General News Thread

[Muzzy_no7]

@TamworthFoxes you banned from this thread now too? 😂

[Tommy G]

1 minute ago, ClaphamFox said:

Oh I agree that providing the state school system with the resources is the best solution. I just don't have any faith that it will happen.

 

A few months ago we visited a local state school (not the closest one I mention above, but another equally large one) that is regarded as being best-in-class for its provisions for neuro diverse children. We desperately wanted to like it and be reassured that our son would do well there. Only it turned out that their much-lauded provision is a special unit that autistic/ADHD kids are allowed to go to at any time - ie, they are permitted to leave the classroom and go to this unit and choose what work they wish to do, under the supervision of a teacher and an assistant. The idea is that no pressure is put on them and they can escape the demands of the classroom.

 

This may be fine for children who aren't particularly academically-inclined, but many neuro diverse children are very bright and perfectly capable of thriving in a class with fewer pupils if they have the right support. The last thing they need is a passport to walk out of the classroom and go to a special unit where they won't be subject to much scrutiny. And this school is held up as a model for what other state schools should be aspiring to. We came away feeling utterly deflated and depressed.

I feel your pain here. 

 

The Private School VAT hike was just an envy tax, portrayed to raise tax but instead has done the opposite and will put even more strain on the state school system and not raise any additional tax, it was a pure vote winner without the required review on the consequences. 

[leicsmac]

11 minutes ago, Muzzy_no7 said:

What planet you on 😂

The one where a single species is empirically shown to be causing an extinction event to rival any in its history, simply because they are so beholden to the idea of short term self interest that they've baked it into their social and political systems, presumably. 

 

1 minute ago, Muzzy_no7 said:

Isn’t just taxes though is it 🤦‍♂️

No, it's not. 

[CosbehFox]

Just to add with the neurodivergence discussion. 

 

I work with autism charity who've had their budgets halved within in the last five years.

 

They've gone being able to give 300 kids & young adults a service to now 150. Consistently this gives them no room to long-term plan. It's created a dreadful bottle neck when these young people reach 18 and there is literally no support. They are trying to prepare them for the world, its issues and its society. In the process the knock-on to parents, their own careers, their own choices is huge. 

[leicsmac]

10 minutes ago, ClaphamFox said:

Oh I agree that providing the state school system with the resources is the best solution. I just don't have any faith that it will happen.

 

A few months ago we visited a local state school (not the closest one I mention above, but another equally large one) that is regarded as being best-in-class for its provisions for neuro diverse children. We desperately wanted to like it and be reassured that our son would do well there. Only it turned out that their much-lauded provision is a special unit that autistic/ADHD kids are allowed to go to at any time - ie, they are permitted to leave the classroom and go to this unit and choose what work they wish to do, under the supervision of a teacher and an assistant. The idea is that no pressure is put on them and they can escape the demands of the classroom.

 

This may be fine for children who aren't particularly academically-inclined, but many neuro diverse children are very bright and perfectly capable of thriving in a class with fewer pupils if they have the right support. The last thing they need is a passport to walk out of the classroom and go to a special unit where they won't be subject to much scrutiny. And this school is held up as a model for what other state schools should be aspiring to. We came away feeling utterly deflated and depressed.

Can totally understand the feeling after having that kind of experience. 

 

I think that is a failure of direction and resources, rather than possibility, though. Even though it's pretty easy to have a lack of faith in things changing to what they need to be for enough people who need it after an experience like that. 

[urban.spaceman]

23 minutes ago, Muzzy_no7 said:

What planet you on 😂

What is it specifically that you disagree with?

[leicsmac]

12 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

Just to add with the neurodivergence discussion. 

 

I work with autism charity who've had their budgets halved within in the last five years.

 

They've gone being able to give 300 kids & young adults a service to now 150. Consistently this gives them no room to long-term plan. It's created a dreadful bottle neck when these young people reach 18 and there is literally no support. They are trying to prepare them for the world, its issues and its society. In the process the knock-on to parents, their own careers, their own choices is huge. 

Yet another example of too few or misdirected resources resulting in people suffering. 

[bovril]

35 minutes ago, Muzzy_no7 said:

@TamworthFoxes you banned from this thread now too? 😂

That's a shame, we need some comedy moments to lighten the mood

[Zear0]

34 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

I feel your pain here. 

 

The Private School VAT hike was just an envy tax, portrayed to raise tax but instead has done the opposite and will put even more strain on the state school system and not raise any additional tax, it was a pure vote winner without the required review on the consequences. 

Proven to be complete bollocks. 

[kenny]

4 minutes ago, Zear0 said:

Proven to be complete bollocks. 

Agreed. It didn't win any votes.

[Muzzy_no7]

34 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

What is it specifically that you disagree with?

That you seem to think the last 13 months have been any kind of improvement of the previous 14 years. 

[Tommy G]

34 minutes ago, CosbehFox said:

Just to add with the neurodivergence discussion. 

 

I work with autism charity who've had their budgets halved within in the last five years.

 

They've gone being able to give 300 kids & young adults a service to now 150. Consistently this gives them no room to long-term plan. It's created a dreadful bottle neck when these young people reach 18 and there is literally no support. They are trying to prepare them for the world, its issues and its society. In the process the knock-on to parents, their own careers, their own choices is huge. 

You are absolutely correct here and as a parent to an autistic 6 year old myself - I just have to flick on the news to see the impact it is having on families - LCC give me £85 a month towards any rest bite care for him, so that's about 3 hours a month - and then make it virtually impossible to do it through red tape. We are lucky we got him into a specialist provision but I was at the point of taking the local authority to tribunal over it, the stress is enormous alongside a responsible full time career. 

 

Massive respect to you for doing what you do and thank you for the support. 

[urban.spaceman]

My username might be in italics at the bottom of the thread for a while. 

[leicsmac]

6 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

My username might be in italics at the bottom of the thread for a while. 

Such is the price sometimes paid. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

2 hours ago, Muzzy_no7 said:

@TamworthFoxes you banned from this thread now too? 😂

Let the culling begin!

[Greg2607]

1 hour ago, Tommy G said:

You are absolutely correct here and as a parent to an autistic 6 year old myself - I just have to flick on the news to see the impact it is having on families - LCC give me £85 a month towards any rest bite care for him, so that's about 3 hours a month - and then make it virtually impossible to do it through red tape. We are lucky we got him into a specialist provision but I was at the point of taking the local authority to tribunal over it, the stress is enormous alongside a responsible full time career. 

 

Massive respect to you for doing what you do and thank you for the support. 

I think the Provision for SEN and Neuro Divergence as a whole is really poor in this country. right from school through to adults with learning disabilities. 

 

But aren't these the exact kind of things that we want to raise taxes to pay for?  they've been stripped to the bone previously and if we want to rectify it, and we want better state provision, then we have to be able to pay for it. 

 

same with Mental Health Services, NHS, Dentist Services etc. 

 

There is a diminishing percentage of working age people in the country, so unless there is some magic way of doing this, tax is going to have to rise.... 

 

given that we've essentially demonised immigration as a nation.... the solution isn't going to be from importing more workers from abroad to support the burden.... 

 

it also isn't going to be from raising birth rates either.... as someone said earlier... the social contract is currently broken.... lots of people can no longer afford to have large enough families for us to be above a replacement rate. 

 

it's a virtually impossible conundrum to solve. 

 

[Tommy G]

47 minutes ago, Greg2607 said:

I think the Provision for SEN and Neuro Divergence as a whole is really poor in this country. right from school through to adults with learning disabilities. 

 

But aren't these the exact kind of things that we want to raise taxes to pay for?  they've been stripped to the bone previously and if we want to rectify it, and we want better state provision, then we have to be able to pay for it. 

 

same with Mental Health Services, NHS, Dentist Services etc. 

 

There is a diminishing percentage of working age people in the country, so unless there is some magic way of doing this, tax is going to have to rise.... 

 

given that we've essentially demonised immigration as a nation.... the solution isn't going to be from importing more workers from abroad to support the burden.... 

 

it also isn't going to be from raising birth rates either.... as someone said earlier... the social contract is currently broken.... lots of people can no longer afford to have large enough families for us to be above a replacement rate. 

 

it's a virtually impossible conundrum to solve. 

 

Yeh and as previously stated we probably need to go down the route of the seriously HNWI not the £0-£250K a year payrolled workforce.  

[Greg2607]

1 hour ago, Tommy G said:

Yeh and as previously stated we probably need to go down the route of the seriously HNWI not the £0-£250K a year payrolled workforce.  

Of which I probably agree with you..... BUT..... the written press.... Owned by those HNWI, have a field day on "the millionaire exodus", how it will destroy growth etc.  christ, today, I've seen loads online about IHT and how it should be abolished.....  

 

It's the Super Wealthy that want to protect or remove IHT, because they don't want anything going to the state.  

 

They also don't want anything to impact on the world they've created which sees them absolutely fine.

 

They'll moan about all the crime though.

[Foxdiamond]

6 hours ago, Tommy G said:

I feel your pain here. 

 

The Private School VAT hike was just an envy tax, portrayed to raise tax but instead has done the opposite and will put even more strain on the state school system and not raise any additional tax, it was a pure vote winner without the required review on the consequences. 

I do know there are some wonderful state funded free special schools that bright neuro diverse children can thrive in but unfortunately too few in numbers and not enough teachers have the required training. To say the provision is patchy is a serious under statement.

[kenny]

7 hours ago, leicsmac said:

It's a bloody difficult thing to not let the personal be conflated with the important every time and goodness knows I can't criticise anyone for having a single issue focus, but at the end of the day such rationality has to win through or there will be much, much fewer chances for private education - and much less of everything else - for everyone. 

 

In this case, the problem clearly lies with the state school system not having the resources, rather than the private school having them. That needs to be the focus.

They have been talking education on lbc today. I hadn't appreciated that England is one of the highest performing western countries in maths, science and reading according to the PISA proficiency levels.

 

I wonder if our schools being poor and underfunded is more rhetoric than what is actually achieved by the education system.

 

Bridget Phillips on talks a lot about the 'massive inequality' in the education system. This contradicts the PISA conclusions that the UK has high levels of fairness in its system.

 

I do wonder if the current government will be able to outperform the previous 'terrible' conservative government on education.

[leicsmac]

21 minutes ago, kenny said:

They have been talking education on lbc today. I hadn't appreciated that England is one of the highest performing western countries in maths, science and reading according to the PISA proficiency levels.

 

I wonder if our schools being poor and underfunded is more rhetoric than what is actually achieved by the education system.

 

Bridget Phillips on talks a lot about the 'massive inequality' in the education system. This contradicts the PISA conclusions that the UK has high levels of fairness in its system.

 

I do wonder if the current government will be able to outperform the previous 'terrible' conservative government on education.

I think it's a case of being better than most, but still with room for improvement, especially in the area of SEN provision (which, again, the UK does better than most at).

 

WRT inequality, there's issues with that everywhere, education included, but it may be an area where its effects are lesser than others. 

[kenny]

20 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

I think it's a case of being better than most, but still with room for improvement, especially in the area of SEN provision (which, again, the UK does better than most at).

 

WRT inequality, there's issues with that everywhere, education included, but it may be an area where its effects are lesser than others. 

Indeed, 10th overall, the only way is up....

 

Another interesting comment was that the UK is one of the few countries where immigrants aren't discriminated against in the education system and have typically better outcomes than the born population.

[leicsmac]

1 hour ago, kenny said:

Indeed, 10th overall, the only way is up....

 

Another interesting comment was that the UK is one of the few countries where immigrants aren't discriminated against in the education system and have typically better outcomes than the born population.

It's possible having English as the established language helps there, seeing as it's an international language and often one of the biggest roadblocks (and causes of discrimination) is difficulty with the native language of where one migrates to.

[Jon the Hat]

13 hours ago, kenny said:

Agreed. It didn't win any votes.

Its ok, the Chinese are buying up all the failing private schools so I am sure it will be fine, and the actual rich don't care about fees, so we are creating an ever bigger gap between the super elite and everyone else.

[Jon the Hat]

21 hours ago, leicsmac said:

WRT taxation, again the current ideas are neither one thing nor the other and that really doesn't help. 

 

Either levy the richest 1% with a massive rise to fund public services and cop their caterwauling about it in the press, or lower thresholds and let the market decide who lives or dies American-style (if someone has the self-interest and lack of conscience to know that is happening and be OK with it).

 

Either way, pick a lane, whether Scandinavian or US/Somalia, and pick the right targets rather than the halfway house that exists now. 

The 1% are already leaving the UK in droves.  Don't bank on the increase actually materialising.