SNP plan to take schools out of council control

by Mel Kelly

"SNP announced they will give head teachers and parents more say in how schools are run - while the real plan is to give businessmen control - just like Cameron."

"The SNP plan is to let businessmen, rather than elected councillors control all schools and Scotland`s £3 billion annual education budget - with the plan being, maybe a parent and an odd pupil can be on the new unelected board - with SNP saying they may allow an elected councillor to sit on the board - but the elected councillor, unlike the businessmen, will have no voting power."

"And schools are to be managed in `clusters` - the word the SNP choose to use - rather than Academy Chains - as SNP`s plan is to roll out David Cameron`s outsourcing of control of all schools - so our kids education and school budgets can be plundered and sent to the Cayman Islands - as has been happening across England since the coalition seized power."

"This is David Cameron`s policy - which was why head teachers from academy chains and Oxford academics all met in Scotland to discuss the plot."

"Combined with this is the plot to allow these businessmen to use schoolchildren, now in their hands, to work in their local business for free - under the guise of education - over a 2 year period - in a very little known scheme being piloted right now, Foundation Apprenticeships - where children are being taken out of their classrooms, over a two year period, in fourth and fifth year to be sent to nursing homes to work as unpaid labour."

http://www.whatthepoliticiansdontsay.com/#!10-things-to-know-this-week/cjds/3

"The Certificate of Work Readiness (CWR) gives young people a recognisable qualification, to show employers they have relevant experience for the workplace."

https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/what-we-do/our-products/certificate-of-work-readiness/

　Here`s the hard sell:
　

Boring teacher struck off in Scotland

"An English teacher has been struck off after pupils and parents complained about her `boring` lessons."

"Gillian Scott, who taught at Breadalbane Academy in Aberfeldy, Perthshire, did not motivate her `disinterested` students or effectively explain her teaching plans to them, the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) said."

"Teachers who observed Ms Scott, 33, between 2011 and 2013 claimed she spent three lessons reading a novel to one class without allowing them to ask questions. They also alleged she set the same essay task - titled `what I did in activities week` - for several different year groups."

"Pupils also dubbed the lessons the `puni class` due to the disproportionate number of punishment exercises, it was said."

"In another example, Ms Scott, who studied at university in Glasgow and Strathclyde, is said to have shown a class a clip of Jurassic Park before making them copy what she said about characterisation in relation to the film."

"She was removed from the teaching register for two years following a seven-day hearing in Edinburgh, which concluded on May 23."

"In its ruling the GTCS said the panel found `extensive failings` in Ms Scott's ability to plan..."

"Ms Scott, who did not attend the hearing and who now teaches English at a private college abroad, admitted in an email submission on May 1 that she could have handled situations - both in the classroom and with colleagues - differently."

"But Ms Scott’s father, James Scott, 67, told The Daily Telegraph his daughter, who he represented during the hearing, was subjected to `endless supervision` at the school, which resulted in an `unfair` conclusion..."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/02/teacher-struck-off-because-lessons-were-too-boring-tribunal-rule/

 

Many of the examples given for the teacher`s failings had to do with her teaching style. She was criticised for leading from the front of the class, not introducing active or co-operative learning; failing to recap the learning intentions at the end of the lesson and failing to provide success criteria. Exam results were not accepted as evidence that her teaching style was effective.

Scenes from the battleground has blogged about this case and points out that these teaching fads are now no longer endorsed in England by OSTED.

"I still haven’t read every part of this case. It is complex and a lot has been written and I am not familiar with the Scottish system. But what I do know is that this year in Scotland, failing to comply with fads from ten or twenty years ago, which have no proven benefit for learning, can be used as evidence that you are not fit to teach."

----------------------------------

"The evidence is that there was far more to the striking off than teaching styles, for instance, the teacher had been a whistle blower."

https://teachingbattleground.wordpress.com/2016/06/03/in-scotlands-schools-it-is-still-2008/

Teaching union votes for work to rule

"Members of the country's largest teaching union, the EIS, have voted overwhelmingly for a work to rule."

"Their concerns are related to the work linked to the new school qualifications."

"Education Secretary John Swinney said: `The result of today's ballot is disappointing albeit on what appears to be a low turnout`."

"He added: `Given that we are addressing the issues of teacher workload, industrial action in our schools would not be in the interests of anyone, least of all pupils and parents`. "

"The union said members voted in favour of action by 95% to 5%..."

"The work to rule will be targeted at the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) - there is no suggestion of school activities being affected."

"Earlier this week, the Scottish government called on unions to come up with ideas for cutting the workload."

"General secretary Larry Flanagan said: `Scotland's secondary teachers have voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action against the severe workload burden that has been generated by the Scottish Qualifications Authority`."

"`This ballot result reflects the frustration of Scotland's secondary teachers over the excessive assessment demands being placed on them and their pupils, particularly around unit assessments at National 5 and Higher; and the EIS now has a very clear mandate to implement an immediate work-to-contract in relation to SQA activity.`"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-36550033?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_scotland_news&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=scotland

Multi-classes, teacher shortages and Curriculum for Excellence

"In a large city school in Scotland, a chemistry teacher nervously awaits the arrival of her next class. Helen (not her real name) is very aware the stakes are high for the Higher Chemistry students in her class – the grades they secure will prove critical in determining whether they can secure entry to university."

"Having taught for many years, this prospect wouldn’t normally cause Helen much anxiety, but this year is different. The class filing into the lab is a multicourse group, consisting not just of students studying the Higher course (typically ages 16–18), but also students studying for the National 5 chemistry course (typically ages 15–16)."

"With the examinable content of these courses being largely mutually exclusive, Helen has spent a lot of time planning lessons for this composite class. She has attempted to devise activities and strategies to ensure that both National 5 and Higher students can be offered equal levels of teacher support during each lesson."

"Despite her best efforts, she’s had no alternative but to offer extra tutorial sessions for these students during lunchtime and after school."

"A survey undertaken by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Education Division Regional Committee in Scotland shows that Helen’s predicament may be more common in Scotland’s schools than we previously thought."

"Multicourse classes and the challenges they present for teachers and students are an unintended consequence of the ways in which the Curriculum for Excellence – the most ambitious and wide-reaching Scottish educational reform in a generation – has been implemented in some schools."

http://www.rsc.org/blogs/eic/2016/05/scotland-multicourse-teaching-secondary-education

What I can say about this is multicourse classes and the challenges they represent are not only due to unintended consequences of the way Curriculum for Excellence has been implemented. That may be part of the problem, but multicourses are also a consequence of teacher shortages.

Now shortages of science teachers are accepted as the norm, unfortunately, because those with science degrees have so many other options and little has been done to encourage these graduates into teaching.

As for the rest: "They`re doing their nut in," says my granddaughter who is in a multicourse history class (Mixed N5/higher) and gets on great with her teachers. I also know these teachers are doing their very best for her.

It`s just a pity about Curriculum for Excellence.

And the shortage of teachers in general !

The Scottish Attainment Challenge

"The Attinment Scotland Fund is a targeted initiative focused on supporting pupils in the local authorities of Scotland with the highest concentrations of deprivation. The Challenge Authorities are currently Glasgow, Dundee, Inverclyde, West Dunbartonshire, North Ayrshire, Clackmannanshire and North Lanarkshire."

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Education/Schools/Raisingeducationalattainment/Whatarewedoingaboutit/AttainmentScotlandFund

If what we are seeing is an example of a targeted initiative to improve literacy in deprived areas, then there is cause for concern: plenty of whole words, flash cards and parental involvement but no indication that children are directly instructed in the correspondence between letters and sounds. Children who come to school with limited vocabularies are not always able to grasp these connections intuitively.

To think that Clackmannanshire had sorted the problem out ten years ago ! What happened ?

"The dispute between advocates of whole language learning and the proponents of phonics instruction has plagued schools and education policy makers around the world for at least the last fifty years. The whole language approach has today been officially abandoned. Nonetheless, I suspect that the issue is still alive in many a teacher’s mind because whole language advocates are still firmly entrenched in their position. They are convinced that their approach is best suited to children’s needs."

"In France as well as in the United States, efforts to reconcile the two camps have led to the adoption of an unhealthy compromise called ‘mixed’ or ‘balanced reading’ instruction. The punch line is quite simple: We know that conversion of letters into sounds is the key state in reading acquisition. All teaching efforts should be initially focused on a single goal, the grasp of the alphabetic principle whereby each letter or grapheme represents a phoneme."

http://www.iferi.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/IFERI-INFORM-No.4-June-2015-Settled-Science.pdf

I think teacher training has a lot to do with this as well.

Education Scotland: the puzzle about the attainment gap

Now I have my own ideas about what would narrow the educational attainment gap between those at the top and the bottom of society, and like many other people, standardised testing is not one of them. So, given the recent pronouncements of John Swinney,  I went in pursuit of teachers` opinions which seemed a bit mixed and all over the place.

Then I came across a most extraordinary post from the Learning Zoo: This is a blog by Anne Glennie who says of herself on Twitter, with 2,130 followers, that she is a Primary Teacher, Literacy Consultant & Trainer, who resides in the Isle of Lewis. Her tweets have obtained 2,988 likes. 

What she noted was that the Education Scotland website had presented two contradictory versions of why disadvantaged children have difficulty with reading. One presented the answer to that as a failure of children to learn the letter-sound relationships. (Phonetics) and this was the original version: 

 

Children need to develop a number of inter-connected skills to learn to read successfully. An important first step is for children to develop decoding skills, through the teaching of phonics (how letters are linked to sounds) and phonological awareness. A balanced reading programme should also develop children`s fluency, vocabulary and comprehension skills.

Evidence from Scotland shows that children from disadvantaged background are more likely to have difficulties with their reading. One of the key factors which drives this appears to be the quality of  of the home learning environment, which can influence children`s phonological awareness, vocabulary development and oral language.

As a result, phonics-based approaches are more likely to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds master the basics of reading.

========================================

Anne Glennie celebrated the fact that Education Scotland had finally `got it` as I would have too.

However, that was short lived when she realised that Education Scotland had surreptitiously changed the text a few weeks later:

Learning to read is complex. Children must develop a range of inter-connected skills and knowledge. Some skills and knowledge develop as a result of direct instruction and practice. Others develop more slowly, through children having many repeated experiences with books.

Evidence shows that children from disadvantaged backrounds in Scotland are less likely to attain well in their reading. Key factors which drive this appear to be the quantity of reading experiences that young children have at home and the quality of those experiences. Children from disadvantaged backgrounds tend to have less access to high-quality picture books, their home reading experiences tend to be less frequent and their conversations with adults about books tend to be shorter, less playful and narrower in scope. Home learning environments influence children`s views of what reading is for, their knowledge of books and stories, their phonological awareness, letter knowledge, vocabulary and oral language development.

---------------------------------------

The puzzle was that both posts were dated February 2016 and no acknowledgement of any edit was given.

http://www.thelearningzoo.co.uk/2016/04/24/education-scotland-and-the-mystery-of-the-shifty-document-swap/

She asked many questions about that and then this one.

"Did Education Scotland knowingly deceive practitioners by quietly removing the old document and publishing a look-a-likey replacement, hoping that no-one would notice the complete u-turn in advice?"

Well, yes I would say so.

How else are the authorities going to promote early interventions and interfering in the lives of women (families) from the first trimester  (12 weeks of pregnancy) and the Named Person, (chief gardener) fantasy?

Reading must not be about a tried and trusted teaching method for which the evidence is overwhelming, if the GIRFEC named person theory is to survive. It`s got to be about families and the early years.

New assessments will be online

On 1st September 2015 Nicola Sturgeon announced plans for National Standardised Testing of pupils in order to yield crucial data to help `reduce the attainment gap`. This was despite the fact that such an idea was incompatible with the philosophy of Curriculum for Excellence.

"Teaching unions such as the EIS explicitly stated that `the introduction of a national system of standardised assessment is not the answer" to educational inequality`."

"And of course it soon became clear that Sturgeon’s plans were not rooted in any substantial evidence or advice, with FOI releases showing that the standardised testing policy had been based on just four emails and a series of unminuted meetings."

"[L]et’s not forget, we will still be faced with a scenario where a private company is able to profit from the inappropriate testing of children as young as five years old."

http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2016/05/24/national-standardised-testing-the-story-so-far/?platform=hootsuite

"Speaking at the EIS AGM in Dundee, Mr Swinney said the Scottish Government would issue a tender later this week to buy an online system from an expert provider that would conduct the assessments contained within the new National Improvement Framework."

"The online system will be in place for the 2017/18 session and use the latest technology to ensure pupil’s progress in P1, P4, P7 and S3 is easily measured by teachers without adding to their burden by asking them to mark the new assessments..."

"The system will quickly and automatically generate individual reports for teachers, providing information on where a child has done well and highlighting areas where support may be required. This report will be used for discussion with parents about their child’s learning, along with other assessment evidence..."

" `Assessments will be as short as possible and your professional judgement will be key`... "

"`In one of my first interviews as Education Secretary, I was asked whether the assessments will be internally or externally marked. I wasn’t ready to give an answer then. I am now`."

"`My answer is this: that’s the wrong question and it fundamentally misunderstands what we are doing`."

"`You all know – because schools already use these systems – that assessment can be delivered using modern technology that provides the results automatically. No additional workload – no high-stakes, externally marked tests. It’s not internal or external. It’s automatic`."

http://news.scotland.gov.uk/News/Standardised-assessments-will-not-add-to-workload-2565.aspx

 

"EIS General Secretary Larry Flanagan, has used his AGM address to urge Scotland’s teachers to stand together to reject the overburdening of pupils and teachers with excessive assessment..."

"Mr Flanagan also warned that the introduction of the new National Improvement Framework, and new National Standardised Assessments, must support learning and teaching in schools and not be used to promote a target-setting, league-table approach to measuring pupil progress."

http://www.eis.org.uk/public.asp?id=3358

Compare with Finland:

 

 

Standards in numeracy continue to fall

"Pupils in Scotland are doing less well in maths, according to the latest Scottish government figures."

"Between 2013 and 2015, the proportion of P4 and S2 students performing `well or very well` fell."

"Pupils from better off areas recorded better results than those from the most deprived communities..."

"Scottish Labour education spokesman Iain Gray called the figures a disgrace."

"He added: `Our children pay the price in poorer literacy and numeracy skills. No wonder the SNP hid these figures until after the election. They lay bare their failure on education. Performance fell in every category and every stage, and the gap between the richest and the rest increased`."

"`John Swinney says these new figures show the scale of the challenge he faces, but it is a challenge he created himself by slashing investment in education during his near decade in charge of Scotland's finances`."

"Scottish Green MSP Ross Greer said the survey showed that the new education secretary must `get to grips with the inequality that is becoming embedded in our society`."

"He added: `Rather than pursuing national testing, the Scottish government should be making its priorities in our schools the recruitment and retention of staff and the reduction of staff workload`."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-36416016

Turning Scotland`s schools into wellbeing clinics hasn`t helped education either.

Psychologising readiness for work

"Eligibility for social security benefits in many advanced economies is dependent on unemployed and underemployed people carrying out an expanding range of job search, training and work preparation activities, as well as mandatory unpaid labour (workfare). Increasingly, these activities include interventions intended to modify attitudes, beliefs and personality, notably through the imposition of positive affect."

"Labour on the self in order to achieve characteristics said to increase employability is now widely promoted. This work and the discourse on it are central to the experience of many claimants and contribute to the view that unemployment is evidence of both personal failure and psychological deficit. The use of psychology in the delivery of workfare functions to erase the experience and effects of social and economic inequalities, to construct a psychological ideal that links unemployment to psychological deficit, and so to authorise the extension of state—and state-contracted—surveillance to psychological characteristics."

http://mh.bmj.com/content/41/1/40.full

This training begins in school where Curriculum for Excellence is supposed to equip children with the skills required for learning, life and work.

Children are encouraged to make individualised statements about their mental and emotional health such as: "I know that we all experience a variety of thoughts and emotions that affect how we feel and behave and I am learning ways of managing them."

Whilst being stripped of essential knowledge in the curriculum, there is an emphasis on confidence, self-esteem, resilience and motivation - as well as group think - for these are the attributes future employers are looking for. They also make children look inwards rather than outwards for explanations when things do not work out.

See https://psychagainstausterity.wordpress.com/

The unequal exam opportunities for Scottish children

Children playing in streets of Edinburgh 1950s

 

"Research by Reform Scotland has highlighted a wide variation in the maximum number of National 4 and 5s S4 pupils can sit..."

[A] " Freedom of Information question was submitted to each local authority in Scotland, asking what was the maximum number of Nationals S4 pupils could sit..."

"The answers highlighted that while in some schools pupils could sit up to eight exams, similar to the situation under the old Standard Grades, in other schools pupils were restricted to only five. This was regardless of ability or prospects of success..."

  "This is not an issue about ability, but one of opportunity. An able student at Braes High, for example, will almost certainly end up with fewer N5s than a similarly able student at Bearsden Academy, simply because they are not allowed to sit the same number of exams."

"This is likely to adversely affect those who leave a school that allows only 5 or 6 exam sittings at the end of fourth year, as they will probably end up with fewer exam results than they otherwise might if they attended a different state school. For those going on to study Highers, they have a smaller pool of subjects to choose or have to consider more crash Highers."

"Curriculum for Excellence was supposed to broaden pupils' education. Unfortunately, for some it is narrowing it, at least in the senior phase."

 

https://reformscotland.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Reform-Scotland-National-4s-and-5s-Unintended-Consequences-May-2016.pdf

And so much for tackling the attainment gap by focusing on the early years.

Think global, act local

"`Think global, act local’ is a world-famous slogan that has been attributed to Sir Patrick Geddes, the Scottish biologist who was also an innovative thinker in urban planning and education. The words are part of a legacy which has influenced education for global citizenship today." So said Michael Russell MSP in Developing global citizens within Curriculum for Excellence.

`Think global, act local` is how the United Nations Agenda 21 is being implemented across the world. (updated to Agenda 2030)

It might be wondered why Mr Russell would insist that it was "vital to remember that global citizenship is not an add-on to Curriculum for Excellence, it is central to it."

https://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/DevelopingGlobalCitizens_tcm4-628187.pdf

 

But if the plan is to break down nation states, which it is, manipulating children`s loyalties so that they look beyond the old world order would be a priority, just as it would be of utmost importance to push parents out of the way.

 

Children and young people must worry about climate change, poverty, gender, carbon footprints and loss of species. They must welcome diversity while being pressured more and more to have the same outlook as each other, guided by `health and wellbeing` experts, of course.

 

There is another preoccupation: resilience.

"Dr. Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation, shares her thoughts on the need for enhanced resilience in order to better manage unpredictable shocks." It looks like resilience is another form of collaborative, and there lies a rocky road ahead to be supervised by the globalists.

She goes on to say that the forum she is promoting is for the "sharing of ideas, the exploring of linkages and the breaking down of silos."

Breaking down silos and forming linkages is something that Scotland knows a lot about, especially in the field of Children`s integrated services; but breaking down silos goes even beyond that.

"In April 2014, Glasgow was named as one of the first 32 members of the Rockefeller Foundation's 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) Network (a $100million initiative). Glasgow's membership in the network represents a major step towards creating a strategic, multi-agency approach in proactively managing the inevitable challenges, shocks and stresses the city faces..."

"In September 2014, Alastair Brown was appointed as Chief Resilience Officer to lead on Glasgow's resilience efforts. The resilient Glasgow strategy is being directed in collaboration with the people of Glasgow including our residents, businesses and pubic sector partners." [So they say.]

Linkedin list some of his skills as climate change, energy efficiency, sustainability and carbon management.

https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=17668

As Martin Edwards has commented in his April article: "Silo-busting is a global initiative promoted by the United Nations Development Group and its UK shill Julia Middleton, CEO Common Purpose."

Silo busting reaches across national boundaries and some of the strategies are outlined on the 100 RC website where we are informed that "Cities in the ...network are provided with the resources necessary to develop a roadmap to resilience along four main pathways:"

"Financial and logistical guidance for establishing an innovative new position in city government, a Chief Resilience Officer, who will lead the city’s resilience efforts;"
 

"Expert support for development of a robust resilience strategy;"

 

"Access to solutions, service providers, and partners from the private, public and NGO sectors who can help them develop and implement their resilience strategies and,"

 

"Membership of a global network of member cities who can learn from and help each other."

Their solutions, their providers, their partners and their global networks.

http://www.100resilientcities.org/about-us#/-_/ 

Read Martin Edward`s detailed article about the global parliament of mayors and other mechanisms to take cities out of democratic control. 

http://www.ukcolumn.org/article/global-parliament-mayors-and-abolition-electorate

CfE: a bureaucratic burden

The purpose of the curriculum is encapsulated in the four capacities - to enable each child or young person to be a successful learner, a confident individual, a responsible citizen and an effective contributor. 

Here`s how it works.
 

Did you every hear such garbage in your life?

==============================

"Teachers are to step up industrial action against reforms by boycotting work associated with the Curriculum for Excellence, union leaders have announced."

"The NASUWT said it has given notice it will be escalating its current action from Thursday May 12."
 

"It comes amid claims from the union that the reforms have `simply piled on the pressure` to teachers across the country."
 

"Members of the NASUWT are being instructed to refuse  planning, assessment and reporting work linked to Curriculum for Excellence which does not meet the recommendations made by a specialist group set up to make the reforms less bureaucratic."
 

"That could see them refusing to submit daily or weekly plans as well as not producing detailed folios of pupils` work to support assessments."
 

"NASUWT general-secretary Christ Keates said the instruction `to escalate our existing industrial action will empower teachers to challenge and remove the unnecessary bureaucratic burdens being placed upon them by the Curriculum for Excellence.`"
 

"She added it would also help teachers `take control of their professional lives and to focus on their core role of teaching`."

Read more: http://www.scotsman.com/news/scots-teachers-in-curriculum-for-excellence-boycott-1-4118350#ixzz47jr7KhIu 

The roots of CSE

It`s already in Scotland as part of Health and Wellbeing:

There is a long list of people and organisations at the end of the Joining the dots document who were part of the discussions about GIRFEC. Cathy McCulloch and Dr Colin Morrison, co-directors of the Scottish Children`s Parliament are there, as expected.

What is less well known is that Cathy McCulloch and Dr Colin Morrison are partners of TASC (Scotland) Ltd, founded by them in 1992.

This is what they say about TASC:

"TASC provides a range of services including social research and service evaluation. We have a real interest in people - how they experience their lives and what their hopes, dreams and ambitions are for their families and communities. We work with policy makers and service providers to help ensure the needs and interests of service users are recognised and met."

Some of their work has included:

"Learning Together: A Review of sex and relationship education resources for parents and carers NHS Health Scotland (2009-10)"

"An evaluation of Feel Think Do Sexual Abuse Prevention Programme (2009) for NHS Forth Valley. Feel Think Do is a sexual abuse prevention programme for P6 pupils. It is designed to be delivered over 8 sessions and uses a DVD of dramatised scenarios. Children can also work on their own learning logs."

"Parental Feedback on School-based Sexual Health and Relationships Education in Glasgow for Glasgow City Council and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Young People’s Sexual Health Steering Group (2011)."

Chapter 1 for under 5s

http://www.tascagency.co.uk/parents-and-carers.html

In Scotland, CSE tends to be called Sexual Health and Relationships Education. It starts early and never stops all through the school years. Because `health and wellbeing` is spread throughout Curriculum for Excellence, it is impossible for parents to disengage their children from Sexual Health and Relationships Education entirely. All very cunningly planned. No-one in the role of Named Person has ever said some of this might not be appropriate for very young children.

At the heart of GIRFEC are little businesses working in partnership with government which provide `services` to children and families to address `problems` that never used to exist. I`m sure they`ll dream up a few more.

The nurture room

https://www.nurturegroups.org/publications/media/nurture-room-dvd

"Aileen Campbell, Minister for Children and young people visited Pinkie St Peter’s Primary School to see some Early Years Collaborative work in action..."

"During the visit, Ms Campbell saw how the nursery and school is helping children develop their communications skills to support learning and build their confidence and resilience. With help from Puppet Animation Scotland, teachers have been trained to use puppets to help children to vocalise their feelings and emotions."

"This work is currently being tested using Early Years Collaborative improvement techniques and is already showing improved interactions from the children who have participated."

What they mean by improved interactions is that children learn to use words like anger, frustration, sad, embarrassed, excited, upset, scared. These might be useful skills to have when children progress and start filling in psychological surveys and questionnaires, but as an aid to building confidence and resilience I am not so sure. Young children grow in confidence by `doing`, not `introspecting`. In the presence of understanding adults, children should not need to worry about their feelings and have to spend hours explaining them. Behaviour is something else.

Last week the primary school produced a podcast talking about the `Nurture Room` which is a special room where children go to share their feelings. One child described the room as a very quiet place you can go to when something is wrong. The windows are big and lots of sunlight shines in. There are two sofas, cushions on the floor and puppets, if you need a rest or to `chill`. There are lots of games, so you will hardly ever be bored.

Of course, some children have special needs but that is another matter entirely. The point is schools are more and more mainstreaming nurture and wellbeing.

Parents, on the other hand, are being encouraged to read and story tell with their children to improve literacy, attachment and brain development. For many children, it won`t do anything of the sort because that will depend on what happens in school.

This is just another example of role reversal.

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Young-People/early-years/early-years-collaborative/ministers-visits-to-cpps

Knowledge devalued and a reversal of roles

From the USA:

"If SETRA passes in its current form, the federal government will be empowered to expand psychological profiling of our children. Parents must understand this threat so they can mobilize to stop it."

"SETRA is a proposed reauthorization of the Education Sciences Reform Act, which created bureaucracies and funding for education research (the results of which are routinely ignored if they contradict the dogma of the progressive education establishment). But SETRA would go beyond merely wasting money and plunge the government into an area it has no constitutional, statutory, or moral right to invade: the psychological makeup of children."

"Section 132 of SETRA expands authorized research to include `research on social and emotional learning [SEL] . . . .` SEL is defined as `the process through which children . . . acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.`"

"SEL is all the rage in public education. The idea is that imparting academic knowledge is passe’ because if a student wants to know something, he can Google it (seriously – this is a common theme in education circles). Instead, the theory goes, schools should focus more on `non-cognitive` skills to jumpstart education – helping students develop government-approved thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors that will supposedly make them more productive workers."

"In other words, the school will do what the parents should be doing (encourage development of these non-cognitive traits), while the parents do what the school should be doing..."

http://beta.townhall.com/columnists/emmettmcgroarty/2016/04/15/why-does-your-congressman-want-to-psychologically-profile-your-children-n2148674

The same thing is happening in Scotland with Curriculum for Excellence, GIRFEC and the Named Person scheme.