On my recent visit to a local primary school I asked about progress with teaching reading and writing English. I had on my mind Nick Gibb, Schools Minister for most of the last decade until the reshuffle. He is a tireless campaigner for using synthetic phonics as the best method to teach reading, and has had some success with the profession in getting this more widely adopted with some good outcomes. Standards of reading and writing have been rising. The school confirmed they used the method and were pleased with the results.
When I was preparing for the visit I allowed myself a rare trip down Memory Lane to recall how I thought as a primary school child. I had enjoyed my mother reading to me before I was old enough to go to a state primary. I had puzzled over the shapes of the words and felt frustrated that I could not read them for myself. I often asked for a favourite book and could remember enough to gently complain when my mother skipped a sentence or two because she was so bored with the same story. I still could not read the words I knew were missing.
Being introduced to the sound based alphabet was a revelation. Suddenly as I mastered abc as a set of sounds I held the magic key. I could venture a pronunciation of new words that I had not met before, and could read aloud the words I understood and were part of my personal dictionary of the mind. It was one of a few key gifts or statements during my education that made a huge difference to how I learned and progressed.
It was as big a breakthrough as my first day at primary school, when I was delighted to find a world that was my size. After five years of living in a land of giants where every chair was a mountain climb and every piece of furniture a huge and unmoveable obstacle, I was in a classroom with chairs and tables that fitted me and my classmates and I could move if necessary. Primary schools are gateways to a bigger world. At their best they give children the power to understand so much more and the confidence to go on their own personal journeys.
September 28, 2021
Good morning.
I nice piece with which, I am sure, many of us share similar memories.
Learning should be about fun. The young and inquisitive mind, so thirsty for knowledge, should be nourished. Sadly I fear there are those who wish to impose more adult content on their minds and seek to, what one can only consider, a form of indoctrination. Naturally I believe this to be wrong.
As an adult I have never stopped learning and appreciate those who on this site take time to bring facts here for us to share.
Many thanks.
September 28, 2021
We could of course deal with the thousands of irrational spelling we have in English for which synthetic phonics is all rather irrelevant you just have to learn them. Write, right, rites, ghost, there, their, rhythm, weird, accommodate, yacht, embarrass, millennium, liaison⊠since we have a soft and hard C/K why not use them consistently as such? Spelling should evolve to become more useful, convenient & rational as language does and not be fixed in aspic. Fixing one right spelling is rather like fixing one ârightâ accent.
Then the children could have far more free time to learn something far more useful than these totally irrational spelling. Things like the vast cost and impracticality of the mad net zero project or why a little more atmospheric CO2 is actually a net benefit in greening the planet increasing crop yields, making people richer and better protected, or the many appalling problems caused by much religious indoctrination of young and older minds aroung the world. Or why bus and train passenger think busses are far fuller on average than the drivers do due to sampling errors. Or why big government and high taxes do so much economic and social damage to people and familities. Or how many millions of people have been killed by leftist and communist ideology – Chairman Mao and the likesâŠ
September 28, 2021
Lifelogic,
Maybe the best advice they could get at school is :-
If you want to get ahead get a PPE degree.
September 28, 2021
Dreadful advice for the nation though, that then has to then suffer under these generally incompetent dopes people (with one or two exceptions). We do seem to have things very wrong indeed. Graduate lawyers starting on over ÂŁ110k and yet junior doctors start on just ÂŁ27k (with perhaps ÂŁ150k of student debt to repay too), a relative of mine who just got the top mark NatSci degree at UCL ends up working for a city insurance company on circa ÂŁ47k. Top graduates engineers often end up earning less than ÂŁ25k. Yet we have energy & transport ministers who simply do not have a clue what they are talking about and chancellors who do not understand real economics (PPE again). The more use you are the less you seem to get paid. The more parasitic the more you get. One medical consultant I know retrained as a lawyer and now he earns far more doing medical negligence claims against the NHS etc.
September 28, 2021
..or how many billion people have been killed by imperialism, including the British variety, for that matter, LL.
September 28, 2021
billions..is that your claim MiC?
Any links to any proof for that claim.
Your mate hefner likes data and solid research so I know he will be watching your response very carefully.
September 28, 2021
I don’t know how you live with the strain of the world’s injustices over many centuries. But churn them out, you must.
September 28, 2021
I remember very large classes. Fifty plus pupils. Partition screens pulled back and two classes combined, so over a hundred children together when a teacher was absent.
Outdoor toilets.
Playgrounds on the roof.
Swimming lessons in cold outdoor pools with the teacher in a suit at poolside carrying a big stick with a hoop on it. Not sure this thing was ever put into use.
Five bob paid on Monday for your âschool dinnersâ for the week.
September 28, 2021
Frozen milk in one-third of a pint bottles. The excitement of being given a new book. The evening hymn before we went home.
”So sad, so strange, the days that are no more…..”
September 28, 2021
I also remember doing rather complex marble runs with the books and rulers etc. inside our desks and remember well when I was 10 some daft teacher telling us (in science) it was colder at the poles because they were further from the sun than the equator.
I tried to explain the reality to her but she would not have it. Also picking football teams in order of ability – with the same two poor lads always the last ones to be chosen!
September 28, 2021
Also rather the duff pens and early biros that, being left handed, always smudged all over the page and on my hand.
Plus one teacher even telling me I was rather clumsy as I tried to use some scissors (scissors yet another daft spelling) in my left hand.
Lefties quickly learn to use their right hands. They certainly had no left handed gear available.
September 28, 2021
Frozen milk in deep Winter but warm milk in Summer.
September 28, 2021
Sound similar to me 45 in our 11+ class as I recall. But we did have a good playground and football pitch. School dinners were rather good then too prepared & cooked on site. They deteriorated at secondary schools as more and more âindustrialâ & pre-prepared over processed foods came in.
September 28, 2021
Lifelogic,
Chips were never on offer. Two scoops of mash was the default serving. Eleven year olds distributed the meals from trolleys and got seconds as a reward. I did not like fish unless it was in batter and was horrified by the notion of cheese pie, so I negotiated a 4 day lunch and brought my own food on Fridays. Secondary school lunch was allocated to a table of eight and there were fights about taking correct portion sizes.
September 28, 2021
Education and learning are without question the key to critical thinking and aids the search for truth. Unfortunately, political extremists across the west have noted this threat to their political aims of authoritarian barbarity and have worked extremely hard to target this area of human progress. They have largely succeeded in infecting the process with conditioning, propaganda and false narratives.
Unwittingly and in many cases maliciously John’s party leaders have worked with the odious teaching unions to undermine the education of young minds and replaced education as we once knew it with ideology and bigotry
Thatcher fought hard against this Marxist poison, she failed and a generation of children will now be brought up on a diet of progressive bilge and politicised thought
September 28, 2021
All societies try to imprint their values on their children.
A few generations ago children were taught that “the sun never sets…”, “the White Man’s Burden”, and all the rest. Other countries taught other things.
You might not agree with the consensus which informs what they are taught here now, but your daily rage today seems to be because they are not having your own views rammed down their throats instead.
September 28, 2021
“Rage”?
Exactly what words in today’s article on primary schools can be described as a “rage” MiC?
September 28, 2021
Pete does it again đ
Try noting to what I am replying, eh?
September 28, 2021
Try putting a name of the person you are replying to marty, then we would all be easily able to work out who you are aiming your rant at eh?
September 28, 2021
The comments and replies here are “nested” very clearly indeed.
If your device does not display them correctly, then that is a technical issue for you, and not something that you should expect others to nanny you around.
September 28, 2021
It is just a common courtesy to say who you are addressing MiC
Especially as you come on here 20 or 30 times every day criticising everyone.
September 28, 2021
MiC,
Kipling is a very accessible poet. I recently purchased his collected poems before they are banned and his statues pulled down. All that will be left is his exceedingly good cakes.
âWe never pay any-one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that plays it is lost!â
Excerpt from Dane-Geld
I am sure this will resonate with you.
September 28, 2021
I think you meant ‘ exceedingly small cakes’?
September 28, 2021
I do not want anything rammed down their throats far better if they learn âhow to thinkâ not âwhat to thinkâ. But if they are ramming anything down their throats my rational, evidence based & logical views would certainly be far better than the current lefty, green crap, woke, religious drivel they mainly seem to get.
September 28, 2021
You apparently cherry pick your “evidence” very carefully so as to support what you choose to believe.
That is not science.
September 29, 2021
True I try to pick the scientists who are rational and telling the truth. Rather than the group think ones, politically motivated ones, dim ones or the ones on the make or whose job encourages them to lie and mislead!
September 28, 2021
As usual a rather pathetic swipe at previous generations thinking. Then you compared to other countries learning. Martin MANY other countries as you put it virtually didn’t have any regular education, only the rich had assigned ‘clever clogs’ assuming they could ‘ teach’ their children.
What is it with you ? You long for revolution of all societies long- learnt rules of behaviour, some don’t suit all of us, but nothing seems to suit you. Go join where it is perfect to your idealistic odd expectations.
September 28, 2021
Thatcher closed more grammar schools than anyone else as PM and as Education secretary and failed to kill the state virtual monopoly model that does such huge harm. Education vouchers and schools that compete for the top up vouchers is the answer. Labour and Gove now want VAT on private school fees to kill even more good schools and they even, idiotically, think this will raise money when it will do the reverse.
September 28, 2021
It always amazes me that socialists canât see the value of the rich opting out of NHS and state education. Surely that would be a good thing for their commie institutions? Less pressure?
Have deregulated health and education systems and save the NHS and our schools ( bleat)!
But noâŠtoo much spite and envy.
Well not from those maybe who went to nice private schools yet see fit to deny that to others âŠdo they just want to pull up the ladder?
September 28, 2021
No they just want to garner votes by peddling their even agenda of political envy. Anyway without these private schools where would the next generation of dire deluded socialists come from? The new Michael Foots, Corbyns & Tony Benns! And indeed the new Tory green crap Socialists Boris, Carrie and Sunak?
September 28, 2021
+1
Very true!
I guess you have to have class guilt as well as envy for socialism to persist?
September 28, 2021
evil agenda not even!
September 28, 2021
Everhopeful
Indeed those who go to private schools still pay for the State schools in their taxes.
Those who have private health treatment still pay for the NHS in their taxes.
On both occasions the Government would have to pay out more to educate and treat those who go privately, as there would be more people to educate and treat than is the case at the moment, so why discourage these people from their present actions, surely they are actually helping the State systems financially, so why even think of penalising them again, and so make waiting lists for both longer.
Noticed that the local Pharmacy is now listing all of the treatments it can carry out on a private basis that used to be offered by the NHS when it was “Fully Functioning” but not available now.
Looks like NHS services are being rationed by the back door, so why is the government not being honest about it, who are we actually saving the NHS for ?
Like many we have already have paid for private physio treatment, and various diagnosis tests due to a refusal to be seen by our GP, and appointments simply not being available.
Fortunately we can afford to do so, but many others are simply waiting in pain.
No we do not have Private Health cover, and no we did not send our children to a private school.
September 28, 2021
+1
Spot on!
September 28, 2021
She was known at the time as ‘Milk Snatcher Thatcher’.
September 28, 2021
I can’t think of any reasons to give private schools a tax break, which smacks of daft socialism to me.
September 28, 2021
@MWV – Well with VAT they will pay four times over. Once the the place at state school they do not use, secondly income tax on the extra money they need for the fees, thirdly the fees themselves and fourthly the VAT on the fees. So it is not a tax break at all quite the reverse.
It is just totally unfair competition between state and private as we have with the NHS too.
But anyway if they do put VAT on fees they will raise no net tax, kill many good schools and this have to educate far more on the state!
September 28, 2021
It seems to me that anyone who sends their children to a private school is saving the state (e.g. us) money because then we don’t have to pay to educate their kids. It’s effectively a tax on the rich, so I don’t see a problem with it.
The argument that private schools are unfair/give the rich advantage etc etc assume that state run schools are rubbish but they don’t have to be. Nor do I understand the argument against Grammar schools. Yes, it’s ‘selection’ but that happens all the time in both society and nature. Grammars were a route to a better future for many bright (but poor) pupils. We are happy to support and fund elite athletes to gain Olympic medals but curiously don’t see any advantage in encouraging elite academic talent.
PS The guy at Tesco this morning suggested what I thought was a great idea! Instead of having a ÂŁ30 MAXIMUM purchase at the pump – why not have a ÂŁ30 MINIMUM purchase (regardless of how much fuel taken). That might deter some of these idiots…
September 28, 2021
Indeed Thatcher was the main cause of the demise of the Grammar School, both directly and indirectly. I attended a good grammar school, but before I left the Head saw what was coming down the line and managed to force through a change to a sixth form college – as it turned out he would have had a lot more years until change would have happened.
September 28, 2021
^
Not written by me.
Although I did attend a grammar school from the first form through to the sixth form.
Peter
September 28, 2021
@DOM; “Thatcher fought hard against this Marxist poison”
That would be why Mrs Thatcher, as Secretary of State for Education and Science (1970-74), oversaw the largest number of schools being forced to change from the Grammar, Secondary modern or Technical to the Comprehensive school system.
September 28, 2021
Yes, but not with the Labour ideal that the comprehensives would be like the French lycées, and instead only marginally better than the secondary moderns.
Indeed it was a denial of educational opportunity to millions.
September 28, 2021
In the 15 years of Labour governments they got worse MiC
What happened to this “Labour ideal”?
September 28, 2021
@MiC; Your point being what? Heath’s govt basically picked up and ran with the practicalities of an education policy that Labour had left on the desk upon leaving office, such was the speed of change in the early 1970s. If it was wrong for Mrs Thatcher to implement what was by then basically oven-ready policy at the DfE by June 1970 then it is equally appalling that Labour not only created such a ill-thought through policy but then carried on with its implementation after Feb ’74 upon returning to govt!
September 28, 2021
+1
September 28, 2021
@jerry
In 1964, the Labour government ordered LEAs to prepare plans for phasing out grammar schools and replacing them and secondary moderns with a new comprehensive system.
Between 1971 and 1978, some 650 grammar schools closed, but some grammar schools remained in largely Conservative controlled areas.
âPeople from my sort of background needed Grammar schools to compete with children from privileged homes like Shirley Williams and Anthony Wedgwood Bennâ â Margaret Thatcher, 1977
Not quite as the Socialist press have pronounced – already set in stone before she came on the scene. Then again a Grammar was a different type of school in Kent to those in other areas of the country, that’s why the still remain
September 28, 2021
@Nota#; The actual facts might not be quite as the dotting Thatcherite press try to pronounce…
Mrs Thatcher might well have seen electoral advantage in saying those words you attribute to her, in general though actions tend to speak louder than words when recording political history. If Mrs Thatcher had really come to hate the Comprehensive system by the late ’70s why did she allow her govt to all but re-enforce the Comprehensive ideals in the early 1980s with the change to a ‘one size fits all’ GCSE exam system (another policy left on the desk by the out going Labour govt in 1979…), then set the lot in stone by way of the National curriculum in 1988?
Also, those on the right all to often lament the loss of the Grammar Schools but many children’s education was hurt by the loss of the true SM and Tech schools, as indeed later, some children were hurt by the adoption of GCSEs and the original inflexible National curriculum .
September 28, 2021
jerry wasn’t it already in motion. I read a fascinating piece on this at educationengland.org.uk/articles/31labourgrammar for anyone that wants to look it up.
“With Margaret Thatcher as education secretary, Ted Heath’s Conservative government issued Circular 10/70 The organisation of secondary education, which announced that no further plans for authority-wide comprehensivisation would be accepted, though proposals for individual schools would be considered. In fact, Thatcher sanctioned many individual schemes and the halfway point was reached: there were now more children in comprehensive schools than in selective ones.
When Wilson returned to power in 1974, it was widely assumed that Labour would complete the process. But once again, the government failed to live up to its promises. The 1976 Education Act required local education authorities to
have regard to the general principle that [secondary] education is to be provided only in schools where the arrangements for the admission of pupils are not based (wholly or partly) on selection by reference to ability or aptitude (Section 1(1)).
The rest of the Act, however, contained so many conditions and loopholes that its effect was negligible. ‘There was no legal requirement to end selection, and the Act produced no visible effect’ (Benn and Chitty 1996:11).
The Conservatives – now led by Margaret Thatcher – regained power in 1979. Their first Education Act – the 1979 Education Act – repealed the 1976 Act and gave back to local authorities the right to select pupils for secondary education. However, they had underestimated the popularity of comprehensive schools: attempts to reintroduce or extend selection in Berkshire, Wiltshire, Redbridge and Solihull all failed in the face of strong local opposition. So the Conservatives stopped talking about ‘selection’ and started using the word ‘specialisation’.”
September 28, 2021
Exactly right. Young minds are so often being stuffed with drivel (often religious in nature like climate alarmism, lefty economics and the many other older religions) so many are unable to resist this indoctrination and it can then damage them for life. Can we teach people how to think not propaganda as to what to think please. Start perhaps with a lesson on the four different types of money spending.
Look at poor Kier Starmer indoctrinated into the politics of envy and socialism by both his parents it seems and even named after Kier Hardie. Even though Starmer is clearly fairly bright he is still unable to shake off these idiotic indoctrinated delusions. Poor chap, why on earth would anyone sensible want to try to lead the Labour Party in its current appalling state?
September 28, 2021
You are so right, JR. An ability to read English is central to communication and learning. An avid reader as a child I was able to work as a journalist in later life, despite no formal academic qualification. It opens vistas of the imagination.
September 28, 2021
The phonetic alphabet is one of the worlds greatest inventions. Why then were teachers forbidden to teach reading phonetically?
September 28, 2021
Unlike German, Italian, Welsh, Polish etc., English – like French – is not a phonetic language. However, it often approximates to one, and phonics are a very valuable way of assisting the teaching of reading.
Like John, I was taught in that manner, and like him I also recall the sense of possessing a powerful key to unlock the mystery of the symbols on written pages, and which gave me confidence in approaching the whole of education.
There have been various fashions and experiments in education, and if there were ever a move away from phonics – I don’t think that it was ever formally banned – then it’s hard to see what would usefully have been put in its place.
It’s only logical that it should remain as a basis for teaching literacy.
September 28, 2021
Could be far better English is not very phonetic at all, unless you use real phonetic notation.
The letters ‘ough’ are pronounced 9 different ways in English depending on the word in use for example. Why bother with a U after every Q? If it is always there it is surely superfluous and rather a wast of time and ink?
September 28, 2021
You are correct.
However, John’s main point is that phonics give children an initial purchase on the problem which engenders confidence. That was also my experience and so I agree with him.
Maybe my infants school teacher was just better than most, because she quickly explained that the rules were changeable, and that things like adding a terminal “e” could change the sound of the vowel before the preceding consonant, the various sounds of combinations of letters, and so on.
September 28, 2021
Where there is no u after a q it usually means a foreign word, often Arabic.
September 28, 2021
My cousins were taught – Initial Teaching Alphabet, ita. Caused lots of problems for them.
September 28, 2021
There are reasons, MiC, for the retention of non-phonic spellings. For one thing, unlike most of the languages you cite, English is a language that’s quite poor in word endings for nouns, adjectives and verbs. Quite a bit of the time the different spellings help to differentiate different parts of speech, distinguishing verbs (e.g. write, hear, steal) from nouns and other word categories (e.g. right, here, steel). Because verbs are so important to get the meaning of a sentence as a whole, this helps us to parse a sentence quickly as we read it. In those other languages, the word endings of the equivalent words would tell the reader immediately what class of word they are, and so where they slot in to the structure of a sentence.
Of course, there are other reasons, such as the conservativeness of early Modern printers.
I’m not convinced we need to reform English spelling. When we look at children in Far Eastern countries who learn thousands of arbitrary characters each with their own meaning, and yet top the Pisa tables for educational attainment, are our kids so handicapped?
I think we’ve tended to teach reading and writing too early in this country anyway. Apparently, in countries like France and Switzerland, influenced by Piaget, they’ve preferred to hold off on those subjects for a year or two longer than we do, and then they don’t see so many problems as our host highlights in English schools.
September 29, 2021
I wasn’t arguing for a complete revision of English orthography, Richard. I was merely agreeing that LifeLogic’s facts were essentially in order.
Some languages, e.g. Irish, are far less phonetic than English, but retain their spellings for etymological and other reasons – as does English – and oriental languages are often completely symbolic and non-phonetic as you say.
However, I do think that the phonic approach is a good starter for small children, even if it causes them to make the charming mistakes that we all did for a time. That in itself was a lesson for life – assume nothing.
September 28, 2021
I share similar happy memories about starting school.
When my own children started at primary school, German friends gave them a little bag of sweets & stationery appropriate to their age/interests. They explained that this was a German custom so that children would associate learning with sweetness and gifts.
September 28, 2021
You haven’t given us critique of your visit. Were you impressed/unimpressed?
Meanwhile we need to address the question of why we’re importing tanker drivers with so many economically inactive full grown adults in noddy jobs and noddy courses here.
Reply It is not possible to publish a Report on the school based on just one visit. I discussed a range of matters with the Head who is proud of his schoolâs achievements, and with a parent who thinks the school is great.
September 28, 2021
We donât have to import tanker drivers. Brexitists could do the jobs instead – but they apparently donât want to. They must be too busy picking fruit or wiping bottoms in care homes I guess.
September 28, 2021
The EU has largely caused the problem. The industry has relied on cheap imported drivers and so did not need to train and pay properly for UK drivers.
Indeed if they had not done this many businesses could not have been competitive. Indeed to survive they often had to do this or be out bid for work.
September 28, 2021
Iâm surprised you think that Brexitists can drive. I used to be able to drive but, since voting for Brexit, now I just can remember what the pedals are for. As for wiping bottoms, I can no longer find mine with both hands.
September 28, 2021
Steady, Mike.
“Many A True Word Spoken In Jest”
September 28, 2021
You should open a dictionary and look up irony MiC
Something lost on extreme remainers I realise.
September 29, 2021
“Whoosh!”
What was that sound, anyone?
September 29, 2021
What was that sound?
It was yet another little post from Marty obviously.
The blog is littered with them.
September 28, 2021
Both very practical and essential tasks – but you scorn anything that isn’t having expensive cars, largely undergound old-tech so-called High Speed railways, foreign homes and being buddy with foreigners as if all are perfect. You do know, come the revolution brother, you’ll be amongst the very first shot lined up against the wall, you do don’t you?
September 28, 2021
I read that during the plague doctors were forbidden to carry out some sort of medical required for HGV drivers.
This allegedly meant that 40,000 drivers didnât get the necessary certificates.
No idea whether there is any truth in this?
September 28, 2021
Everhopeful,
They couldn’t form ‘training bubbles’ and share cabs…. trainee/instructor.
September 28, 2021
+1
September 28, 2021
Reply to reply
I visit factories and find I can gauge the atmosphere in a 1 hour walk around and 1 hour with management.
Agreed subsequent experience might be contrary to first impressions but they still count.
Reply Yes, of course, and I discuss important issues with a school when I visit, and usually read the last Inspectors report for background. I am not going to start offering some alternative appraisal system to Inspections.
September 28, 2021
pity it might be good if you did ‘start offering some alternative appraisal system to Inspections. ‘
Riddled with current political educational thinking, and Head must be doing this, that and t’other, but having happy, fulfilled and enquiring cohort doesn’t come into it. Mark this, score that, rate improvement here , there, but no allowance for any with year teacher absences, and the basic ability of the year group in question. Overhaul it.
September 28, 2021
I was a primary school governor in the 1990s in London, and I participated in some of the reading classes … this was when it was the fashion to expect children to simply absorb learning to read, rather than being [properly] phonetically taught. I was deeply saddened by the appalling low levels of literacy. Although the school was in a relatively affluent area, it was quite obvious that many parents had made no attempt whatsoever to help their children with any aspect of learning, or indeed even toilet-training … ‘well, that’s what schools are there for’ seemed to be their attitude.
September 28, 2021
I recall the frustration my daughter, an avid reader, felt when the teacher would give her a book at the level of ‘the cat sat on the mat’ to take home for the week and read a page a day, when she was already reading Heidi and Little Women. No doubt because whilst most of her class mates appeared to know everything that was on TV, they could hardly read. It would appear none of their parents ever sat down with their pre-school children read them a story before bedtime.
September 28, 2021
Those children are now the parents of today and, I’m afraid, not much has changed since then.
September 28, 2021
and as a generalisation teachers can’t spell and therefore do not attempt to mark any mistakes they think they might have found. Parents often see work that goes with a standard ‘progressing satisfactorily’ weak comment. Useless to a parent who wants to help.
September 28, 2021
My grand daughter is in year 5 at her primary school and it is time to think about how she will progress into secondary school. The school she is at present attending is excellent and the children here are taught phonetics. I attended an open evening at one particular school with my daughter as she is now thinking about various options for year 7 .Two schools were completely shut down to us , but I was overwhelmed at the welcome of another school . The school was in a beautiful setting , with staff politely guiding us to the assembly hall , literature about the school was handed out ,the children presented by song their ethos which talked about the importance of every individual and the inclusion of every single pupil. This school led by many levels. Their ethos also stated that the children should follow the path they want and they would find a suitable level of training for that desire. The different disciplines/ departments had children leading and helped parents and potential pupils to see into the work they do. The science lab actually involved my grand daughter in experiments led by highly intelligent children who were confident and caring . The whole ethos was infused to every member of that school . I became quite emotional at times and very surprised when a hot and cold buffet of the highest standard was offered to all visitors . I asked if they would accept a debit card and what is more was told everything was free. What an example of what could be everywhere.
September 28, 2021
So how did the school afford that? That should be your next question.
My local secondary schools receive a very low level of funding from the government – for a long time below the minimum level set per pupil. I am not sure how any schools can qualify to be below minimum but these schools apparently do.
So they ask parents. Parents are bombarded with a pretty hard sell in terms of donating to the schoolsâ charity arms. This is how the schools pay for stuff. I am not talking about the odd bake sale or mufti day – though obviously the schools have those too. I am talking about a hard sell request for parents to donate hundreds of pounds per month. Yes, you read that right. Per month. We donate something like ÂŁ3k per year to our daughterâs school.
These schools develop not through government spending – our taxes – but through our charity. It is in an affluent area, parents are generous. But it remains shocking that we have to give so much extra just to have decent classrooms and equipment. Have voters in the red wall been asked to chip in yet?
September 28, 2021
It’s your choice. Sending your child to a quasi private school. Many parents couldn’t afford it but their kids benefit from the education. Personally I think your school’s solution is better than going private and issuing scholarships to poor but bright kids. That’s depriving good state schools of talent akin to us importing doctors from Nigeria.
Can’t see your gripe today?
September 28, 2021
It isnât a quasi private school. It is a state school. Many of the schools around here rely on charity because they get insufficient funding from the government. The parents that can afford to chip in more do because plenty of parents canât afford to.
We have no choice but to fund your pensions – ÂŁ100bn+ of handouts to the elderly every year. If my wife and I were not subsiding you lot to the tune of ÂŁ10k plus per month weâd be able to do more for the kids.
September 28, 2021
This folks is why labour want rich people like Andy to send their children to State secondary schools because one way or another they can afford advantages for their children and without them, schools struggle.
September 28, 2021
Sounds like Wokingham Andy, which is also low down on the list of government funding.
September 28, 2021
Kick out your MP then and vote for someone who will invest in your schools.
September 28, 2021
You sound like a bit of a tight wad. Send your children to private schools as we Brexitists do. I guess your school gets less than the minimum as the powers that be recognise there is no hope for children with Remainer parents who are detached from reality. What chance have your children got?
September 28, 2021
You will probably find that the group of teachers have been ‘in post many years and are paid high in the scale’ so budget is spent on them , not facilities and essential tools in the modern learning methods.
Others of course spend fortunes on computers and boast of their pupils mastering ‘very basic’ coding as if a bunch of Einsteins have been found.
September 28, 2021
How lovely. I hope you told the children Brexit has ended their gateway to the that bigger world. They are stuck in tiny Little England with its weird language.
I hope you explained to some of them that they wonât be eating as much anymore, or they might have to go cold because – despite rising prices – universal credit is being cut. âDonât worry little one! It doesnât matter if you have a hole in your shoe this winter – our billionaire friends need a bigger yacht!â
I hope you expressed your concern that not enough is being done about climate change. âIt doesnât matter if the world is heating to dangerous levels and your generation will die, little one! Granny who votes for me doesnât want to spend an extra 37p a year to go green!â
Having so right royally stuffed up the chances of the next generation we should not let any Brexitist Tory MPs anywhere near any primary school.
September 28, 2021
The kids have been content with Little England since well before the referendum. Foreign language learning has declined massively as the country shows its little interest in Europe and anywhere else.
September 28, 2021
If they were less easily self-satisfied then they would probably go much, much further in life.
September 28, 2021
What a sad and negative posting, why do have to politicise absolutely everything, do you only get pleasure and smile when you visit the EU, ignoring of course all of their faults and traits.?
September 28, 2021
There used to be a childrens’ sweet called a Gob Stopper.
You clearly never had one Andy or, if you did, it has not worked!
September 28, 2021
@Andy; “Brexit has ended their gateway to the that bigger world.”
Nonsense on stilts, how did our membership of the EU help UK children attend college or Uni in say the USA or Australia, both countries having far better higher education, bar a very few number of Erasmus area colleges or Universities?
UK children, post Brexit, are likely to have the world open up to them once our govt can put in place a replacement for the Erasmus system, not just access to some 28 or so European countries. What has changed though is their -often tax payer funded- “experience” of living, playing and (perhaps) studying in another country simply because they can, not because they need a better education than is available here in the UK.
“They are stuck in tiny Little England with its weird language.”
English, so “weird” that 2/3rds of the world either speak it as a first language or for who it is their national second language, so “weird” that English is the standard language air traffic etc around the world etc! When I used to visit Spain it was always very difficult for me to improve my ‘pigeon Spanish’ as every Spaniard I dealt with wanted to practise their English language skills on me – indeed the only time I would learn any new Spanish was whilst speaking with the resident UK ex-pat community.
“âDonât worry little one! It doesnât matter if you have a hole in your shoe this winter â our billionaire friends need a bigger yacht!â”
The politics of Jealousy. No doubt that child with a hole in their shoe goes home to watch subscription TV, they check their social media accounts on their own, or a parents, all singing and dancing subscription service mobile phone, no doubt the children are put to bed at least one night a week by the child minder whilst the parents are at the pub or social club. Just saying!
“I hope you expressed your concern that not enough is being done about climate change”
Yes please, perhaps our host could suggest our modern day ‘King Canute’ (PM) travels down to Bosham, and demand the tide to turned back….
September 28, 2021
Thank you for by our daily rant. Todayâs has really made me chuckle.
September 28, 2021
Hmmm. âBy ourâ – thought I had typed âyourâ. My iPhone has a mind of its own. Artificial Unintelligence in action.
September 28, 2021
I think he’s losing his touch, Mike. He’s just silly. But people still reply, and I’ve no doubt that satisfies him.
September 28, 2021
Go tell China if you believe this religion.
September 28, 2021
What a bizaare mental state you exist in. Move your arse over to beloved France complete with worn out shoes and you might find yourself in a regime that allows the acquisition of the super yacht. You are the perfect buddy match for Angela Raynor, get together and plot away.
September 28, 2021
Andy, why was universal credit increased by ÂŁ20 during covid lockdown? Was it because children were at home more and extra food was required? Was it because the parent was furloughed and only earning 80% of their usual income? Once we are told what it was increased to do then we can see why it is now removed as furlough has ended and children are back in school and things are resuming to a more normal flow of activity.
Reply Yes it was to allow for big disruption to working life from lockdown and was passed as a temporary measure with a time expiry on it.
September 28, 2021
Andy : “âIt doesnât matter if the world is heating to dangerous levels and your generation will die, little one!….”
I believe teaching this to primary school children is child abuse.
What is your explanation please for the World warming since the last ice age maximum 22,000 years ago and long before man-made CO2 existed?
September 28, 2021
The climate changes naturally.
But naturally it doesnât change anything like as quickly as it is changing now. The ice records and geological records prove this.
What is your explanation please of the world warming far faster than it ever has done in the short period following manâs industrial revolution?
I believe denying man made climate change is child abuse as you are consigning our kids to a planet which in places will be unliveable because you are too bloody minded or too bloody selfish or too bloody stupid to play your part.
September 28, 2021
There you go again. Utter nonsense. The ice records and geological records show a number of very rapid changes – catastrophic, no doubt, at the time. To name but one, about 640,000 years ago the huge Yellowstone Caldera in the States erupted and put 10 feet of ash over a large portion of North America – and caused a global winter. Nature gets up those tricks regularly. Makes our piffling bit of CO2 seem insignificant and our terror of 1.5 degrees C.
Incidentally, ‘they’ (those pesky experts) thinks it goes boom about every 600,000 years. We’re living on borrowed time. And, of course, there are (I think) seven other similar volcanoes on this planet.
September 29, 2021
Yes, you could equally argue that because an asteroid smashes into the planet and wipes out all complex life every hundred million years or so, we might as well just start a nuclear war for fun.
September 29, 2021
No you couldn’t equally argue that MiC
You have come up with a truly ridiculous comparison to what Mike said.
September 29, 2021
Andy, Thanks for your reply which shows you have absolutely no explanation as to why the Earth began to warm after the last ice age maximum 22,000 years ago other than âclimate changes naturallyâ.
It has nothing to do with man-made CO2.
Whilst I agree with the generation of âgreenâ energy including nuclear and electrification it is not because of CO2/CAGW but because it reduces pollution, enables valuable fossil fuels to be saved for pharmaceuticals/chemicals instead of simply for burning and most importantly of all enables the UK to become energy independent.
The transfer to green energy/electrification needs to be done at a pace that does not cause economic ruin and social chaos but of course this is why the Marxists are pushing it so hard, abetted by globalists who see a lot of money to be made by panicking governments.
September 29, 2021
Well, that’s a bit like saying that because the bus skidded on a patch of ice twenty miles back, and nearly went over a cliff, the driver might as well give up trying to steer at all.
September 30, 2021
@OR; +100
@MiC; No, to use your analogy, it says we need better driver training, better buses, not that buses should be banned outright.
September 28, 2021
I really hope you leftists keep coming out with this deranged drivel, itâs our only hope at the next election given the leftward drift of the Boris govt. thanks to Sir John for allowing it through despite all the unpleasantness.
September 28, 2021
Agreed, They seem to be a pretty good job of making Labour unelectable…
So, once again the options to the country will be to elect the least worse of a bad bunch…
September 28, 2021
“Brexit has ended their gateway to the bigger world” – hey ho, don’t worry, it appears that much of the rest of the world is coming to the UK.
September 28, 2021
Dishonest claptrap. Troll.
September 28, 2021
Somebody should make a comedy programme Little Europe, where a German school teacher is running a class of 27 pupils who all have to wear the same size boots and uniform, and where no non-European kids are admitted. But that wouldn’t suit the BBC world it?
September 28, 2021
Andy
Weird language?
Itâs the most spoken language in the world and is the language of aviation?
September 28, 2021
Gateway to the bigger world – read up on the Turing Scheme.
Universities Minister Michelle Donelan told the Today programme “The way it’ll work is our universities will partner with another university and they will waive the fees because they will be exchanging students. The government has allocated ÂŁ110m for the first year of the scheme, which starts in 2021/22” source bbc
September 28, 2021
The Turing scheme is significantly worse than Erasmus, which it replaced. Removing it is simply more cultural vandalism for this gutter dwelling government which most of us reject.
Reply The new scheme helps more UK people which is why I guess you dislike it.
September 29, 2021
but most of ‘us’ didn’t reject it, Andy. In fact most of the people that lent this government their vote wanted them to go much further than they did. If EU universities don’t want to partner with British Universities to do student exchanges that will be their loss as British students travel further and with more co-operative countries, people who want to be friends.
September 29, 2021
But you claim that you only voted for one thing : To Get Brexit Done.
You claim not to have voted for the Net Zero pledge, but now you seem to have read the manifesto after all, and support the Turing Scheme.
It’s all getting rather contradictory, isn’t it?
September 30, 2021
MiC – when precisely did I claim âI only voted for one thing – to get brexit doneâ as you claim. This is just another strawman argument that you seem to make to people. Put words in their mouths.
Iâve never talked about ânot voting for Net Zeroâ at all so again what are you going on about?
I do support the Turing scheme what is contradictory about that? If Europe want to join in – in an equal swap relationship then there is no problem.
I do wish you wouldnât make statements about me that are untrue Martin.
September 30, 2021
@Andy; How does the Erasmus scheme help students study at a University outside the EU block?
September 28, 2021
37p a year to go green sure! Sure mate more like ÂŁ40,000 per household if you want net zero CO2! Though actually the extra CO2 is greening the planet rather well as it is plant, tree and crop food.
On balance a little more is probably net beneficial.
September 28, 2021
Our weird language is the most widely spoken second language in the world and is the default international language. Nice and easy too. None of that nouns having gender crap you get on the continent.
September 28, 2021
Andy : âThey [children] are stuck in tiny Little England with its weird language.”
England may be small but it is the most widely spoken language in the World at 1.5 billion with 1 billion as a second language. A real achievement!
I also believe it has far more words than any other language and doesn’t have legislation preventing the introduction of new words, even from other languages.
Spoken English, as opposed to written English, is not at all âweirdâ and in fact is very logical and easy to learn compared to other languages which for instance assign gender to inanimate objects.
Or those that place parts of verbs at the end of the sentence instead of the logical position or when calling out numbers reverse the digits.
September 28, 2021
When I started primary school the nuns, bless them, soon made us realise that failure to learn was associated with pain inflicted by a cane. Such sweet women.
I canât understand how you can teach reading without phonics. This shape is a letter called âteeâ and the sound it makes is âtuhââ how else can you do it.
September 28, 2021
+1
I believe that one potty way is word recognition. Flash cards is it?
Another was/is a whole phonetic alphabet. Totally different characters with horrible diphthong symbols if I remember correctly. I spent my first year of French with that particular nightmare. My sister and one cousin were taught English like that and never recovered re spelling and grammar. The ludicrous system was rapidly dropped. At some point transition to the normal alphabet was obviously required anyway.
Not that it matters one jot because governments change the rules constantly.
September 28, 2021
I learnt to read in the very early 1950s, and I don’t think it was taught phonetically, although I can’t be sure. Nevertheless, I learnt to read very well and was an avid consumer of library books. The library where I once went had beautiful stained glass windows and a dome, but is now a broken slum and no longer a library.
September 28, 2021
Ditto, although our library didn’t have stained glass windows or a dome, it was a beautiful manor called Stanhope House and had a lovely tranquil atmosphere to browse in.
The library is now housed is an ugly 1960-70’s architectural monstrosity, which I confess, I never used, but doubt it has the same atmosphere.
September 28, 2021
I went to an Infant School first of all. That was where they had the miniature furniture.
I hated it because I just wanted to stay at home and be with my family.
I canât say I am glad that I persisted because for all the exams and qualifications gained we were handed THIS world.
What on earth future can meddling politicians offer the children of today?
Politicians donât know the half of the lives that kids have to live now because of what governments have done.
September 28, 2021
Sir John – a nice blog today thankyou.
I to grew up in Kent and I am told by family involved in education what happened in that part of the World was worlds apart from other parts of the Country.
Now in Wokingham, when we first started our own children out in their journey through the education system – it was a shock. The local head stood up in front of parents and said ‘you may wonder why we have not had a focus on reading and writing’, that’s because it is your job as parents, at school our aim is to teach children to interact and be kind to one another.
As others have said the educational system has been infiltrated not by those with a ‘calling’ but by those with political motives.
September 28, 2021
Do you know any true stories, Nota?
September 28, 2021
You should have stood up and said ‘you are paid to educate these children, I will consult a nursery again when I want them to learn behavioural things.’
September 28, 2021
A bit like schools that banned sports competition as a way of preparing kids for a competitive world.
September 29, 2021
@jon – they had sports, but no one was to win. All sports had to be played in full school uniform – it wasn’t a teachers job to supervise 5-7 year olds dressing themselves etc.
Needles to say we moved to another school(St Pauls) by comparison fantastically normal.
Not long after the ‘head’ of the first school was removed and hopefully the kids started getting the education they needed.
September 28, 2021
Absolutely agree with every word.
The big mystery is that with classroom assistants and a language rich environment from Nursery onwards that some children still leave school unable to read and write !
In the primary school where I worked until 3 years ago, it was often the parents who were the stumbling block, by refusing help for a highly dyslexic child. There is plenty of support in school⊠and this child eventually was given the extra help he needed in year 6 – it took that long to persuade his parents to accept it. So he left being able to read, but not as well as he could have been able to.
September 28, 2021
Like Sir J, I started my primary education in the 50’s. On a light-hearted note, when reading your article the first thoughts that sprung to mind was Mr Pink the janitor and the dinner ladies Mrs Green and Mrs White. There was also a Mrs Peacock, who was a teacher. Rather colourful and not bad for a village school.
However, I also remember the issue both the teachers and the dinner ladies had because I am left-handed. During those first few years of my education my parents went back and forth on numerous occasions insisting they stopped humiliating me, by taking my pencil or utensils out of my hand and putting in the hand where they believed they ought to be, because all that was happening was tears and my reluctance to go to school.
I now eat right-handed, but still write with my left hand, obviously the teachers eventually listened.
September 28, 2021
One is always wary of systems that are supposed to produce marvels in education. Look at what we have now, and the level of those supposedly educated.
My mother complained greatly about my brother using phonetic reading, saying that it held him back when he had to do it the normal way.
September 28, 2021
You and I were indeed fortunate in that we were borne to parents who believed in education. Preparing for school and supplementing the work of teachers is probably one of the most useful gifts that parents can give their children. I would add that exposing them to new experiences and arousing curiosity with direction to where answers can be found is also an ongoing resposibility. It can be argued that just at the moment many parents and families find themselves over exposed to just surviving.
September 28, 2021
Just dropped off Mrs N off at the local Primary where she works , largely dealing with behaviour problems. She instituted a Friday afternoon hot chocolate and congratulation for children who get forgotten .These are the ones who do not behave badly are not necessarily brilliant but work steadily . She has told me that when she calls their parents to tell them they are appreciated some are close to tears.
Just a small insight into the care and thought that many teachers and staff put into trying to make schools work.
September 28, 2021
Yes our children were able to read and write before they went to school, yes taught to read by the phonetics method at home, read to at night and like yourself we were picked up if we missed a sentence to two.
In my own childhood I was also taught to read at home by the same method, life in general and at School then was so much more simple, and not recognised as being political at all, most of the teachers were of my parents age or older, had experienced or served in the second World War, so automatically had a common sense approach to most things including the real priorities of life , which included self survival, which meant you had to be fit and ready to work to support yourself after you left School.
Did I enjoy school?
Only the practical elements at the time, maths, physics, technical drawing, and of course all sports activities, I did not take to academia for academia sake, rarely did any home work when it was given, even when encouraged by parents to do so.
Had some great teachers with huge personalities that made school interesting.
Headmaster was a strict disciplinarian, but very fair.
The secret of a good school, a good head who gets support from parents, true then true today.
September 28, 2021
So true – if you look around the world a great many systems work and don`t work, its not just the system its the people. I went to a huge centre for Covid Jabs and looked around with admiration to see so many people trying so hard to make it work. I thought at the time, if we all behaved like this all the time we could solve every problem we have .
Of course we won`t people are lazy selfish and a bit useless ..like me .
September 28, 2021
Most kids going to school today will be learning about renewable energy and grid-scale storage systems. So here is the current state of play in the sector.
We will shortly (2022) be in a position to install demonstration systems for grid-scale renewable energy storage here in the UK, many developed by UK entrepreneurs supported by UK universities
The front runners are Highview Power plc with its CRYOBattery compressed liquid air product which delivers clean, reliable, and cost-efficient long-duration utility scale energy storage. This system is probably the most advanced in development
https://highviewpower.com/
Next up is the Danish entrepreneur Stiesdal’s simple and cheap thermal crushed rock system, prototypes are now being installed in several countries by the company Gridscale:-
https://www.rechargenews.com/energy-transition/stiesdal-hot-rocks-energy-storage-flagship-to-power-up-on-danish-island-of-lolland/2-1-1061093
The large-mass pumped storage system recently proposed here is now being developed in Germany by Heindl Energy GmbH. This one looks by far the cheapest to install and can potentially store phenomenal quantities of renewable energy
https://heindl-energy.com/technical-concept/basic-concept/
https://heindl-energy.com/economic-concept/
The UK start-up Gravitricity is building a demonstration prototype on a similar principle which has great potential, full scale plant would also be very cheap
https://gravitricity.com/technology/
There are other promising systems in development such as thermal calcium salt. My prediction is that the private sector will be installing cheap grid-sized energy storage systems here within the next 5 years.
September 28, 2021
The questions to get honest answers to are how much do these systems cost per KWH stored, how long will they last, how much do they cost to run and maintain, how much energy is wasted in the charge and discharge process. What subsidy will they need and how much energy does it take to manufacture them.
In general it is far,far cheaper and far more efficient to generate electricity as needed and so not need to store it in this way at vast expense.
September 28, 2021
Many of the answers to the questions you pose can be found by following the links that were provided.
Efficiency is neither here nor there. You either accept that burning carbon is a filthy business or you don’t. I do. Therefore I would like cleaner energy. If wind turbines can generate energy to lift something up and, when it drops, electrical energy is created – and it is stated that this is 80% efficient, that’s good enough for me. As for cost – again, to some extent we have to look beyond cost. But, everything I read says wind power is now cheaper than many alternatives. It is hard to know who precisely to believe but, that notwithstanding, stored renewable energy is the future regardless of what is true about cost and efficiency. Personally, I’d stop beating the drum. No-one is listening. We will not be opening any new coal fired power stations.
September 28, 2021
From the MsM – Areas of China that account for 66% of its GDP are sufferings power cuts – Brexit is hitting hard!
September 28, 2021
ActuallyâŠI really wonder why I was forced into getting an education at all.
I now do not have the freedoms that I was taught were unalienable rights.
I was taught that such rights could only be removed by the kind of evil that would never threaten me in a just, democratic society. It was all lies.
And I have no voice to protest.
September 28, 2021
Come on, what rights do you claim to have lost, exactly?
(Apart from the whole raft of them which Leaving the European Union has inflicted)
September 28, 2021
I have lost the freedom to trust my government.
And for me that is a terrible loss.
September 28, 2021
You can trust them if you like.
It’s not an offence.
It’s up to you.
September 28, 2021
Everhopeful is not stupid. Her opinion, you didn’t need to add a comment.
September 28, 2021
I donât.
And one of the functions ( and faults) of democracy is that it should enable voters to get on with their lives happily while the government runs the country.
One did assume with honesty and diligence.
But noâŠthey have been selling us out to globalists.
September 29, 2021
They are quite justly held grievances EH, but are not a loss of rights or of freedoms.
Leaving the European Union however involved a very major loss of them.
September 28, 2021
About 16% of the population is diagnosed as dyslexic (many never discover this is the reason for the extra time they require to read and write essays, poor sentence structure and incorrect spelling) Often reading is difficult for dyslexic children and could be identified a lot sooner in primary school with the children offered the coloured card to aid reading and other tools that are available at very low cost.
If a primary school child doesn’t like reading or is struggling with reading I hope this solution is explored now because it wasn’t in the past and often went undiagnosed all the way through school.
September 28, 2021
Off topic:
https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/the-unionist-parties-come-together-to-reject-the-northern-ireland-protocol-and-call-for-its-replacement-with-arrangements-that-respect-nis-place-in-uk-3398717
“The unionist parties come together to reject the Northern Ireland Protocol, and call for its replacement with arrangements that respect NIâs place in UK”
For two of the parties the preferred alternative is a system of “mutual enforcement”:
https://centreforbrexitpolicy.org.uk/news/print/brexit-group-think-tanks-alternative-puts-onus-on-mutual-enforcement/
But as that was previously rejected out of hand by the EU we would probably have to start with just our half of it.
Reply A group of Conservative MPs has made the case for mutual enforcement and has pressed for it again, including in the recent Parliamentary debate we held on the topic.
September 28, 2021
The EU has made it very clear that the WA including the NI Protocol will not be renegotiated. If something is amiss in the workings or practicalities of the protocol then am sure it can be ironed out by discussion and agreement between the two EU/ and UK and no amount of pique or foot stamping by NI Unionists is going to change that. The UK should really have stayed in the Single Market as Mrs May wanted but dear Boris backed by the DUP knew best and instead wanted to take the hardest line possible putting GB as a third country outside of the EU but overlooking leaving NI in the Single Market – it was all signed off and ratified in the Houses and in the EU Parliament and therin lies the problem. Am sure an addendum to the agreements can be worked on that will satisfy all
September 28, 2021
As I expect you realise “an addendum to the agreements” would have no legal force unless it amended the agreements.
September 28, 2021
Exactly
September 28, 2021
“The EU has made it very clear that the WA including the NI Protocol will not be renegotiated.”
When the EU makes something “very clear” that something will not be renegotiated, it is just their opening move in renegotiation.
September 28, 2021
The same old argument, which still needs to be countered:
https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2021/09/28/news/dublin-government-in-solution-mode-on-protocol-after-fresh-unionist-opposition-2461733/
“… Neale Richmond … was critical of the declaration … âI note the lack of reference to any realistic alternatives”
September 28, 2021
To reply:- A group of how many Conservative MPs?
reply See the Hansard to get an idea of some of the members
September 28, 2021
Here we go again – the NI Unionists say that NI is a constituent part of UK by reason of the Act of Union 1800 and the continuing express of the will of its people. First of all the plain people of Ireland had no part in this agreement neither did the people of GB it was foisted on the people so then we consider the GE of 1918 when SINN fein got by far the majority of seats in the whole if Ireland but that did not suit Unionism and the London government then forced a border through Ireland at the threat of all out war.. after that the Nationalists in NI suffered terrible discrimination for fifty years while the UK establishment including Royalty turned a blind eye.. the rest is history.. so you see there is not going to be any give on the protocol. Going further back we gaels are reminded in history of Cuimhnigi ar Luimneach 1692 .. no chance not in a million years we will ever forget
September 28, 2021
Remember Limerick 1692
September 29, 2021
In 2021 it is better to remember the Belfast Agreement, which is not protected but breached by the protocol.
September 28, 2021
Both my parents read to me a lot when I was a pre-schooler and like many children I asked for the same books to be read over and over again. They tried to skip parts to get through them more quickly and I would protest since I knew them off by heart. Then they found me “reading” the books to myself, tracing the words with my finger as I spoke them aloud. They still thought I had merely memorised them, until they got a new book and I did the same thing ….. traced the words as I spoke them. I had learned to read; I was 4.
I went to a delightful Infant school in Kent in a large, old Victorian House with beautiful grounds. I vividly recall the Reception Class held in what was probably the old Parlour; the Maypole and practising the routines for May Day; and learning my times tables by rote. Every week we moved onto the next table until they had all been learned.
I did a reccy down memory lane a couple of years ago and its still there and is still an Infant School. I hope the children who are lucky enough to go there have as much fun and as good an education as I got back in the 60’s ….. but I doubt it.
September 28, 2021
Just a bit off topic, one could be forgiven for thinking this petrol crisis has been manufactured by the government nudge department to encourage us to buy electric vehicles.
Of course it won’t work but nice try.
When we have power cuts this winter it will make EVs look ridiculous.
September 28, 2021
This from WEF forum 26th September 2017
âIn July, the UK government unveiled plans to halt the production of new petrol and diesel cars from 2040.
Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, warned at the time that Britain “can’t carry on” with petrol and diesel cars because of the damage that they cause to people’s health and the planet. However, experts warn that the national grid will struggle to provide enough electricity to cope with peak demand for charging electric vehicles, for example after rush hour.â
So they have been officially planning to get rid of petrol for longer than I realised. This manufactured âcrisisâ is just one mendacious step along the way. And theyâve got people working from home again and teachers threatening to close the schools.
But did it go a bit awry? The idea of an actual SHORTAGE has been debunked.
September 28, 2021
Synthetic phonics (I have just read a short and critical article about it) seems unnecessarily complicated balls. Thank God I was taught to read in the fifties, when we were shown the letters and the sounds they made, made to repeat them and immediately shown real, simple words. We could see that we were going somewhere; this gave us confidence. Most of us also learnt to recite the alphabet.
I was lucky to escape a complicated innovation and misery when arithmetic was taught using coloured pieces of wood. This started in the year below me and I can still recall the utter and continuing dismay on the faces of the children as they emerged from their arithmetic lessons. This fantastically expensive method was such a complete failure that it was abandoned eighteen months later in the middle of a school year.
Today primary school children are the next guinea pigs for compulsory injection with an inadequately tested and completely new gene-based substance by our apparent government. Perhaps you will report on the results of this in a year or so.
September 28, 2021
+1
September 28, 2021
+1 and then we have âchunkingâ too!
September 28, 2021
Off topic. Mr. Redwood – why is your government dithering? The army are on standby to deliver petrol. Why?! Get them delivering. It would show decisive action by the government and would be a morale boost for the army.
My sonâs best mate left the army a while ago. He left because he was bored to tears.
Reply I do not know but it may be the army drivers do not yet have the training and permits to handle dangerous loads for delivery systems at forecourts. .
September 28, 2021
Mike, well, that would prove conclusively that the problem is at least significantly lack of drivers, and not just panic buying, as inaccurately claimed by the Government wouldn’t it?
That is, brexit did indeed the problem.
If it didn’t, then why is encouraging thousands of drivers to come here from the European Union the solution?
September 28, 2021
Poor pay and working conditions?
Backlog of driving tests and medicals?
Just Brexit you reckon MiC
So why are there shortages of drivers in USA and Europe?
September 28, 2021
MiC
A refusal to accept Brexit from the outset is the problem (and to make plans for it)… and a 1 in a 100 year pandemic which happened after Remainers had dicked us around.
Importing drivers is not the solution. Making HGV driving appealing to young UK people is.
You’re happy for workers to be on poor pay, not see their families and crap in bushes.
September 28, 2021
It’s sovereign Tory employment “law” which results in your last sentence.
Drivers on the Mainland – in the European Union – do not generally suffer such appalling conditions.
September 28, 2021
So how about different minimum wages for various occupations – like Germany has – and a decent one for truckers then?
September 28, 2021
This “Tory employment law” MiC
How does it result in poor wages and conditions exactly?
Would you repeal it all?
Secondary picketing and secret ballots too?
September 28, 2021
“Drivers on the Mainland â in the European Union â do not generally suffer such appalling conditions.”
So why do they come to the UK for driving jobs? Why is it EU drivers we are told we are “missing”?
September 28, 2021
MiC: And the way to counter that is to use market forces to improve wages and conditions rather than import cheap labour to keep them down.
September 28, 2021
In any case. Brexit wasn’t about stopping immigration that we didn’t need.
September 29, 2021
I’m glad you told us where mainland was, I always think it is the large country looking north from the Isle of Wight.
September 29, 2021
These tanker drivers at Hoyer are on a minimum of ÂŁ45,000 pa, this needs investigation, why isnât the government investigating? How many EU drivers were employed in the UK as tanker drivers by this company that started the panic, why is it so difficult to get the actually driver number figures, how many drivers were they short each day last week and why? Less than 1% of fuel stations had a problem and it got blown up out of all relation to the problem. The question is why and to whose advantage at the start of the Labour Party conference and with people wanting Brexit overturned.
How many army tanker drivers are there that could be redeployed? Do we know any actual numbers? It would be a good idea for them to be trained on tankers so they can scoop up these jobs when they leave the army logistics if there is a true shortage which I doubt.
September 28, 2021
MiC – how many tankers are sat idle at these specialist companies each day this week? What % of the tanker drivers are on holiday, What % of the drivers are sick? How many tankers do we have registered and useable in the UK? Forget all HGV drivers how many tanker driver vacancies are there?
September 28, 2021
yawn.
September 28, 2021
September 28, 2021
Oh dear, what a lack of common sense. Panic buying *causes* the appearance of a lack of drivers by putting extra demand into the system.
A week from now, when panic buying recedes, the retail system will be awash in petrol, and we won’t be looking for “a hundred thousand” drivers, but it won’t be “news” so it won’t get reported.
September 28, 2021
“If it didnât, then why is encouraging thousands of drivers to come here from the European Union the solution?”
You just told us that in the EU drivers don’t suffer “appalling conditions” as exist in the UK, and now you are telling us only Brexit is the problem and the answer is “encouraging” EU drivers to come to the UK. Seriously? Encouraging them to enjoy “appalling” conditions?
If conditions in the UK are so “appalling”, why would any EU driver ever leave the EU to come to the UK, Brexit or no Brexit? If conditiions in the UK are so “appalling”, free movement would never have attracted EU workers in the first place, ever, for decades.
You are massively contradicting yourself.
September 29, 2021
They won’t come though, as the pan-European association of drivers warns.
September 28, 2021
Reply to reply to Mike Wilson.
F… permits, devices created by health and safety to up the cost of doing anything and give jobsworths control. You underestimate our army and more specifically the RASC who would have the problem sorted in 5 minutes flat. Managers of petrol stations might have a few clues as to what to connect to what. Handling dangerous explosive items is routine for the army and those doing it are a lot more intelligent than you give them credit for. You should see what a bunch of Ghurkas have done with one of our local pubs, and they are better known for removing heads than catering. It is so popular you need to pre book at the weekend.
September 28, 2021
Just how many are drivers of this type of vehicle are qualified on civvy roads? There can’t be many. Stop panicking. It will over in a day or two. In case you are wondering I have not been to my petrol station for fuel.
September 28, 2021
Your reply:
They most certainly do. They have done it before and they fuel all their own vehicles all the time. The logistics of fuel distribution is part of strategic planning at all times in the army.
September 28, 2021
“Off topic. Mr. Redwood â why is your government dithering? ”
They are not dithering. They simply know that panic buying is creating a spike of demand, and they don’t know how big that spike is and how long it will remain.
Do you give in to every single one of a kid’s demands, or do you wait for a bit until they settle down and ask for something reasonable?
September 28, 2021
I don’t know how I was taught to read but I think I learned at a very young age and I enjoyed Noddy books.
I taught myself a great deal later when young by reading dictionaries.
September 28, 2021
We also visited our local primary school and were amazed at how well furnished the facilities were today play areas and strikingly the LED colour touch-screen enormous replacement for the chalk and blackboard!
Sadly whilst these rich resources are non existent in many other countries comparing real results shows that throwing money at education is no substitute for basics in the 3 Rs.
As for the SNP not distributing and delaying vital laptops to schools recently it defies logic.
September 28, 2021
I am delighted that Nick Gibb has made an impact on the return to phonetics, because it is the tried and tested method of teaching even those not as gifted as John Redwood to read. I will forever be disappointed that as a convinced Brexiteer his whole life, that Nick was never in danger of being one of the Spartans.
I remember my mother collecting the mail from the doormat, and asking her how she knew there were no letters for me. She showed me her name written on the mail, so I asked her what my name âlooked likeâ, so I could recognize a letter were one to come for me.
And off I went âŠbecause she then posted a letter to me ⊠long before school. I have the envelope still. One small step for mankind, one huge leap for Lynn.
September 28, 2021
Mic
The problem is a shortage of drivers and people panic buying, it will sort itself out in a couple of weeks unless people try to store fuel at home.
Yes it would appear that we have a shortage of drivers for many reasons, as have France, Germany, Italy, Spain and a whole host of other EU Countries, which proves Brexit is not the real problem at all.
Interesting video being viewed on the sky news channel, which shows a customer at a service station emptying drinking water bottles, so they can be filled with fuel.
The mind boggles at this utter stupidity.
September 28, 2021
I especially appreciated the “estimate” of a shortfall of a hundred thousand drivers. Can the Road Haulage Association show us the hundred thousand idle trucks?
September 29, 2021
The RHA is an operator’s association.
It does not want any evidence whatsoever that it is a seller’s market when it comes to driving labour.
September 28, 2021
How nice. A piece where remembering a Golden Age that never was, and ranting about the present is the whole point.
September 28, 2021
I’m starting to notice a cute little trick the press are picking up. They now refer to any problem in the UK as “post Brexit”. Not actually caused by Brexit, you see, so you can’t call them on that, but “post” Brexit.
September 28, 2021
I began to learn to read when my older brothers got sick of me asking when my favourite radio programs were on. They handed me the Radio Times and explained how it worked. By the time I first went to school, I was already reading.
Motivation, not method.
September 28, 2021
Great – did they explain how to tell time from the clock too?
September 28, 2021
No, that was my Granny, who did the classic “Big hand, little hand” thing. Mine was a great family for a little lad to grow up in. Everyone was helping the youngest along, but everyone was just using common sense, no fancy theories.
September 29, 2021
Thanks Jon – I can picture that.
Too many grandparents these days just seem to want to bury their grandchildren in sweets.
September 28, 2021
You just can’t stop posting Marty can you?
What is it 25 posts today alone.