Dear Mr Evennett, Why should I pay equal taxes...?

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This week most of the reports I have read relating to issues for our gay community have been in response to the brilliant Stonewall research reports highlighting the difficulties of gay teachers to be out in school environments.  Reading about young teachers being kept awake at night with their fears and anxieties over how to respond to simple questions that other staff would not batt an eyelid at did not shock me but did continue to fuel my resolve to campaign for equality in all aspects of our lives.  This morning however I woke to read the Pink News article detailing the response of Stefano Borella the local gay councillor for Bexley to MP David Evennett's announcement that he will not be voting in favour of equal marriage.  He has apparently written to his constituents explaining this statement, details of which the Bexley Times have not made public and a scan of his own wordpress site also fails to give further information.  In the comment to the local paper Mr Evennett hides behind this quote;

"I’m a strong supporter of traditional marriage and I won’t be voting for any changes in the structure."

“I’ll be releasing a more in-depth statement when the bill is published.”

 So Mr Evennett I have a question for you.  Why as a lesbian resident of your Borough should I pay equal taxes?  Why should I give as much as every other resident yet not be entitled to the same as them in return.  My hetrosexual neighbours can chose where within the Borough to get married and in fact secure a discount on many of the venues as a resident of the Borough.  I on the other hand cannot, yet my taxes pay an equal contribution towards the upkeep and maintenance of these municipal buildings.  Perhaps you need to be somewhat more open, honest and clear about your reasons for voting against equal marriage.  Maybe it is time you actually said what you really think about how equal you feel the gay community should be? Don't hide behind statements of how you value the tradition of marriage and dont want to change things.  Stand up and be counted for the job you took on when you became an MP to represent the views of your constituents in the best interests of all of our local community.

click to visit the MP's blog

You have a comprehensive website which is updated approximately every 3 days with pictures of you standing shoulder to shoulder with people who visit our Borough or have championed a cause in order to change some policy decisions.  Yet when I search that site for mention of LGBT, gay, lesbian or equal marriage it returns no results.  In fact only when I search 'equal' does it pop up a few posts dating back to 2010 and 2011 realting to smoking, cancer and voting reform.

Here's another question for you, Are you aware of the LGBT community in your Borough and have you done anything to support them at all in the last 3 years?  The answer from your blog is clearly no, but maybe you have missed a report or two that you would like to share with your gay and lesbian readers.!

I don't stop being a lesbian on the way down the stairs...

On which step of my stairs from the bedroom to the front door do these people think I magic myself hetro?  If I had a penny for every time I hear someone in education suggest that the private lives of teachers are of no consequence to the students in response to the question of staff being open about their sexuality I would indeed be writing this very blog post from the deck of my beachside cabin in Tahiti and not from the study of the lovely but modest 3 bed semi I share with my beautiful girlfriend.

You see there is one of the very issues, if I was to be closeted as a teacher then I could not make passing mention of some event  my girlfriend and I experienced at the weekend.  When students express their love for my latest iphone case and say "Miss where did you get that?" I would have to invent an instant lie or be highly trained in smoke-screening my answers.  I could not simply and naturally answer "Not sure as my girlfriend bought it for me".  This question of whether or not gay and lesbian staff should be out at school has raised its head numerous times in my 20 something years in London schools and has too often been met with the philosophy of well meaning colleagues stating that what Mr or Ms X does in his or her bedroom is of no consequence to the students, in one guise or another. Sometimes it is referred to as their private life, sometimes home life, I have even heard it called a person's marital preferences, but always it is a hidden part of life and equated to sexual activities and bedroom preferences.  At one school I was once told quite firmly by a pastoral leading colleague of mine that what she and Mr R did in their bedroom was no business of the children and the same should be true for the private choices of other members of staff.

Whilst she was clearly right, any teacher's bedroom activities are quite definitely not for public discussion in the classroom, but right there lies my biggest issue with this response.  I am a lesbian in my bedroom, in Sainsburys, when swimming in the sea and when trying to unlock the barriers to learning of the many children I have had the pleasure to teach over the years in a classroom.  I do not cease to be a lesbian on the stairs as I leave my bedroom, nor on the bus or train travelling to work, or in fact as I enter the school gates and open my register or chair my first meeting of the day.  This is my issue, being a lesbian is who I am.  It is my life and my natural existence and I should no more have to perfect the art of smoke screening or fabricating answers to students than any other member of staff.  Of course we all have our own comfort zone with truths, realities and how open we are happy to be with those around us.  I am not advocating that we all have to share everything, check my Facebook you will find I have many friends from many walks of life but I dont play my life out dirty washing and all for this online community to share, although some of my friends sometimes do and I feel a need to squint as I read their status updates when they do this but it is their choice.  If the individual teacher in question feels happy to be open about their life with the students then it is the responsibility of every school to support them.  There would be uproar if a member of staff was told they could not be supported if they shared details of their heritage or where they grew up or was told to invent an alternative story when asked about this aspect by students.  Being free to be open and honest in response to questions or when describing something you have done out of school time, perhaps travelling to an amazing part of this planet, is the right of everybody in every school.

I have always lived in the communities in which I have taught so how would I go about being closeted in the way some learned friends suggest it should be done.  When I bump into a small group of students in Sainsburys as I often do, them grabbing some snacks to head to the cinema and me quite obviously doing the weekly shop with my girlfriend, what might I say when asked on Monday, "Who was you in the shops with Miss?"  What about when I am seen cycling along the river path again with my girlfriend at the weekend  and stop to say Hi to a student and her parents, the mum introduces the young girls father as we have not met in school before, how should I escape the moment of having to introduce my girlfriend as maybe my sister, but hang on was this girl among the group that I saw in Sainsburys recently and what did I tell them when asked on the Monday morning?  Finally at the Y11 parents evening at the end of that week I was stopped by the parent of one student who showed me some pics on her phone of our kittens playing in the tree in her garden, she was checking if they are my cats as she was pretty sure they come from over our fence most days.  So yes she lives in the road backing onto our garden, should I be more careful when calling my girlfriend affectionate aliases in case they too are enjoying the sunshine and hear us speaking?   You see in the shops, the garden and at school parents evening I am who I am (to coin a phrase) and would need MI6 espionage training if I was to keep up the facade of lies about who the woman sharing my home, car, life and leisure time is.  Why should I be forced to lie any more than anyone else?  Often in the course of my interactions with students I am asked some very bizarre questions and am under no illusions that the young people I am working with are genuinely interested in the answer, more they are fishing for details of my life to satiate their inquisitive natures.  I have been asked many times am I married, is my partner tall, what did I buy my partner for Christmas and of course the ultimate have you got any pictures of your partner on your phone Miss?  As I have already said I am clear the young people are not asking because they are conducting a personal survey into the heights or leisure interests of the partners of members of staff.  This is their way of saying "Miss are you a lesbian?" yet they are so comfortable with the matter they realise that I might not welcome the confrontation of an outright question but would prefer the opportunity to choose my responses and in this way they have astutely allowed me the opportunity to show my level of confidence in their attitudes and behaviour by selecting how open I am happy to be in trusting them with information about me.  Usually this type of interaction has occurred with Year 7 and 8 youngsters who have heard from older students on the grapevine that I am gay and feel a need to have that open discussion for a range of reasons.  Some instantly engage in a conversation with me about their two mums, or a family member who is gay, others teater around the edge of the conversation over a number of weeks gradually building their confidence in trusting me with information about them, someone they know or a long and often muddled list of questions they just want to talk about out loud.  Obviously as time moves on and it becomes widely known who the out staff are within the school community it becomes more and more natural in discussion and often acts as a reminder of inclusion in meetings and lessons.  I have popped into a classroom during walk through lesson observations only to be greeted with a proud member of staff holding an open discussion about the causes of war and aggression and including all relationships in their examples to the class that it is not just hetrosexual husbands and wives that argue about relationships with each other.

So to the outcomes which are let's face it so important in the public learning world these days.  I know from first hand experience of young people who have had a really positive time at schools as a result of there being a small number of out gay and lesbian staff in the community.  I have had amazing genuine honest conversations with parents and carers on issues of sexuality, been part of a group of staff who worked with young people to develop training resources to ensure all staff were well equipped with the tools to challenge homophobic bullying and above all else been able to be completely natural with young people and their families in a way that when I last passed a year 10 lad and his mum at the local picturehouse recently he said "Hi Miss, Hi Miss's girlfriend, what film you seeing...?" and continued the conversation without a single unnatural pause or uncomfortable question.  I am proud that the school I worked in had a truly inclusive ethos and support at all levels was excellent as too was challenge when needed.  These outcomes occurred alongside many others including excellent achievements and superb performances in a range of disciplines.  Whilst I was discussing the difficulties being encountered by two dads during the breakdown of their civil partnership I was also discussing the difficulties of another family dealing with their marriage separation, the important thing about these outcomes is they all occurred with equal respect and support in an open and honest environment.  That for me is true inclusion and must be an aim of all school leaders to support and facilitate such an environment of trust and truth. It is through genuine attitudes towards inclusion and equality that we will move forwards together and the young teachers laying awake at night worrying about being out at work and being the only one to tread the path in their schools will sleep easy in their beds and rise to know they will be supported fully in being honest and truthful in the place they spend more hours of their waking life than any other during their years of employment.  This environment nurtures confident enlightened young people who are aware in society of the diversity around them and competent and thoughtful in their approach towards difference.  It ensures young people who are gay, lesbian or questioning feel that they exist and can grow to feel safe in being open themselves when they are ready.  But above all else an environment of open honesty will educate all those well meaning yet somewhat blinkered colleagues who have considered being gay or lesbian is something that happens in a bedroom and remains there hung on the hook with the bathrobe whilst the owner pops out to work all day.

do one thing for others this Anti Bullying week...

This is the first year for a long time that I have not been directly involved in a range of activities across my local area to arm young people with ideas and support in beating off bullies.  Opening the minds of the bullies to how they make people feel with their throw away comments or dedicated systematic use of put downs and mis-treatment of their chosen targets.  I have always felt passionately that whilst bullies are dangerous, spiteful and hurtful in their pursuit of power, they are nearly always weak and lacking in self confidence inside or victims themselves at the hands of some other more powerful person.  It is not likely that a person will be born with an innate nature to upset and hurt others.  It is of course likely that we are all born with a sense of survival however and when challenged by someone especially a bully we will find our own way of dealing with it.  For some that is hiding and avoidance, for others head on collision and for a lot of young people dealing with bullying includes absorbing the harmful comments and accepting the taunts as true and feeling they are aspects about them that must be changed in order for the person to fit in in their society.

That final issue of fitting in in society is so important to young people in and around their peers and friends that the words of bullies have been known to bring about haircuts, changes of glasses, the wearing of contact lenses, avoidance of special needs support and of course a full range of changes in the wardrobe and footwear departments not to mention the sudden and inexplicable dumping of best friends at the request or demand of a bully as a ticket to join their group.  My early experience of these fitting in strategies and of bullying were of course in my own secondary school.  We didn't have much in the way of bullying in my infants and junior schools mostly due to none of us having much at all to compare and us all living in the same village meant all our parents knew each other well as did our big brother and sisters who would step up in defence at the drop of an unkind remark.  I do recall being about seven and a new lad in the village teasing my big brother for having NHS glasses on.  My brother would not retaliate so I set about this new lad in sibling defence.  He never bullied my brother again, although my brother was none too happy with his little tomboy sister fighting on his behalf and my dad grounded me for a month.  Not too bad it was winter so not ideal rollerskating terrain anyway.

Yes my secondary school days were smattered with bullying and the thing that surprised me most was that it could be for absolutely any reason and some of the girls just didn't care how hurtful the reason or how much out of the control of the individual it was, it was a reason to bully in their eyes. In fact lets just call it a difference, after all thats what it was.  I went to an all girls grammar school 25 miles from my home village, trust me it was the nearest one!  The admission policy was passing the 11-plus exam, but there was a graduated approach to what constituted passing.  If you lived near the school you needed to achieve 75% to gain entry, if you lived 5 to 20 miles away 90% was your pass mark and outside of 20 miles radius you needed 95%.  So my 97% was my ticket to ride 3 buses and a train every day twice a day for most of my formative years.  But this meant I arrived with difference written all over me.  I was an out of towner.  I was often late thanks to the 7am train being the least reliable on the Fenchurch street line.  I lived surrounded by fields and owned horses, now some people might have seen this as a positive, however my peers related my ownership of the four legged beasts more to a pikie lifestyle than the polo playing aristocracy.  It was odd that some things didn't seem to rise high on their list of noticeable difference, for example the fact that I had a boys haircut and was junior school conker champion for 3 years on the trot, which I boasted about on day one whilst holding a string of shiny horse chestnuts on an old bootlace.  Yes these girls were certainly fickle in their selection of difference, or maybe these tomboy tones were as invisible as I was inside the classrooms.

In lessons those of us that came from out of town were pretty much non existent.  We were of course used as an opportunity for some staff to ridicule publicly at times, I recall an English teacher asking one of my out of town friends if there was a library in her village.  All said in a tone of condolence until she replied that there was a mobile one that parked right outside her door as if she had a personal service from the penguin publishing house.  It was always a 'them and us' battle.  In French class during the 2nd year topic of 'travail' we were taught the phrases used to explain the jobs of our mothers and fathers... then we had to choose from the list of professions on the board, which of course included doctor, bank manager, headmaster, nurse, dentist, shop-owner, works in a big office in the city... you get the idea. Of course the problem here was my dad worked in a cement factory, one of my friends had lost her dad when she was 3 and another one had two mums both working as secretaries.  So when it came to our turn we each chose our defence mechanism.  The friend without a dad would just make up that he was a bank manager, I would fight head on and demand the french words for cement factory engineer were added to the list on the board if I could be heard over the laughter of the entire class and my other mate would pretend a sudden bout of illness and leave the room among cries of "gonna be sick".  That was our early practical experience of hide and run, change to fit in or fight it head on and take the consequences.  Of course in the classroom this was met with "come on now girls quieten down and leave those girls alone".  Yes that's what they wanted, us left alone and not to mix with their upper crust notions of themselves.

Not all the girls bought into this ideal by any means, in fact some of them liked the idea that we had different interesting lives and often quizzed us in a friendly way in the playground.  Questions like, "what time do you have to get up to get here?", "is it dark when you get home?", "does your dad smell of cement?" and "why are you sick so many times every day?".  Basically we made friends and we found our ways to fit in and as we moved into the middle and upper years I became the defender of all things bullying to do with the 'Out of Towners' when new ones arrived from far flung parts of the Essex countryside.  One or two of them even travelled further than me to get to this traditional seat of learning.  So I suppose my passion for equality and fairness were established as a young person from first hand experience.  I welcomed the difference of my peers, was always intrigued to win their trust and learn more about their home lives that like me they kept closely guarded, only seeping out small details at a time, more to ensure the other girls could cope with the information and not become panicked and begin an outcry when grabbing the wrong end of the stick.  I was especially drawn to the friend with two mums and they were great characters too.  Really warm friendly people with an outspoken honesty I hadn't come across before. I loved bumping into them when they came to watch hockey matches, although they never held hands or revealed their relationship in public, that was the way it was in those days.

So what of the girls who did not appreciate difference in their midst?  Well they fell into two camps, one lot kept their noses deep into thick hard covered text books during break and lunchtimes, learning, learning always learning yet never actually noticing anything of the world around them.  I swear some of them knew more about Einstein than they did of their own family.  Then there were the bullies, the other camp.  These girls did not care about hurt, or upset.  I truly don't think they stopped for a single moment to consider the emotions they caused with their words, looks, barging and blatant public humiliations.  They were your typical old school bullies, always in small groups of 3 or 4.  Never found alone inside the school walls.  Rude and uninformed and above all else suffering some inferiority complex of their own for which their solution was to bully others to make themselves feel better.  One of the little 'gangs' had decided their target would be my mate without a dad.  Clearly this was something completely out of her control, deeply upsetting and not possible to change.  None of this mattered to the bullies.  They would call her names, I would tell her to ignore it.  They would barge her in the corridor, I would walk between her and them as some kind of shield.  They would push her over in the playground and kick her bag across the floor spilling out it's contents.  She pushed me out of the way and went hell for leather fists flying and arms flailing until they were either fallen or running.  I was stunned.  She had taken as much as she could and this time would take no more.  The bullying had been going on most of the school year and not a single teacher had dealt with an incident, we always sorted out playground trouble ourselves.  This was a girl who like me had been singled out as being different in class, and it wasn't just French class.  She had been tipped over the edge and lost her temper.  Yes she needed to be disciplined for her actions but for the bullies to walk away almost as victims themselves, and for her to be arranged a move to a comprehensive school nearer to her home was just plain wrong.  I tried to explain to teachers, but only my form tutor would listen.  She listened, didn't act but listened.  So one less out of towner and one set of even more powerful bullies.

For the remainder of my years at the school I was playing a lot of sport and was well known for being able to bench press more than the PE teacher in our shiny new multi gym installed in the far end of the big changing rooms.  This meant no one troubled me, I was able to keep an eye on younger kids who were being bullied and put a stop to things pretty quickly but it wasn't until I left and bumped into a school friend through Facebook some years later that I found out it was due to my 'air of mystique' that I didn't even know I had.  Apparently being strong, fit enough to play sport every day, living in the country which kids just didn't understand how I managed life without a high street and still having a boys haircut, albeit by then a rockers quiff and flat top made me not only un-bully-able but also presented such an air of confidence that the bullies would not mess with me, so when I said leave it, they left it.

I didn't fit in at all, but I found my way through the school society and it's traditional standards and what would now be called institutional bigotry, and they found a way to get me a few O'Levels, a couple of A'Levels and a passage to teacher training college mostly off the back of my sporting resume rather than any beacon I had lit for learning and teaching along the way.  I managed to survive seven years in that place without the mention of the existence of gay, lesbian and bisexual members of society, definitely no comment of transgender life, and the only reference to black and ethnic minorities came in history on the page titled "Zulu Kings".  To say it was narrow in its community and aspirations for it's girls would be a gross understatement.  In fact most of the staff managed to mention boys in the guise of an alien form and when the local council insisted the sixth form be forced to admit boys as well several of the senior team almost keeled over from apoplexy. The claims made at the open day were that this was a place of traditional values and high standards, where young girls would grow into women and be ready for their place in society.  Don't even start me with what that all meant in real terms.!

So I survived and went into a fabulous career in teaching in some pretty tough and complex inner London communities.  During this career I have been a passionate advocate of anti-bullying, launching new campaigns in each school as I arrive and in recent years working across a local authority with lots of like minded adults and young people to support others in dealing with the challenges of bullying from every angle.  I have worked with young people who bully and want to stop, some who are desperate and turning the feelings inward on themselves.  I have known several young people who have attempted to take their own lives and one who succeeded, all as a result of the cruel harmful spiteful bullying behaviours.  Each year I have presented assemblies and run workshops with some of the most amazing people and listened to some of those tell their story, so this year I have told mine and I hope others will be able to go on and tell theirs.  Remember we all have a role to play in supporting others in stopping bullying, what better time to be involved than next week during National anti bullying week.

Click the images for links to sites supporting anti bullying...

and then I laughed out loud...

I have been pondering lately the prospect of restarting my subscription to the TES newspaper.  It was something I used to have delivered for a long time and then stopped it some years ago when I found myself pulling the plastic wrap off of it so that I could put it in the paper recycling box without feeling that I had infected the local authority paper pulping machine with unwanted plastics.  Why was I unwrapping my paper and chucking it straight in the recycling?  Well at the time I was existing on 20 hour days, mostly spent in front of one screen or another crunching a data sheet or three for the purposes of monitoring progress and identifying another common cohort of young people who would benefit from some intervention or support on their specific need. It was a monster I have to take responsibility for creating and had a huge impact on the outcomes for all in terms of achievement but did however mean I barely saw daylight, was referred to as 'the mushroom' by my close colleagues and in turn never found a minute to read the TES or any other article unless it was poking itself out of the top of my bulging to do list as evidential research towards a discussion planned on an upcoming SLT agenda.  It is true to say that prior to my job description taking on the shape and form or an assiduous giant I used to enjoy a Sunday morning coffee and toast with the TES spread out on the breakfast table and was an avid fan of the words of Ted Wragg every week.
So in my pursuit of a decision over whether or not to restart my subscription I bought last week's copy and have thoroughtly enjoyed using some rest time this week to enjoy many articles contained within.  I especially enjoyed the article by Kenneth Durham, headteacher of University College School in 'tes comment' giving clear and concise opinion on the subject of Lord Adonis and his scathing reports suggesting the Berlin wall between state and independent schools is in need of demolition.  It was a breath of fresh air to read that:

"We want to be involved. At local level, we frequently are.  At national level, ministers and members of the House of Lords cannot seem to find the time to talk (nor, apparently, to listen).  Instead they make do with repetitive political posturing.  It all gets a bit tiresome."

Quite amused me to feel that we have in this country a government department that claims to know what is best for the future of education yet is failing on all counts to engage the independent or the state sectors and yet the key academies driving force tells anyone that will listen that closer links between the two is the way forward.  Lord Adonis would do well to listen to his own advice, he is basically saying the best learning goes on when the schools have as little as possible to do with the control of the government in terms of funding, curriculum design and assessment and are allowed the autonomy to decide on the vision and ethos that is right for their specific community, not an academy blueprint parachuted in from on high.

This it must be said was not the be all and end all of my joy of returning to the TES as I then laughed out loud at the column from Anne Thrope (Ms) and her comparison between the differentiation of old and the modern approach to seating plans as well as enjoying the picture or chaos painted by the words of Steve Eddison.

Well decision made, I am off to the TES website to set up my new subscription and enjoy the paper whilst my weeks harbour enough leisure time to really savour it's contents.

Where is our Olympic legacy...?

One of the best aspects of London 2012 has to be the brutal truth and honesty of the events.  Each competitor had given their season and lifetime best performance data to the organising committee and they in turn had set it into a handy little app allowing even the least sports minded viewer to have a quick glance before the starting whistle and gain some insight into the relative strengths and weaknesses of each country and their likely chances of success based on historical performance data.  The events were played out live on the red button across the nation meaning the viewer saw every pulsing movement of the competition, was held up by delays to electronic equipment or waited patiently for the kettle to boil during the half time break just like those of us lucky enough to attend the events live and just like the competitors themselves, although I am sure kettle boiling was not part of their half time routine at all.  If there was controversy or enquiry about rules or judgements then discussions were held in public and TV recordings played back to help the eyes of the referee see what he or she had missed in real time action.  The outcomes of these appeals were also reported publicly and efficiently to all and in turn discussed and given personal slant on twitter and across Facebook as the nation kept up with medals winning performances and defeats alike.  When apparent cheating was discovered this too was not hidden from view, but dealt with firmly as with the badminton fiasco when both pairs from China and South Korea attempted to lose the game by serving into the net so they would benefit from an easier run into the final of the competition based on the draw.  The referee and Olympic committee dealt with it firmly and and fairly by banning all competitors involved.  Now there are many in the world of top class badminton that will state the Chinese have been at this match fixing mischief for some time now and there needs to be stronger action outside of the Olympics, but for London 2012 they made a decision, stuck to it and moved on.

So what of this legacy in our Britain that is Great?  Where are the role models of honesty and trust for the young to look up to once inspired by the athletes of the summer games? That is for sure a challenge when you look at the news of this week.  To begin with a matter close to the hearts of our young people will be the exam fiasco, which everybody can see was a blatant unfair change of the points needed to score a grade C in the middle of the exam year.  Friends in the same school gained the same points in the same exam and one has a C because they sat the paper in March, the other has a D due to June entry and has missed out on a place to study A'Levels as a consequence.  So what of the honest robust role models dealing with this matter? Ofqual investigate, blame teachers for cheating and marking controlled assessments too high, head teachers release the exam moderators reports saying their marking was exemplary and Mr Gove is not prepared to get involved! Not involved, I think most Year 11 English students would tell you they think he is very much involved in the manipulation that started this row.

Moving on with the weekly news which yesterday stated more children needed to be taken into care.  The government has decided too much time is given monitoring young people living in unsafe situations when a quicker decision should be taken to remove them from the family home and into care.  This in the same week we here Teresa May announce another shambolic opportunity to muddy the waters of the past as she commits yet more public funding to three very separate enquiries into the abuse cases of the 70s and 80s in children's homes.  Buoyed by the confidence of the Saville victims these adults have shaken with fear and shame staring into a TV camera to tell the details of their abuse some 20+ years ago to a news reporter.  The author of the initial report, John Jillings says he can't recall any senior politicians names being mentioned in evidence back in the 90s when he did the report, which was shelved at the time it seems in case the victims decided to claim for compensation!  It leaves me cold wondering how the story might have looked of the 'care' at Winterbourne View had it not been for the secret filming evidence.  On that point why oh why do relatives have to resort to secret cameras in a care home room to tell them the truth about the abuse being dished out under the guise of care at some of these facilities?  The message here one would assume for the minds of our young is that when something really serious needs investigating it is best done by several different people who can all find conflicting details and draw varying conclusions helping to muddy the waters sufficiently to hide even the most disgusting events from the public eye.

Surely there must be good news that can boost the moral of our dejected youth struggling truly against the odds to pass exams and gain access to better future pathways in their lives.  Well Lucy Spraggan decided to pull out of X Factor due to ill health so the reports tell us.  Or was it due to her album going to number 2 in the charts in August until the producers made her withdraw it from sale whilst she took part in the competition, after all we wouldn't want a successful artist being in the program would we?  A superb out lesbian role model who I hope has gained enough exposure to bring her talents to the fore and will release her album again soon to show the world Simon Cowell does not own creativity in all it's forms.  Why open the competition to songwriters, then insist they try to sing a different genre of music every week?  What we love about the artists we love is their style, skill and character, not their ability to impersonate all other artists surely!  So here there is surely a positive message to be gained, be true to yourself and dont let the money people in suits lead you down a path that feels uncomfortable under your feet.

So as Christmas adverts hit the screens and I am still awaiting the first christmas song to be played on the radio, anti bullying week approaches so quietly it must have its new slippers on already, a primary school head teacher takes her own life on an inset day and the Americans have managed to make a sensible decision not to put a loaded redneck bigot in the white house despite almost half the country voting for him.  What I wouldn't give to bring back the Olympics.  To be surrounded just for one more day by the challenge, skill and determination of success and failure side by side, but more than all the tension and excitement just a day of truth, honesty and integrity which made such a welcome change to the twisted mangled mesh of deceit and confusion pumping out of central government departments and no doubt influencing the minds of the future.

Statistics: A game of numbers...

So back to my journey of discovery with Lord Adonis showing me the academy way!  Well the last chapter I read promised to make it clear to me why academies succeed however I soon discover the statistic being leaned against is that two thirds of the earliest opened academies visited by Ofsted are graded good or outstanding, but this could just as easily be said that a third of them are not good enough given satisfactory is no longer an acceptable standard.  The data, readers are assured goes on to tell us that the early academies are more successful than the later ones.  This concerns me considerably as I would anticipate that reviews of experience would impact the model of learning and ensure each new academy built further on the success of the previous ones, but no indeed it would appear that the early academy schools were flagship enterprises where additional focus and determination ensured they were the most successful, but the later ones commanded less public glory and have therefore gone on to be less so impressive, maybe they benefited from a lesser supply of additional funding and the crucial selection of governance support that Mr Adonis suggests is one of the key factors of an outstanding school.  So once we include all academies in the data from Ofsted it is clear that only half of them are graded good or outstanding.  It is intriguing that Lord Adonis does not use the word only in his version of that sentence  he states the statistic as if it is a good thing.  I have to be honest I have for too long worked in establishments where just over 50% achieving some measure or other was seen as a good thing and yet it truly is not.  Let's apply this measure to other aspects of our lives, for example if you baked 20 cakes and only 10 or 11 were edible would you say you had baked well?  If you had the tyres of your car changed and only 2 of them had been put on properly would you class your garage as successful? Would you equally be impressed with your local dry cleaners if they managed to correctly clean and press just over half the suits you sent in, or with your supermarket delivery if they brought  half of the things you ordered to your door packed among a pile of other unwanted goods.  So you get my point no doubt that this idea that 50 something percent is a good measure because it is more than half, is truly just not good enough.  For me the vast majority need to be doing well, thats 70% plus in statistical terms, and next time someone boasts of their glory that 54% achieved a specific measure of achievement dont miss the chance to ask what they are doing for the almost half that didn't manage to achieve that success?

In fact not only does the good Lord attempt to convince me that this measure of 50% achieving good or outstanding is the beginning middle and end of successful schools he also only manages a passing mention of other aspects including attendance rates, exclusion rates, which seem to be a taboo subject around academies, and no reference to the place the academy holds within the local community.  None of these seem to be measures of great importance to be placed beside the Ofsted rubber stamp mark.  He proudly describes schools where students wear smart uniforms (blazers and ties) and sixth formers wear suits, students line up at the end of breaks and stand every time a member of staff comes into a classroom.  Oh the tired stayed traditional mind numbing ways of the olden days when individuality and self managing behaviour and manners were yet to be discovered for their learning, growth and development benefits.  In fact he even goes as far as to quote one Academy head who's mantra to his students is 'the street stops at the gates'. This blatant acknowledgement that the world outside of the school is rotten and not worthy of being brought into the confines of the school is of course repeatedly trashing the place in which these young people live every day of their lives.  I have proudly lived within the community of my schools as have many of my colleagues and this close link to the world around us makes the difference in my opinion between a factory in which young people come to receive exam grades and then clock off again at the end of a daily shift and a place of learning, sharing and caring where the school and it's community work seamlessly together.  Agreed it is not always an easy relationship and some difficulties from the street can be challenging when brought into the playground and corridors but better that we face difficult challenges together side by side with our young people than build a fence and lock them out to deal with it alone after the home time bell.

The only aspect of this chapter investigating the success of Academies that I can fail to find fault with is the suggestion that excellent governance is one of the keys to the success of this style of school.  It cannot be argued that removing schools from the control of the local authorities would be anything other than a positive move.  To stop wasting the time of professionals working hard to provide a top quality value for money service to our young people by asking them to constantly meet to discuss targets and progress towards those targets with people who have no classroom experience at all can only be to the benefit of all involved. The decisions to allow a director of education who has barely set foot in a secondary school in her five years in post to have a say in the selection of headteachers for the schools within that Borough produces no shock or surprise when poor selections are made and taxpayers money is used repeatedly to remove inadequate leaders from post after sometimes short periods of clear lack of expertise and the consequential upheaval to the school and its community.  So yes I am in agreement that strong governance can make all the difference, skilled governors who really understand the process of learning and developing well rounded individuals ready for the challenges of complex societies.  But to suggest that academies are the blueprint for success based on half of them being good or outstanding and most of them being better than the failing schools they removed is utter nonsense and has not convinced me of their merits as a future solution in the way Lord Adonis describes his ambition for them.  As the young people themselves would tell you if you asked them if they learned anything from your lesson today if half of them said they had they would be looking with worry at the other half that had failed to progress.  But this chapter has prompted a lot more questions for me that I am researching hard for schools of all types across London and will be reporting my findings on this blog soon so watch this space for more statistical magic to come.!

Oh come on BBC...

it's called reporting!

The amazing Stonewall awards held last night were just brilliant to follow on twitter.  Not sure who they had in charge of the tweets during the ceremony but it was a superb piece of work that fed the names of nominations for each award followed by an anxious pause then the announcement of the winner and key points of their acceptance speech.  Genius Stonewall, well done you guys.

Then this morning I awake to the daily news only to find the BBC have managed to report the article in only one light, negative.  No shocker there given their usual lack of support for all things diverse.  Not a mention of the Stonewall awards recipients and all the great work they have done in order to be nominated, Oh no just a focus on Cardinal Keith O'Brien being awarded Bigot of the year.

Click the pic to read their full story and join me in the land of amazement when you too find they have managed to 'report' the whole article without mention of the very words spouted from the mouth of the Cardinal during the year that gained him the title.  How do they call this reporting.  Surely even the most dejected grade D summer 2012 GCSE English candidate (I do feel this will become a unique category of GCSE grading given the fiasco) is aware that any journalistic written piece should hold a balance of the views alongside all the facts available.  Yet the BBC fail to celebrate any aspect of these national diversity awards and manage to avoid mentioning that the fine Cardinal has;

"...stated that same-sex relationships are "harmful to the physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing" and compared equal marriage to slavery and child abuse.  The cardinal was a staunch critic of government plans to introduce equal marriage rights for same-sex couples, describing the measure as "grotesque", earlier this year".

as quoted by Stonewall on their website and the PinkPaper online this morning.  There is also a superb piece written on the awards celebrating the work of the winners alongside news of the Cardinal's campaign against same sex marriage on the independent online.

So what have the BBC learned from the hideous Jimmy Saville findings?  That there is a need for cultural change in their institution?  That now would be the best time to start that ball of change rolling? That every aspect of their work is in need of a huge leap into the 21st century?
As has always been my mantra, actions speak so much louder than words.  The fact that the BBC has failed to report this event in a positive light at all bears direct relation to the views they portray of our diverse community and the relentless work of so many groups that support equality.

A summary of the BBC report reads thus; A row has broken out after the Cardinal was given the bigot of the year award, the Cardinal was singled out by Stonewall, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson was booed off stage because she complained about the use of the Bigot award and then she called for tolerance, Christian concern were interviewed as they felt Stonewall wanted to shut down legitimate debate on equal marriage, acknowledged the Cardinal as being courageous and accused Stonewall of being contemptuous having a brazen attitude whilst a Catholic church spokesman is reported as saying Stonewall want to attack, demean, intimidate and vilify those who do not share their views.

Well I am no English teacher but my critique of their work here would include the lack of balance to the evidence and the complete failure to recognise any celebratory element of the event.  I would be asking questions of the performance of the reporters on the night if they failed to interview any of the other award winners or members of Stonewall who seem to have been very happy to give comment to every other paper reporting on this event.  In the opinion of this article the BBC suggests the most important aspects of the evening were that the Catholic church was wronged and I as a gay woman in society should be content with the call from Ruth Davidson for greater tolerance.  Well I do not wish to be tolerated nor do I feel it is acceptable for the public to not be made aware that this bigot award was achieved by the cardinal the BBC reports as courageous for stating that equal marriage rights for same sex couples are grotesque.  I want to be treated as equal in society, afforded the same rights and more than anything else I also want the messages going out to wider society to be a genuine reflection of events and not the tilted view of the BBC.
Thank goodness for equal access to other papers!!