#gcse re taught me this

[jessmm7]

can you just tell me why you think they're a thing?

Occam's razor 😂

[somecunttookmyurl]

when i want to simplify something to get the point across to as many people as possible i think "would siobhán understand this?"

who's siobhán? well. in school i took economics for 2 years (the equivalent of freshman/sophomore i think but it doesn't really matter). it was the first time my school had offered that class for a GCSE exam. it was also, largely thanks to siobhán, to be the last

see me and a boy called michael were the only people there on purpose. i picked it because it seemed better than the other available options at the time and i was good enough at maths (better than michael, much to his annoyance) . michael was actively interested in economics and those two statements tell you everything you need to know about michael.

the other 4 - because it was only a class of six - were there because everything else was full and they were forced to take it because they had to take something.

this included siobhán.

siobhán, bless her, was not a maths person. siobhán did not understand how to convert fractions into percentages (1/2 = 50%)

every week. for two years, we collectively attempted to explain how to convert between fractions and percentages because you do that quite a bit in economics. it was unfortunately necessary

siobhán never did grasp it

because we spent every week dedicating at least half of the class time to trying to teach siobhán that 1/2 = 50% in a way that would stick, we did not do a whole lot of economics.

which meant that the 4 of them failed. myself and michael ended up with Cs. the lowest grade in any subject for both of us and a blot on our academic record. could have gotten higher if we'd taught ourselves but frankly i didn't give a shit and never studied outside of a class in my life, and michael was too busy obsessively writing and re-writing his maths coursework to get a higher mark than me (he didn't, by the way)

because only 6 people took the class (a fact that already put it on thin ice) and 4 people failed after 'economics' turned into 'remedial maths for siobhán' (a failure rate of 4/6 - that's 67%, siobhán) the whole thing was labelled a catastrophic faiure and they never ran it again.

so we were the first, and also last, class to study economics in my school.

would siobhán understand what you're trying to say

[gay-f0r-jesus]

I hate it when people give off distinct RE teacher vibes, because saying that feels like an insult but it isn’t what I mean by that.

What I mean: a little bit not heterosexual, either really chill Christian or Buddhist, can spot the queer kid the moment they walk in the door and adopts them, overshares a lot.

What people think I mean: homophobic, sexist strict catholic who thinks slavery ‘wasn’t that bad’.

[useless-englandfacts]

I wish we would learn about Englands colonial imperial history at schools etc. Like I think things would be very different if we were taught that. Not that people shouldn't research on their own but like people don't! Personally I am embarrassed and ashamed to say that when I was in school I thought it was good we 'owned' part of the world which is just, so gross. Now my brother is starting his GCSEs next year and he's learning about America and prohibition instead?? It's ridiculous. Like why !?

this is a very good point that shows how history isn’t a neutral bunch of facts; it’s as much about how we interpret our history as it is just knowing about it. for example, you have clearly heard the facts about the british empire, but you have been taught a certain interpretation of them - i.e. that the british empire was a good thing. 

that’s why it annoys me so much when people complain about “rewriting history” because that’s literally the job of historians. it’s about interpreting facts in different ways and evaluating which interpretation makes the most sense and/or incorporating facts and perspectives that might have previously been ignored (the obvious one in this case being the perspectives of poc/colonised and enslaved peoples).

but yes, it’s sad but unsurprising to hear that not much has changed re: your brother. ironically i learned a lot in gcse history about the failings of the US in quasi-colonising the world (e.g. the vietnam war) whilst we turned a blind eye on our own country’s failings. it’s also highly unlikely to change under the current government who are overly keen to dress everything up as a culture war that literally no one on the left signed up to be part of lmao.

- dominique

[jbarkerstargazer]

Right I don't know how this is gonna go down but I feel strongly about this. I got this email -

I'm dyslexic, I couldn't read at all until I was 8 and I disagree with this. Being dyslexic isn't easy but very little needs to be done to assist us, this isn't one of the ways. For my exams I was assessed along with the 12 identified dyslexic's in my year. All of us were given 25% extra time on every exam. I also received a reader who I could call over whenever I needed to assist me in reading of words. Others even received scribes. This is provided by the UK government and then all the exam boards have to allow this assistance which is personal to the individual. This proposal would remove this and further more it would take away the incentive to push children with dyslexia to cope with the world how it is.

I have a an A Level in English lan and lit. I gained this under my own merit and under took the same work and exams as everyone else to get it.

Now you may say but you did have extra time. And I did. And there is a trade off. Everyone who received any extra help is not awarded 15% of the marks available in every exam. At GCSE this is the difference of a grade. So my Bs in science, maths and history should have been As. My Cs in English, graphic design, RE should have been Bs. (I got a G in Spanish but let's just leave that aside) I can never claim those higher grades and I have never tried to.

If you are interested in what the little extra help dyslexic children need is, well in the UK it's already in place. I learnt how to read when I took part in a trail programme called phonics. The UK now only uses phonics to teach reading to the under 7s.

Now to show you how effective this little learning chance is I need to tell you that for 1 hour for 1 day for 4 weeks I was taught in this, then, different format. At the end I finally got my 100 key words, I could finally read a story to my self and that meant I had the foundation skills to build my reading and writing ability.

Dyslexics don't need you to protest on our behalf, we don't need you to rework exams but we do need you to keep doing what you are doing schools. Keep looking for us so you can give us the tools we need to function in the modern world.

FYI Google spell ..... Is my best friend. Auto correct is a bit hit and miss. 😘

[deeisace]

so.

i said the other day i wouldn’t get into how magic works in my version of the HP universe - not, it’s likely, in JK’s, on account of i’m not sure she’s put the most amount of thought into it and lots of the things she has put thought into are sheer absolute nonsense, so let’s ignore her.

Anyway.

I said I wouldn’t, but guess who’s had Thoughts, so I will do.

I will eventually re-write that essay/academic-paper style thing I was gonna do for it, probably, because I’m an absolute nerd, but this below will be ehh, rambly? a bit more informal, in any case, because i’m pretty well tired at the mo - i have Thoughts but little brain left, haha

and, under a read-more on account of it’ll get long, and i think in any case this might not be everyone’s idea of interesting, no?

So. Shall we say. Magic has several components. These being - within yourself, intent (inc. concentration) and power; and without yourself, your wand, the spells already around you, and where you are.

The mechanisms by which magic works are also important - the words and movement through which you signal intent, as needed, and pathways by which it,,, moves? is created? somesuch. Those within your body, akin to veins if that comparison may be drawn, and those without, such as leylines throughout the world.

.

Maybe I should start at the beginning.

It’s lost to the ether, how magic began. Much like the beginnings of life itself, at least to wizarding minds - i have little knowledge myself as to the intricacies of the actual science detailing the beginning of life, which i feel is only to the better when dealing with making up how wizards might think about this sort of thing, no? - there is nothing known about the beginnings of magic.

What we do know is something about how it works and how it has adapted, and been adapted, over time.

Before the Roman invasion, tho it is certain wands were used, the emphasis in what little survives from that time or soon after is on potions, arithmancy (maths magic), runes (used, generally, to extend the use of a spell or to tie it to that particular thing/place), rituals and suchlike. The languages used for spells seems to be very similar to the everyday language of the person/people casting - it was the language of the people and of the land, ensuring that the movement of magic had a clear pathway between the land and the people.

It may be said, here, that a wand is something of a,,, conversion device? i forget the correct term, but you know how with electric, the national grid, the power lines have this big amount of energy going through, and it needs to be changed down so it’ll work in your plug sockets and not blow your phone charger up or smth? A wand’s a bit like one of those things that changes the electric down. Or, it’s a bit like a tv aerial, where is you leave it in one place, the signal’s dead dodgy, but if you take it and idk put it on the roof or somesuch, the signal’s a lot clearer - with the wand in this case being the roof, i think? it’s both of those, the conversion thing and putting the aerial on the roof, at once, really.

So, with the people and the land,,, speaking the same language, if you will, there was some need for the conversion device bit, but less so for the tv aerial bit. After the roman invasion and all that went with it, and also the vikings, and the french, the english offences against wales, ireland, and scotland (and so on and so forth) - the languages have been lost (not entirely, no, in some cases, but to enough of an extent that it has certainly had an effect), the ways of the old magic, the knowledge of it, have been lost, and these in turn have affected the magic that can be cast and the manner in which to do so.

The old rituals, the arithmancy, the building and/or use of such places as stonehenge, giant’s causeway, the ring of brodgar (and other such places i’ve forgotten about myself), these have been abandoned and/or forgotten to various levels. Spells are cast in mangled latin - not the language of this land, nor even the kind of latin in use still by some (tho be that only in church and suchlike, perhaps). Pronunciation is so important as intent, these days (to quote Hermione, “it’s Win-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the ‘gar’ nice and long.”) because we are no longer speaking in a language our land (and so our magic) can quite understand. We need the tv-aerial effects of wands, and to pronouce the incantation as correctly as we can, even tho it’s in the wrong language, to help in a way the magic to understand what our intent is, cut off as it has been with the lack of the old ways.

so cut off we are, from magic in the old sense, that wandless/wordless magic is seen as something only those with a particular grasp of magic (powerful wizards, such as Dumbledore) can perform. Disregarded in the public eye is the wandless and often wordless “accidental magic” of children, who, untrained as yet in the “correct forms” of magic as our current times define it, are sometimes able to forgo such limits, through the brute force, if you will, of their emotional intent - the strong signal of intent (subconscious or not) their emotions broadcast, if i may continue the metaphor, has no need of an aerial-on-the-roof.

---

So, that covers, i think, the language component of the use of magic, the purpose of a wand, and something of the geo-mechanics of magic?

Leylines are like veins, or like the national grid, but for magic, and we can use magic through the focussing of it using our intent (like, i want to charge my phone), our power (like, my phone charger works off this many volts) using our wand (the device that changes the voltage to one we can use and takes it into the household wiring) and the language we use (?? to continue this?? my phone charger,,, has a mini-usb connection? i’m giving up this bit, it’s stopped making sense).

The modern styling of magic is,,, a dodgy voltage-converter thing, causing very dodgy household wiring and combined with the sort of old charger where you have to wiggle the cable to get it to work. If i’ve got my own metaphor-ing correct. I’m not at all sure that I have.

So anyway. Biomechanics!

Just like the land has leylines, and our bodies have our circulatory and nervous systems, there’s something similar to that but for our personal use of magic.

hang on, fuck. firstly this above is over 1000 words (i checked, cs i’m an idiot), and i’ve not written that much for well over a year. and also i just twisted the end off my eyebrow piercing again (i was fiddling with it, cs, as mentioned, i’m an idiot). standby (tho not for long for you) whilst i swear.

right, okay. leylines, veins and,,, whatever fuckin nonsense word wizards decided to call how magic goes.

i’ll use veins an stuff to help explain. hopeful this’ll go better than the electricity metaphor.

So. Your heart, veins, arteries and capillaries.

I’m quite sure none of this is mentioned in canon, really, but at least the magical core is generally a thing in fic that deals in this sort of stuff. This is something like your heart, in a very basic way. (Please forgive the gratituous mangling of science to come.)

oh no, my brain has stopped. i could draw a diagram, tbh. okay uh.

arteries --> heart --> veins --> capillaries

surrounding magic --> magical core --> asks to do a spell --> focussing of magic (--> outcome of spell)

that helps? helps my brain, anyway.

so the magical core draws magic from the person’s surroundings - this is why hogwarts (and many wizarding settlements) was built where it was - it’s on a ley-line, or near one or smth, which makes it easier for children’s developing magical cores to draw magic as needed. tho magic is basically everywhere, and britain is small enough, or smth, that there is little appreciable difference in casting spells in muggle areas versus magical ones, and considering the modern spell-casting methods, the placement of hogwarts is good for those with developing cores.

the magical core is something of a storage unit, or somesuch, and the size of your magical core defines the level of magic you are capable of. not the type, exactly, you understand, but the amount of magic you have to use. tho that said, you can’t make a large jumper if you only have 400g of wool - you might make a small jumper, or a scarf, which will also keep you warm, but not a large jumper - equally so, you might have the magic reserves for, say, a wingardium leviosa but not a levicorpus, or a lumos but not a lumos maxima - or so on and so forth, blah blah blah

when we cast a spell, or attempt to, we’re kinda, asking the magic in our reserves, hey can you come do this thing? (and then, because physics is still a thing, if terribly warped, it’ll like, return to the leylines or whatever i guess, after the spell is dome, idk) and the magic is like, yeah cool, what d’you want me to do? whereupon your like, magical capillaries get involved, which focus the magic down the correct pathways that it turns up in the right shape to do the thing you asked - and then your wand amplifies the signal so there is an appreciable effect, because your modern magical style fucked your shit up.

it’s like, you asked your magic to do a thing, and it only just heard you cs you’re speaking through like, soundproof glass or smth idk, so it turns up with the correct thing but not sure about it, and your wand goes, yep it was that! and then the magic is sure about it, and the spell happens. y’know?

so that’s like, how the average wizard’s spell would go

in the case of squibs, there might be an issue with any one of those things, or more besides, that inhibits the conventional use of magic.

emotional or physical trauma may affect use of magic - like Ariana Dumbledore’s PTSD, or, say your hands were burnt to such a degree as to stop you holding your wand or to block your ‘magical capillaries’ (since our hands is where we focus our magic, where we are taught to, just like we have a lot of, wow GCSE biology was a long time ago, nerve endings? in our hands, for tactile sensation, that’s also where a bunch of our magical capillaries are, too).

or, say we use Neville as an example. His magic has been affected in many ways. Emotional trauma, like what happened to his parents (it’s unknown if he was there, like Harry was, and it’s likely that Harry’s memory of the event is from,,, other factors, so it’s unknown if the particular event caused anything), and the abuse by his family members, and that by Snape. Physical trauma is unknown - beyond his intinctive intent, and therefore accidental magic, to save himself from harm by his relatives, which in fact caused magic to happen rather than inhibited it - whether or not Bellatrix was so deranged at the time as to cast such spells also on him, which would i’m sure have caused something at that age, is also unknown. What is known - Neville, at least for some time, used his father’s wand. Whilst this may be grand for Augusta’s sentimental reasons, it is true what Ollivander says - ‘the wand chooses the wizard’. Using the wrong ‘tv aerial’ will not get you a clear picture, and using the wrong wand will not result in strong or correct spells. He is also disastrous with potions, and a genius with herbology. This may be partially due to,,, the teaching styles of the respective professors - the manner of Snape being such to leech his concentration and the intention from the potion - or yet due to an issue with his “magical capillaries” - that is to say, the herbology ones are well-developed, and communication goes well along those lines, and the potions ones are not so, and so it does not.

Also he’s way autistic and plants are his SpIn, fight me.

---

alright so i’m sure i have more thought, but it’s near 11pm and this is a terrible time to be awake when i have work early tomorrow and things to do besides, so i’ll leave it there for now.

[ericaaxx]

My first assignment for my module Digital Media is the creation of my first blog, where I am first required to be photoshop, as shown above. I accessed photoshop during my lessons and then decided it would be best to complete this on my laptop in a more accessible and easy way.

I thought it would be smart to do it in my own time where I could take more time perfecting the way I wanted my images to look. Especially since I have not touched Photoshop since I did Media GCSE, which made me discouraged and nervous about how this would go as it was hard to remember the key manoeuvres of photoshop after being taught it before. The work leading up to the completion of photoshop with my images went well as I was able to play around with them and allow myself to enlist my creativity from all means with the images. I researched how re-learning skills are viewed as a positive aspect rather than something to fear, this is reinforced by (Bartlett, 1995)[1] Prior Knowledge is a critical factor in forming a new cognitive schema to gain new knowledge. I also learnt how to add colour that helped embrace the objects and lighting in the image and using the theory, I learnt it is good to have an open mind than becoming nervous or frustrated when re-learning previous skills that have been forgotten, demonstrating how I will remain to have an open mind and ask for help.

[1] (Jain, 2014)

[gilded-gheists]

9 is the highest grade but how 9's are distributed and calculated makes this even better (this doesn't matter btw this is me just wanting to say how they do it for GCSE because I think it's cool and is the only correct thing my school taught me-)

TLDR though: Tommy is giving himself WAY less credit than he is in this clip and he got a 9 on english as a whole- not just that one piece he's talking about. (as seen a little before in the video.)

You first have to qualify for a grade 7 and above and the grade nine is actually 'better' than an A**- it's to reward the best students. (basically you're guaranteed to get into your chosen college if you have a 9 in English or maths depending on your course.) As soon as you qualify for a grade 7 (8 gives you a high chance though) you can get a 9.

In a nutshell they take the people who qualify for a 7+ grade scores on the English language/lit paper tests and from each school and calculate that into a percentage. Which is then halved and added 7 onto. That's then the percentage of those who got the highest scores who deserve a grade 9. And it's the TOP scores. If you're tied with somebody they're going to re-read both your tests and asses your marks once more.

It is, as the teachers decided to lovingly tell me, who missed it by 1.5 grades, 'the cream of the crop' (I fucking hated that I was 1.5 off but that's because the analysis I had was on goddamn boats. fucking boats. WHY BOATS FUCK BOATS FOR GIVING ME A 7.5-)

Considering this was English Language paper 1 for GCSE he's on about in the clip (creative writing), they don't evaluate just that segment of the paper alone he's talking about. it's also paired with the four other questions that are an analysis of an extract of a fictional story. So not only did he do good on his creative writing segment which is worth 40 marks (basically half of the test's marks) he also did well on the analysis of the text he was give.

And honestly 9's are so hard to get, only one or two people in my (roughly) 100 student year group got it. So you can imagine how good your test has to be to get the grades when it's compared to all the others in the country.

Tommy's not even giving himself enough credit in this video as it's not just Paper 1 he got a 9 on, it's the whole English grade as said in the actual video a little before this clip. This is all 4 english papers we have to do which is very impressive to get a 9 total.

And the thing in the clip above isn't even implied as the thing he wrote on the paper as he said 'once wrote a story'. Meaning he got a grade 9 on a completely separate piece to the test.

So basically he's cracked at English.

everyone’s surprised at tommy writing this deep, angsty storyline for his character, but i’ve never forgotten him talking about this artsy depressing story he wrote for his english class (and also the way he pronounced chrysanthemums?)

50:57 TommyInnit & Skeppy Ruin Zyphon’s $1000 MC Tournament 

[qualityessay479]

writing help

About me

Research And Writing Help

Research And Writing Help And they’ll have hassle revising and editing their work. Those tasks require re-studying closely to catch and repair errors or weak spots. But new vocabulary phrases are largely learned by way of reading. Writing is among the most difficult duties for kids to learn. That’s because so much goes into expressing ideas in writing, or written expression. The GCSE is a secondary college assessment curricula widely used within the UK and UK-compliant instructional contexts. One of the A-Level English requirements in this program is the Language Investigation. Memory, focus, and self-regulation play a giant function in writing. Kids may also be taught to use positive self-discuss to assist with motivation. When writing, they might say to themselves, “It’s OK that that is hard as a result of I know my effort will pay off.” The key to all these strategies is repetition and follow. Your paper tells the reader why the problem is important and why folks ought to find out about it. Therefore, it is important that you simply use unambiguous language. Well-structured paragraphs and clear matter sentences enable a reader to comply with your line of considering with out difficulty. Your language must be concise, formal, and express exactly what you need it to imply. Academic writing is evident, concise, focussed, structured and backed up by proof. Using a keyboard can typically assist pace up transcription. But for some children, the very act of typing is a battle and gets in the way of writing. Transcription is the physical act of manufacturing words. This talent covers handwriting, typing, and spelling. Then they should determine tips on how to manage these ideas into paragraphs and an total structure. This requires pulling the right data from reminiscence, like style and content information. Kids want lots of practice utilizing this information to put in writing sentences. They would possibly work on splitting and mixing sentences, for instance, and using sentence connectors like and or however. Without these skills, it’s difficult for youths to even start writing. They will probably battle with spelling and with creating text that’s meaningful. It has additional sections to add more information, corresponding to an extended background or an strategy/methods part. or secondary sources) to again up the factors you wish to present. In most instances, an essay like this may also require you to handle main points which may oppose your stand on a problem or topic. Narrative essays are sometimes the closest thing to items of journalism. Trouble with self-regulation can have an effect on many of the different writing skills. A “spider map” encourages youngsters to think of a subject with supporting particulars. A “T table” helps them brainstorm reasons for and in opposition to a certain issue. And a timeline may help youngsters map out a sequence of events for a narrative. EssayJack presents two custom templates made specifically for college kids working on their language investigation project. This grasp template can be used for brief argumentative essays, lengthy argumentative essays, sophisticated argumentative essays, and straightforward ones. If you grasp the narrative essay, then you're likely nicely in your approach to being a successful journalist. We have one narrative essay template in EssayJack, Short Narrative, which you need to use to practice getting the circulate of an excellent story. So, just like an expository essay, you'll require an introduction, body, and a conclusion. is an expert in phonological processing, writing instruction, and professional development in literacy. Some children must be taught about what goes into completely different genres of writing.

[newstfionline]

Meet the tutors of the ultra-rich

David Batty, The Guardian, 13 Mar 2018

Early one summer morning some years ago, Nathaniel Hannan was confronted by one of his students brandishing an antique Colt six-shooter. The private tutor had been hired by the young boy’s super-wealthy New York parents to ensure that his academic performance befitted the family’s elite social circle. Fortunately the tutor, who had been preparing a Latin lesson at one of the family’s homes, owned a revolver similar to the one now pointed at him and noticed that it was not fully cocked, meaning the gun could not be fired immediately.

“He seemed to be under the delusion that he was a gang member taking revenge upon me for a drug deal gone bad,” Hannan says of the boy, who he says had mental health problems. “I managed to handle the situation with a minimum of physical violence. I grabbed the barrel towards the ceiling and disarmed him.”

The tutor recognised the weapon, famously used by the US cavalry in the old west, as part of a collection on display in the family home. When Hannan explained what had happened to the boy’s father, the man “sort of shrugged and asked if I wanted combat pay”. “There were no penalties to the son,” Hannan recalls. “The father did, however, stop keeping the gun on display and I took the bullets out and kept them.” Some weeks later, Hannan had to disarm the boy again after he held a knife to the tutor’s throat. But the tutor stresses that this was the only one of his five long-term posts with super-rich families over the past 10 years where he had to deal with such extreme behaviour.

His experience is untypical for the British tuition industry which, according to the Tutors’ Association, is worth around £2bn a year. The majority of families who hire tutors in Britain are middle-class parents, with students often receiving additional lessons in the evening or at the weekend to help with schoolwork or grammar school entrance exams. But a handful of firms in London and the home counties also provide tutors for the super-rich, who account for about 10-25% of their clients and can pay between £50,000 and £70,000, or more, a year. One, Tutors International, says almost all its clients are high or ultra-high net-worth families.

Hannan, who works for the Oxford-based company, may have encountered only one gun-toting pupil, but the Tutors International founder Adam Caller says his staff have had to deal with incidents of self-harm, child abandonment and threats of violence. He once arranged to surreptitiously remove another tutor from her placement in the western US after a boy pulled a knife on her. “The father didn’t think it was a problem but she was scared for her life. We had to sneak her out of the house when the father was at the bakery, which he went to every morning. The police waited at the entrance to the property and escorted her to a plane.”

Caller believes that such incidents reflect the increasingly complex and exhausting demands tutors face while living with uber-wealthy families. In the past four months, these pressures have pushed the company’s top salaries to about $250,000 (£180,000) a year. “By far the greatest rise in the highly paid jobs is coming from Asia,” he says. “We’ll be earning more than $1m in revenue from four tutors in Hong Kong this year.”

In the past, the toughest roles might involve tutoring a child in up to 15 GCSEs, but now tutors are routinely required to be fluent and teach in two or three languages, from French to Russian and Mandarin Chinese, and to create a lesson programme suited to school curriculums in different countries. Some of the best-paid roles also involve addressing learning difficulties, mental health problems and other special needs: Hannan once worked with a young heir who had suffered a brain injury in a motorcycle accident. Others require additional work: the company has a job advertised in Florida, where the tutor will need to act as a personal assistant and project manager for the family, overseeing the rebuilding of their main residence, which was badly damaged by Hurricane Irma.

However, the mere fact that the family has such wealth and privilege can be the root of their children’s problems, says Caller. Some of these families “don’t work very well because they’re so rich”, he explains. For example, they never have to be on time for a flight, because they own a private jet. “The children grow up without any consequences for their lack of responsibility,” he says. Some of them also feel that “if they put effort into something, they won’t do any better than if they didn’t. They’ve got nothing to work for.”

One role currently advertised involves working with a 12-year-old Japanese boy, whose relationship with his parents is described as “toxic”. The advert states: “He frequently ferments [sic] trouble between himself and his schools. His access to the family wealth has led to his ability effectively to ‘buy’ friends, and … it is unclear whether he has any real friends at all. Over the years, the student has come to rely on his father’s money to solve all sorts of problems.”

The job, which has a minimum salary of $225,000 (£162,000), or $300,000 (£216,000) for a couple, may require moving with the boy to the US and being on call at all times: “The successful candidate will have to work as a tutor, mentor, guide and friend, and in some ways a surrogate parent.”

Another of Hannan’s former clients, who does not want to be named, says that she and her financier husband hired a tutor to mentor their son, who has Tourette’s syndrome. “The only thing he found that calmed it down was marijuana,” she says, “so he probably started smoking a bit too much. He was feeling very down, so it was a struggle to get him up in the morning and get him to class. That was when we realised we needed to intervene.” Their first step was to send the teenager to a therapeutic wilderness camp, which tackles addiction, mental health and behavioural issues in a calming natural environment. “It took him away from other kids who had high anxiety and other issues. When he finished, he was ready to re-enter normal life but not be in the same environment with the same friends.”

The role required not just working with the boy, but also assisting his parents. The job description stated that the tutor should “help them to enforce their boundaries and [limit] the controlling behaviours of their son. He has come to learn that if he makes enough of a fuss he can get what he wants from his parents and while they do not want this to continue they need support to develop strategies to be able maintain their authority when under pressure from their son.”

Hannan, who studied at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and Oxford University, not only helped the boy with university applications and preparation for admission tests but also bonded with him through their mutual love of mechanics, often helping the teenager fix his car. “I used the rapport to help him understand what his parents meant when they said or did things,” he says. “The upshot was that he was more likely to respond in a way that didn’t lead to shouting matches.”

The professionalism required in a private tutoring arrangement is very different to that required in a classroom, says Hannan, who previously taught in a private school in Washington DC. “For all kinds of child protection reasons, being a school teacher requires a certain emotional distance. In a family environment that changes; it’s important to be able to develop a sincere rapport with these folks.” His former student’s mother says that Hannan became a friend to her son, who is now at university. “My son appreciated [that there was] somebody to help guide him, moving forward,” she adds. “To have someone by his side, holding his hand, was a really positive thing for him.”

Other tutors say rifts in families often arise due to the high-flying and transient nature of the parents’ jobs or lifestyles. Mark Maclaine, who co-founded the agency Tutorfair in 2012 after more than a decade of tutoring, says tutors can also find themselves acting as an intermediary between highly demanding parents and their offspring. “If you’ve got a parent who is very successful in their career, they have been used to getting results by pushing their staff,” he says. “But kids don’t work the same way. The parents realise that the life skills that helped them become incredibly successful don’t apply to their child who is struggling. A lot of the families turn round to me and say: ‘I think I’m making it worse.’ If your dad is the king or your mum is the head of a huge corporation, that’s going to be dialled up to 11.”

However, Dirk Flower, a Harley Street psychologist who works with super-rich families and several tutoring agencies, says tutors can also find themselves in families whose value systems undermine their efforts. The standard gripe is that parents expect the tutor to achieve top grades even if the pupil’s schooling is disrupted by frequent holidays, he says. But the clash of values can be more extreme. “You do get a criminal family where the 13-year-old is walking around with a Kalashnikov because their father wants them to take over the empire.”

Cleo Masliah, a tutor who works with another agency, Simply Learning, says a significant aspect of her work with both children and their parents is helping them to operate in western society. Masliah, who studied art history at the Courtauld Institute in London and interior design at La Cambre in Belgium, has worked with ultra high net worth families in Dubai, Moscow, Switzerland and the Caribbean. When she tutored a young Russian girl who wanted to get into a leading British boarding school, she had to advise the mother on how to present herself. “In Russia, if you’re visiting a school and you want to show the principal that you’re serious, you take out all your diamonds and your Birkin bag and your Chanel suits and you wear some nice stilettos,” she says. “That’s frowned upon by an academic school in Britain. So part of the job is to say, ‘You know what? It would be a good idea for you to wear flats and keep the jewellery to a minimum. And you know what? You’re a smart, high-profile lawyer; let’s make sure they know that.’ And the girl got in.”

Masliah says the grey area of switching between being an authority figure and acting like an older sister to being a friend and adviser to a parent is what makes the job “fantastic”. However, she warns that tutors must remember the power their clients wield. “They are extremely wealthy, and your relationship with them is going to be what they decide it’s going to be. If you have an issue with a normal middle-class family, the worst that is going to happen is that you never speak to each other again. This is different; these are often people in a lot of power. And you’re often not in your home country--you’re in their country, where they are very important. I do a background check on my clients before I work with them. There’s a level of shady that I am not working with, because I’m putting myself in danger,” she says.

Emma Swanson, the founder of the UK-based international company Tutoring Futures, says home tutoring has become much more popular than boarding school for the super-rich because it is more convenient and allows the parents to spend more time with the children. “The father who needs to travel a lot now takes his children with him,” she says. “But, obviously, the ultra-high-net-worth do live a very transient lifestyle and they have homes around the world and yachts they want to spend their time on.”

In late 2016, James Clement, a former high-school teacher who works independently as a tutor in Washington DC, did a tutoring job with a family who took their children out of school for a term to travel round the world. For 12 weeks, they sailed around Indonesia on a 75-metre superyacht. He and another tutor taught the girls between 8am and 1pm on the observation deck, which was converted into a schoolroom, taking short breaks to play board games. Two or three days a week, the tutors would be invited to go jet- or water-skiing with the girls. On other days, they might go snorkelling or scuba diving on a coral reef, which would be used to teach their students about marine biology, or visit villages, volcanoes and islands relevant to their history and geography lessons.

While both tutors ate most of their meals with the 20 crew, on occasions they would be invited to join the family for dinner. But these were not simply social invitations, with the tutors sometimes asked at a day’s notice to give PowerPoint presentations on a wall-height projector screen in the yacht’s salon. “Once they asked if we would give a 30-45 minute presentation on the history of Indonesia,” says Clements. Other topics included the country’s political climate and scientific facts related to the places they visited.

Such tasks reflect how tutors tread a fine line between being friends of the family and mere employees. Nathaniel McCullagh, managing director of Simply Learning, says tutors enjoy an elevated status compared with other staff due to their academic credentials and close relationship with the children. But this can risk alienating the household’s “loyal retainers”--the personal assistant, the nanny, the butler--whom the tutors need on their side because they know the family’s foibles and secrets. “They’ll be the ones to say, ‘This is a good time to talk to the parents’, [or] ‘Whatever you do, don’t go into that room.’”

Although tutors sometimes receive privileges, including expensive gifts such as Rolex watches, use of private jets and family holiday homes, McCullagh stresses that they must be “unimpressed by their surroundings”. “We really can’t put anyone in with chips on their shoulder or any kind of overwhelming adoration for the family or the money or the lifestyle,” he says. “You’re in this world of massive wealth and, for a limited period, you’re part of it. The next day, the family is going home in a limo and you’re back on a train home. You start thinking, ‘Why am I on easyJet when they’re taking their own jet?’ You’ve got to understand that the parents are your boss, but in many cases they don’t want anything to do with you. They are abdicating their responsibility not because they’re bad people but because they have chosen a professional to do the work. If you’re the sort of person who needs constant affirmation from a parent, you could have problems.”

Caller says tutors are sometimes asked by parents to help a child appreciate their privileges, such as getting the student to make bread for the family for a month, or cooking a meal from scratch, including making their own pasta. Other projects can be more elaborate. For example, one family helped build a library for a school in a disadvantaged area of southern India, and tasked their two children--under the supervision of two tutors--with liaising with contractors, the headmaster and interior designers, as well as organising the fundraising and buying books.

Tutor Melissa Harvey says both sets of parents she worked with saw her comparatively humble background as a positive influence on their children. The modern languages graduate, who previously worked at the Swans international primary school in Marbella in Spain, says the two families “were curious that I went to a comprehensive. I worked in four jobs to get through university and I think they saw those things as a positive influence for their children.” One of her jobs, arranged by Tutors International, involved a private cruise through the Amazon jungle where she says her two students were shown how local people lived. “It was wonderful to be able to show these girls, who come from a very privileged background, other children who don’t. We showed them how they made their clothes or their food, using all the resources around them. Some of the children didn’t have shoes. We gave them some coloured paper and you would have thought we had given them a pot of gold. For the girls, that was a real eye-opener.”

Ultra high net worth families worldwide are predicted to pass down more than $16tn to future generations over the next three decades, according to the analysts Wealth-X. Hannan believes his work has social value. “In some of these students there is absolutely the feeling of ‘Why am I bothering to try? Daddy’s money is always going to be there to take care of me.’ But others think, ‘I’m going to distance myself from that money, from my parents. I want to think of myself as myself.’ The crux of the issue is helping them find out that their lives can have profound meaning separate from this great blessing of family wealth.”

[the-witty-kitty]

hello! i was scrolling through the a-level history tag on tumblr just in hopes of finding some inspiration to do work - although i still don't have the motivation to do so, is there any tips you could give me? i'm doing a-level history focusing on South Africa and America but am dramatically failing both, with very little knowledge retention. i have coursework coming up that i also have no idea how to accomplish.

((Oh hello low key shook that you’ve come to me because lmao I’ve had no idea what I’m doing throughout my sixth form life so far and high key flattered

Honestly, I relate to you on such a spiritual level because history modules have so much content in them that it’s overwhelming and makes me want to deck myself. Fortunately, the history department of my Sixth Form provide a content guide for us which, that and my exercise book, is the of base my revision.

Notes // Revision Book

Personally, I prefer to have all information for topics and sub-topics in one place which is handwritten out again in another book. These notes would be written into my own words and condensed down massively. Literally the most time-consuming element of my life, I wanted to scratch my eyes out. (Pretty colours kept me sane.) I’d also recommend bolding any key dates, historical characters, facts and figures and any key words that would help you.

Flash Cards // Mindmaps // Timelines

For me, physically writing revision on paper or in mindmaps or flash cards tend to help me to remember which is why I prefer it to re-reading notes or textbooks. (Some science bullshit in active memory or something idk) (Making them look #aesthetic helped to make the task less gruelling and insta worthy.)

Honestly, I would scribble notes and revision down on anything. I re-did mindmaps, notes, timelines, mindmaps, essays, questions, miNDMAPS. The repetitive element is the only thing that helped me to remember; it’s boring but I’d recommend it. Any A3 pads of papers are hella useful as well; I had a shit ton of these mindmaps and timelines up on my walls during March-May and it wasn’t pretty and looked pretty bleak but I guess it helped? After doing my flash cards and mindmaps, I’d re-do scruffy ones but without the use of my previous revision notes, that way I’d be using memory instead of regurgitating textbooks and notes.

Staff // Friends // Family

Exploit your teachers. Exploit the department. I feel pity for them after dealing with me, espesically after I spent the year sucking up to all possible staff members of the history department. A little bit of banter here, a little bit of teasing there and they were always there for me. They must hate me by now. I’d ask for anything and everything. Mark questions, mark essays, re-mark said essays and questions, ask for the mark scheme, sample essays, dates, figures, stupid knowledge that I didn’t need but interested me. Albeit I love history and the periods that we studied (Russian history oioi) but I would have not gotten any of it without some of the staff. A fav of mine - who doesn’t even teach me history this year but taught me a year prior through my GCSEs - sat with me 3 hours before the exam and went through everything on the Cold War and then it came up in my exam. He is a godsend. Use them, I’m sure they’re rad people.

I also babbled so much crap to my family, explaining all of the periods that we studied, all of the policies, strengths and weaknesses and all keys events. They had no idea what I was on about and most probably didn’t even listen but that’s fine I guess forget about me but it helped me to revise through memory not just repeating from my notes. Upcoming to my exams I would take on a teacher-esque role and repeat all of the content back to my friends; it was a two-way system: I’d think on the spot and they’d listen like a normal revision lesson.

(Wow man I’m such a nerd wtf I only just realised. I’m so sorry how long this is frick.)

Documentaries // Youtube

I’m so lazy wow. They help if you’re a lazy piece of shit like me, just actively watch them and even take notes so that you know you’re getting the most out of your time. I’d personally recommend CrashCourse on youtube. It’s got tons of subjects and topics and they’re between 10-15 minutes so it’s a quick burst of info that’s not too overwhelming. (Also I’m such a nerd and laugh at the inside historical jokes wow.)

Questions // Essays // Past Papers

Just do ‘em. My hand would cramp up so bad after doing one of these bad boy essays but gradually I saw improvement.

Make sure you 101% understand what you have to do in the question. Description? Analysis? Explanation? Comparison? The only way you’ll master identifying what to do and the technique is if you do past questions and get feedback. If you teacher doesn’t address faults as for them. (My ego was crushed so many times it hurt man. It hurt.)

Coursework

Unfortunately, I haven’t started my coursework yet - we’re starting straight way and it’s on Martin Luther King so quite the topic considering the modern day cough dickhead trump cough - however, I’m aware that we have to conduct our own research and gather quotes etc.

From past coursework related experiences, again I’d recommend using the heck outta your teachers. If you’ve got the time, do re-draft after re-draft. And if it’s a crap ton of work to do reduce it into sections of analysis of one historical source or on one topic, that way you have more accomplishments when you finish a piece and you’ll receive constant feedback as you go along, in which you can adjust your work accordingly.

If you are required to do research try and mix it up with written sources, accademic articles and historiography. Google Scholar is pretty rad and prevents you from seeing articles or sites that are bias and have bias opinions. I’d also recommend any government offical websites (typically with .gov) if you’re researching contemporary history within the last hundred years or so and need figures such as birth or death rates at the time etc. Your teachers most likely have a ton of physical book resources at their disposal which they’ll allow you to use. Again, that fav teacher of mine allowed me to borrow 5+ books on Russian 20th century over the summer for my Welsh Bac project so I’m sure you’ll find a kind sole like this one somewhere.

Although coursework is agonising, it’s arguably better than exams and allow you to have some control over the outcome so if you keep on top of it you can grab a nice grade before the summer and easily helped raise your overall grade.

(Pretty sure my coursework will be the final death of me because my exam board has a rule on teacher intervention and if too much help is given out marks are taken away which is such horseshit?? So check to see if there are any rules.)

Summary

Reduce school work and textbooks into your own language and book.

Make revision materials from your own notes - flash cards, mindmaps, timelines, poems, acronyms - literally anything just write.

Repeat repeat repeat - try not to turn stir crazy!

Highlight dates, historical figures, numerical figures, facts, and events.

Documentaries and videos are a time and energy saver.

Learn the question styles and technique and hand in essays.

Use any feedback given. Even read the examiner’s report if you can access it.

Coursework - try to get any feedback if possible. Bookmark any sources or websites used as you may have to reference if it’s a written piece.

Google scholar is exceptional at providing articles and therefore you’re not prone to any historical bias when researching your topic.

Government sites are scary but nice for juicy facts and figures.

Break it down into little easy chunks such as dates, policies, location or historical evidence/sources so it’s easier to see and handle.

Coursework will inevitably affect your grade and its more or less the only thing you can control so constantly improve it whenever and you’ll do amazing!

I hope at least one of these things help with your revision as everyone learns and revises differently. Honestly, I’ve only adopted this technique this school year and I’m sure next year I’ll have something new. I won’t shy away from the fact that history is my favourite subject and therefore revision for this area is not too gruelling, but I’m a lil nerd and mini revision freak so pls don’t be too overwhelmed.

I wish you all the best for the upcoming year and your exams! I’m always around if you ever want a chat so hit me up!

- Soph

[gravitywhatgravity]

On the subject of Judaism BBC Holby City has taught me more about it in the past 10 minutes then an A* in GCSE RE and two years of college RE have

[mysecretstudyblr]

No one ever fails (my struggle to get into med school)

I don’t understand why teachers think it’s a fucking great idea to tell their “failing/not so great academically” students that they will:

- be failures - never amount to anything - never be their desired profession - should give up and pursue something else - be drop outs

IT’S FUCKING SICKENING. You think saying shit to someone like this is gonna help? You think it’s going to “motivate” them? Cuz it fucking ain’t. This shit gave me depression which I still haven’t recovered from since 2013!!!

Just because you’re in a position in your education where you just don’t fucking get anything, where shit is hard as hell and nothing is making sense, DOES NOT MEAN YOU WON’T GET TO ACHIEVE YOUR DREAM.

This is why. And now this post is gonna get honest real quick.

1. Dreamed of going to medical school since I was 13.

2. Went to one of the shittiest schools in my city where our GCSE grades were below the national average (60% of students get A*-C some shit like that).

3. Got 2A*’s, 7A’s and 2B'a for GCSE’S which isn’t bad, but it is for med school apparently. To get into most medical schools you need 6A*s minimum and most who apply have at least 10 A*’s so I didn’t stand a chance against the best students but my A-Levels could improve my chances

3. Got accepted into a prestigious grammar school with my grades to study Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Philosophy at A-Levels. AS January exam I got EDDC. It was at this point my Biology teacher told me to forget medicine and pursue something else. I fucking cried all day. Shit didn’t motivate me. I got depressed. I was studying hard for everything but it was difficult for me to adjust to the new syllabus and lots of the content was new to me since I went to a shitty school that taught me nothing. Maybe I hadn’t found my learning skills yet?

4. AS exams I got BCDB which was an improvement. I just about made it to A2. Got called in by the headmistress who was emotionally abusive af. Told me she thinks I’m not studying or trying at all. She put me on report which meant no school trips, no breaks. During free periods I had to sign in the library and have someone make sure I’m studying and not messing around (which I never fucking did in the first place). I HAD TO COME IN ON TEACHER TRAINING DAY TO STUDY IN THE LIBRARY ALL DAY. NO STUDENTS. EMPTY SCHOOL. EMPTY LIBRARY. I CRIED FOR HOURS IN THERE. I’m not even joking, I cried everyday that year. In the bathroom, the locker room, as soon as I entered the sixth form gates, in the library. Everywhere. It felt like hell. I’m surprised I didn’t kill myself. I couldn’t even get help for my depression because everyone denied I had it. Everyone.

5. Left A2 with ACC and decided I was going re-sit elsewhere. Went to another college and got some more help and I got ABB. Not enough to get into medical school where you need AAA minimum. In the eyes of a medical school less than 3A’s mean that you won’t make it through medical school. It’ll be too hard and you don’t have the capacity to study for it. UTTER BULLSHIT AND I’LL TELL YOU WHY.

6. Decided I would do a degree that allows me to transfer into medical school after the first year if I get first class with honours results (aka above 75%). Started my degree, volunteered all year, got involved in lots of extracurricular work and by the end of the year I got 85%. My grades were amazing. I was always told that if you get C’s you won’t make it through a science degree. Fuck you because I fucking did it. I was loving that degree and my application to med school was perfect. I couldn’t have been happier.

7. REJECTED. I got rejected by the med school because according to their way of ranking applicants I was 0.5 marks away from the threshold for getting an interview. Fucking heartbroken. I knew. I knew that if I got that interview I would’ve smashed it - 100%. I’m that confident. So now I had two more options. Either carry on with my degree and apply again in 2 years time or go abroad. I didn’t continue with my degree, because I realised that I will probably still get rejected in the UK and rather than paying a total of £52,000 minimum for my 3 year degree (all expenses included) I could go abroad and for little more than the same amount, I could do a 5 year master’s in medicine (with a 6th year of residency), and it would still be a legit medical degree.

8. I decided to apply abroad to a medical school that is of course accepted in the UK, US and Canada and I GOT IN. Sure the requirements were lower but I made it. I achieved part of my dream - studying medicine. And even though medicine is hard, I haven’t failed any exams at all. I’ve been doing pretty good! Sure it’s taxing, intense and stressful but I’m making it right?! I will one day get to become a surgeon. Pray I do please!

The moral of this story and experience is that: I wasn’t a failure forever. In fact I was never a failure. And neither are you or anyone else. Failure is someone who doesn’t try at all, who gives up at every single hurdle, and honestly no one is like that. We give up sometimes but then we press on. We don’t always try our best but the next time we do.

I was just going through the struggle that we all go through. It took a while but things got better. The main thing was that those consistent rejections from medical schools and my own family and friends didn’t stop me. Their words didn’t motivate me at all. But I didn’t let their words stop me from at least trying. Sometimes I didn’t try my best. It happens but I carried on anyway.

Whatever you’re going through, whatever you’re struggling with, don’t give it up. Ever. Don’t forget that where you are now, you won’t be there forever. You will move forward. No matter how long it takes, eventually you will be that one step closer to your goal. 

Stay strong.

[oceanbanjo57-blog]

10 essential discussions to have in any teacher team.

Towards the end of last academic year, I wrote a post outlining what might be in a typical school’s development plan:  Here’s your school development plan ��� no, really, don’t thank me.  All of those ideas are still relevant for next year.  But what about at a departmental level or a year level in primary? Here are 10 discussions that teams should be having – not all at once, obviously, but over time, involving everyone.

1. What’s in the curriculum? Does everyone know the big picture and the details? 

If you’re building a coherent spiral curriculum, you need to know what goes where in time; you need to know which pillars of your curriculum tower are crucial; foundational. You need know how it all fits and why things are where they are.  Not everyone knows – and it’s a mistake to assume they do.  This needs some discussion to create a shared understanding, beyond dishing out the scheme of work and syllabus and assuming that’ll do.

Similarly, how are we doing on the details?  If we’re building a deep knowledge-rich curriculum  then it’s important to explore the details of what should be taught – especially where non-specialists are involved, focusing on the core concepts.  It’s hard to think of a better use of team time – making sure everyone really knows the curriculum in detail.  I meet teachers quite often who haven’t read their GCSE specification themselves, missing out on the wording, the examples, the emphasis given to specifics.

2. What are the parameters for autonomy and collective action? 

At a basic planning level – as well as the level of team ethos – it’s important to establish how the team will function.  Do we do our own thing? Do we stick tightly to an agreed scheme of work? Do we allow the shared drive to fill up with endless versions of powerpoints and worksheets making it ever harder to find the original or best one?  Where in the curriculum is there scope for teachers to go off-piste without risking messing up an element of our carefully planned coherent curriculum?

3. How far do we prescribe the enacted curriculum:  What should be included in typical lesson sequences?

Forget about a rigid lesson formula, but over a series of lessons, are there common elements, features, processes, activities that we all agree should be included? Do we agree what science experiments to do as a class practical and what is a teacher demonstration – or is that up to each person to decide, even though this shapes the enacted curriculum significantly? Do we say poems aloud, chorally, learn complex French sentences in a call-response manner and start maths lessons with five quick recall questions? Or do our own thing…

Whilst being clear that it’s the spirit of any framework that matters, not the letter – not some rigid checklist to take people to task over – we do need some agreement about what lessons in our school, in our year, in our subject look like.  These decisions essentially form the curriculum students actually experience.

4. Are we using sound evidence-based practice in our teaching?  

There so many areas of sound instructional practice that teachers should know about. For example:

How is everyone doing in the team, engaging with these ideas and putting them into practice?  Is there a set of ideas relevant to our subject or year that we all discuss using a shared language?

5. Are we clear on the team focus and each individual’s focus for CPD and deliberate practice.

Every team and everyone in a team should have an agenda for professional learning and deliberate practice.  It could be that there’s a strong collaboratively determined shared agenda so that people can support each other in improving in a specific area; it could be that each person has their own CPD needs to agree.   The question is whether this is all explicit, agreed and planned.  Planned!  You don’t get better by accident….it needs sustained focus and attention over time.

6. Have we got assessment right, balancing formative and summative information and workload? 

How is the team doing in discussing all the issues related to assessment: the optimum frequency and nature of tightly focused low-stakes formative testing and broader summative tests; the use of cumulative tests; the use of exemplars to model standards; the commitment to using the same tests to facilitate meaningful comparisons between classes and cohorts year on year.  Does everyone know what we mean by ‘making progress’ in the language of our subject?  What do we track in our mark books vs what information is usefully shared centrally?  All of this needs to be explored… otherwise we become slaves to the machine and data loses meaning and value.

7. Are we clear what our first-line interventions are? If  Michael is behind, what do we do about it? 

Regardless of which names come out in flashing lights on the data tracker, do we have a good understanding of the types of interventions that work when students fall behind? Do we have that built into our teaching so it’s not always about extra sessions after school?  What can students practice, re-learn, redraft, re-visit? Do we have resources ready to support them?

8. Have we got a sustainable, effective marking and feedback policy in place? 

Imagine your Headteacher has said – just tell me what you’d like in your marking and feedback policy. Do what you like as long as you can sustain it and it is effective in enabling students to make progress.  What would you do?  Is there a sensible diet of feedback of various forms including marking that works in your area?  Have you taken workload into account? Have you made sure it’s more work for students than for teachers? Have you agreed a protocol for students using lesson time to improve their work? Do you have an agreed language around feedback and marking that everyone understands – eg ‘green penning’, ‘whole class feedback’, ‘deep marking’.  Don’t assume people know..

9. Are we clear on the parameters and processes of quality assurance  – securing high quality outcomes whilst retaining a strongly supportive team culture.? 

What is the role and nature of lesson observations, learning walks, work scrutiny, student voice, data tracking – the menu of QA processes that go on in the team?  Do we all understand their status, how they feed into performance management or professional development… no surprises? Is the spirit right – ie are people being treated as professionals, engaging in work scrutiny collectively? Are people getting helpful developmental feedback; is there an opportunity for a more intense coaching approach; if there a good way to share and learn from each other?

If there is a tight compliance regime in place – do people at least understand the rationale and have a chance to discuss that to secure buy-in?  What are the expected standards for observable routines in lessons and in books?  It all needs to be discussed fully and often.

10. Are we clear on our immediate priorities and the longer term vision for the team? 

With a big and/or busy and ambitious team, there’s always a long agenda;  it’s all too easy to focus on too many things and end up doing none very well or for people to be pulling in different directions choosing what to focus on.  Priorities are priorities – there can’t be too many at any one time and that needs agreement and discussion.   At the same time, every team should have a sense of direction – an idea of what the longer term goals are with curriculum development, assessment planning and so on with some sense of what the milestones will be.

That should keep you busy. I’m sure you’ve got most of it covered!

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Source: https://teacherhead.com/2018/07/17/10-essential-discussions-to-have-in-any-teacher-team/

[frecklyrobert]

I take GCSE RE, I'm not religious I just enjoy opinions. However the 'early life' section has taught me that it is unjust to use abortion as a form of contraception. Whether you are religious or not you must agree that for Rebecca to destroy a potential life simply bc she doesn't want it, yet failed to use contraception despite KNOWING she 'wasn't ready' is immoral. So the fact that Rebecca has had unprotected sex with men more than once, only to abort the consequences of that act, is harrowing.

hi anon, i fully understand your opinions and i can appreciate where you’re coming from. 

topics such as abortions are always going to be controversial, purely for how subjective they are. and religion has a massive sway on people’s beliefs surrounding them. i agree that abortions should never be used as a main/sole contraception, however regardless of whether she used contraception or not, whether she knew she ‘wasn’t ready’ or not, it’s entirely her choice to have an abortion (even if she says it was ‘forced’ because i highly doubt it). 

i think people could argue until the end of time about whether abortions should be considered ‘immoral’, i personally do not. if you’re not ready to have a child, i personally think the better thing to do would be to have a termination, rather than go through the stress of pregnancy and then either begrudgingly raise a child/enter them into the care system, as would be the case if rebecca went through with the pregnancy. 

like i said, abortions should never be a main source of contraception, in fact they’re literally the last resort, but i think rebecca has every right to chose to ‘destroy a potential life’, as you say. yes, robert is pressuring her, but the final decision does and always will, lie with her.

[nathanielclynes]

kelly i was just wondering how/when you got into sewing? because all your work is so beautiful! and good luck with the etsy shop, i'm sure you'll do amazing!!

Thank you anon!! I’ve always been into sewing and crafty stuff. My mum went to dressmaking college (and did a whole project on sleeves!) my granny knitted all the time and taught me how to and my aunty taught me to sew and would help me practice and I just loved it. I was probably 10/11 when I started. I made my own teddies and dolls clothes and wanted to be a fashion designer! When my granny died I got all her sewing boxes and buttons and threads it was so flattering and overwhelming in a good way to get something so personal and special. Textiles was the only gcse I got an A in, I made my own prom dress, and I did fashion in college and then in the time I was at uni too. I loved the exams even- just 12 hours of making! I decided I loved the manufacturing side rather than design. I even got a knitting machine! It’s probably the most expensive thing I’ve ever bought hahah. After I dropped out of uni and got into depression and stuff I stopped for like 2 years and just couldn’t face any of it because I felt like a failure. I even burst into tears the first time I tried to used my sewing machine. But the last few months I’ve been using it as a coping method and I’m in love with it again!!Sorry for rambling on I got too excited. I’m just so relived I re found my passion again. Thank u xxx