School closures: weighing up the consequences

"School closures are likely to have a relatively small impact on the spread of Covid-19 and should be weighed against their profound economic and social consequences, particularly for the most vulnerable children, according to a UK study."

"The research, led by University College London (UCL), is the first to look at evidence behind many governments’ decision to shut schools and keep pupils at home."

"According to the UN’s education body, Unesco, more than 90% of the world’s pupils have been affected by closures."

"The UCL-led study concludes that the evidence to support the closure of schools to combat Covid-19 is “very weak”, and statistics from influenza outbreaks suggest school closures “could have relatively small effects on a virus with Covid-19’s high transmissibility and apparent low clinical effect on schoolchildren”."

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/apr/06/school-closures-have-little-impact-on-spread-of-coronavirus-study?fbclid=IwAR0vXD3evoa2DsD2g6kNIgqItaRbNr3yPCPctacsd0pRbT2VKcQ5eMwTNDQ

On Fox News, the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO)  said that due to lockdowns the home was now the place of infection and authorities might have to enter people`s homes to remove infected adults and children.

Yet children must stay home

With the lack of fresh air and sunshine, cramped conditions for many, increased risk of mental health issues, domestic violence and child abuse, any benefits there might have been for a few, surely, cannot justify harming a whole population of vulnerable children. 

The benefits of a peer group

Research shows that autistic individuals may derive benefit from being part of a group with other autistic people. This does raise questions about the popular policy of `inclusivity within education establishments.` How may a minority group be successfully integrated into a larger, more typical group?

=============================

"The results align with previous research on the challenges that autistic people face when interacting with non-autistic others, but highlight that interactions with other autistic people are fundamentally different. All participants reported that spending time with non-autistic family and friends involved specific difficulties, which were not experienced when interacting with other autistic friends and family. This aligns with the double-empathy theory of autism which suggests that autistic and non-autistic people have a mutual difficulty in understanding and empathising with one another due to differences in how each person understands and experiences the world, rather than because of a communicative deficit on the part of the autistic person (Milton, 2012). Neurotypical people have been shown to overestimate how ego-centric their autistic family members are (Heasman & Gillespie, 2018), and overestimate how helpful they are to autistic people (Heasman & Gillespie, 2019). Our findings suggest that this translates into real-world difficulties in interactions with neurotypical friends and family that may affect the mental health, well-being and self-esteem of autistic people."

"One example of how interacting with non-autistic peers could have a negative impact was that it made them more acutely aware of their own minority status within a majority neurotypical society. Having to adapt to neurotypical ways of interacting and socialising caused feelings of inadequacy and shame. Similar findings have been described by Humphrey and Lewis (2008), who found that autistic adolescents surrounded by neurotypical pupils in mainstream secondary schools experienced negative self-image relating to autism. After time spent with majority neurotypical peers, autistic pupils often characterised their differences negatively, believing they had a ‘bad brain’ and wanted to ‘fit in’ with their peers (Humphrey & Lewis, 2008)."

Conclusion...

"These results suggest that spending time with other autistic people and within autistic spaces may be beneficial to the mental health of autistic people. In the context of calls for better mental health interventions (Cusack & Sterry, 2016), it is important to develop evidence-based, feasible and acceptable models of autistic peer support and evaluate these for potential mental health benefits. These findings may also be helpful for autistic people in environments in which they are a social minority, such as in education and employment, by enhancing understanding of autistic communication. We hope that a greater understanding of the contexts in which autistic people can have comfortable, natural and easy social interactions will contribute to an evidence base that service providers can draw on to develop better healthcare and education for autistic people."

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1362361320908976

Wi-fi Safety

The Telegraph is reassuring:

"It’s worth remembering that Wi-Fi occupies the same part of the spectrum as microwaves, which sounds terribly alarming. If it can boil water, surely it’s bad for us too? Well, no. Not at such low power. This is also the frequency of the cosmic background radiation, the echoes of the big bang that fill the sky. There is literally nowhere in the universe that does not have microwaves pinging around in it."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/mother-tongue/11599311/Wi-Fi-is-not-harming-our-chidren-heres-the-evidence.html

Time for an experiment:

 
Pioneers Of Science - Part 1 from Smooth Feather on Vimeo.

Poor PISA results for Scotland

The decline continues:

======================

"Scotland's performance in maths and science among 15-year-old school pupils is at a record low according to new statistics. Reading levels - students' ability to understand and evaluate texts - have improved, but are still significantly lower than they were at the start of the millennium..."

"However, the PISA scores were described as proof the government was `failing schools and children`. Scottish Labour’s education spokesperson Iain Gray said: “While Nicola Sturgeon tours the TV studios and election debates boasting of her supposed achievements, the reality is that her so-called priority of education continues a slow decline."

"The small improvement in reading is welcome, but further falls in maths and science are alarming. John Swinney and Nicola Sturgeon have been warned again and again that we have a problem with STEM subjects being squeezed out of the curriculum but they refuse to listen. These are the critical skills our next generation need for the jobs of the future..."

"`The SNP have abolished most measures of performance in our schools, but they cannot hide from these figures which show they have failed our schools and our children`."

"And Liz Smith, Scottish Conservative education spokesperson, said: `This is damning evidence revealing the full extent of the SNP’s shameful 12 years running down Scotland’s schools`."

"`After the last set of poor PISA results, the SNP said that the curriculum had to change. Yet these results are a new low and we know there have been many failings within the delivery of the Curriculum for Excellence. It is not just time to change the curriculum but also to change the government in Scotland`."

"Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie added: `John Swinney can't hide from these appalling results. Scotland used to have one of the best education systems in the world, but under the SNP its now just average`."

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/pisa-performance-of-scottish-pupils-in-maths-and-science-at-record-low-1-5056025

Given these concerns the response seems a little skewed:

"The Scottish Government has pledged to invest more than £60 ­million to create 350 counsellors, ensuring that every high school has counselling services by September. It has also pledged to enhance support and professional learning for teachers on good ­mental health."

"Professor Harris said: `The focus on health and well-being of young people is critically important so it's not just about academic achievement. That's an area the Scottish Government are focusing on [?] but more can be done. The challenges for young people are acute and extensive so we can always improve things."

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/too-many-hours-on-social-media-is-impacting-learning-of-scottish-children-claims-education-expert-1-5093616

Calls for full review of Curriculum for Excellence

"The implementation of Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence has left educators facing myriad unintended consequences, says Barry Black."

"On Wednesday evening, the Scottish government suffered a rare defeat in Holyrood when MSPs called for a full review of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). First minister Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that the government will take this forward, `whether or not [they] consider that, that is necessary`."

"The emerging evidence, however, points to a range of unresolved and unintended consequences which exist as a result of CfE’s implementation."

"Issues within the senior phase are well-documented. Whether it is the narrowing number of subject choices, particularly in poorer areas, the progression and structure of new qualifications or the prevalence of multi-qualification teaching in classrooms, there are numerous issues which clearly impact upon young people’s choices and chances."

https://www.tes.com/news/why-parliament-was-right-want-curriculum-review

Inspirational teachers

Mr Eddie Woo




 See Eddie Woo`s youtube channel for some of his maths tuition videos.

The drivers of climate change

Will there be global warming as a result of increasing CO2 in the atmosphere and the burning of fossil fuels?  Or will there be global cooling instead because of the greater effects of the grand solar minimum? Indications are that the sun`s activity is an important factor.

"Is it Man or Something Else? The point to be noted is that the frequency and intensity of sunspot activity has proven profound influence on Earth weather, atmosphere, ocean temperature, Gulf Stream flows and more. It is also notable that the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control dismisses such solar influence as not significant. That is a huge mistake by all serious evidence.

While governments and the UN have funnelled billions of dollars to computer modelers to create various models of CO2 and other greenhouse gases since the 1970s, far too little attention has been given to the effect of our sun on earth climate. At a minimum, in the interest of science, if not survival, we need to remedy this."

https://www.whatsorb.com/news/global-warming-by-co2-or-cooling-by-a-grand-solar-minimum?

Mike Robinson and Brian Gerrish discuss this issue on UK Column: "So the solar impact is understood within the science community but it`s never mentioned by the mainstream press or by the people who are pushing the climate emergency story."

Mike Robinson goes on: "So just so we understand what the situation is at the moment, let`s head over to spaceweather.com and here we discover ... the solar minimum is becoming very deep indeed ...it is set for a Space Age record for spotlessness ... So far in 2019 the sun has been without sunspots for more than 271 days, including the last 34 days in a row. No other year has had as many blank suns."

Viewers are led to understand that a solar minimum is a normal part of the eleven year sunspot cycle.

Mike Robinson then adds: "The climate emergency narrative is a misrepresentation of what is going on and only tells a part of the story and is really misrepresenting man`s influence on climate; and if it`s not taking solar activity into account whatsoever, which it isn`t, then we`re not getting an honest appraisal of the situation and, therefore, political policies are being based on incorrect information."

Brian Gerrish: "Well we want to continue today on our exposé of Extinction Rebellion and for several months UK Column has been trying to get the Department for Education to react to evidence that we`ve put forward showing that Extinction Rebellion is a self-declared criminal organisation.  It`s involved in extremism; it`s involving young children - children of school age - in that process. It`s using school facilities to run its training exercises."

"But let`s just have a recap on what we`ve shown you so far. This was the important document that we came across. Extremism Rebellion:  a review of ideology and tactics. Now this is by Policy Exchange. The key gentleman who`s written this is Richard Walton, former head of the MET`s counter-terrorism unit, SO15. He had some very strong words to say about Extinction Rebellion in a very detailed analysis document; and this is just part of it."

"The `civil resistance model` they espouse is intended to achieve mass protest accompanied by law-breaking - leading eventually to the breakdown of democracy and the state. Obscured from public view, these objectives mark Extinction Rebellion`s campaign out as an extremist one that seeks to break down the established civil order and liberal democracy in the UK." 

"Now this is not just a sheet of paper: this is an investigative report which this gentleman and his colleague, Tom Wilson, have put out. You can find it very easily on the internet. I encourage people to go and read it. This is not an academic writer: this is a man who has been in the job with the MET police."

"So let`s follow on from there. What sort of information came forward in this document? Well there was background to Extinction Rebellion. Two people were mentioned in particular: George Barda and Gail Bradbrook with a Compassionate Revolution; and that got going into Extinction Rebellion [with Roger Hallam]. But they also helped to form Rising Up - this was another mass protest movement... And then key activists from Earth First, Occupy,  Plane Stupid, Radical Think Tank and Reclaim the Power. These are all spin-off units which are clearly out to cause trouble in the country and detailed in this analysis by the two gentlemen I`ve mentioned. And we`ll also add in there that Occupy Wall Street was part of this..."

"So, what else did we show? Well, of course, we can have a look at money and it`s quite clear that Extinction Rebellion is able to call upon huge sums of money. This was going back to October [2018] where a mere £633,000 was already in the kitty. And we can say for a fact that Extinction Rebellion is boasting to people who break the law - and are then subsequently fined - `well, not to worry because we can cover your fines for you`. So a lot of money is coming into this organisation and it`s very interesting to see that behind it we`ve got yet more strange international vehicles, [the lady from] Gorilla Foundation just one of the people involved. We`re not saying this lady has done anything wrong but you can ask what she is really doing and it goes through to a global sisterhood of national grassroots campaigning organisations. So this is not just one organisation in UK. This is spreading out. We can see that, certainly, it`s got a path throughout Europe. But also we can see that it`s got a global scale to it."

"So armed with this information we decided to tackle the Department for Education which boasts it has a counter extremism unit to protect, principally, schoolchildren."

"Let`s have a look at that."

"This is where you would go: Educate.AgainstHate is the website and on it you can find, very clearly, Department for Education Counter Extremism helpline which, of course, we called. And what that led to is ... they did not want to see the evidence. They did take it, in the end - they were forced to - but they have ignored what has been given to them and latterly it`s been spun into an election issue. So this is pretty interesting, Mike, that we`ve got a unit within the Department for Education which the Department for Education media team did not know existed until I told them, but when you tell it, and provide evidence of extremism, they don`t want to know."

Mike Robinson. "But when you say it was spun into an election issue, what you mean is that, when there`s an election, there`s an excuse for not providing any information."

"Indeed. We`re going to have a look at that because it`s incredible. 
Let`s have a look at how much work it`s taken to deal with the British government`s Counter Extremism Unit protecting schoolchildren. So this is a list of emails that have gone back and forth between the UK Column and the unit, and also the Department for Education press team and despite providing documentary evidence of Extinction Rebellion`s self-declared criminal activity, documentary evidence of them using school facilities, the excellent SO15 reports, BBC evidence of them involving young people in criminal activity, this is the email exchange and the ultimate result is they don`t want to know."

"So when you call this number and think that you`re going to make a report and you`ll be treated sympathetically, and action will be taken, Mike, nothing happens."

"So let`s have a look at the initial responses. So this is one of the early replies from the Department for Education. I`m calling this Fob Off No 1 ...what comes back is a complete sidestep because the Department for Education spokesperson ... said:"

"We share the passion young people and others have for tackling climate change. We are recognised at home and abroad for our world-leading action, as the first major economy to legislate for net zero emissions and as nominated hosts for next year`s crucial climate talks that will help us shape the climate agenda; and, just today, we have helped to secure enough clean energy to power seven million homes."

 Mike Robinson: "But that sounds like a ... party political statement. .. coming from the civil service."

"Mike, this is absolutely a party political statement; and then, of course, they have sidestepped why I contacted them asking for their policy on an extremist organisation called Extinction Rebellion. They give me a party political... response.  So the evidence is ignored and it`s replaced with the government line on climate change which we`ve already shown in the news today is of course a major line and the policy that`s going to be forced through."

"So bring it up to date, and to answer your question, we got Fob Off No 2 a few days ago. It was 6 December 2019, and what do they say here?"

"You received an initial response from the Department of Education government spokesperson on 07.10.2019 in relation to the concerns you raised about Extinction Rebellion and their impact on the actions of children and young people. (I think they`re referring to that email I`ve just covered, but the dates don`t tie up.)
According to Government policy during the pre-election period, correspondence must not contain any content that could be perceived to be political. Therefore, the arguments raised in your letter cannot be fully addressed during this period."

"So what this lady, Sophie Taylor, the deputy director for the Department for Education is saying is: `well, while UK has an election all extremist matters are on hold. We`re not going to protect anybody`. So that was Fob Off number two. It was spun into a false election issue."

"Please note the responsibility for making assessments of groups of possible extremist concerns lies with the Home Office. We would recommend that you direct your query to them following  the General Election."

"So what sort of material does this lady produce? " 



Within the video there are some very young children pushing forward XR`s message. Elsewhere Brian Gerrish points out that mental health issues and depression, in particular, is rising in young people in response to the message that they have `no future.` However, as Brian Gerrish summarises:

"Extinction Rebellion is a self-confessed criminal organisation identified by a former head of MET Police Counter Terrorist Command SO15 as `an extremist one that seeks to break down the established civil order and liberal democracy in the UK`... XR is using Department of Education schools to recruit and train young people ... it is grooming and exploiting young children for its criminal aims..."

"And what is the reaction from the Department of Education? Well they`re refusing to do anything about it. We`ve got to ask the question: why? I`ll answer it and perhaps we can exchange a little bit on this Mike, but if we say `what is going on here?` there can only be one answer: and that is that Extinction Rebellion and its extremism and its criminal activity is British state approved because it is driving the climate change agenda that the government wants to see in order to get those carbon taxes in... "

"So extremism, criminal activity, is bad in Britain unless you are using it to carry out British government policy, in which case it`s all OK."

Mike Robinson: "And, of course, it`s not just the fact that it`s driving the climate change policy which the British government says it`s behind, but it`s also driving the constitutional change policy which the government is also behind, because as you all have heard in that little video they`re demanding `we want a say; we must have a say; and of course they have a say through the political process at the moment but what they want is citizens` assemblies ... a complete sweeping away of the form of governance which we have at the moment to be replaced by something else - a form of participatory democracy which probably doesn`t bear too much resemblance to what most people understand by the term `participatory democracy`."

Brian Gerrish: "And at the bottom we`ve got this false grassroots movement at the lower level. At the higher level we`ve got Nigel Farage now, of course, calling effectively for constitutional change."

"It`s just a remarkable coincidence !"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwEpJDZj2k8

[UK Column 18 December 2019]

　

Pornography education for children

Mike Robinson of UK Column was talking to Alex Thomson via video link on Friday 11 October 2019.

"Well this is the Times and the headline here is Parents take on John Swinney over porn lessons in new curriculum... That`s quite a headline."

"It is because `parents` is deliberately dishonest. Both the Times and the Scottish Sun came to this only yesterday whereas it had been put out on YouTube by the man asking the question the previous weekend. His name is Richard Lucas. His YouTube channel is easily found: Scottish Family Party. We`re not endorsing that or any other party, but it`s easily found. And there was disingenuously not a single mention... in the serious Times, or the sexualised dumbed down Sun, of the fact that it was Mr Lucas, the chairman of a political party, and he was just described as another dad in both of these articles."

Mike Robinson: "And he intervened in a Q and A with Mr Swinney; so let`s have a listen to what happened and how Swinney responded to this intervention..."

"Well my first response to this is that is quite a spectacular response to his intervention because as he rightly said ... in the middle of that, if that material is not suitable for that audience, and to be live streamed onto YouTube, how can it possibly be suitable for a high school or a primary school audience?"

"Correct Mike. The most shocking thing that most people have found about this much shared clip has been the arm waving lady. Now the real shocker is this: the arm waving lady is not officially the Scottish government. You might think that she was there as a bag carrier for John Swinney, the number two of the Scottish National Party, but no, she is in fact Joanna Murphy the chairwoman of National Parent Forum Scotland. Now the last term is the give away. Scotland, under the SNP, has done what Canada did in the 2000s, which is to tag the name of the country onto the end of a genuine NGO to create a government front NGO. So National Parent Forum Scotland, the last word negates the previous words. It is no longer therefore a national parent forum otherwise why would this lady be playing Stockholm syndrome for the sexualisation of children, which is what parents are supposed to be there to prevent? No, by putting Scotland on the end, she has become captured in the way that the whole of the third sector is, particularly in Scotland, and bounden to do the bidding of those who pay, which is the Scottish government."

"So there she is in a particularly egregious case of cognitive dissonance because she is there to be basically Scotland`s chief parent, although I know that title was stupidly given to Nicola Sturgeon, chief mammy, but she`s there representing the parents of Scotland, if anyone else is surely her, chairman of that body but she cannot abide what`s being said because she is there really to protect the Scottish government. It`s the unified government model again, the Scottish model of government."

"Absolutely, Well let`s just have a quick look at Swinney`s response to this.... So again Alex he is trying to fall back on the tired old position: this is just the way the world is and therefore we`ve got to bombard our children with this material to make sure that they`re equipped to deal with it but, in fact, there`s no evidence whatsoever that this protects children in any way. Quite the contrary this, in fact, drives these types of thoughts into the minds of children. It`s not a productive thing at all. It is a dangerous thing. Where is the precautionary principle in this case because again with respect to global warming and so on we have the precautionary principle shoved down our throats, but in this case, and... one or two other policy areas as well, it`s nowhere to be seen?" 

"Mike, wherever we see the precautionary principle thrown out the window, it is because the government and regulatory bodies are actually financially interested in one side of the equation and we`ve seen that with 5G, obviously, and here is the same case with pornography. I`m afraid it`s a repetition..."

"I agree absolutely and I`ve mentioned this several times before, that my mother who was a primary school principal always held the view that behaviour issues in schools were not being reflected by programmes such as Grange Hill, which the BBC was pushing out when we were children, Alex, but in fact the television programming was driving the behaviour problems in the schools and that applies equally here I think as well."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeRZ1518pZc

Breaking the law and non-violent extremism

On Wednesday 9th October in Glasgow, a group of primary schoolchildren could be seen being paraded around an empty, wet George`s Square by their teacher chanting about climate change.

As one observer asked: "Should teachers be using young children like this for their own political agendas? " 

The spectacle was more dramatic in London over the weekend.

"Well speaking of destabilisation, of course, Extinction Rebellion have begun their protest in London today. Well, it led over the weekend with this." 

Referring to the recent demonstrations in London, Mike Robinson on UK Column News 7 October 2019 remarks: "Here`s a tweet from Damien Gayle: `Police use a battering ram to break into Extinction Rebellion warehouse `... Well they`re having a hard job getting in there it seems, the heavy door. If you read the rest of Damien Gayle`s tweets he`s been quite pro-Extinction Rebellion ... In fact the police was acting on behalf of the landlords who were wanting to get these people out and perhaps they were taking advantage of that to get some PR in; but no evidence today that the police are actually doing anything to get the Extinction Rebellion protesters off the streets."

"Or under control," adds Brian Gerrish.

"But we don`t need to worry because there`s a ... new Countering Extremism policy coming through because this is Sarah Khan who leads the commission on Countering Extremism and she`s carried out the first ever national conversation on extremism - I`m sure you know all about that."

Brian Gerrish says sarcastically: "Well I do now, yes. But I don`t think the average person does."

Mike Robinson: "Yes, so was there a national conversation then? I`m not aware there was. And she has apparently received the government`s current approach . So they have today decided to publish their findings and recommendations in their report which is called Challenging Hateful Extremism. And they have categorised a new kind of extremist behaviour outside terrorism and violent extremism which has been called `hateful extremism,` so that`s what we`re looking at now."

"So it says: `Hateful extremism is behaviour that can incite and amplify hate, or engage in persistent hatred, or equivocate about and make the moral case for violence; hateful extremism can also draw on hateful, hostile or supremacist beliefs directed at an out-group who are perceived as a threat to the wellbeing, survival or success of an in-group; that cause, or are likely to cause, harm to individuals, communities or wider society`."

"So the examples she gives are the spreading of hate filled views: LBGTQ+ people during the row over relationship teaching in Birmingham. Were you aware that there was hate filled rhetoric about LGBTQ over that?"

"Well of course there absolutely hasn`t been Mike. You wouldn`t believe that if you read the BBC report but if you follow through where the parents have protested in Birmingham, they are simply protesting that children`s innocence has been taken away too early with the RSE education and they are not directly focusing on anything to do with the LGBTQ community at all. It`s to do with the age of the children and the material that they`ve been given. So this seems like a back door effort to help clamp down on those parents, I would say."

"Amongst other things. So she also said, another example is: three quarters of those countering extremism on the ground have personally received abuse, intimidation and harassment because of their work; is what she`s claimed.. And she said that `unlike the government`s response to terrorism the current response to hateful extremism is inadequate and unfocused` so she`s calling for `a new focus and a robust victim centred and rights based approach to ensuring that we respond appropriately to the threat. And therefore she`s recommending a rebooted government strategy and a new taskforce led by the Home Secretary.` So they would `work with the Home Secretary, with government bodies and civil society to assess any ongoing or emerging situations and put a response in place`."

Brian Gerrish: "So this is `participatory democracy` - so called participatory democracy - because you`re not going to involve voters and the general public; you`re going to bring in the NGOs and the think tanks in order to get your desired policy across."

Mike Robinson: "Well indeed which is why this national conversation took place and nobody knows anything about it because, of course, the only people who took part in it were the NGOs and civil society organisations...."

"And charities."

 

"Yes, that she wants to encourage.... Well this was the Commission`s website when I took the screenshot of it this morning. Within ten minutes of me taking that they had put up the latest news story which is that the independent commission for countering extremism has published four new peer reviewed academic papers on Islamism and Sikh extremism. So they`re not talking about Extinction Rebellion, they`re not talking about anything other than Islamic extremism, and now Sikh extremism."

Four Academic Papers

`Mainstreaming Islamism: Islamist Institutions and Civil Society Organisations`
`Mainstream Islamism in Britain: Educating for the `Islamic Revival`
`What is to be Done about al-Mughajiroun? Containing the Emigrants in a Democratic Society`
`The changing nature of activism amongst Sikhs in the UK today` 

"And I thought that title was interesting because what they`re now doing is conflating activism with extremism. So if you`re an activist, you`re an extremist. But if you`re an activist for Extinction Rebellion, that`s not extremism."

Brian Gerrish: "Absolutely not."

Mike Robinson: "We`ll come on to that. So they`re saying that second generation street activism is getting too close to the far right, so really we`ve got to be concerned about that now."

"Right. So that`s fascinating. Actually if you have a look at Ms Khan on the internet, you`ll find a lot of people deeply concerned with her inability to do the job that she`s been given. But we`ll let you do your own research on that. But come to Extinction Rebellion because of course Extinction Rebellion has rapidly become the darling of the BBC. We`ve all seen the almost unlimited, free publicity, thanks to TV licence payers. So here`s one of the headlines: "

"`Who are Extinction Rebellion and what do they want? And they`ve gone from law breaking organisation to - we`ll show you why we`re saying that - to peaceful darling of the BBC. So these are the sorts of reports and what the BBC are saying. In London, it aims to `peacefully occupy the centres of power and shut them down.`We`ve got: What is Extinction Rebellion? And here it describes itself as an international `non-violent civil disobedience activist movement`." 

"This is another one that came out shortly before it became live. `Extinction Rebellion UK arrests as global demonstrations begin. They want governments to declare a `climate and ecological emergency` and take immediate action to address climate change`. Although interestingly Extinction Rebellion doesn`t say how, apart from a citizens committee. It describes itself as an `international non-violent civil disobedience activist movement`."

"So what can we say? Well this was an earlier report from the BBC and we highlighted it a couple of weeks ago... if you read this they had a journalist working for them..."

`2019 has marked a change in public attitudes to climate change driven in part by a huge new global protest movement.`

`In this timely and powerful documentary, reporter Ben Zand gains access to the most important of the protest groups, Extinction Rebellion. He is with them for four months, as they build towards `the rebellion` ll days of protest in April during which they take over and occupy four iconic locations in London.`

`The film follows three young people who have been inspired to join and lead the protests. Many are not only protesting for the first time in their lives but are also putting their liberty on the line to demand radical action from the government. We are there as they organise street protests and direct action - risking arrest for their commitment to the cause.`

`16-year-old Dan from south London has never been on a protest before. Since joining Extinction Rebellion in 2018, she has co-organised nationwide school strikes. Sam is 22 and a recent graduate, but now works full-time for Extinction Rebellion and is willing to get arrested again and again until something changes. Jack joined the movement recently at age 18. He is inspired by the tactics and research laid out by Extinction Rebellion and has an eye on organising controversial splinter actions for the movement`.

`Ben also spends time with the leader of the movement, Roger Hallam, who has spent years academically researching tactics for social change. He says you need 2000 people to get arrested and 400 people to go to prison if you want the government to meet your demands. Ben challenges him on his methods and asks whether it is justifiable to encourage young people to break the law.`

`This film is the first to get inside the new climate movements. It reveals how they have mobilised a generation to take radical action to help save the planet from climate change.`

"And he`s actually talking about young people under the age of sixteen. So the BBC knew the reality, knew Extinction Rebellion was grooming young people to break the law. All that`s now gone Mike. It`s now a wonderful peaceful organisation. And let`s have a look at this carefully manipulated BBC clip here. Here`s Roger Hallam himself: And if we have a look at the video and listen to what`s being said, fascinating stuff."

"Absolutely fascinating piece of BBC propaganda there. One of the clues as to what is going on here is the fact that the clip is two minutes and nineteen seconds long* . This means that it can be tweeted out. The limit is two minutes 20 seconds for a video clip. So what we`re seeing is the BBC taking an organisation which it has said has been calling for people to break the law - criminal activity, extremist activity- and it gives them a soundbite where now - oh no no no, the blame is not on Extinction Rebellion, the blame is going to be on the authorities as a result of peaceful Ghandi type action. This is disgraceful propaganda by the BBC in order to support Extinction Rebellion, and that clip absolutely crafted, for people essentially to copy and tweet out support for Extinction Rebellion."

 "Now we`re just going to remind you that we got a hold of this document. which is Extinction Rebellion planning for people to break the law. We know that includes essentially children, those under the age of sixteen. `We need people prepared to be arrested and go to prison`. And we also confirmed... this document with Extinction Rebellion themselves. They said yes it`s their document, albeit one that is out of date. "
"We`ve also shown you that this excellent report by Richard Walton, the former SO15 counter extremism officer with the MET says that not only is this a dangerous law breaking organisation but actually it`s going for overthrow of the civil order and liberal democracy in UK. So that`s what a senior policeman says, but basically what does the BBC do? They promote them. Now in the background Extinction Rebellion is using Department for Education school facilities to recruit. This is the Grove school in Totness in Devon where they`ve been holding recruiting meetings. It`s freely available in the public domain. And this is the school itself."

"Now we have tried to ask the Department for Education for their policy on Extinction Rebellion and its use of schools to recruit, and the result has been secrecy, arrogance and a dismissive fob off. Now if this was Tommy Robinson and his crowd up to something Mike, or it was an organisation which had got the slightest hint of being right wing, we can imagine that these people would have been rounded up yesterday, but not Extinction Rebellion."

 

"And this is where it gets very interesting; because if you look at the government`s own website here`s Educate Against Hate and that is sponsored by the government, the Department for Education and the Home Office. It`s got a number on there. It says `If you`re concerned, call us,` which is what U|K Column did and this is the sort of response we got, that staff on the other end of the line wouldn`t give their names. They said: `We`re anonymous and we don`t give out names.` So we`ve got a secret organisation working within the Department for Education.  They obfuscated, they blurred the discussion; they were dismissive of the information we passed, most of which was in the public domain, that Extinction Rebellion is breaking the law and they clearly had little if any interest in any of the concerns. So we were eventually told to take our request for `What is the policy on Extinction Rebellion?` to the Department for Education press team. And at one stage there was a not very subtle attempt to say that the conversation was aggressive because we didn`t back down and give in to the fob off. They ended up by saying, email us information. So we are going to do that and we`ll see what the response is."

"But to come back to your lead Mike,  this is the Independent here reporting the Commission`s report and of course what is the focus? It`s on Islamic and right wing extremism. They`re not interested at all in anything to do with Extinction Rebellion."

 

"Now just to end the segment here, we did a little bit of homework on Countering Extremism. The document that`s the Policy 2015, this goes back to David Cameron and Teresa |May. So who`s in charge at the moment? Well we`ve got Priti Patel as Home Secretary, she`s responsible for Countering Extremism. We`ve got the Minister of State for Countering Extremism. That`s a Baroness William... She recently got a degree in nutrition. That`s going to get her a long way I think. And we`ve got this lady, Victoria Mary Atkins, barrister, now British Conservative party member Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for crime, safeguarding and vulnerability, and that includes countering extremism. We`ve got a lady inside the Department for Education who`s responsible for due diligence and countering extremism. She`s Sophie Taylor. I can`t find a picture of her but at least we`ve pinned down one of the key people and then we bring in Sarah Khan and her commission."

"But the reality is these people don`t want to deal with Extinction Rebellion even though it`s boasting it wants people to break the law and it`s recruiting people under the age of 16 using school facilities. So why would that be Mike? A guess from myself would be that actually Extinction Rebellion is partly being promoted by the government because of its climate change agenda."

"It represents a policy that the government is supportive of ..."

"And the rest can go under the carpet. We don`t mind what you do because the government wants this false climate agenda to come in. So we will keep asking the questions; we will be sending the Countering Extremism department more information and we`ll keep viewers and listeners up to date with what responses we get."

The Green Party and 5G

"Well let`s just remind people that at the end of last week the Green Party conference in Newport Wales was going on. But something that the Green Party didn`t want to get involved with was protesters warning about the dangers of 5G. So we`ve got a remarkable situation that the Green Party of course is everything about protecting the environment, except when people say: `Well ok what are you going to do about 5G?` and they don`t want to know. And a motion to talk about the dangers of 5G was prevented from getting into the conference debate. But people were outside protesting, so this caused some embarrassment to the Greens. This was a bit more of the protest outside the building itself, but lots of questions to be asked as to why the Green Party supposedly protecting the environment, protecting people, protecting nature, but when it comes to the big business of 5G they simply don`t want to know. So we`ll continue to ask questions on that front as well. "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fubv3x6fP04

* The copy of Hard Talk on the blog is from youtube and is over 20 minutes long in contrast to the version produced on UK Column

Permanent exclusion for pupil who disagrees with school policy on gender

"A teenager who went viral after arguing with his teacher that there are only two genders will not be allowed to return to the school where he filmed the confrontation."

"The unnamed 17-year-old secretly filmed the moment he was reprimanded by a teacher at Mearns Academy in Aberdeenshire, who said his view on gender was not in line with school policy..."

"The boy has claimed staff told him not to return to the school in the wake of the incident...."

"In the interview, the boy said the issue first came up in class when they had been asked to sign up for a website and the teacher pointed out there were only two gender options...."

"During a meeting with Murray and his mum he said the school `emphasised that I wasn`t getting into trouble for what I said but for recording a teacher`, which is fair enough because it`s a known rule not to record your teacher...."

"He said they later extended the suspension by another two weeks and told him he could return after the summer break..."

"`We got called back in for another meeting and they said after having lots of talks with people higher up they said it`s not ok for me to finish my education at that school effectively and they told me there`s no chance I can return,` he said."

"An Aberdeenshire council spokesperson said Murray was not permanently excluded from the school, but that he had reached the end of his time in compulsory education."

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/teenager-who-went-viral-after-arguing-with-his-teacher-that-there-are-only-two-genders-told-its-not-a4180816.html

Mental health connections

[UK Column 7th June 2019 ]

"This is a website which has this amazing story:  `UK University to monitor social media accounts to identify suicidal students` and it`s by a gentleman called David McCourt."

"`Northumbria University in the North East of England is set to take the radical step of using data collected from students` social media accounts in a bid to reduce climbing student suicide rates. The higher educational institution, located in Newcastle upon Tyne, will create an Early Alert Tool to offer aid to undergrads in crisis`."

"So this was a bit more of it. So the university is working in partnership with nine other organisations on the project and they`ve been awarded funding by the Office for Students (OfS). A total of £14.5 million has been put aside by OfS, £6 million of which will go to the social media scanning project, and another £8.5 million going to nine other collaborative projects."

"Now I find this quite extraordinary," says Brian Gerrish, "That these sums of money are being put into watching students` social media. "

"This is another paragraph: `Few details were given about what information exactly would be mined from students` social media accounts. The project will raise concerns about the invasion of privacy, but these issues could be eased somewhat by an opt-in policy that requires students to consent to being part of the program`."

"Now we spoke to the Office for Students and said: `Well, are students going to be able to opt in or opt out? And they said to us that: `Well they don`t know at the moment because the project hasn`t really been formulated`. So we`ve given money for a project which the donor of that public money doesn`t even know what these key details are about."

Mike Robinson comments: "So they`re going to hoover up all this data. Now twitter, facebook and so on, they provide apps to do that. So take part in those platforms, anybody can hoover up your data. But the question here for me is: is this going to end at identifying people that are at risk of suicide or perhaps will they be looking at other forms of thought crime?"

Brian Gerrish: "Well is this just going to be one arm of the Prevent strategy and project Channel, so that if you dare express anything the state believes is right wing extremist you`re going to be reported through to the Prevent system?"

"Let`s have a look at what the Chief Executive said. This is Nicola Dandridge and she said: `Whenever I talk to students, improving mental health support is consistently raised as a priority. Taking preventative action to promote good mental health is critical, as is taking a whole institution approach and involving students in developing solutions..."

"So apparently, we`re at the stage where students are not thinking about their education and how good that education is, they`re preoccupied with their mental health. If that`s true, we`re in a pretty serious position. I`m not sure what the truth is, but we`ll just follow this through a bit."

 

"Here`s the Office for Students. They`re independent, Mike, as always. They were appointed by central government, and they`re connected through to central government, but they are independent." 

"And we`ve got some interesting people here. Here`s Sir Michael Barber, the chair, and he started out as chief adviser to the Secretary of State for Education in 1997 and he was part of the Prime Minister`s Delivery Unit. So very much an establishment man but everything is independent of government here. And he did a little bit of work with consultancy McKinsey who, of course, has done a lot of work in most governments."

"We`ve got Gurpreet Dehal. He`s a trustee of the multi-school academy trust E-ACT. He also holds non-executive positions with the Ministry of Defence and Equity UK..."

"And we`ve got Martin Coleman, deputy chairman of the board and chairs the Provider Risk Committee. And I found this interesting... he`s a trustee of an organisation called Police Now. I had no idea what that was. So we followed through. Here it is."

"`Join us, change the story, and `Police Now is on a mission to `transform communities, reduce crime and increase the public`s confidence in policing by recruiting and developing outstanding and diverse individuals to be leaders in society and on the policing frontlines`. So you`re not a policeman any more. You`re going to be changing the whole of society."

Mike Robinson: "So this is Common Purpose for police."

"It`s Common Purpose for police; I would say so. And we`ve got some interesting people here. So we`ve got a David Spencer,  co-founder and chief executive officer. He was an officer in the Met Police. So I suppose that makes sense. But he`s done a lot of political degrees... If you have a look at the bottom."

`Dave has a Business degree from the University of Sheffield, a Masters degree in US Politics from the University of London, and is currently studying his research Masters in Politics from the University of London`. 

"We`ve got another police constable there, Tor Garnett... So Sir Ian Powell we`ve got, left Pricewaterhouse Coopers on 13th of June 2016 on completion of his second and final four year term as chairman and senior partner.  Pricewaterhouse, of course, very interesting company with lots of very big government contracts, but he then joined the board of Capita PLC on 1st September as chairman designate. So he`s chairman of Police Now and a member of the committee for the National Gallery."

"So interesting connections. And the other gentleman there, James Darley - well he`s been working in graduate recruitment and he`s got a background in credit Swiss bank. And it`s just interesting to say how does this relationship work? [It`s] where we`re really coming to. And I can`t explain it."

"No," says Mike Robinson.

"We could go on a little bit more. We`ll just do these. Director general for tax and welfare at HM Treasury, James Bowler. So he, according to this report, is the Director General for tax and welfare at HM Treasury."

Mike Robinson: "But he`s helping Police Now transform secure society."

"Yes."

"Good stuff."

"Yeah."

Mike Robinson: "I mean what can we say about this?"

"Not a lot."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6mt5H3aChk

No lessons for climate change activist

"Teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg will take a year out of school and travel to the US to continue her campaign to promote environmental protection."

"The teen kicked off the hugely popular ‘school strike’ movement last year for kids to push their elders into taking a serious stand to tackle the devastating effects of climate change and safeguard their future..."

"As part of her commitment to the cause of reducing carbon emissions, Thunberg does not travel by plane. Accepting an invite to the UN’s special climate change meeting in New York in September means a lengthy transatlantic voyage ahead, so she’s decided to take a sabbatical year to make the journey."

"Thunberg also plans to attend the UN Cop25 climate change summit in Santiago, Chile in December."

https://www.rt.com/news/460808-greta-thunberg-climate-change-travel/
 
 A comment under the RT article:

But the percentage of various greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is not the only fact that has been misunderstood by Greta.

Here is UK Column`s Mike Robinson, along with Patrick Henningsen from 21st Century Wire, who recount Greta`s good news towards the end of the programme:

"I just wanted to end on a positive note," says Robinson, "Because really `good news,` Patrick: Greta Thunberg, the teen climate change campaigner ... is taking a year off from school so she can go to the United States and, in fact, America in general to promote her policies to deal with climate change."

Patrick Henningsen: "Sacrificing her own education for the sake of the climate ..." 

"So you`ll be glad to know, of course, she runs this campaign about Flight Shame.  So, apparently, she is not going to fly to the Americas and the United States. She`s going to take a boat which is really a bit unfortunate because this organisation ... reported to the Guardian in 2016 that if you`re on a plane, aircraft use 0.257 kg of CO2 per passenger mile. But unfortunately ships use 0.43 kg of CO2 per passenger mile. So this is a little unfortunate for poor dear old Greta. She clearly hasn`t considered this..." 

Patrick Heningsen: "Well maybe it`s better, Mike, that young Greta takes the plane instead of the ship. And if she does that then she won`t need to take the year off school because she`ll be spending less time travelling by boat..." 　

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJLflt6FuhA

Mental health assessments

The government has announced "one of the largest mental health trials in schools, which will see 370 schools contributing evidence about the best mental health support and wellbeing practices for chidren and young people..."

"New mental health assessments for children entering the care system will be piloted in nine areas. Five approaches will be used in the trials – two focusing on increasing awareness in secondary schools through specialist instruction sessions and tools to increase understanding, meanwhile three approaches will include primary schools and take a lighter-touch approach with breathing exercises and mindfulness lessons."

https://dfemedia.blog.gov.uk/2019/02/04/education-in-the-media-monday-4-february-2019/

Meanwhile the Mental Health Foundation in Scotland is pursuing its `Make it Count` campaign, one of the aims of which is that all pupils will take part in a `wellbeing questionnaire once a term to identify and address problems early by 2020`.

That is, mental ill health prevention in schools is useful in the sense that it may be used as a justification for collecting personal data.

But charities and governments keep forgetting that data collection without informed consent conflicts with human rights.

Inclusion in mainstream schools: another review

Only three years after the previous review of the education policy there are plans for another one.

A delaying tactic maybe ? To avoid providing much needed resources to schools?



"The proposal to integrate children with additional support needs (ASN) into primary and secondary schools, rather than educating them separately in special schools, has the support of the United Nations on the grounds it is the right of every child to be educated in their local community regardless of physical disabilities, learning difficulties or social, emotional or behavioural problems."

Education crises: is compulsory registration the answer ?

Channel 4 Monday, 04 February 2019 12:10
--------------

"The Children’s Commissioner for England has called for a compulsory home education register and strong measures to tackle ‘off-rolling’."

"In a report, Skipping school: invisible children, Anne Longfield also said there should be more support for families who home educate, a greater oversight of home schooled children and decisive action against unregistered schools..."

"Some children were completely out of sight of the authorities and ‘off the grid’ – with research by the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS)/Dispatches showing 93% of councils say they are not aware of all the children in their area who are home educated. When local authorities offer to visit a home educating family, in 28% of cases the family refuses."

http://www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=38016%3Achildrens-commission-calls-for-compulsory-home-education-register&catid=54&Itemid=22

Of course, one of the reasons for an increase in home education is the failure of many mainstream schools to cope with children with additional support needs. [ASN]

Here is an example from Scotland:

"The presumption to mainstream sees all children taught in mainstream schools unless certain exemptions apply. Currently, more than a quarter of the pupil population in Scotland (28.7 per cent) has ASN, an increase of more than 68 per cent since 2012 (in part due to an increase in awareness and identification). This, however, is against the background of 500 fewer specialist ASN teachers and a reduction in support staff, such as education psychologists and behaviour support staff..."

"A lack of classroom support, driven in part by budgetary cuts, means that many of these vulnerable children and young people are not having their educational and social needs met. This is also putting pressure on fellow pupils and teachers, with many of the latter lacking the necessary training to provide the specialist support required."

----------------------------

See also Legal framework around home education

Fifteen genders for 5 year olds

Is there a common purpose ?

UK Column News 2 November 2018:

In the studio with Mike Robinson is David Scott from Northern Exposure. 

Mike Robinson begins: "Here is Sarah Thornton and of course over the last couple of days the National Chiefs` Police Council and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners were holding their partnership summit because, as we know, everything is about partnership, and well, she was saying something that did get some media coverage: that incidents of misogyny, claims against dead people, should not be pursued. So this is about police priorities and the amount of money the police have to spend on various things and, of course, the rise, or at least the alleged rise, of violent crime in the country. So let`s see what she actually said. Here we go."

"Neither investigating gender-based hate crime or investigating allegations against those who have died are necessarily bad things - I just argue that they cannot be priorities for a service that is over-stretched."

"Well this is all pretty hypocritical, David, because why would we not  want to investigate people who have been abusing children even in the past?"

David Scott: "You have an institutionalised abuse network; you have people right up to [a] former prime minister who has been abusing children on an industrial scale; you have the cover-up of that industrial scale abuse ... through the police, through the courts, through the entire system. You don`t want to know, Mike; you don`t want to know because the people are dead and it`s time to move on and we need to be looking at far more important things. And it`s just the same as looking at hate incidents and basically gossip on social media; it`s the same sort of level. We`re going to equate these two things so that people get the idea that investigating the core breakdown of our society is not really that important and should not be a priority for the police."

Mike Robinson: "Well let`s just remind everybody that Sarah Thornton does have form here because, of course, one of the subjects that we were trying to cover for quite a number of years was the abuse that was taking place at Oxford & Cherwell Valley College. And Sarah Thornton was Chief Constable at Thames Valley police, therefore was responsible for any investigation, or not, into the abuse that took place at that college. And, of course, she refused consistently to investigate and we were asking on an issue of the UK Column, when we were printing the newspaper, we were asking: `Was there a conspiracy of silence or a common purpose at work here?` Because all the people involved from the local authority, from the school and the Chief Constable herself, were all involved or graduates of common purpose. So I can`t image why she would want to cover things up. But anyway as you mentioned, one of the other things she said, of course, was `We don`t want to be investigating hate incidents any more unless there`s a crime been committed, but if it`s an incident we don`t really want to be highlighting that or investigating that` ..."

"But this is all a bit strange, David, because apparently we`re going to be investigating the labour party over anti-semitic alleged hate."

David Scott. "It appears not all hate is equal..."

Mike Robinson: "Well let`s move on to education and you wanted to highlight the passing of John Taylor Gatto."

 

"Yes, I wanted just to highlight how important John Taylor Gatto has been and to briefly .... record his passing on the 25 October. He has been an inspiration to many of us. He`s spoken with great vigour and great insight about what exactly is wrong with the education system, the very fundamental harm that it does, and the depth of the problem and what can be done about it, and the joy and vigour that can be obtained from education that`s based on different principles. He`s written several books. `The Underground History of American Education` is an absolute goldmine of information on these matters. There`s one called `Dumbing Us Down` - probably about half a dozen books in all .... Anyone who`s interested in education at all, anyone who`s interested in how to think freely, and anyone who`s interested in how the state is modifying society, needs to read John Taylor Gatto. He was a great man and he`ll be sadly missed."

Mike Robinson: "So we have a quote here. Genius is `as common as dirt`. We suppress genius because we haven`t yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women. The solution, I think, is simple and glorious. Let them manage themselves`...`"

"Yes, and this is what he put into practice. He won New York state and New York City, `Teacher of the Year`, He was working in a very poor school and ghetto in New York and with very poor and disadvantaged pupils and they were doing magnificently well. They were going to various universities and no-one could figure out how he did it. But what he was doing was he was engaging with the parents, working with them and the children and completely subverting the system. And so when he won the award he had to resign because the attention he got stopped him doing the subversive creative things that were actually working. So this is an extract of his resignation which was published in the.... Washington Post. It was titled `I quit, I think`."

"I`ve

"I just can`t do it anymore. I can`t train children to wait to be told what to do. I can`t train people to drop what they are doing when a bell sounds. I can`t persuade children to feel some justice in their class placement when there isn`t any, and I can`t persuade children to believe teachers have valuable secrets they can acquire by becoming our disciples. That isn`t true..."