Air rifle incident

"A boy bullied by Facebook trolls took a gun out in public and aimed at police marksmen in a bid to make them kill him."

"Autistic Samuel Barlow, 16, is behind bars awaiting sentence after admitting five charges over the rampage. But his father said he fired no shots and never wanted to harm anyone.And he told how his son snapped and ran amok with the air rifle after being "pushed over the edge" by Facebook bullies..."

"Barlow hiked six miles across country to Lerwick, where he walked through gardens in the town’s Westerloch area, tried to get into houses and threatened two terrified residents with the gun. He then advanced towards the islands’ two firearms officers and repeatedly pointed the weapon at them and their vehicle. The police did not fire. Instead, they tried to persuade Barlow to give himself up."

"Prosecutor Duncan Mackenzie told Lerwick Sheriff Court: "I’m not sure if the accused appreciates how close he came to being shot." He said the officers’ professionalism, restraint and courage had saved the teenager’s life."

"Officers, who had been trying in vain for some time to persuade Barlow to surrender, moved in and overpowered him at 5.15pm. Barlow was arrested and is being held at Polmont young offenders institution. He appeared in court on Wednesday by video link. The teenager pled guilty to four charges of assaulting police and members of the public by pointing the air rifle at them..."

"Paul, a crofter and father of six, deeply regrets the fear and disruption his son caused. But he wants the people of Shetland to understand what drove him to act as he did.  "Samuel has autism, and unknown to us had been stalked and menaced for three to four months on the internet. "People were manipulating him. This is what caused it. He was stable until these people got a hold on him."

"Paul said he and Barlow’s mum Ruth, 43, had been trying for years to get their son the help he needs. But he added: "The system wouldn’t do anything. The educational system failed him. We’ve always known he had learning difficulties but they’ve avoided diagnosing it as autism. "Autism is massively under-diagnosed in Shetland – there’s no psychological support. He was bullied at school for most of the time he was there."We didn’t want it to happen this way, but this is getting Samuel the help and support he needs."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/father-teenager-who-aimed-rifle-4793983

Progressive education

There is  a monotonous use of the word `learning` because just about anything a child does at school is going to be called `learning`.  There is an emphasis on skills rather than knowledge; being active, working in groups and personalisation. 

 Curriculum for Excellence is firmly focused on the learner. Opportunities to develop skills may be offered in different ways appropriate to learners’ needs. The opportunity to engage in active learning, interdisciplinary tasks and to experience learning in practical contexts is important in enabling all children and young people to develop, demonstrate and apply a wide range of skills.

 
It is important that children and young people are aware of, and understand, the value of the skills that they are developing. Adults, practitioners and learners should reflect together on their progress in the range of skills that they consider to be important in their learning, lives and work.
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/resource/doc/288517/0088239.pdf

What is wrong with progressive education.

 

How to sell progressive education.

 

Keep secret courts says Sue Berelowitz

Deputy Children's Commissioner Sue Berelowitz has said that children will be pushed into committing suicide if the secretive family courts are opened to public scrutiny...

During her address, Miss Berelowitz broke a widely observed media rule and described a common means of suicide. She added: 'I genuinely fear that it is only a matter of time before this deeply misguided motion, which has at its heart, I believe, an utter disregard for the welfare and best interests of children, and is, in my view, therefore unlawful, will result in the death of a child.'

Miss Berelowitz's suicide warning was greeted with amazement among campaigners for open justice and media figures.

Lib Dem MP John Hemming said: 'I don't know what planet this woman is on. If the media had not looked at the abuse of children in care, the events in Rotherham would never have been known.'

Bob Satchwell of the Society of Editors said: 'No-one in the media wants to expose details about children unless there are exceptional reasons to do so. It is strange that Miss Berelowitz uses emotional language when media organisations would be extremely careful in discussing matters like that to prevent copycat actions.

Campaigners for greater openness are not calling for children to be identified in family proceedings. In cases in which proceedings can be reported, identifying children would be contempt of court, for which reporters or editors could go to jail.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2870904/Opening-family-courts-cause-child-suicides-Fury-claim-children-s-tsar-secret-justice-battle.html

Perhaps it is the failings of the court system which Miss Berelowitz wishes to remain hidden. A study carried out by the Family Justice Council explored in detail expert witness reports submitted by psychologists to family courts.

Having examined the files on no fewer than 127 cases from the family courts in which psychological ‘experts’ were involved, the results were concerning — indicating an absence of qualifications and competence across a number of areas...

Experts’ were found to be conducting assessments covering crucial family issues without having the experience to do so, and certainly without use of the most up-to-date and accepted methods of assessing risk.

Equally concerning is evidence from the report that the majority of experts are not in practice, so they are not routinely treating clients or working as part of a wider service. Instead, there appear to be a growing number who are ‘professional’ expert witnesses, whose only practice is in providing assessments to a court.

Moreover, in conducting assessments of families, at least 20 per cent of them strayed far beyond their own field of experience, something that has the potential to be highly risky in child cases...For example, we found evidence of witnesses commenting on sex offenders even though they had not practised in this area, or commenting on mental illness without ever working in that field. ..

The research team found a bewildering array of difficulties in how the reports had been conducted. Some ‘experts’ did not seem to value the importance of conducting interviews with those family members they had been asked to assess.

There was also an overuse of psychological tests, many of which had no clinical value or were ‘made up’ by the psychologist involved. ..

On average. experts charge £120 an hour for assessing families and compiling reports. So this is a well-paid profession with tariffs set far higher than for many psychologists working in a full psychological practice...

Family courts clearly operate within the confines of confidentiality in an attempt to protect the interests of children. This inadvertently may have allowed for experts to avoid the close scrutiny — from both their peers and the public — which they might be exposed to in other courts.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2114616/Family-courts-incompetent-highly-paid-called-experts-failing-children.html#ixzz3LiuKmOYz 

Update 14.12.2014

Christopher Booker highlights three puzzles of the child protection system:

(1) The huge number of children removed from their parents on the grounds of potential emotional abuse.

(2) The number of parents condemned because they fail to co-operate with professionals who are attempting to remove their children.

(3) The role of psychologists hired by social workers who label parents with vague conditions such as `borderline personality disorder,` or `narcissism` for which there is no quick remedy; so children are removed.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/11291388/Baby-with-no-name-judge-defends-the-biased-system.html

Getting it right for every child, on benefits

A young mother with two young children in primary school, single parent, needs to go to the job centre and use their computer to job search. Each time she applies for a job she has to click on the appropriate button and send a copy of her CV. When she responded to an advertisement to help with research of the benefit system she was asked: "How many jobs have you applied for?"

"About 200," she said.

"And how many responses have you had ?"

"None."

Part of the problem is there are few jobs which work within school hours and are off on the school holidays. Nevertheless proving that she is searching for work is compulsory and the system is set up via the internet.  Failure to comply would mean she would be sanctioned.  Meanwhile there are a lot of obscure companies collecting her private information:  name, address, age, contact number, education, work experience.

"Have you ever been sanctioned?" she was asked.

"Yes," she replied. "I was doing workfare in a charity shop, but I didn`t know I was still expected to do the job searches. I got sanctioned for that. At the same time  even though I had no bus fare, I still had to work in the charity shop and do the job searches, or they would have sanctioned me the following week as well."

Back room Princes Trust Charity Shop

"I`d worked in a charity shop before, but voluntarily, in the front of the shop, using the till and working with the customers. But at the Princes Trust we were put in the back room. No windows, airless, no breaks, nothing. We had to go through dead people`s clothes. Some of them were stained and had sick on them. We were told this was to build up our self esteem. It couldn`t have been more depressing."

It doesn`t matter what the government says about helping people back into work, or how many TV programmes show the easy life of the benefit scrounger - that`s not reality.  Life on the dole for a single parent is a punishment.

Here`s the samedifference blog:

SINGLE parents participating in the Government’s flagship back-to-work scheme are being told to leave children as young as nine at home unsupervised in order to attend, according to a North-East MP. Labour’s Jenny Chapman, the member for Darlington, told MPs some of her constituents undertaking the Work Programme had been to see her to raise their concerns about advice given to them.

Speaking during work and pensions questions in the Commons on Monday (December 8), she said: "Single parents in the Work Programme in Darlington have been to see me because they are being told to leave their nine and ten-year-old children at home unsupervised during the school holidays to be able to attend...

In a leaflet explaining the Work Programme, published in December 2012, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), said those with young children would have their benefits protected. The leaflet said: "Reforms of benefits and tax credits are designed to improve work incentives for all, and make financial support much simpler and more transparent.



On the same blog there is evidence that a senior DWP manager is congratulating staff for reaching their targets for sanctions.

http://samedifference1.com/2014/12/10/senior-dwp-manager-congratulates-staff-for-hitting-sanctions-targets/

Human rights day in Scotland

The UN General Assembly proclaimed 10 December as Human Rights Day in 1950, to bring to the attention ‘of the peoples of the world’ the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations.

Let us bring it to the attention of the world how the rights of Scottish children are being breached.

From the Scottish Children`s Commissioner:

As a person, you have rights that apply to everyone in the world. These can be found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and are held by all people, no matter how old they happen to be.

 Article 12.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

The named person legislation wipes out this right at a stroke. Children cannot even make a complaint about their named person because there is no system in place to do so; neither can their parents on their behalf. Children cannot protect their honour and reputation because they can be written off as future criminals and educational failures, aged three. (It`s called early intervention)

Article 17.

(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Your private information is your property - but not if you`re Scottish.

Article 19.

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Not if social workers are coming after you and you live in the UK.

How many more abuses can you see ?

Will Scotland be included in the British child abuse conference and UK tribunal ?

Here are a couple of extraordinary events:

The first is a Spring Conference in 2015:  

On the 28th February and 1st March 2015, the British Constitution Group and UK Column will hold a joint conference at the Park Inn, Telford. As a major part of the conference, the BCG will hold a Grand Jury entitled “THE INSTITUTIONS OF THE STATE THAT SHOULD BE PROTECTING CHILDREN WERE NOT DOING SO”.

Two of its aims:

1 - to draw attention to the fact that Grand Juries are still a valid vehicle for determining whether if there is sufficient evidence to bring criminal proceedings. 

 

2 - to present to the public the evidence that institutions and individuals working within those institutions have not only systematically failed to protect children, but in some cases have been at least complicit in the abuse.

http://www.britishconstitutiongroup.com/article/spring-conference-2015-grand-jury

 The second event is the UK child sex abuse people`s tribunal.

Its mandate is to examine cases of Institutional Child Sex Abuse upon request from individuals or civil society organizations in the context of alleged failings on the part of Government and Statutory bodies both national and local. The People's Tribunal seeks to augment the Independent Panel Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, originally set up by the Home Office of the UK Government.

http://www.thepeoplestribunal.org.uk/home 

It looks like the two groups have not been in communication with each other and it is difficult to figure out how all this is going to pan out at the moment; but surely institutional child sex abuse in Scotland should be on the agenda. So far the Scottish government has refused to undertake any inquiry.

These are interesting times.

Future services

There is legislation in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK within which there are woolly notions about wellbeing and personalisation  - which have serious consequences for families and children. 

We`re going to provide the services for the future: whether it`s an elderly person dying, we`ll predict the dying and make it happen. Whether it`s a learner on the wrong pathway - we`ll predict the future and turn them around - or whether it`s a young person on a course to criminality - we`re going to get in there before it happens and make a difference. That is what our government tells us and it`s nonsense; it`s dangerous.

People will argue over Section 4 in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, for example, and the ramifications of certain clauses in the Act. If it can be turned around, it will be claimed that the Act was well intentioned and only requires a bit of tinkering and all will be well. Time and energy is lost and much damage is done through pilot schemes in the meantime.

The legislation is built up incrementally so that nobody suspects where it is actually going. [Yet somebody must know] We are not dealing with stupid people. They are quite capable of determining the consequences of the legislation. I do believe there is enough evidence to show that this type of legislation is put in place quite deliberately in order to achieve its consequences: surveillance, control of the population, and profit:

Finola Moss, a qualified solicitor, has produced a blog with a disturbing account of what happened to her disabled daughter and her family.

I started my blog out of desperation to see if anyone might help, and do something about my family’s and daughters plight. And the many others who suffer in silence in totalitarian Britain.

Families like mine are now, due to changes in the law, which dictate social care, medical, and educational services and funding, placed at the mercy of a ruthless state.

The old, disabled, and vulnerable have been made cash cows. And huge profits are made from their care, by large corporate monopolies, on the backs of zero hour agency workers. The simple policy of our government is to remove all of these people, from their families and community, by court order to encagement in care homes, mental institutions, and independent living units.

Their care is unaccountable, and in secret, and the families are cut out of their loved ones care for ever. Even visits.

https://finolamoss.wordpress.com/about/

The law works for dangerous paedophiles

PAEDOPHILE FREED ON A TECHNICALITY

 

Mr Justice Coulson

"A child rapist has been released after a judge said it would be "unlawful" to keep him locked up."

"Jeffrey Charles Goodwyn, 48, was given an indeterminate sentence in 2012 for indecently assaulting a seven-year-old girl eight or more years earlier. He already had a previous conviction for raping a nine-year-old child."

"Mr Justice Coulson said at the Court of Appeal that an open-ended sentence could only be passed for offences after April 2005."

"Despite the danger to the public which this applicant clearly represents, we are in no doubt that... The IPP (imprisonment for public protection) was unlawful," he said...

"Such sentences allow the authorities to keep the most dangerous criminals locked up indefinitely until they have proved they are safe. But Goodwyn went to the Court of Appeal about the sentence."

"At the hearing on Tuesday, the judge heard that while in prison Goodwyn refused to transfer to open conditions and the Parole Board described his conduct as unsatisfactory after he threatened staff and was punished for fighting. And Goodwyn's own lawyers said he had made "no progress whatsoever" in prison. He had also refused to discuss his sexual offending, the court heard."

"Mr Justice Coulson said: "This applicant remains a very dangerous man."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-30396520


PAEDOPHILE`S HISTORY HIDDEN FROM GOOGLE

Ronald Castree

 "A newspaper story about notorious killer Ronald Castree has been removed from Google under the controversial ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling."

"A Daily Mail article about the evil paedophile, who was jailed for life for the 1975 murder of Turf Hill school girl Lesley Molseed, will now not show up in the search engine’s results following a ruling by the European Court..."

"It is not known who asked for the article to be removed..."

"A Google spokesman would not comment on individual stories, but said that while the company disagreed with the ruling by the European Union’s Court of Justice, it had to respect it."

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/article-ronald-castrees-murder-lesley-7831883
 

NO2NP public meeting in Montrose

"The campaign, against controversial plans to appoint state guardians for every child in Scotland, stepped up with a public meeting in Montrose."

"Part of a series of meetings, being held across the country, the No To Named Person (NO2NP) campaign aims to increase pressure against the Scottish Government proposals and the No2NP Roadshow was in Montrose on Wednesday, November 26, in The Park Hotel."

"NO2NP has challenged the provisions contained in the Children and Young People Act in a Judicial Review at the Court of Session in Edinburgh. Under the legislation, more than a million children in Scotland, aged under 18, will be assigned a "named person" (someone other than their parents) - a health visitor or head teacher - who will have the power to "advise" and "inform" the child or discuss or raise matters about the child with the relevant authorities."

http://www.montrosereview.co.uk/news/local-headlines/no2np-montrose-meeting-1-3626624

Looking at the Act, INFORMATION SHARING is related to the wellbeing of a child or young person. Local authorities, health boards and other designated authorities (including voluntary organisations) have a duty to share information with the child`s Named Person if they consider it might be relevant to the exercise of the functions of the Named Person. From Part 4, subsection (5) of the Children and Young People Act, these functions include:

(i)advising, informing or supporting the child or young person, or a parent of the child or young person,

(ii)helping the child or young person, or a parent of the child or young person, to access a service or support, or

(iii)discussing, or raising, a matter about the child or young person with a service provider or relevant authority.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2014/8/part/4/enacted

Reading this part of the Act, parental authority is being taken over completely by the Named Person and so information can be shared without any thought about issues of confidentiality.

As leading human rights QC Aidan O’Neill says in the article above: "What is startling about the proposed named person service in the Bill, is that it appears to be predicated on the idea that the proper primary relationship that children will have for their well-being and development, nurturing and education, is with the State, rather than within their families and with their parents."

It will be even more extraordinary if the Scottish government gets away with it !

A bit of nudging from Pizza Hut ?

Is Pizza Hut nudging us to accept eye tracking technology?

 

Like most technologies, Tobii eye tracker can be used for good or ill. Tracking natural eye movements the technology can assist the disabled to control computers and so help them towards more independent lives.

Eye tracking can also be used for research and development and to study individual behaviours.

Consider this: "SteelSeries has teamed up with Tobii to develop the world’s first eye tracking training device to improve your gaming performance. It tracks your eyes, analyzes the data, benchmarks your stats to your favorite players and provides real time feedback to really improve your play."

When educators insist that game-based learning is introduced into schools the potential to study and manipulate students` cognition and behaviours is enormous.

http://www.tobii.com/

See also: http://alicemooreuk.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/game-based-learning.html