Jon Yates @jonpayates Twitter profile

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Jon Yates

3 years

Today, I became a published author! My book 'Fractured' answers one question: HOW DO WE MEND OUR DIVISIONS? (A thread on the answer).

Fractured: Why our societies are coming apart and how we put them back together again

www.amazon.co.uk

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

You have certain mugs that ‘feel right’ for coffee and other mugs that ‘feel right’ for tea, right? Right?

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

🧵 A remarkable story from Glasgow: How the 'murder capital of Europe' cut crime by getting mothers talking to gang members and what we can learn. (1/15)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

Batley Grammar School is locked down in the middle of a lockdown. Protestors gather around the gates. Asian British men standing in small groups. They stare at each other. They check their phones. They watch the nation’s media watching them. (1/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

2 years

Some great stories about the Queen that might brighten a sad day. First, how she ensured the King of Saudi Arabia accepted a woman driver

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 years

Having left the Department for Education time to share some thoughts. Today: “Why is the UK crap at technical education?” (a thread)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

2 years

Over the summer of 2020, something VERY ODD happened in Southend-on-Sea... A surprising 🧵on how to cut crime: (1/19)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

Three years ago I took my first charity CEO job. I couldn’t do it without these 25 habits. 👇

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

2 years

When American Tourists didn't realise she was the Queen and asked her to take their photo

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

A short 🧵 on what Grimsby can teach us about cutting crime. (1/8)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

2 years

When she had to host the Trumps and turned up wearing a brooch the Obamas had given her

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

11 months

🚪What I saw today behind this door might seriously reduce violence in our country. Read this 🧵for a burst of hope …👇 (1/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

It is a sign of unity. A small recognition that ‘us’ includes Brits who are Black as much as anyone else. (31/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 months

Dear fellow parents, I know this is an inconvenience truth but we need to take seriously 👇

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 years

New job claxon... Delighted to be appointed the first Exec Director of the new Youth Endowment Fund. Joining a top notch team who are passionate about finding, funding and telling everyone about great work with young people.

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 months

My last job was advising a Cabinet Minister. In this job, I seek lots of advice. So what makes a trusted adviser? Here are the 10 qualities I think you need:

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

This is what you need to know today ... about scurvy (honestly). Once upon a time, British sailors drank lemon juice and no-one got scurvy. But no-one had any evidence that lemon juice saved lives. And then the accountants came along 👇 (With thanks to Prof Larry Sherman) (1/5)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

We will see the US government ban guns before we see the UK government ban Mohammed’s image. Loudly demanding your right produce the images of Mohammed is as mad as loudly demanding your right to sing Enya songs. No-one wants you to do it but no-ones planning to stop you. (13/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

4 years

#imageof2020 from John Lewis just now (with thanks to my dear friend Helen who took the photo)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

All of us have things that are ‘sacred’ to us – from the queen to the flag, our race to our faith. The question is: whose sacred things matter and whose don’t? (29/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

After 40 years, I’ve begged and borrowed a few “rules to live by”. Often mess them up! but here they are ... What are yours?

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

First, a balanced approach to reducing violence is important. Support AND deterrence. The police can't fix this problem, but you can't fix it without the police doing their job right. This is not about being soft on crime, nor tough on crime. It's about being smart on crime.

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

Here are 10 things all adults should know about violence and children from a new landmark report by the Youth Endowment Fund.🧵

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

If you enjoyed this thread and want to pass it on, here's the first tweet to retweet :-)

Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

🧵 A remarkable story from Glasgow: How the 'murder capital of Europe' cut crime by getting mothers talking to gang members and what we can learn. (1/15)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

It is a fake battle against an non-existent threat. Fighting for this critical right allows us to feel brave and righteous while entirely missing the point. (14/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

If you liked this thread, you might like a book I wrote which has got rather lovely reviews: Fractured - Why our Societies are Coming Apart and How we Put them Back Together Again.

Fractured: Why our societies are coming apart and how we put them back together again

www.amazon.co.uk

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

My job is to find what works to reduce violence. The truth is that we increasingly know what works. The problem is: we don't do these things at scale. We must do better. So today @ 8.30pm on Radio 4, I ask "Why don't we do what works?" A sneak preview🧵

BBC Radio 4 - Analysis, We know how to stop knife crime, so why don’t we do it?

There are proven ways to reduce knife crime, so why don’t we do more of what works?

www.bbc.co.uk

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

The protests in Batley have provoked a pointless debate. Should it be illegal to show pictures of Mohammed. Of course it shouldn’t and it will never will be. They should be provoking a much more profound debate. Who are we and who gets to decide what is sacred and what isn’t? (32

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

But this isn’t about harm. It is about the fact that some things feel to some of us – for want of a better word – ‘sacred’. In a way we can’t fully explain, these actions – burning poppies, using the n-word, abusing our head of state, wearing blackface–deface something 'sacred'.

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

This week with support from govn the @YouthEndowFund and local partners launched five new pilots of this programme - called Focused Deterrence - in Coventry,Wolverhampton,Nottingham,Leicester&Manchester. Time for action. #ViolenceIsNotInevitable (END)

Focused deterrence | Youth Endowment Fund

Focused deterrence attempts to identify the people most likely to be involved in violence and supports them to stop.

youthendowmentfund.org.uk

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

Second, those who commit street violence usually have pretty serious things going wrong in their lives from addiction to unemployment, abuse to exploitation, housing problems to hypervigilance. Approaches that address these issues make sense. (11/15)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

"How happy are our children?": eight stand-out insights from the annual state of the nation🧵

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

2 years

When she visited Ireland. She ignored all the advice and spoke in Irish - much to the amazement of the Irish President. Watch the President mime 'wow'.

Flor MacCarthy🇺🇦🇵🇸

@florNEWS

2 years

A great story about Queen Elizabeth’s historic speech at Dublin Castle in May 2011: we’ve traced the envelope on which then President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, had scribbled phonetically ‘A Uachtaráin, agus a chairde’ (President and friends) and which secretly made its way to

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

I think an apology would be pretty essential. If I was the Head I would probably make my own apology as well. I would likely suspend the teacher temporarily while I conducted a short investigation. This, of course, is exactly what has happened so far in Batley. (22/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

2 years

Which children commit serious violence? Short thread on important data published today by UK Government (saves you reading a long report!)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

This programme wasn't a silver bullet. It was one of a hundred small sanities that Karyn and John tried to change Glasgow. Together, they worked. Over 15 years, homicide fell by almost 90%. So what can we learn? (9/15)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

Finally - we don't copy each other enough! What Karyn and John did in Glasgow wasn't originally their idea. It was first tried in Boston (called the Boston Ceasefire). Since then it has saved lives in Chicago, Malmo and Glasgow (and that's just places that rhyme!) (13/15)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

When I was at school, if a teacher had read out the n-word or dressed up in blackface, no-one would have apologised. These things were not sacred to ‘us’. Today, that has changed. Some will see this as a sign of wearisome ‘wokeness’. I don’t agree. (30/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

Would anyone call the number? No-one knew. Perhaps the whole thing would be a total waste of time. But then the phone started to ring. Everyone who rang got help: training, education, jobs, addiction support. Whatever was needed to change lives and stop the violence. (8/15)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

2 years

Honoured to be joining the Ofsted Board (announced today). Ofsted operates on behalf of learners and children to inspect schools, colleges, children’s services, teacher training and much more. The board exists to ensure Ofsted is well governed. Delighted to play my part in this.

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

2 years

They noticed where most violent crimes normally took place. Every day, they drove to these areas. They parked their police cars in highly visible locations and went on patrol around the area. A 15-minute patrol. And then they went away again. (8/19)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

But most of us think he should. We don’t think he should be fired. He definitely shouldn’t be arrested. But an apology feels like the right thing to do. (24/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 years

The academic route will always lead to certain high status - from judge, teacher, civil servant, doctor. When we create a technical route to a middle class job, we pretend it’s an academic route! Try telling your doctor friends that they took a vocational route. (They did)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

Let us imagine that, from his pocket, he had produced a box of matches. He took out a match, lit it, dropped it and set the poppies ablaze. Once the fire had gone out, he turned the bowl upside down and stamped on the ashes. (17/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

2 years

If you liked this thread, here it is to easily retweet

Jon Yates

@jonpayates

2 years

Over the summer of 2020, something VERY ODD happened in Southend-on-Sea... A surprising 🧵on how to cut crime: (1/19)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

Here’s the point. The debate around Batley isn’t a debate about freedom at all. It’s a debate about identity. It’s not about what we can and can’t do. It’s about who we are. (15/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

END. You can see this unrolled here

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 years

Everyone focuses far too much on schools and not enough on colleges. (And by everyone, I mean everyone - especially the public, i.e., you dear reader.)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

But hang on. I thought we lived in a free country! The teacher hasn’t broken the law. Why on earth should he apologise for burning poppies, using the n-word, spitting on the Queen or wearing blackface? (23/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 years

Who cares? We don’t need parity of esteem. Germany doesn’t. Focus on quality, not esteem. By quality I mean: will the course get you a skilled job? If it will, enough esteem will follow. Today, too often, it doesn’t.

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

Terrible events at Brixton O2. Please resist the idea that this reveals anything about Black Brits. It doesn't. If helpful, remember the crowd trouble at Wembley for Euro Finals. That involved almost entirely White Brits. Did it reveal anything about White Brits? No. Same here.

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 months

The heart-braking story of Child C and why we need system change: The most important thing about Child C is that he was a child. Born in 2004 in Leicester, he was never old enough to vote, never old enough to drive, never old enough to watch a 15 at the cinema. (1/15)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

🚨NEW RESEARCH from @YouthEndowFund shows that small changes to Relationship and Sex Education in secondary schools can REDUCE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND GIRLS BY ALMOST 20%. Read this 🧵and RT to help us change things. (1/9)

RSE: Why more must be done to tackle relationship violence

Relationships and sex education lessons need to focus on healthy, respectful relationships if we are to tackle the scourge of sexual harassment and violence, say experts

www.tes.com

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

I'VE WRITTEN A BOOK! Harper Collins are publishing my first book in June! It’s called “Fractured: Why our societies are divided and how we put them back together.” •Fancy a copy? •Sounds good? RT •Amazed I can write? Like

Fractured by Jon Yates | Waterstones

Buy Fractured by Jon Yates from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

www.waterstones.com

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

Thirdly, targeting is essential. If we want to make everyone safe, we need to understand which places and people need support and action. Violence is sticky. It sticks to certain people and certain places. (12/15)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

But who counts as ‘us’? (27/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 years

But we have been crap at technical education though for 70+ years. Why? Fundamentally, because people with influence (politicians, journalists, business leaders) don’t think about it.

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

The columnists say everything. All of if definitively. “The teacher was in the wrong”. “The headmaster is in the wrong”. “The protestors are in the wrong”. “This is everything that is wrong in modern Britain.” What on earth is actually going on? (4/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 years

Be in no doubt. When a Labour govn abolishes ofsted and all primary testing, schools will get worse not better. And it won’t be the middle class kids who suffer most. #lunacy

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 years

Having left the Department for Education, time to share some thoughts. Today, "Why does technical education matter so much?" The Answer: Robots.

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

2 years

BREAKING: Research finds most efficient way to sound like a dick

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

Two remarkable police officers - @karynmccluskey and @JohnCarnochan - worked hard with colleagues to identify the young men at the heart of the violence. Then they did something odd. They invited them all to a meeting. (4/15)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

Glasgow was once dubbed the "murder capital of Europe." But in the last 20 years, violent crime fell dramatically. How did they do it? Part of the answer is that they got mothers talking to gang members. (2/15)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 years

Reason 3 - linked to the above - is that the public secretly think that technical education is for stupid, not very capable student. Worse they think it is for disadvantaged, stupid, not very capable students (as though all disadvantaged students are stupid and incapable)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

Every young man was given a card. On the card was a number. If they wanted out of the violence, they just needed to call the number. They would then get serious help to change their lives. If not, the police would be committed to stopping the violence through arrests and charges.

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

Too busy to read the Public Accounts Committee report on vulnerable teens? Here's six things that struck me. 🧵

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

2 years

Hi Twitter, is there a charity that seeks to get exceptional people from all walks of life into Parliament? (cross-party). If not, should we set one up?

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

2 years

It isn’t. This simple technique – of putting high visible police officers in the places where crime happens – has successfully reduced crime almost every time it is used. (11/19)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

Or instead he had brought in an article from 1950s America about race relations. He had read it aloud without noticing that in the 3rd & 5th paragraph was the n-word. He had not stopped but had read it out. He had then spent time loudly discussing how to pronounce the word. (18/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

Of course there are some who claim they would like blasphemy to be illegal. But surely you don’t really believe that someone in power is listening to them? There is more chance of a Boris Johnson banning Eurovision than banning blasphemy. (12/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 years

In other words when you try and create technical qualifications that actually make you employable (which is the whole point of a technical qualification) people complain! (I’m looking at you Michael Rosen) “But some people won’t be able to do these!” Madness.

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

Or maybe he did neither of these. Maybe he brought in a picture of the Queen and taught a lesson on republicanism. In the middle of the lesson, to illustrate his point in a way everyone would remember, he spat at the picture and ripped it in two. (19/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

11 months

Because the @youthendowfund is funding a rigorous evaluation. If it works, expect to hear much more about that door. (End)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

This is what Batley is really about. (28/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 years

Teaching should be the no1 graduate job. Starting salaries at £30k is a great move towards that. V good indeed.

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 years

Why don’t influential people think about technical education? Three reasons. 1: Because hardly any influential people did it.

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

Here’s the thing about the things in those ‘blatantly obvious’ tweets. They are blatantly obvious. Britain isn’t in the Middle East. Sharia is not the law of the land. This indeed isn’t Pakistan. It isn’t illegal to blaspheme. Here’s another one. It never will be. (10/)

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@jonpayates

1 year

As it works so well, you'd assume we're doing this work across the UK, right? WRONG. We haven't really been doing this at all. Or at least we hadn't been. (14/15)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

If he had done any of these four things, what would you expect to happen? (21/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

2 years

Smartphones and kids - what we did when our eldest started yr7. A 🧵(Other options v much available). (1/14)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

There is a huge opportunity here. If we can improve our country’s work with arrested children we can cut crime and improve lives. That’s definitely worth 10 hours on the train. (End)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 years

It's been a joy and privilege to work as special adviser for @DamianHinds at @educationgovuk Great boss and good man who really cared about doing the right thing not the quick headline.

Damian Hinds

@DamianHinds

5 years

It has been the greatest privilege to serve as Education Secretary. Thank you to the brilliant team at @educationgovuk . And thank you to everyone working in education and children's care, for all you do. I look forward to supporting the government from the backbenches.

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

Imagine for a moment that the teacher hadn’t shown the class an image of Mohammed that day. Imagine instead that he had shown them a collection of remembrance day poppies. Ten, maybe twenty of them, resting together in a metal bowl, placed in front of the class. (16/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

11 months

If you enjoyed this thread, here’s the first tweet to easily retweet and spread some positive work!

Jon Yates

@jonpayates

11 months

🚪What I saw today behind this door might seriously reduce violence in our country. Read this 🧵for a burst of hope …👇 (1/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

She still remembers the gasps as she spoke. Then ex-gang members shared how they had turned their lives around. A local surgeon spoke of how many hours he had spent saving young people's lives after a stabbing. At the end, an offer was made. (6/15)

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@jonpayates

1 year

Back then, most of the street violence was caused by young men. They had joined different groups - or gangs. The gangs would fight each other. The fighting wasn't about the drugs trade. It was for pride, for identity and for fun. Reduce this violence and you'd change the city.

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

Have been reading some history of Britain since 1900. My conclusion? How about we stop trying (and failing) to be a Great Power and start trying instead to be the Great Country to live in?

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 years

Watching the rugby, I've noticed that referees create stress for players and get some decisions wrong. I've therefore decided to abolish referees. A system of peer review will now make decisions with serious ones going to a new body that I will not call Referee. #ofsted

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

Amidst the noise, there is the echo of an agreement. Everyone agrees that what Batley is about. It is about freedom. Our freedom. Your freedom. My freedom. The debate about Batley School is about our freedom to live in a free country doing things freely. (8/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 years

Which is (on one level) crazy as we fund schools about the same amount as other rich countries (more on funding in future). But we fund colleges well below other rich countries. No-one external to the Department ever made this point to me.

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

4 years

We need to talk about coronavirus and vulnerable children (a thread and a chance to help) 👇👇👇

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

On twitter, someone must have offered a prize for the most blatantly obvious statement. I learn that ‘Britain is not part of the Middle East’, that ‘Sharia law isn’t the law of the land’ and ‘this isn’t Pakistan neither’ that ‘it isn’t illegal to blaspheme’. (6/)

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@jonpayates

3 years

Why is this? He hasn’t actually hurt anyone. No-one was harmed by the poppy-fuelled fire. No-one got even a paper cut off the picture of the queen. (25/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

1 year

To their amazement, they came. And it wasn't just any meeting. At it, members of the local community spoke out about the damage the violence was doing. Two weeks ago, I met Karen Timoney - whose son Colin had been badly attacked. She spoke that day about the harm to her family.

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

Or maybe he decided to act out Othello. To catch everyone’s attention, he arrived in class in blackface. (20/)

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 years

The other madness is trying to achieve ‘parity of esteem’. Totally pointless and impossible. Lots of countries have great technical education. None of them have parity of esteem. Including Germany...

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 years

So what do we need to do to fix technical education? That is a story for another day...

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 years

Less than 50% of young people do A levels.

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

5 years

Which is a problem as the top priority by far should be to fix the UK’s constant underperformance at technical education.

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Jon Yates

@jonpayates

3 years

The press says he is in police protection. The headmaster says he is sorry. The Cabinet Minister says he shouldn’t be. (3/)

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