In summer 2023, I started to summarise 25 years of
#play
scholarship into 1 article. I didn’t realise at the time the profound warning it would send to
#parents
,
#teachers
&
#MentalHealth
professionals; 1 we can’t continue to ignore.
My brother died in hospital on 18/12 last year. He hadn’t seen any family irl for over a month due to
#Lockdown
. On that day, it seems a Christmas party was in full swing
@10DowningStreet
. Do others remember what they were doing on or around that date?
‘I thought Thatcher was the worst PM I could ever expect in my lifetime. I was very, very wrong.’ I never expected a PM to give honours to people who partied as my mum& brother died alone.
#DishonoursList
@YorksBylines
@BylineTimes
The PM ‘never engages seriously.’ He scribbles ‘bollocks’ on information documents. His wife issues orders to civil servants. At the height of a pandemic with 1000s dying daily. Isn’t there a case for misconduct in public office here?
‘You’ve enabled a once great institution to be asset-stripped by little more than thugs in suits.’ Alan Bates is speaking of the Post Office, but this could equally be applied to the UK as a whole, 1980-present.
And this is why I took up citizen journalism in retirement. It was never my intention, I wanted to write fiction. But when I found the mass news media had started to write&broadcast a lot of fiction themselves, I had a rethink…
@YorksBylines
@BylineTimes
Yes. Very disappointed in
@UKLabour
recently. Too much authoritarianism, not enough progressive reform. Please don’t fumble this opportunity
@Keir_Starmer
@BylineTimes
Hmmm, didn’t we once have a system called ‘Sure Start’ where you could drop into a real centre and real people would help you, or was that just a dream about long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away? 🤔
‘Our OFSTED inspector put her hand up and asked us to ‘stop talking, I’ve heard enough. We felt like criminals being interrogated.’ This is one of the most shocking sets of data I’ve ever seen.
@YorksBylines
@BylineTimes
If he was still a teacher he’d be sacked on the spot for gross misconduct& probably never teach in school again. But it seems he moved on to a job with much lower standards of professional conduct: running the country 🤦🏼♀️
#ToryChaos
I hope
#WilliamWragg
will not be hounded. He has admitted his wrong doing & his remorse is genuine. He was reckless & foolish leaving himself vulnerable to blackmail - turning himself into a victim of crime
If parents insisted their children wore clothes that were obiviously unsuitable for the weather, &locked the toilet for most of the day, social services would rightly be interested. Why then does any normal adult think that this is acceptable in school?🤷♀️
My mum&brother both died under lockdown laws. Some of my brother’s last words (on iPhone) were ‘you won’t forget about me, will you?’ While Downing Street partied on. Here’s my testimony on
#JohnsonNeverAgain
@YorksBylines
@BylineTimes
My husband, who has diabetes& heart problems went to A&E at 7.30pm with a symptom that might indicate a mini-stroke. He’s just been told it’s an 8hr wait for a doctor& all who are +1s to patients have been asked to leave. This is chaos
#GeneralElectionN0W
I'm somewhat concerned that my grandsons seem so much happier now they're not at school. They're enjoying their home learning (esp nature walks) &chatting to me on FaceTime about it. The older 2 (7& 9) actually have 'lighter' expressions. Thoughts, anyone?🤔
So pound shorting is making rich people richer, then. This ‘fiscal event’ is clearly benefiting the people it was designed to benefit.
@YorksBylines
@BylineTimes
‘Pandemic babies are arriving at school still wearing nappies.’ Yet another article blaming pandemic. Has the media got collective amnesia about 1000s more families in desperate poverty& the effective closure of the
#SureStart
system?🤦🏼♀️
I think that the key point here is that when we joke, we often reveal much more about who we are& the culture in which we are immersed than when we are thinking more deliberately about what we’re saying.
Here it is, finally, what we’ve all known all along. An agency paid for by British taxpayers did this to a conscientious public servant. &the family only got legal representation thru crowdfunding. No words. This must be the end of
#OFSTED
. Now.
#RuthPerry
During and after the Ofsted inspection Ruth's mental health deteriorated considerably. Verdict is suicide contributed to by an Ofsted inspection carried out in November 2022
#RuthPerry
Reform UK Limited: The Political Business Brought to You by Billionaires: So, Reform have their first MP. But how many people know that it is a business, not a political party? From
@BylineTimes
#Twitter
my mum died this morning. I am just circulating this article again as a public tribute to her and with a request to all to remember
#Alzheimers
charities when considering donations.
My friend’s dad died at 6am from CV. On the statistics he will be 1 of the ‘elderly with underlying conditions’. He was also a father/grandpa of 2, an award winning photographer &looking forward to meeting his 1st great grandchild in Sept.
#StayHomeSaveLives
The most time my grandkids lost in school this year was caused by
#RAAC
- my Y8 eldest isn’t on full time schooling till after half term. Are you doing anything about that, alongside bullying his teachers? Do *you* have minimum service levels?
Last year, school strikes resulted in 25 million school days being lost cumulatively.
Children should not have to suffer a repeat of this disruption.
I’m announcing that we will introduce minimum service levels in schools so that pupils get the education they need and deserve.
This man has arguably done more damage to England than Charles I &Oliver Cromwell combined. Why does he still sit in governance at all? Will we ever get out of the dystopia he, Johnson, Cummings& Farage created across the UK?
So the main hall at
#conservativeconference
is a ghost town…
But the pro-European
@euromove
fringe event is packed to the rafters.
The times they are a’changing.
I’ll believe
@RishiSunak
is serious about anti-extremism when he removes the whip from Truss and Braverman and gives Cates, Gullis and a few others formal final warnings.
Finding it rich being lectured by PM on not tolerating our values being undermined when it is his government that has undermined our values of equality & equity in society, & enabled some of his MPs to create division & hatred against people less fortunate.
#GeneralElectionN0W
Ofsted: 'I'd have punched inspector,' says Gillian Keegan. Oh, well that’s an interesting example
@GillianKeegan
, which would get you struck off the teaching register& a criminal record. 🙄
@gavinesler
Why does everything always seem to lead back to Johnson and cover ups involving Russia? And why did the mainstream media never run this story?
@YorksBylines
@BylineTimes
Going to school or work when unwell spreads disease to others and can make you more susceptible to post-viral fatigue/ long Covid. What medical advice did you take before commissioning this poster?
@YorksBylines
@BylineTimes
Improving attendance is my number one priority, so I’m glad that there are 380,000 fewer children persistently absent or not attending school than last year.
But we know we need to go further.
So today, we're taking action to improve attendance.
Here's how 👇
I think it is worth reflecting that had Gove been arrested and prosecuted for this, any subsequent DBS would have prevented him becoming a classroom teacher, let alone Secretary of State for Education.
Are all British state
#pensioners
aware that from 2025, the government will have carte blanche to snoop into their bank accounts? &Should
@UKLabour
be in government then, will they repeal this legislation?
@SagaUK
@coldwarsteve
@BorisJohnson
My brother died in the company of kind strangers on the day of the
@10DowningStreet
Secret Santa party. That week, he’d said ‘you won’t forget about me, will you?’ &you’ve remembered him& all the others here. Thank you.
#NotMovingOn
This is horrendous. Equivalent to saying ‘if we don’t break a cup, how do we know it’s strong enough to hold hot water?’ Well it was, but you’ve broken it now…’ 😳🤦🏼♀️
@suzannezeedyk
#merryxmasNHS
my 3 children have a mum & my 3 grandsons have a Granny because you made sure I didn’t die from a postpartum haemorrhage following a twin birth just before Christmas 31 years ago
#merryXmasNHS
. I'm enjoying being 80 thanks to you, from scarlet fever at 11 through heart attack at 64 and prostate cancer at 70.
#MerryXmasNHS
indeed😁
So, this morning we learn that the Outwood CEO is to be the new OFSTED head. The new Institute of Teaching, which is to lead on teacher training is registered at Outwood’s head office. A conflict of interest?
@YorksBylines
@BylineTimes
Whilst those who partied in Westminster get off with £50 each. And only 20 of them. How can that be, given that there were 15 parties in the
#lockdown
periods between May 2020 and April 2021?
#ToryCorruption
🤯
On this day I was on& off the phone to my sister-in-law discussing my brother’s care-he died alone 4 days later on 18 Dec. 7 weeks later, our mum died, also alone. Apparently 2 of the people in the film are on
#DishonoursList
. No words
Tories face new Partygate police probe as previously unseen footage shows staff boozing, dancing and mocking lockdown laws at height of Covid.
At least 24 revellers include two named on Johnson’s controversial resignation honours list.
From
@DailyMirror
Ah, so this explains why there was a 48 hour coordinated pile on on me when I published an article in
@YorksBylines
in July 2020 criticising Oak& suggesting an outdoor learning alternative, then.
@BylineTimes
No words to describe how this makes me feel.
@JacobReesMogg7
is the MP for the constituency in which both my brother& mother died in
#lockdown
winter 20-21. Yes please do your job now
@metpoliceuk
‘Forcing schools into MATs has nothing whatsoever to do with improving the quality of education.’ Because privatisation of children’s services has been a disaster across the board, leading to profiteering& depersonalisation.
Hmm. I have a better idea. How about MPs sit in silence in the HoC till Mr Speaker says they can speak. Anyone shouting out gets a day in isolation. Repeat offences result in fixed term exclusion &pay stoppage for each day of exclusion.
Eton closes for Christmas after a rise in
#COVID19
cases &because the Head doesn’t want the children or staff to have to isolate over Christmas. But state schools have been ordered to soldier on...
Can it really be true that
@BorisJohnson
refused to attend the parliamentary debate on standards so he could walk, unmasked, around a large hospital in Northumberland? 🤯 This goes beyond parody. Surely even his party must now see what a liability he is?
Male teachers shouldn’t be invading teenage girls’ personal space to measure their skirt lengths. While they may not mean harm, it’s this type of experience that breaks down confidence to resist unwanted contact. Please put a stop to this now
@educationgovuk
Important thread from Ruth Swailes. Why is child development not an integral component of initial teacher training? Surely if youwant to work with children, you should have a basic understanding of their physical, intellectual, emotional& social development?
A plea. If you’re going to write a curriculum for children aged under 5, please teach children under 5. Not for a lesson or a day, but for a substantial period of time. Then try out your curriculum with the children you teach. I’m getting a bit fed up of people producing
Where a baby pulls over a box of toys saying ‘crash’ is actually an example of sustained shared thinking. That might have been clearer to the inspector if they’d said ‘oooh, that’s a big noise, isn’t it?’ It’s connecting what the child did to the result…
@suzannezeedyk
‘An inspector questioned me in the middle of a lesson. Then he asked me what university I graduated from in front of my class.’ Is this a professional approach for quality assurance for England’s schools?
@YorksBylines
@BylineTimes
This is a powerful article. Leaver or remainer, Labour, Tory or Liberal, it’s a short, punchy text that encourages all Brits to consider: is this really what I want my country, once called ‘the mother of parliaments’ to become?
‘The Tories are selling leadership election votes abroad for £25.’ In an election for PM where less than 1% of British people can vote, some voters don’t have British nationality or residency
@YorksBylines
@BylineTimes
Every parent needs to read this. Imagine a much-loved teacher you know dying like this; the effect on the children. Bad enough when my grandkids’ 50s HT died of a stress-related illness shortly after retiring
@Ofstednews
I would advise others who have publicly criticised government edu policy over the past ten years to apply for their DFE record through a Freedom of Info request, it’s very straightforward. Here is our story.
My first granddaughter, fourth grandchild, born in San Francisco 2 hours ago, on her dad’s and his twin’s birthday. So now 3 birthday presents to get every year. No name yet!
So, grandson 3 (7) is v.upset because he’s struggling with joined up writing. Grandson 2 (10) is happy because he’s found out they’d rather he printed neatly rather than scrawled at secondary. What will it take to stop this insanity
@SwailesRuth
@smithsmm
? 🤦🏼♀️
@BorisJohnson
, while you partied, my brother was dying in hospital, no visitors allowed. He actually died on 18 Dec when another party was in full swing at
@10DowningStreet
. Do you understand why people are angry?
As children return to school next week, what's missing is a policy for 4-14s to have time& space for collaborative free play overseen but not controlled by adults. This was a natural ‘given’ throughout human history until recently& key for phys&mental health
Education must start from a knowledge of child development &a recognition of human beings as evolved organic creatures. Until this happens, children’s (&teachers’) mental health will continue to suffer.
@teachwellall
Absolutely. A wall of grandparents are, via many hours of unpaid childcare, holding the line so parents of young children can afford to balance their family budgets. But the govt presumes we’re ‘economically inactive’ 🤦🏼♀️
@HelenSalmon2
@abbyaug
@SollyKathryn
Really? Because as soon as it’s called that, it’ll be on the road to means testing. It wasn’t created as a benefit, but a National Insurance scheme, which is very different. This is not a rose that you can call by any other name. Beware, all born since 1970
Feels like we could reduce a lot of confusion and have more productive conversations by renaming the state pension as ‘older persons benefit’.
(Listening to the excellent Radio 4 Briefing Room episode about the future of pensions).
Wouldn’t it have been more sensible to announce a national
#lockdown
from
#BoxingDay
until 22nd Jan, and get nearly a month’s
#CircuitBreak
whilst only impacting on 3 normal working weeks/2 normal weekends?
The answer to under achievement amongst deprived populations doesn't lie in increasing cognitive loads upon older children, but in decreasing stress in the early years by ensuring that families don't struggle below the poverty line.
…and see if I have to go back home and bring his meds in while he’s still in A&E. The staff are absolute heroes but clearly struggling to cope.
@Conservatives
telling you everything’s fine are lying. This is obviously distressing for us..
Have you heard of ‘child bed poverty?’ It’s about providing beds for the increasing number of UK children who don’t have a bed.
@YorksBylines
talks to a Leeds-based charity focused on this growing need.
@BylineTimes
We had a network of such centres across the country once called children’s centres, and we were training a new type of graduate to lead them called ‘Early Years Professionals.’
Gently stroking a baby reduces activity in their brain associated with painful experiences.... Author Rebeccah Slater said: "Touch seems to have analgesic potential without the risk of side-effects."
@suzannezeedyk
@connectedbaby
Good news story from
@AnnaFazack1
on inspirational HT Alan Streeter, whose take on Tom Bennett’s ideas is ‘the sort of unevidenced thing you hear from people who haven’t spent time teaching in schools.’
@bphillipsonMP
@Keir_Starmer
I do hope, if& when
@UKLabour
come into power, they start a Parliamentary Inquiry on govt funded contracting for the last 5Y, &publish the
#RussiaReport
on
#Brexit
. I’d like to see the relevant criminal prosecutions in my lifetime& suspect I’m not alone here?
🔴 Revealed: Five Politically-Connected Healthcare Giants Rake in NHS Contracts Worth Billions
Bridgepoint, Bupa, Centene, Spire and UnitedHealth have been implicated in a litany of scandals and controversies in the UK and America
My brother died on 18/12 last year
@BorisJohnson
. My mum died 7wks later. Due to distance&
#lockdown
restrictions I hadn’t seen either irl for a year, &I had to attend the funerals by webcam. &you were partying then?
#Shameful
Every woman should read this obituary, regardless of political alliance, to contemplate how far we have come in
#RBG
‘s lifetime thanks to women like her, &what we could lose.
#WomensRights
#WomenEd
@WomenEd
1 woman is protesting because women are not safe walking home at night in London; the other is calling for health service workers to be killed, not a police officer in sight. Metropolitan Policing under Priti Patel& our ERG Tory government, in pictures.
And why were the Met Police so heavy-handed at a principally female-attended vigil for a murdered woman, but not at a demonstration like this, clearly constructed for insurrection, which called for the killing of health service workers? Very worrying.
This must have taken some setting up. It didn’t just happen
Who gave them permission to have a stage and who provided the electrical equipment and sound system?
Where were the police?
Lots of answers needed
When I was a school teacher it was up to me how I arranged desks/tables from lesson to lesson. Now even HTs are prevented from making that decision for whole schools? How far down this rabbit hole will we fall before we realise this emperor has no clothes? 😳
Union said the school’s headteacher had been unable to take decision on whether layout of desks in classrooms should change, the implication being that this could only be taken at head office level.
I’m proud to have had a role in training Early Years Professionals (Foundation degree&EYPS) to work in
#SureStart
, even tho the Gove DFE strangled the funding stream as soon as they could. This is clear evidence that *we* were right.
Oh, well
#BorisJohnson
can cheer up, at least he didn’t lose his mum&brother over 2020-21 having not been able to visit them for months or go to their funerals, while some bloke who made the laws was partying
@YorksBylines
@BylineTimes
"He's stuck in this purgatory...he's already lost the big job"
Former Downing St Comms chief Guto Harri says recent Partygate revelations is like 'raking over old coals'
We’re supposed to feel sorry for Johnson
If
@RishiSunak
is on the side of over 60s, why did my husband have to wait for just over 8 hours to see a doctor in A&E with stroke symptoms on Thursday/Friday? And no, no one was on strike at the time.
@SagaUK
@MozPerkins
My dad, who served in WWII, told me this story when I was a kid. If you watch this film as the bus turns into Whitehall and passes the Cenotaph at 3.37 you can see how important memorials were for the people of the 1920s.
It’s one of them. The generation who won WWII (my parents& teachers) saw the Welfare State as the final piece in their victory, &joining the EEC as winning the peace. You and your populist mates utterly betrayed them& that will be your historical legacy.
The NHS is NOT the reason most of us are "proud to be British." The NHS was a great idea. It is no longer fit for purpose - as millions of people who cannot get the care they need can attest.
This reminds me of my grandparents, parents& teachers. What is too often forgotten today is that to them, winning the peace, with the UN, ECHR& later EEC was to a great extent even more important than winning the war. We *must* keep this concept alive.
Free school meals ‘cut obesity and help reading skills’: surely this doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone. In the early 1900s Margaret McMillian pointed out that malnourished, poverty-stressed children cannot fully engage in school.
We sadly lost Katie last week. She was fifteen and a half and her kidneys were failing. She had a lovely long life, full of walks, pats and cuddles. She’s joined her life companion Sally at the
#RainbowBridge
#DogsOfTwitter
.
Children don’t need an extended ‘school’ day. They need time& space to play, facilitated by playworkers- which would give teachers& parents a break, too. Nurture the
#MentalHealth
of the nation, &facilitate learning.
@patrickkmaguire
Johnson's response is as expected, unworthy of comment. But all
@Conservatives
now need to face up to the enormity of what Johnson has done, &the long process that they will need to go through to make amends to the British people.
So, he finally got seen at 4am, then went through several different tests. Still in A&E waiting for final decision. The staff couldn’t have been more helpful, they are just overwhelmed with numbers. He’s been there exactly 12 hours now.
“Nigel Farage - a prep school boy who went into The City - is a working class hero? Come on.”
Why do we allow the political elite to pose as “outsiders”?
People never wanted to be teachers just for the money, there was always vocation &creativity in the mix. Nowadays, it’s been turned into a facilitate &obey role, so many people who would have previously been drawn to teach don’t want to do it. Catch 22.
We must remember that in 2019, Johnson only allowed Tory candidates who backed his obviously rancid
#Brexit
deal to stand, so Tory benches are filled with people who are either stupid, bereft of morals or both. This is the result. It must never happen again.
This is an extraordinary story from
@billykenber
👀
Mark Menzies becomes the 14th Tory MP (by my count) to be stripped of whip/ stand down in difficult circumstances this Parliament.
They’re definitely giving the John Major era a run for its money…
So I had a bit of shopping to do and went out equipped as normal, to find that the number of people wearing masks seems to be falling as
#COVID19
rates rise. What is wrong with the U.K.?
Happy
#WinterSolstice
everyone. Remember, tomorrow night will be shorter and every night after that for the next six months. And maybe we’ll have a new government by this time next year?
#HereComesTheSun
@YorksBylines