Making the news today....

[waterbuoy]

1 hour ago, Squaredy said:

And is this a school run by the LEA or is it an academy school?  I think it is about time local councils stopped trying to run schools.  But I don’t know if academies are any better.

It is a local authority school - which is part of the problem.  They appointed a 'yes man' as the head teacher and he is more concerned with not upsetting the Authority than he seems to be about the welfare of the children.

 

By way of another example, it is the only school in the whole LA area where members of the public are allowed to access and use the school gym and changing rooms during the school day.  We (ie parents and the PC) are currently taking this to the highest level, not least because one of us was directly affected by Dunblane.  However, both HT and the Local Authority think it is fine.......

[Steven P]

That is wrong on many levels.

 

The gym thing is easy, if members of the public are on school grounds in school time unescorted and presumably sharing the same space as the pupils then they need to have full disclosure and background  checks (some of these checks go back to the happenings in Dunblane among other things). I will assume that the gym changing rooms are separate and the children are unable to access them, if not there is a safe guarding issue right there (not to be blunt, naked adults in School with pupils wandering in.....).

 

For the assault (Which is what it was), got to guess from the story that no staff witnessed it for it to have got to a stage of one kicking the other prone one in the head several times.... else I can see a law suit happening for the HT to allow a culture among the staff to be complicit in that. Did the pupil get not punishment?

[Botty Cough]

9 minutes ago, Steven P said:

That is wrong on many levels.

 

The gym thing is easy, if members of the public are on school grounds in school time unescorted and presumably sharing the same space as the pupils then they need to have full disclosure and background  checks (some of these checks go back to the happenings in Dunblane among other things). I will assume that the gym changing rooms are separate and the children are unable to access them, if not there is a safe guarding issue right there (not to be blunt, naked adults in School with pupils wandering in.....).

 

For the assault (Which is what it was), got to guess from the story that no staff witnessed it for it to have got to a stage of one kicking the other prone one in the head several times.... else I can see a law suit happening for the HT to allow a culture among the staff to be complicit in that. Did the pupil get not punishment?

Ahhhh but they all have phones so good luck with that...😂

[waterbuoy]

1 hour ago, Steven P said:

That is wrong on many levels.

 

The gym thing is easy, if members of the public are on school grounds in school time unescorted and presumably sharing the same space as the pupils then they need to have full disclosure and background  checks (some of these checks go back to the happenings in Dunblane among other things). I will assume that the gym changing rooms are separate and the children are unable to access them, if not there is a safe guarding issue right there (not to be blunt, naked adults in School with pupils wandering in.....).

 

For the assault (Which is what it was), got to guess from the story that no staff witnessed it for it to have got to a stage of one kicking the other prone one in the head several times.... else I can see a law suit happening for the HT to allow a culture among the staff to be complicit in that. Did the pupil get not punishment?

 

Again, I agree with everything you say - but sadly our local authority (and school HT) don't.

 

Until this week there weren't even any notices on the changing room doors - they are separate but next to each other, with no locks or security measures on either door (for each sex).  Many of the girls are now using this as an excuse not to do PE, and some of the lads feel awkward too.  There have been recorded incidents of children and adults walking into the wrong changing room, but the school and LA consider h incidents are acceptable.  We have argued until we are blue in the face for PVGs as a minimum, but have been told that is unnecessary - yet I have to have a PVG to act as the safety boat driver for my own child and his friends at boat club!

 

So far as the assault is concerned then the pupil who did the kicking has not, so far as we are aware, been punished.  Pupils, parents and staff are angry, but the HT repeatedly says that he has to consider everyone's 'rights'.

 

The sad reality is that, up here at least, the education system is set up to benefit the minority at the expense of the majority.  At best, it is a drive towards mediocrity and the lowest common denominator.

[Stubby]

8 hours ago, waterbuoy said:

 

  Pupils, parents and staff are angry, but the HT repeatedly says that he has to consider everyone's 'rights'.

 

 

Does he wear sandals ?

[Botty Cough]

Dutch housing update: house prices and foundation facts - DutchNews.nl

WWW.DUTCHNEWS.NL

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House prices are going up, interest rates are stable and climate risks have become the new hot topic on the Dutch housing market. Here’s a round-up of the latest housing news. The...

super.. house prices are rising again. That will cause trouble no doubt 

 

 

[Steven P]

Not sure if this should go in UK politics or world news:

 

He can build a 450 mile railway, and fight a war, in only a couple of years. We can half build a railway nearly all the way to Birmingham from nearly London and not have it finished in 15. By comparison, 450 miles is central Scotland all the way to Dover

 

Putin’s railway through occupied Ukraine ‘almost complete’, says Kyiv’s spy chief

UK.YAHOO.COM

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A 450-mile railway line Russia is building through occupied Ukraine is almost complete, Kyiv’s military intelligence chief has warned.

 

[Doug Tait]

Can't fathom how he navigated the planning system and ancient woodlands to achieve it.

[Steven P]

Exactly, how can he do it and not us?

[topchippyles]

1 hour ago, Steven P said:

Exactly, how can he do it and not us?

Watch this its a cracking insight how little putin care about the russian people. Kill a thousand soldiers and they will send another thousand one of the ukrainian soldiers commented i suppose its the same with the railways. 

Ukraine: Enemy in the Woods - BBC iPlayer