Tag: education

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With TWELVE times as many temporary school exclusions and ONE THOUSAND times as many permanent exclusions, PER HEAD, than Scotland, England’s schools are in a deep crisis fuelling County Lines gangs and street violence

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Thanks again to Dorothy for alerting me to this. From Channel 4 News last night, the above and: England’s schools have been described as being gripped by rising levels of violence against both teachers and pupils, leading to permanent exclusions. According to a new report, a record 3,320 pupils were permanently excluded last spring – which is about 21% higher than before the Covid pandemic. The report also found vulnerable children were affected most – with their exclusions from school almost 6% higher than other pupils. More than 300,000 were suspended last spring. https://www.channel4.com/news/permanent-exclusions-up-21-as-violence-in-schools-rise What are the comparable figures for … Continue reading With TWELVE times as many temporary school exclusions and ONE THOUSAND times as many permanent exclusions, PER HEAD, than Scotland, England’s schools are in a deep crisis fuelling County Lines gangs and street violence

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‘The SNP’s childcare proposals build on a sustained, multi‑year expansion with measurable benefits for families’

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From BBC Scotland yesterday, the above and: The SNP’s plans to expand free childcare have been criticised by Scottish Labour and the Scottish Conservatives as a “gimmick” and lacking in detail. Is that true? Let’s ask an intelligent speedy independent source: Look at the actual proposals and the Scottish Government’s history of action on free childcare, including relative to England or Wales to assess whether this is just a gimmick or real plan with benefits for parents. From use.ai: Looking at the SNP’s actual proposals and track record on childcare, it would not be accurate to characterise the current plan as “just a gimmick.” … Continue reading ‘The SNP’s childcare proposals build on a sustained, multi‑year expansion with measurable benefits for families’

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‘The SNP won the 2011 Scottish election on an anti- austerity platform focused on tackling child poverty, reducing inequality, and building a more inclusive and universal approach to welfare’

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By stewartb Views on the economic and social policy context that Scotland in Union experiences can pop up in unexpected places. In this example, it’s in a report from the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, University College London (UCL) on the implementation of free school meals in different countries. It’s co-authored by the Institute’s founding director, Mariana Mazzucato, professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value. The latter has a notably high reputation in the UK and internationally, including for work on various aspects of political economy and government policy development. This is the source document: Macfarlane and … Continue reading ‘The SNP won the 2011 Scottish election on an anti- austerity platform focused on tackling child poverty, reducing inequality, and building a more inclusive and universal approach to welfare’

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Institute for Fiscal Studies’ shocking revelation – Scottish Labour does not have a plan to reduce child poverty

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In the Daily Record, three days ago, the above claim but it’s all talk as the IFS has exposed. From Initial response to the Scottish Labour manifesto, published yesterday: Despite signalling that Scottish Labour wants to see falls in child poverty, the manifesto proposes little new cash support for families with children beyond additional support for childcare. The policy to increase the Scottish child payment to £40 a week for children under one is already planned by the outgoing government for 2027–28, as is the plan for breakfast clubs in primary schools. Whilst there is a plan to ‘review’ the … Continue reading Institute for Fiscal Studies’ shocking revelation – Scottish Labour does not have a plan to reduce child poverty

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Oxford researchers write thousands of words but fail to mention that significantly fewer ‘austerity children’ were ‘scarred by poverty’ here after nearly two decades of the SNP

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In the Guardian today: More than a fifth of all “austerity generation” British children have been scarred by poverty for at least half their childhood, a direct legacy of the welfare benefit cuts imposed by Conservative governments in recent years, research reveals. The proportion of children born after 2013 who spent at least six of their first 11 years of life in hardship surged after ministers froze working age benefits levels and imposed policies such as the two-child limit, it found. Austerity policies, which drastically shrank annual welfare spending by tens of billions a year and took thousands of pounds … Continue reading Oxford researchers write thousands of words but fail to mention that significantly fewer ‘austerity children’ were ‘scarred by poverty’ here after nearly two decades of the SNP

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Scotland avoids large classes and lack of support staff found in England to have ‘created a barrier to inclusion’

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In the Guardian today: Lack of specialist staff hinders support for Send children, teacher survey finds – National Education Union poll finds 89% feel class sizes in England are too big to be ‘properly inclusive’. Oversized classes and inadequate staffing levels are hindering teachers’ capacity to support children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), according to a large survey of state school teachers in England. Nine out of 10 (89%) of the 10,000 teachers who took part in the poll by the National Education Union (NEU), before its annual conference in Brighton which starts on Monday, said class sizes … Continue reading Scotland avoids large classes and lack of support staff found in England to have ‘created a barrier to inclusion’

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How Scotland’s schools have played the major role in keeping thousands of pupils safe and making sure County Lines gangs membership is an England-only phenomenon

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In the Sunday Times today, the above video, and: The UK’s county lines networks have evolved into a sophisticated business model that thrives on the exploitation of the young. David Collins, Northern Editor of The Sunday Times, and David Woode, Crime Editor of The Times, go inside a police disruption unit in North Yorkshire to witness high-stakes raids targeting the “line holders” who pull the strings from a single mobile phone. Beyond the arrests, they uncover a disturbing tactical shift where gangs use the Modern Slavery Act as a legal shield for their recruits. It is a portrait of a … Continue reading How Scotland’s schools have played the major role in keeping thousands of pupils safe and making sure County Lines gangs membership is an England-only phenomenon

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BBC Radio 4 Today on school leaver destinations ignores Scotland’s 96% success rate and England’s 40% higher youth unemployment

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Thanks to Frances McKie, once more for noting and researching this one. BBC Radio 4 Today this morning have been discussing today, the GOV.UK publication of: A major youth employment drive backed by £1 billion will help create 200,000 jobs for young people, alongside the biggest transformation of apprenticeships in a decade. It comes as apprenticeships starts amongst young people are down 40 percent in the last decade and almost one million young people are not earning or learning – a rise of 248,000 between 2021-2024. To be announced today (Monday) in a speech by Work and Pensions Secretary Pat … Continue reading BBC Radio 4 Today on school leaver destinations ignores Scotland’s 96% success rate and England’s 40% higher youth unemployment

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England’s Pisa scores are based only on a tiny selective sample of higher achieving schools making Paul O’Kane’s sad desperate attempt to claim they are better than Scotland just another under-educated failure from Scottish Labour

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Please Support Talking-up Scotland at:https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-talking-up-scotlandClick on the above.Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Name – JOHN ROBERTSON Paul O’Kane Labour MSP and former head boy, seems delighted to be suggesting that Scotland’s schools education system is worse than England’s, with the above, from those other head boys at the IFS. Paul and the lads at the IFS are clearly out of their depth here. There’s something important in the actual figures from the OECD, in this table: See the wee asterisk there? What does it mean? Notes: Values that are statistically significant are marked in … Continue reading England’s Pisa scores are based only on a tiny selective sample of higher achieving schools making Paul O’Kane’s sad desperate attempt to claim they are better than Scotland just another under-educated failure from Scottish Labour

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Scotland’s teachers biting the hand of the ‘best friend they could have’ and even Jack McConnell’s Labour think tank director says ‘Scotland’s teaching unions must be broken’

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Please Support Talking-up Scotland at:https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/support-talking-up-scotlandClick on the above.Or direct bank transfer at Sort Code 08-91-04 Account – 12266421 Name – JOHN ROBERTSON In the long-time Labour-supporting New Statesman, by the long-time critic of the SNP and Director of Lord Jack McConnell’s ‘Enlighten’ think tank, Chris Deerin writes: Scotland’s teaching unions must be broken The country’s education system needs radical reform.You can always rely on the EIS. The Educational Institute of Scotland, the country’s largest teaching union, has for decades been the main block to effective reform of the nation’s schools. Its instinctive belligerence and obstructionism are key reasons that educational … Continue reading Scotland’s teachers biting the hand of the ‘best friend they could have’ and even Jack McConnell’s Labour think tank director says ‘Scotland’s teaching unions must be broken’