Congratulations to the Solar Impulse Team.  What a great achievement. (See article) Go visit their website here.

Too little too late.

That’s what I say regarding the governments proposal to put power back in the hands of the teachers and school heads.

I have long been disgusted with the state of our schools and their products, the pupils. I say this not as a casual observer but as a concerned parent then grandparent. Over the last 30 years I have observed the steady decline of  standards and felt a steady rise of frustration at my own inability to do anything about it.

It really began to sink home when for a brief time my wife and I had my granddaughter living with us. We tried to take on the responsibility for keeping her on the straight and narrow despite her best efforts and also those of her mother. She was disruptive at school, frequently getting involved in disputes with the teachers. Very rarely did her homework / coursework. Her attitude towards school and the teachers was pretty much dismissive. Something her mother did little to correct. The school did what they could but the rules didn’t allow them to do what they clearly wanted to do, which was eject her from school. At least one teacher there was working very hard to keep her in school and tried to engage her in the curriculum. I offer her up as an example of the type of pupil that the teachers have to deal with. Without the help of the parents they have no support.

My granddaughter has left school now and although she was always pretty street smart what little attention she gave to schooling did little to prepare her for  “real life”. As a consequence she is, I feel, struggling out there.

Since then a second granddaughter has passed through the school system. She was much better academically and pretty much kept her nose clean. But even she, quite proudly, showed me videos and photos that had been taken on her phone during class time. The teachers at her school quite obviously did not have control of their classrooms.

Most  recently granddaughter number three has been the focus of our attention. She has been the target of bullying which the school has failed to deal with. It’s not all their fault. It’s the bureaucracy that ties their hands preventing them from dealing directly with the ones causing the problem. However, the bullying seems to be subsiding and now we are seeing the pendulum swing the other way and she is becoming disruptive in school and  once again the mobile phone is providing the evidence.

Published on the ubiquitous Facebook was a video starring granddaughter number three. The camera person wasn’t even in her class but outside in the corridor. If this was class time why weren’t the little darlings in their own classes. My granddaughter was well aware of their presence as she was playing to the camera. Not satisfied with filming through the wired glass panel in the door they actually opened the door to the classroom. My granddaughter then removes her overall to prance around again for the camera, I assume they were supposed to be doing art or cookery or some such subject. Where was the teacher ?

Excuse my rambling on and back to the subject. It may seem that I’m suggesting that the teachers aren’t doing their job but that is not what I’m trying to show here. What I’m trying to show is that they have there hands full with kids who know that they cannot be touched, who know that their parents will take their side before considering what the staff have to put up with.

The new rules will mean that teachers and heads will be able to search pupils, and confiscate items which have no place in school or the classroom, even without their permission.

Great, the first step must be to ban mobile phones from the school premises. Kids do not need to be in contact with anyone outside of the school grounds during school time. They certainly don’t need to be able to send text messages or publish their “status” on Facebook during school time. All of the these things my granddaughter has been doing. If the kids can’t be trusted to control themselves then the discipline has to be handed down forcibly.

The new rules will mean that teachers and heads will be able to remove disruptive pupils. Great, just one problem though. Have you seen the size of some of the kids that they have to deal with. It happened when I was at school. One of the pupils in the fourth year punched a teacher. That was a rare event for over forty years ago. These days the kids know you can’t touch them and they only have to say its the teacher that was bullying them and we all know where the focus of attention will turn.

Fine the new rules state that any teacher so accused will remain anonymous and rightly so. But where is the support for teachers who are alone in a classroom with disruptive pupils. Do schools have security on site. I have first hand knowledge of a friend’s daughter who was attached by fellow pupils while under the protection of a teacher who had locked the classroom door. The pupils just broke in anyway.

Somewhere along the way we have lost sight of the standards that I and my generation grew up with. We are too politically correct, too bothered about people’s feelings and no longer bothered about what is right. Somewhere along the way we took the authority away from the schools and their staff and some how we gave the power to the pupils.

I think the new rules are something to nurture but I believe it is going to take a long time for the effects to make a real difference.

OK so the Pope is coming to the UK.

Why is it going to cost the British Tax Payer an estimated £12 million ? And apparently that doesn’t include the policing bill.

If he wants to come over to visit let the Vatican and the Catholic church pay. After all they can afford it even if they have to sell an artifact or two.

The papers are full of news about the swingeing cuts that we are having to make so that Britain can become solvent again. Well here is an expense that is not needed by the general populace.

So I say again, Let The Vatican Pay

Since I first posted this there have been many articles in the press and the latest shows that following on from a survey more than three quarters of  Britons believe that the tax payer should not foot the bill for this visit. See article ….. HERE

It’s a shame that the Payne family have had to go through this farcical process just to see Roy Whitings term reduced by 10 years, following his appeal against the 50-year “tariff” applied by the then Home Secretary David Blunkett in 2002.

Whiting, currently 51, will be 82 before he is eligible for parole. This assumes that he reaches that age.

Shouldn’t life mean life ?

English rules tightened for immigrant partners

Surely it was an obvious requirement that anyone settling in the UK must be able to speak english. Am I the only one who believes this.

For all types of immigration the requirements should be …..

• True asylum seekers
  Might not meet that condition initially but it should be a requirement that they attend classes and reach an agreed minimum standard within, lets say, 12 months.
• General Immigrants (not tourists)
  Must have a minimum level of spoken english
  Must have a minimum level of written english
  Failure to meet either requirement should result in their application, to reside in the UK, being rejected. Let them re apply when they can demonstrate the required level has been attained.

Am I being too harsh. I don’t think so. I would expect nothing less from any country that I planned to settle in. Why would you plan to live in a foreign country unless you plan to integrate into their culture. Isn’t that why you went there in the first place, because it was foreign ?

There is nothing worse that the expat communities in Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal etc.. Everywhere you see signs declaring English Sunday Lunch, English Breakfast, English Pubs and so on. Then the “new locals” wonder why they are seeing a rise in “anti Brit” crimes in their community.

Seems just like England.

Congratulations to the British government for waking up…….. you are only 50 years too late.