a better way to live, she still yearned for Chris’ hardness, his jagged steel, his rough demanding ego. His strength, his lack of care that seemed to make her feel she was all he needed.

But she had made him this tie. He hadn’t known of its existence until it was completely formed. He hadn’t seen the gradual steps to completion while she lived and ate and slept with him. He found it only after her departure, with a note that said simply thank you. She left his enveloping arms, his too enthusiastic caring and went back to someone who never showed he cared but seemed to have everything she wanted if never what she needed.

The note admitted nothing. The tie had said it all. Somehow she had quickly come to realise that he was not the free unfettered spirit he wanted to be. She knew his life would take a different turn. Would grow the heavy layers that would hide his secret desires and ambitions. She had been right. As always.

So here he was, finding the tie that she had known he would still possess. Finding a shirt that didn’t scream for separation from the delicate shades of this so soft thing. This was the first time he had heard from her directly in what? Twenty years? He had seen her briefly in strange and awkward situations. He had touched her once as they passed each other in a room full of people he was supposed to know better than her. People who he shared ideas and theories and visions with. But none had touched him in the way she had. They had exchanged startled looks, had stopped but had found the present movement of their lives had been just too strong to hang the moment on. The cold river moved on, shivering gently all the corpses buried too deep to rescue. The current was still so strong, entering that torrent again was what he wanted but he no longer had the strength to brave it. He could never carry them both again. Too many rivers had carried him; too many waters had kept him afloat. He longed to jump in but caution was finally too strong even for someone who felt he had passed again the one who had completed his soul. And torn it apart.

He was changed; he no longer hankered after someone from another life. But he had made some promises and he would keep them. Perhaps that man was here again. 50 years of birthdays had brought him 50 little people to share his life with. Every one of them demanded his attention. Every one of them was there. Every one had fought the long battle to work out who he was but every one was different.

His life had changed. He was now a man who earnt his living by making money for others. All the great ideals of 20 years ago were buried and forgotten. All the aching need for music and art had slipped away, just like she did. In the night. Across the river. Breaking ties.

And now it was nighttime again. And he was back at the river. She wanted him to sort it out for her like he had that time before. This time it wasn’t just one man coming back to get her. This time it would be all of them. All the vicious, the unkind, the cold, the grabbers and the takers. The people who never took their turn in the queue for loving kindness. The people who saw other people as unnecessary accessories, as extras, as cold meat. No man is an island but plenty become a fortress and love to watch the shattered bodies on the rocks below. Why did they seem alluring? Why did these men who never showed the beat of human kindness offer strange attraction? Chris was one of them, but she was his.

This time he would be fighting for real. He had never struck out in violence before. Words had always been the answer but these people weren’t reasoners, weren’t the rational, weren’t family men. But they were the Family. This time he had to do it for real. No game. No songs, no poetry.

Life itself had come back to haunt him. The little man he was all those years ago was still there, still inside him. But he would do it. For her. Ties? For real.

#govedefinitions - Defining the ridiculous

Gove needs some good advice on Education. He also needs some good advisers. I would readily offer to do the job but as I have worked in education all my life, I am probably someone he won't even talk to. After all to Mr Gove, Education professional is really an oxymoron.

What he wants is non-professionals setting up "free" schools, without qualified teachers, no restraints on the curriculum and essentially a return to the conditions in schools when he was just a lad. Latin, Dryden and blazers. His recipe for a successful school.

Yesterday we started a hashtag #govedefinitions that got lots of the twitterati coming forward with some excellent new versions of what we understood as education seen through the eyes of Mr Gove. Enjoy!

@alanmills405
#govedefinitions British Education. A new game for millionaires to play with the future of ordinary people.
#govedefinitions Qualified Teacher. ex-soldier about 20 hours ago via web
#govedefinitions Intelligent Debate. Daily Mail comment
#govedefinitions Success. What I did at school
#govedefinitions Geography. All the red bits on the map
#govedefinitions History. Kings and Queens of England
#govedefinitions Wider opportunities. Pardon?
#govedefinitions Trained School Support Staff. Who?
#govedefinitions School Blazer. The means by which a teacher maintains discipline and enthusiasm in their class
#govedefinitions Teacher. Anybody
#govedefinitions Technology. Chalk and blackboard.
#govedefinitions Latin. A dead language essential for the modern curriculum
#govedefinitions Education Professional. The enemy

r@ssat Holiday education fun from @alanmills405 - follow #govedefinitions and RT

@BorisWatch #govedefinitions 'Freeing schools from dogma' = 'Forcing schools to accept my dogma'
#govedefinitions 'Putting the teacher in charge of schools' = 'Putting Toby Young in charge of teachers'


@MattSL Matt Lent
#govedefinitions life skills: Speaking Latin, royal chronology & knowing how to pass a 2 hr exam to prove 2 yrs worth of learning
#govedefinitions streaming: different schools for the rich and for the poor


@ColinTGraham Colin Graham
#govedefinitions Government and Governor: both begin with Gove, the end doesn't matter.
#govedefinitions Religious Education = something the Minister for Schools does... oh, maybe not it's that Gibb chappy.
Teachers: Units of spending RT @homayon: #govedefinitions Students: Units of funding
#govedefinitions MFL is speaking English very loudly and very slowly for those who cannot converse adequately in Latin


@homayon Homayon Zeary
#govedefinitions Students: Units of funding
#govedefinitions 21st century skills: repetition, repetition, repetition oh and Latin!

@ColinTGraham Colin Graham
#govedefinitions STEM: well in my book it means to stop, as in "stem the flow" but I suppose it could be part of a flower, didn't do botany


@tonyparkin Tony Parkin
A big thanks owed to @alanmills405 for the best meme fun this month! #govedefinitions was sheer creative genius :)

@ColinTGraham Colin Graham
#govedefinitions Combining DT and ICT: making hollerith machines using empty cereal packets and knitting needles, or watching Blue Peter...

@tonyparkin Tony Parkin
#govedefinitions Teachers Pet: that Jeremy rhyming slang, ever since him and those sporty types ganged up on me, just like at school
#govedefinitions BETT Show: It's odds-on that I won't show and will send little Gibb Minor...

@ColinTGraham Colin Graham
#govedefinitions Physical Education = using a big stick and beating them till they get it right.
#govedefinitions BSF = not quite mad cow disease but near enough to ban it anyway

@tonyparkin Tony Parkin
RT @gvibe: @tonyparkin liking your #govedefinitions (why, thank you kindly Ma'am. @alanmills405 came up with a cracker there
#govedefinitions Mobile learning : putting up more portakabins in schools instead of that wasteful BSF #ukedchat
#govedefinitions Parental Engagement: is not good enough... we expect them all to be married and churchgoing. #ukedchat
#govedefinitions Principals: what we in Coalition respect and value. Principles: what we in Coalition don't have and don't need #UKEdchat
#govedefinitions Class teaching: dividing up students naturally into their respective social and economic groups for educational purposes
#govedefinitions Transforming learning : wiring up the students' metal chairs to ensure the correct responses in SATs tests #UKEdchat
#govedefinitions Bullying: the creative force that made me the snide vituperative weasel that I am today #UKEdchat
#govedefinitions Student Voice - how a pupil responds when spoken to by a teacher, and not before! #UKEdchat
#govedefinitions 'Becta: the Future' - the new DfE film where we travel back in time to an education without new-fangled digital technology

@ColinTGraham Colin Graham
#govedefinitions "Finding new money" = damn, there goes the moat and the duck house...

@tonyparkin Tony Parkin
#govedefinitions I'm in favour of diversity - it's just like university, but you have two of them?


@ColinTGraham Colin Graham
#govedefinitions Grammar: omnes quaestiones et communicationem agi tantum latine
#govedefinitions modernization: allowing the use of slide-rules in maths exams, on a trial basis for A-level only...

@thewritertype paul bassett davies
#govedefinitions "Pupils." Juvenile nuisances. A necessary evil in order to obtain funding in the education business.

@ocm102 Olly May
Very much enjoying #govedefinitions

tafkam1979 Tafkam TES
Very much enjoying #govedefinitions

@camaxwell Colin Maxwell
Continuing Professional Development: Drill in the playground with Sergeant Major #govedefinitions

@jamperfect Jamie Perfect
#govedefinitions an ideology based on turning every state school into an independent school because it worked for him.

@superdooperal Alison Livesey
#govedefinitions School Governor (archaic).
#govedefinitions Holidays- the bit in between tests

@bootleian John Connor
@markpurves Have a look at #govedefinitions - it's not just us!

@BorisWatch Boris Watch
#govedefinitions 'The proper course of British history' = 'Only the bits where foreigners = targets for Our Boys'
#govedefinitions 'Putting the teacher in charge of schools' = 'Putting Toby Young in charge of teachers'
#govedefinitions 'Freeing schools from dogma' = 'Forcing schools to accept my dogma'

@AsherJac Asher Jacobsberg
@MattSL I think you've got that the wrong way round, according to #govedefinitions it's quill pens to replace computers, isn't it?

@MattSL Matt Lent
#govedefinitions modernisation: fountain pens to replace quills
#govedefinitions decentralised education system: schools do what I say, but I don't get the blame when it goes wrong

@camaxwell Colin Maxwell
Citizenship: 'how to vote tory' #govedefinitions

@sharland Brian Sharland
#govedefinitions EMA: this definition has no funding
#govedefinitions pupil premium: one of nick cleggs pipedreams

@drugforum Andrew Brown
#govedefinitions guidance: unnecessary bureaucracy

@richardsw16 Richard Semmens
#govedefinitions EMA - Extra Money (for new)Academies

@CreativeEdu Pooky Hesmondhalgh
Not sure how to channel your creative juices now school's out?Think up some #govedefinitions #UKEdChat

@MattSL Matt Lent
@alanmills405 loving #govedefinitions

@dorristheloris Kelly Rennie
#govedefinitions QTS: Quasso, Territo, Sepelio (break,frighten, destroy)

@MattSL Matt Lent
#govedefinitions citizenship: being 'British'

@MultiMartin Martin Waller
RT @MattSL #govedefinitions student participation: putting your hands up to speak

@MattSL Matt Lent
#govedefinitions student participation: putting your hands up to speak

@sharland Brian Sharland
#govedefinitions ICT: an excellent subject on the study of how the telegraph helped forge the British empire
#govedefinitions computing: an excellent subject on the study of the Babbage machine
#govedefinitions going to correct my first definition
#govedefinitions PE: physical education and sport is a ... (this definition is only half funded)

@superdooperal Alison Livesey
#govedefinitions School days what teachers find themselves in after reading the Education White Paper

@sueellendixon sue dixon
#govedefinitions ICT: an excellent and relevant subject on the study of the wonderful Babbage
#govedefinitions parents - source of top up funding for schools whose budgets have been cut

@dorristheloris Kelly Rennie
#govedefinitions Teacher. Anybody who can afford to put up a few bobfor their own (FREE) school before Gove repays em OUR cash

@jowinchester Jo
#govedefinitions MFL - Latin/Hebrew in 60 hours for 4 yrs then wonder why rest of world seems to be better than us at language

@ronggordon Ron Gordon
#govedefinitions MP: nice little earner alongside £200 k columnist job allowing 3yrs max expenses & flipped home

@ssat SSAT
Holiday education fun from @alanmills405 - follow #govedefinitions and RT #ukedchat

@sueellendixon sue dixon
#govedefinitions An anathema - Thinking, critically adept children who question their educators and politicians
#govedefinitions History curriculum - the truth as we will now be told it
#govedefinitions phonics phonics phonics - the cure to all ills? Deny any good practice phonics them to death
#govedefinitions Local Authorities - a place to lay all the blame and deny any interference
#govedefinitions loving the creative suggestions. ' Free schools' - where the poor children will press their noses on the glass looking in

@philallman1 Phil Allman
#govedefinitions real terms increase in sch budget. about a 5% cut
#govedefinitions school sport. Rugger, football, cricket...in fact all those teams I was too weedy to get into...sob, sob
#govedefinitions Prefects. Those bullies that tormented me when I was at school...until I became one

@CreativeEdu Pooky Hesmondhalgh
Not sure how to channel your creative juices now school's out?Think up some #govedefinitions as started by @alanmills405

@ronggordon Ron Gordon
#govedefinitions Headteacher: anybody who was once in army

@dorristheloris Kelly Rennie
#govedefinitions Teacher. Anybody [who can speak Latin and quote from Heart of Darkness]

@Didy64 Diane
@alanmills405 Loving your #govedefinitions - would be funnier if they weren't so close to truth

@bobharrisonset Bob Harrison
RT @alanmills405: #govedefinitions Technology. Chalk and blackboard. and Gibb in charge of ICT?