Friday, September 07, 2018
Thursday, September 06, 2018
Teachers Leave The Profession Because Of: Too Much Work For Too Small Salaries; Pupils Not Properly Disciplined: Excesses Of Bureaucracy; The Heavy Hand of Ofsted;Poor Public Regard. Sibieta Is Still Largely Correct.
Luke Sibieta: We all pay the price for low teacher salaries The school system has been put under pressure in recent years Pupil numbers are rising, teacher training applications are falling and teachers are exiting the profession after only a few years. This does not make pleasant reading for pupils, parents or the government. Early on in his tenure as Education Secretary, Damian Hinds highlighted that teacher recruitment and retention are two of his foremost priorities. A new Education Policy Institute report on the teacher labour market in England reveals why this area requires such urgent attention. Yorkshire, in particular, is one part of England seeing some especially acute teacher shortages. While pupil numbers in England have risen by 10 per cent since 2010, teacher numbers have failed to budge. Pupil-to-teacher ratios have risen from around 15 pupils to one teacher in 2010, to nearly 17 by 2018. Of further concern is that just at a time when we should be seeking to boost the number of teachers, training applications have also reduced. All of this makes keeping teachers in the profession a priority – but efforts to improve retention have not demonstrated much success. In fact, exit rates are on the rise, with only 60 per cent of teachers remaining in state-funded schools five years after starting. This rather gloomy five-year retention rate drops even further to just 50 per cent for priority subjects like maths and physics. Why are we seeing teachers leaving the profession? That teachers feel over-worked and over-assessed is well-documented. But we should not overlook the fact that teachers’ pay has declined by about 10 per cent in real-terms since 2010 – though this trend will end from September 2018, after the Department for Education’s announced wage rises. This does not and will not change the fact many teachers are often able to earn much more outside of the classroom. In maths, for example, average graduate salaries are £4,000 above those of teachers. This provides one explanation for why subjects like maths and the sciences have the lowest proportions of highly-qualified teachers. One of the most eyebrow-raising trends regards the stark differences in how highly-qualified teachers are represented in the most, and least deprived schools in England. In areas outside of London, just over a third of maths teachers and just under half of chemistry teachers in the poorest schools had a degree relevant to the subject they were teaching. In better-off schools outside of the capital, the proportions are far higher. Shortages of highly-qualified teachers in these poorer schools appear to be the most severe in physics. In the worst-off schools outside of London, fewer than one in five of physics teachers have a relevant degree. In richer schools outside of London, the figure rises significantly to just over half. There are massive disparities in teacher quality across local authorities in England. Some seem to find few problems attracting specialised teachers – yet we find many areas, including in Yorkshire, that are struggling to attract top graduates. The proportion of teachers with a relevant degree is particularly low in South and West Yorkshire. Our report isolates areas such as Barnsley and Doncaster, where, when it comes to the subjects regarded as “high-priority” by the Government, under 40 per cent of teachers have a relevant degree. It is in these, and other similar areas, that prospective solutions should be targeted with the most urgency. How can we alleviate these shortages, and secure a steady stream of highly qualified graduates into these parts of the country, and these priority subjects? Possible solutions include salary supplements of around five per cent. This aligns with findings from successful schemes in the US, in which teachers in maths and science subjects were offered bonuses if they remained in the profession. To be as effective as possible, this would need to be targeted at the local authorities most in need of highly-qualified teachers. School budgets are, of course, already strained. As such, the Government should consider a centrally-funded national salary supplement scheme. Such a scheme would be inexpensive, and should help to ease growing pressures. There is no quick fix, but it’s crucial that we urgently address the incentive structures presented to teachers. The longer the Government takes to act, the steeper the mountain it has to climb. Luke Sibieta is a Research Fellow at the Education Policy Institute
Read more at: https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/luke-sibieta-we-all-pay-the-price-for-low-teacher-salaries-1-9334606
Read more at: https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/luke-sibieta-we-all-pay-the-price-for-low-teacher-salaries-1-9334606
Some Hope Where 'Liberal Churches' Are Concerned!
Resisting Sexual Revolution May Be How God Unites Christians: Author
A robust repudiation of the sexual revolution should unite Christians of every tradition, says author Jennifer Roback Morse.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/resisting-sexual-revolution-together-how-god-unites-christians-author-jennifer-roback-morse-227184/
Get Off Fracking's Case!
Michael Baker, Aberdeen.
Thank you for affording readers the opportunity of discussing fracking this week. For almost 10 years now, I have been amazed by the flurry of groundless concerns raised by so many. Your correspondent Lorraine Allanson has more of the right view of it. Fracking is an uneventful semi-industrial process which is done, over a short-time interval, at the end of drilling a well and which hardly causes more disturbance than the actual drilling. The major noticeable effect of fracking will be an increase in employment. I live in Aberdeen and can confirm that oil and gas activity brings a big increase in jobs. Oil and gas development takes place under a “contracted out” model, unlike the “in-house” model of much industry, and the contracted-out jobs provide work and entrepreneurial opportunity. Before I end, fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is completely conventional. The source of the petroleum might be unusual, or the angle of the bore, but fracking is just fracking.
Read more at: https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/yp-letters-there-is-no-reason-to-be-fearful-about-the-future-of-fracking-1-9329491
Thank you for affording readers the opportunity of discussing fracking this week. For almost 10 years now, I have been amazed by the flurry of groundless concerns raised by so many. Your correspondent Lorraine Allanson has more of the right view of it. Fracking is an uneventful semi-industrial process which is done, over a short-time interval, at the end of drilling a well and which hardly causes more disturbance than the actual drilling. The major noticeable effect of fracking will be an increase in employment. I live in Aberdeen and can confirm that oil and gas activity brings a big increase in jobs. Oil and gas development takes place under a “contracted out” model, unlike the “in-house” model of much industry, and the contracted-out jobs provide work and entrepreneurial opportunity. Before I end, fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is completely conventional. The source of the petroleum might be unusual, or the angle of the bore, but fracking is just fracking.
Read more at: https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/yp-letters-there-is-no-reason-to-be-fearful-about-the-future-of-fracking-1-9329491
Chequers Plan Is A Total Dud.
It’s pretty clear now that a consensus has emerged that Theresa May’s Chequers Deal went too far. The UK was offering too many concessions – in the shape of a Common Rulebook, subservience to the European Court of Justice and a glorified customs union in all but name. Conservative members don’t want it, Leave voters don’t want it and the British people don’t want it. Even Remainers like Justine Greening are now openly dismissive of the Prime Minister’s plans. Polls like the one in Tuesday's Telegraph show that Chequers presents an existential threat to the electoral prospects of the party. Eight in 10 voters don’t rate the Tories as handling Brexit well – and that rating has fallen off a cliff... Telegraph.
French Basques From Bayonne.
Recently, I bumped into a French couple in a street in Spain who could not find their way to a particular market. They spoke only French.
Mrs Blogger and I were going in the same direction, so we accompanied them.
Theirs was a good French - clear and easy to follow and so we chatted merrily for a while.
The gentleman had worked out that I was obviously not French and so concluded that I must be Belgian.
I think that this must be the finest compliment ever afforded to my oh-so-rusty skills in the French language. He was certainly shocked to discover that I was English.
Mrs Blogger and I were going in the same direction, so we accompanied them.
Theirs was a good French - clear and easy to follow and so we chatted merrily for a while.
The gentleman had worked out that I was obviously not French and so concluded that I must be Belgian.
I think that this must be the finest compliment ever afforded to my oh-so-rusty skills in the French language. He was certainly shocked to discover that I was English.
Brexit: Go Tell 'Em Gisela.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1012252/Brexit-news-Gisela-Stuart-Rachel-Johnson-UK-EU-withdrawal-deal-second-referendum-video
Wednesday, September 05, 2018
Our Greatest, Wartime RAF Leader Saw The Dangers Of The EU.
A terrible menace’ Battle of Britain hero warned EU would 'succeed where Hitler failed'.
A BATTLE of Britain hero warned of the “terrible menace” of the EU 12 years before the nation joined the country the-then European Economic Community (ECC) in a private letter revealed today.
Swedish Elections Are Looking Interesting!
Swedes warned of EU collapse ahead of vote
"If we don't do it together, then we don't do it at all," said Bildt (Photo: Council of European Union)
By LISBETH KIRK
COPENHAGEN, 3. SEP, 17:36
The EU would "collapse" if parties like the far-right Sweden Democrats took power across Europe, Sweden's former conservative prime minister, Carl Bildt, said in a TV duel on Sunday (2 September).
Bildt's warning came in the first big debate to tackle EU affairs ahead of Swedish elections next weekend, where the Sweden Democrats, which has called for an in/out EU referendum, is polling to win one in five votes.
Akesson: "Is the EU ... a left-liberal project?" (Photo: News Oresund)
"To leave the EU is by far the most dangerous proposal discussed in this election because it would weaken Sweden and create greater uncertainty," Bildt said.
Most TV debates had so far focused on migration and social issues, but Sunday's duel, on the SVT channel, saw Bildt, a federalist, slug it out with Sweden Democrats leader Jimmy Akesson on his EU policy.
Sweden Democrats wanted "co-operation in Europe on trade", while rejecting the EU of today, in which "other member states' politicians and bureaucrats decide the lawmaking [in Sweden]," Akesson said.
If democracy put Sweden Democrats and others like them in control, that would mean the EU had lost legitimacy for all but Europe's elites, he added.
"Let's imagine my party takes power in Sweden, Le Pen takes power in France, in the Netherlands a similar party, in Italy, and then we take Hungary and so forth, are you still going to say that the EU is a good thing? Or is the EU for you first of all a left-liberal project?" Akesson asked Bildt, referring to French far-right leader Marie Le Pen.
That would spell the end of the European Union, Bildt replied.
"Should what you have outlined here happen, European cooperation is going to collapse and Europe would become a pawn in a game of the superpowers," Bildt said, alluding to China, Russia, and the US.
EU collapse would lead to "economic storms", an even worse "refugee crisis", and a rise in criminality, he added.
"Friends" of Sweden Democrats, such as nationalist parties in Hungary and Poland, had already made the refugee crisis worse by blocking EU efforts to share the burden more fairly, Bildt noted.
"We need more police co-operation, much more common foreign policy to prevent crises, such as the one in Syria, but all this is being prevented by forces in Europe .... similar to the Sweden Democrats," Bildt said.
But that type of thinking showed disrespect to voters, Akesson replied.
"So you say the EU can only cooperate properly as long as it is controlled by the 'correct' type of politicians, but when the 'wrong' politicians take over, then the EU doesn't function anymore?," he said.
Brexit clash
The two men also disagreed on Brexit.
"The EU elite is making an example [of the UK] and punishing the only country that has ever dared to exit," Akesson said.
Bildt said Britain was punishing itself by choosing to leave and by having no idea how to do it.
"They [the UK] are realising only now how important the EU is for their economy, for food, medicines, aviation, and other areas that were agreed at the European level," Bildt said.
He admitted the EU had a popularity crisis, but he said that a stronger Europe, with a joint military and with strong border controls, which was capable of standing up to people like Russian leader Vladimir Putin or Syria's Bashar al-Assad, was the best way to regain people's trust.
"Europe strengthens the nation state's ability to act in the world", Bildt said, naming climate change, refugees, and Putin as its main challenges.
"If we don't do it together, then we don't do it at all", he said.
"I want a different kind of cooperation in Europe - which does not threaten the nation state the way it does today", Akesson replied.
EU-wide conflict
The Bildt-Akesson debate came shortly after Hungary's populist leader, Viktor Orban, met Italy's far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini, in Milan.
Both events invoked the idea of a pan-EU conflict between two axes - pro-European liberals vs. eurosceptic nationalists - to be played out in the European Parliament elections next year.
"There are two sides at the moment in Europe. One is led by Macron, who supports migration. The other one is supported by countries who want to protect their borders," Orban said, referring to French president Emmanuel Macron.
Orban declared that he would form a league with Salvini and other like-minded politicians in the EU vote next May.
"It's clear that today a strong opposition is building up between nationalists and progressives," Macron said afterward.
"If they wanted to see me as their main opponent, they were right to do so," he said.
"I have one thing to say to them: bring it on," Swedish centre-left politician Margot Wallstroem also said at the time.
Leading from behind
With six days to go before Sweden votes on Sunday (9 September), the centre-left Social Democrats party of prime minister Stefan Loefven is poised to come top with 24 percent.
But Akesson's Sweden Democrats are tipped to come second, with 20 percent, beating Bildt's party, the centre-right Moderaterne (17%) into third place.
Everybody has rejected the idea of forming a coalition with Akesson for the sake of political hygiene.
One possible outcome is that a centre-left bloc, led by the Social Democrats and containing the Left party and the Green Party, would form a government instead.
Another outcome is that a centre-right bloc, containing four parties, would put Moderaterne's leader, Ulf Kristersson, in power.
Both models would create minority governments that would leave Akesson in a powerful position, however.
The centre-left bloc would have 41 percent of votes, while the centre right one would have 36 percent, according to a Scop poll published on 31 August.
A similar situation in neighbouring Denmark has given the Danish People's Party huge influence on domestic politics for the past decade.
The party - an official "friend" of the Sweden Democrats - has stayed outside government, but Denmark's centre-right rulers have governed at its mercy all the same. EU Obs.
Tuesday, September 04, 2018
Brokenness - Just How Much Is It A Christian Concept?
Here are some of the problems I have with it.
1. It implies someone can't function because they're so damaged. Life has really, really hurt them. A broken toy or a broken tool is useless and good for nothing. And yes, there are people like that, who have suffered beyond their personal capacity to bear it. But most people haven't, and describing them as 'broken' is frankly disrespectful. It turns them into victims rather than survivors. It also, by the way, devalues the currency – what have we got left to say when someone experiences a devastating tragedy or a spiritual or mental collapse? Most of us are not broken by our experiences. We're wounded, sometimes badly, but mostly just a bit scuffed and bruised. The emotional inflation implied by the language of brokenness doesn't really do us any favours.
2. It denies the power of God. The truth is that we are not all broken, because God heals people. There is, in some Christian circles, a tendency to luxuriate in brokenness, for understandable if misguided theological reasons. We want to stress God's forgiveness, and that we rely on him for strength to do what we'd otherwise be unable to do. But there's a kind of theological masochism that rather enjoys stressing how rubbish we are. I call it 'worm theology', after Isaac Watts' hymn, which asks of Jesus: 'Would he devote that sacred head/ For such a worm as I?' It is a fundamentally low view of human beings and human nature. If we continually tell people they're broken even after they've become Christians and are engaging in joyful discipleship, what does that say about the gospel? Isn't it supposed to help? To be permanently broken – or told that we are – is to be permanently a victim – and we aren't.
3. It can be a cop-out. When we hear 'broken' we feel sympathy. Broken people are victims – and sometimes, yes, they really are. But what if that language is really not appropriate? What if someone's problems – which may be genuine and deeply distressing – are the result of that most unfashionable of concepts, sin? And this matters, because broken people just need to be healed, but sinful people need to repent as well.
All in all, I don't think brokenness is a very useful category for Christian spirituality or discipleship. I think we go through painful times in our lives, and some of them are our own fault. Sometimes we experience trauma, and we'll experience the grace of God helping us through it, often through the presence of other people. And sometimes we'll sin, and churches ought to be communities of forgiveness where the sinner is restored.
But the aim of discipleship is for us to become Christians who are confident in our faith, aware of our weaknesses but generally resistant to sin. We are to be admirable people, advertisements for Christ. Yes, perhaps once broken, but mended – or in the process of being so.
Follow Mark Woods on Twitter: @RevMarkWoods
Corbyn: Oh Dear, Oh Dear.
EXCLUSIVE: Jeremy Corbyn is accused of misleading MPs after failing to disclose private meeting with Holocaust denier in Parliament
When giving evidence to a select committee inquiry into anti-Semitism in 2016, Mr Corbyn did not mention that he had had a private meeting in Parliament with a Holocaust denial group just two years before. Mail
Greens Haven't A Clue But Still Peddle Drivel.
Facts:
1) The world desperately needs energy.
2) Usage is on the increase and will continue to do so.
3) We need to produce sufficient supplies.
4) Greens oppose the production of said energy.
5) They oppose atomic energy, the only clean means by which we can meet our needs.
6) They propose wind power and water power as the panacea - means which are hugely expensive in capital terms - and at best, they could not even manage to produce 30% of our needs.
7) In true marxist fashion, they pretend that the mega investments can be achieved by bullying the entrepreneurial class with swingeing tax increases. (As if they'd stay around to pay 'em!)
8) They target the motorist as an evil. I wonder how many of them living outside London do not own a vehicle? - Incidentally, I paid a lot of money to own a hybrid - how many Greens do the same?
9) They oppose 'clean' coal-fired power stations - gas too!
10) Even when they are right - they are wrong. They work on the periphery of the problems - they try to reduce heat loss from houses and make them more efficient. Fine! Good. Big deal.
11) They support solar power - the summer of 2018 apart - how much difference can this drop in the ocean make to a major problem in the UK?
12) They KNOW that they are demanding the impossible with their approach.
13) I now see that wood-burning stoves are in their sights.
14) Stone age - here we come!
Fracking CAN meet all our energy needs for decades into the future. DEEP fracking - what we find most of in the UK - does NOT cause earthquakes and landslips.
As marxists - the greens are here to do their own social undermining.
Time to stop affording them ANY respect at all!
Answers Conference - Ireland.
Details of Answers Conference Ireland
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As mentioned at the launch of this event, this is the first time that Ken Hamhas spoken in the Republic of Ireland since 1999 and is also the first time Dr. Georgia Purdom has spoken for us anywhere in Europe - With a PhD in Molecular Genetics, her topics will include The Genetics of Adam and Eve and Eugenics: The Quest for Perfection.
The conference will focus on equipping people to defend the Bible and their Christian faith on a number of topics often questioned in today's society and will also feature the following speakers:
Advance booking is essential - Please help us by purchasing your tickets now on our Eventbrite booking page:
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