Lengthening the School Day: A Populist Policy

 Critics of the present government, of which I am one of a multitude, often have particular targets for their antipathy. I don't share in this, as I would like to see the whole bunch turfed out. However, the MP above, Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education, was regarded with particular contempt until the Matt Hancock scandal broke. I hadn't followed his career, until our beloved prime minister announced three days ago that he thought that extending the school day, to make up for time lost during the pandemic, was "the right thing to do". 

The relevance of Williamson to all this is that he was floating the idea back in March. The BBC reported:

"Longer school days and shorter holidays are among the measures the government is considering to help pupils in England catch up on lost learning, the education secretary has said".

Neither of these men - Johnson or Williamson - has any experience of working in schools. Boris was a journalist (of a kind); Williamson was manager of a pottery firm and worked for an architectural design firm until 2010, when he became an MP. As every teacher and teaching assistant will tell you, only by working in schools can you properly understand the pressures on the staff and the needs of the children. Don't expect any such understanding from these two. Johnson almost certainly sees the school day issue as a way to pander to the prejudices of the pub loudmouth/white van man/populist bigot who thinks that teachers have an easy time of it. Williamson probably views children as being empty pots that need filling to capacity.

As a retired teacher and serving school governor, I oppose this measure for a number of reasons. Firstly, children are not vessels to be filled with knowledge. They have been emotionally and educationally affected by the pandemic and need time to get back into a normal school routine. It is ridiculous to expect them to react positively to spending longer in school. In fact, the opposite is only too likely to happen. From experience, I predict that this will only lead to increased pupil resentment and possibly serious discipline problems. As a study by the University of Kent said in June:

"Extending the school day, and the expectance of pupils to concentrate on academic learning for longer periods may result in the opposite effect to that desired. With an increase in overtired pupils and LLCD (Low Level Classroom Disruption) having the potential to reduce teaching and learning time.’

Besides this, a recent study by a University of Cambridge academic casts doubt on the benefits of a longer school day. As The Guardian said in May:

"With the government in England considering extended school hours as part of its catch-up plans, the research found that schools already timetabling longer teaching time in subjects such as English and maths see only modest improvements that may not justify the extra cost".

The researcher, Vaughan Connolly, suggested that the government should give children more time for recreational activities. Don't hold your breath, mate.

Paul Whiteman, NAHT leader, was quoted in The Guardian:

“The marginal gains that might be possible through extending the school day must be weighed against the costs of such a strategy, including the impact on pupils’ mental health, reduced family time and less time for extra-curricular activities".

None of the union leaders featured in the article mentioned teacher welfare, so I shall do it.

Speaking from knowledge and experience, I can attest that teachers are already working long hours - not in the classroom, but at home, They prepare lessons, mark books and carry out assessments. I know for a fact that many - if not all - teachers are working flat out to meet the extraordinary needs of their schools in the pandemic. Many have become ill and many work in isolation, because of Covid restrictions, with potentially serious consequences for their mental health.

How can we expect children to be prepared to work longer hours when adult staff returning to work from furlough are going back to their normal working day? No-one is requiring them to work extra hours, and there will be no shortage of children willing to point this out. By the same token - why should teachers be expected to work longer hours, when all have worked without furlough right through the pandemic, teaching the children of key workers and both preparing and delivering online lessons for children locked down at home? Teacher unions should consider the legality of the extension of school hours. I would have thought it to be a breach of contract.

Lastly, I would like to issue a challenge to the two ignoramuses we began with: Boris and Gavin. As they find it so easy to plan to extend the school day, I would like to challenge either or both of them to take an end of school day lesson on a Friday afternoon. The subject I would choose for them would be a double period of Religious Education, to teach to a Year 10 secondary school class in  an inner city comprehensive. I would love to watch the proceedings on video.

Do you think he will accept the challenge?

 

The Odd Couple of British Politics

 Well, times do change. In the picture above, we see the British political equivalent of "The Odd Couple": George Galloway (GG) and Nigel Farage (NF). Although politically poles apart, they worked smirkingly together during the EU Referendum campaign. In 2019, Galloway disgusted many left-wingers by declaring that he would be voting for the Brexit Party in the European elections. GG wrote on Twitter:

“Given the nature of Labour’s Euro-fanatic candidates list and the crucial juncture we have reached in the fight for the full implementation of the #Brexit referendum result and for one-time only I will be supporting @Nigel_Farage in next months elections."

By 2021, NF had announced that he was giving up politics and handing over leadership of the Reform UK Party, which was the new name of the Brexit Party, to Richard Tice. In his farewell address, Nigel said that he was satisfied that Brexit was here to stay, with all its benefits. However, he declared his intention to continue supporting the Reform UK Party, because: "... he wanted to campaign against "the increasing influence of the Chinese communist party over our whole way of life" and "the indoctrination of children at school", which he claimed meant many pupils were "encouraged to hate this country".

NF's mental health appears to be in a parlous state (or was it always that way?) and his subsequent career would seem to bear this out. He has one career as a financial consultant, looking very lonely in his online advertisements and another as a celebrity sender of video messages for a modest fee - £75. One such message, which was widely featured on TV, was one he sent to "Hugh Janus". Paul Merton commented that NF must have been looking in a mirror. Quite.

As for NF's partner in crime, he has continued in his efforts to be noticed. When GG stood for election in the recent Batley and Spen by-election with a party of another name (the Workers' Party), a lot of media commentators wondered at his motivation. I believe the poster above provides a simple explanation. Clearly, the GG campaign had Keir Starmer and his Labour Party leadership in its sights. GG was a keen supporter of Jeremy Corbyn and - pretty obviously - out for revenge. He sought to rally the Muslim vote by stating that Starmer is "the top supporter of Israel". He also sought to inflame tensions over sex education in schools and religious education, telling some outrageous lies, which have been exposed by Owen Jones, among others. You can learn of these falsehoods HERE (Click).

The byelection was marred by attacks on Labour Party members - some quite vicious. Tracy Brabin, the outgoing MP, said:

“The group I was with included young people and the elderly.
I witnessed them being egged, pushed and forced to the ground and kicked in the head".

 Galloway denied responsibility, but the attackers seemed to share the same agenda as him. In another unpleasant incident, Kim Leadbeater was harassed by a group of men who echoed GG's concern over sex education by shouting:

“Are you going to support Muslim parents who don’t want their children to learn about LGBT domination?” 

GG did condemn this attack, "Absolutely". he said, claiming that two of his party's senior members were gay, but he didn't say who they were. There was also the awkward fact that he had to fire one of his party workers, one Shammy Cheema, who was exposed as a Holocaust denier. GG said that:

"...he “absolutely” condemns antisemitism and Holocaust denial and “cannot be held responsible for the social media opinions of some 200 people helping his campaign”."

I doubt that Galloway would be so lenient towards political opponents whose campaign workers made similar statements on social media. It also raises the question: what attracted a Holocaust denier like Sammy Cheema to Galloway's cause in the first place?

GG was less than candid in other matters. His "friendship" with Muslims is questionable, to say the least.. If he is a friend of the Muslim Uyghurs, they need no enemies. As Ian Dunt says:

"Time and again he (Galloway) has dismissed, ignored, or actively spread disinformation about their death or mistreatment. “NO CONCENTRATION CAMPS IN CHINA,” he tweeted. “And the Muslim population is growing, there are 25,000 mosques in Xinjiang alone, more than in the entire US. FAKE NEWS PEOPLE.”

We should bear in mind that GG is on record as saying that the Tiananmen Square massacre never happened; now he tells us that the Uyghurs are not being persecuted. Nigel Farage might put this down to the increasing influence of the Chinese Communist Party (see above) - which could be why GG and NF are never seen together as a couple any more. 

Any Muslims tempted to vote for GG in future elections should bear this denial of Uyghur persecution  in mind. He has also denied chemical weapons attacks in  Syria, dismissing all contrary evidence. 

Nor is there any evidence of pro-Israeli bias in the Labour leadership. As Dunt says:

"In reality, Starmer’s Labour has maintained a much more critical approach to Israel than we saw during the New Labour years. “Reports that Israeli air strikes on Gaza have killed multiple civilians, including children, are shocking. This is appalling,” Lisa Nandy said last month, during the recent outbreak in the conflict."

Nevertheless, despite the de facto joint efforts of George Galloway, Corbyn loyalists, the Conservative Party and the extreme Right, Kim Leadbeater triumphed. Yes, only by 323 votes, but it is a tribute to her dogged campaigning and faith in her local community.

Congratulations to Kim Leadbeater!