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.

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.......

Yup - I had no idea just how bad things are until I was asked to join the Parent Council. 

Whilst our situation isn't helped by a very self-serving and weak new headmaster who has effectively sidelined the former leadership tem, it is the overbearing desire to protect the 'rights' of the minority - in this case the trouble makers who do not want to be at school - which is undemining the moral of staff and pupils alike.

In the cae I described the unruly child was not actually suspended by the school - the police took her away for interview, she took a day off (I am told) and was then welcomed back into the school - to the surpsie (and dismay) of many.

I have been told (but don't know for certain) that the new head teacher sent his children to private school, which if true kind of says it all really.

Correct on all counts - the school used to have an onsite police liaison officer pre-covid but that is no longer the case due to cutbacks.  It is probably worse than you state as there is a perception amongst the 'normal' children that those who misbehave then get special attention, to the detriment of everyone else.

This makes the top headline in the 'Scottish News' section of the BBC website this morning - again, plenty of discussion on dangers to teachers, but nothing about the children who may also be on the receiving end:

Union calls for teacher guidance on restraining pupils

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

---

The NASUWT says the Scottish government is four years late in providing "concrete guidance" for teachers.

On 28/03/2024 at 08:40, Squaredy said:

So, just to be clear, this happened on school premises?

Sorry - have been away working on Coll for a couple of days

Yes, it happened on school premises - in full view of one of the staff rooms.

We are currently buring Monterey Cypress which I think is similar to Leylandii?  It burns quick and spits a fair bit (but no more than spruce), but also burns hot and clean.  It also seasons pretty quickly too which can be an advantage!

At the end of the day calorific output is related to the weight of the seasoned wood

Whilst I agree, the reality is that things have moved on since we (well, me for certain) were at school.  I currently sit on the Parent Council for our local High School, and on Monday we discussed a recent event with the head teacher:

One 12yr old pupil was attacked by an older pupil, knocked to the ground and repeatedly kicked in the head.  All of this was videod by the attackers friends and posted on Insta.

School's response - notify police and parents, and then step back as quickly as they could from the situation.  The school say that they prefer to 'empower' families to make formal complaints to the police themselves as that is not their responsibility. (My view is that the safety and wellbeing of the child is the responsibility of the school whilst they are on the premises, but apparently that is not the case any more!).

Two days later the attacker is back at school getting counselling and receiving additional lessons whilst the poor child who was kicked in was/is still in hospital.  The family are too scared of the potential consequences to make a formal complaint and/or press charges.

I suspect that if it was a teacher who had been attacked then the school and local authority would have been all over it like a bad rash.

TBH I understand both perspectives but, having thought about this whilst walking the dog, am probably in agreement with your inspector.  Polyprop is old tech, and perhaps of greater relevance is very difficult to age which therefore makes it difficult to assess for UV etc.  It also (usually) does not come with a marked swl which is required for LOLER, though most do have a MBL on their datasheets.

I wondered about suggesting that if it is so cheap then you could consider replacing it every six months, but then thought that is maybe acknowledging the deficiencies.

The topic has previously been discussed at length elsewhere.  For example:

I'm a LEEA qualified inspector of lifting equipment to LOLER, but not specifically arb gear (usually catenary cableways, wire ropes, shackles etc etc)

Has the guy stated why he will not inspect the rope? 

I sispect it is not the lay of the rope which is the issue, but the material (ie polyprop if I am right)

48 minutes ago, FlyFishn said:

What I would like to do is get a heavier saw that will have the power to get through wood a 36" bar can cut with decent power. On the rare occasion I'd like to get a bigger bar on there if the need arises, but in that situation I would probably have a bigger saw - stihl 661 most likely - to handle it. Its just with one saw and several trees being worked on at the same time trying to use one saw for everything slows things down when it happens.
 

I may have misinterpreted your post, but are the 661 and the 592 not effectively the same size - ie c.90cc?

I run my 066 with three bars for cross-cutting - 20, 28 and 36", of which the 28 is by far my favourite as the saw feels so much more balanced than with the other two.  It runs the 36" OK with a full chain on it, though it is mainly softwood and poplar at that size of trunk round here.  However, as soon as it is down to within range for the 28" then that is my go-to.

For milling I currently use the 36" bar, but am thinking seriously about a lo-pro 42" with a skip chain as by the time the 36" bar has lost the usual 6" to the mill itself it is getting a bit tight on some of the logs.

If the average salary is around £34/35k then more than half the workforce will be below this as those with a higher salary can have significantly higher salaries - ie the distribution is not statistically 'normal'.  Most people with salaries less than £35k are likely to be in a relatively narrow band between (say) £10k and £35k, whereas those above the average can go much higher.

The greater the disparity in pay the more skewed the distribution becomes.

For example, two people with a salary of £30k and one with a salary of £45k generate an average salary of £35k

Whereas six people with a salary of £20k plus one with a salary of £125k give the same average.

Maybe:

2 hours ago, Steve Bullman said:

ive converted them to jpg. 

 

Yes heic is apple, although im really not sure why sometimes they show as heic and others jpg. I always upload from my iphone and occassionally the web decides to display in heic format.

HEIC or JPEG is determined by the camera settings on an iPhone

From the main settings menu scroll down and select 'Camera'

You will then be presented with a list of options, the top two of which are video related and the third is Formats

Swipe/click on Formats and you get two options.  HEIC (High Efficiency) or Most Compatible (JPEG)

I think that your preferred option (ie selected) can be over-ridden depending on which video option is chosen

I suspect he is wanting to change from .404" to 3/8", both of which are .063"

Can't hekp but think that the bloody great hole in the register plate might be where a significant part of the heat might be going.

How long do you have the stove burning for?  We used to find that it could take a good hour or so for our old one to get up to temperature (A Vermont Castngs Defiant Encore), but you could then cook on the top of it. 

As others have said, if you are buring wood as well as it appears in the video then the heat has to be going somewhere and, if it isn't out through radiant heat, then it can only really be up.

Quite spectacular, even by youtube standards!

1 minute ago, spudulike said:

Sounds like the clutch springs need replacing.

I sooooo nearly posted that earlier but didn't want to look a muppet - I know very little about maintaining chainsaws, other than bar maintenance, chain sharpening and what I have picked up on here

Whilst I agree that it bodes well for the Union, I fear the fu**wit will only serve to run the country further into the ground based on his record so far, at a time when we need sensible leadership.

I never thought I'd say this but maybe the country will see sense and vote in Labour at the next election - they can't be that much worse than the current holders of power in these parts?

Another disappointing thing is that I suspect that Yousaf's govt will be more inclined to paper over the cracks that NS left behind, whereas maybe Forbes might have opened some of them up a bit further.  Time will tell.

Include that as a column heading in the note book - name, start mileage, endmileage, checks and date etc.  We do it for some of our equipment, especially when refuelling.

Just stick a note book in each vehicle and require the driver to fill in at the start and end of each journey?

2 minutes ago, Dan Maynard said:

That's true I missed that off my list. We have some patches of that round the village, housebuilder went bust years ago so bit of a mess who's responsible.

If housebuilder went bust does the land not revert to 'The Crown' (or does that just relate to comapnies which have been dissolved)?  If so then it might be worth contacting The Crown Estate.

Sadly I think that is wishful thinking.

You forget about the wonderful SNP up here!