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reported in CYPNOW what Hilton say's may or may not be true but I do wonder how BASW's UK members feel about being classed second rate by their representatives.
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I saw this excellent piece from Gerald Warner earlier today and decided that I wasn't going to post it due to the cheeeeeeze.
Three times I have been back to the link but managed to stay my hand, but I am tired and can no longer resist.
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From Gerald Warner in Scotland on Sunday
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Look away now if you have a cheese allergy!.
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I will leave it there.

The prequel to Skellig is even better than the original, says Marcus Sedgwick



My Name Is Mina is the prequel to David Almond's award-winning, bestselling and superb first novel, Skellig. But forget all that for now, because My Name Is Mina is a wonderful book in its own right.

Mina McKee is a young girl whose father has died and who lives alone with her mother. To try to describe Mina in a word would be to fall into the same trap as several characters in the book – especially the representatives of the school system. A "misfit" to her teachers, a "disgrace" to the head, "crazy" and "bonkers" to her peers, Mina has left school and, after a brief visit to a Pupil Referral Unit, is being home-schooled by her mum, a thing that they find entirely excellent.

Together they discuss all manner of strange subjects, many of which would never find their way into the curriculum, such as metempsychosis and astral travel, as well as more everyday but no less wonderful things like the arrival of spring and the hatching of the blackbird chicks in the tree where Mina likes to sit. Here, in the tree, is where Mina spends much of her time, and where she does much of her own learning. For far from being stupid or unteachable, Mina is very bright, perhaps too bright for her age, something that grown-ups often find unsettling and hard to deal with. Fortunately for Mina, she has a mother who understands her perfectly, knowing that the only thing "wrong" with Mina is that maybe her brain is wired a little differently from most other people's.

I've spoken before in these pages about the ability of the best writers to grip you even when nothing very much happens, and it seems that Almond is having fun with that idea here. During Mina's brief visit to the referral unit she meets Malcolm, a young worker there who confesses that he's writing a novel. "It's all bits and pieces," he says. "And the book keeps on getting rejected, so maybe it's too barmy for anybody to publish. Maybe next time I should write a story where everything's plain and simple . . . a book where nothing barmy happens at all, eh? Or where nothing of any kind happens at all?"

If anything, My Name Is Mina is both kinds of book. Its "barminess" is evidenced by the random thoughts, dreams and wordplay that Almond offers us through the exploration of Mina's mind. And in terms of dramatic incident, the key episode is "the story of what happened on Sats Day". Almond, a former teacher himself, again has fun. Mina asks herself: "Did William Blake do writing tasks just because somebody else told him to? And what Level would he have got anyway? Would Shakespeare have been well above average? And Dickens and Chaucer and Keats and Shirley Hughes and Maurice Sendak and Michael Rosen. Did any of them do stupid silly SATS! I SUSPECT NOT!"

With the pupils urged by teacher and head alike to "do their best", Mina writes a nonsense passage for her Sats test, full of marvellous new words of her own creation, such as "cludderish", "glibbertysnark" and "claminosity". And it is this piece of work that culminates in her departure from mainstream school life, something about which she (and, secretly, her mother) is very pleased.

Through the delightful Mina, Almond covers many subjects: big stuff such as death and loss; mundane stuff like the appropriate nature of schooling. And, while the school system works fine for the vast majority of children, he reminds us that there has to be a place for alternative schooling for boys and girls like Mina. And everyone has met a child like Mina at least once, (metaphorically) sitting in a tree, looking down at the world, and wondering and whispering to themselves at the beauty of it all.

It is from the tree, too, that Mina sees the arrival in the street of a new family, a mother, father and young son, the mother with a new baby due imminently; and those familiar with Skellig will immediately see that this family provides the link to the earlier book.

But as I said, My Name Is Mina is a wonderful book in its own right, perhaps an even better one than Skellig. It is joyous. Thank you, David Almond; I cannot remember when a book last filled me with such claminosity.

Marcus Sedgwick's Revolver is published by Orion

I have just heard this on the radio:

"Ed Balls is like Gordon Brown without the charisma."
:love::rofl:

(I think it was Alan Duncan who said it.)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...nd-of-comments

Are you listening, Lord Soley et al? Some professionals really cannot be trusted (yet we wouldn't want to paint them all as paedophiles just because they happen to enjoy the company of children).

Pay attention now, you Lordy sorts: one of Portugal's most famous television presenters and a former ambassador to Unesco are among those found guilty of abusing young boys in a paedophile ring involving the country's state-run orphanages.

Portuguese TV presenter found guilty of being in paedophile ring

The Madeline McCann and Hollie Greig cases have connections with Potugal,too. Just saying...

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from CYPNOW
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NHS Grampian has agreed a contract worth almost £70,000 to 'enhance the beverage and breakfast experience for patients' Photo: PHOTOLIBRARY
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story from the

Telegraph

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And what does a£2.500.00e Ultrakart look like ? Not overpriced methinks, but are they needed on the wards?
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I'm just back from a foray into the often unpleasant territory of the Daily Mail online. Today there is a story about 14 y.o. Arran Fernandez who has achieved a place at Cambridge university to study mathematics, having never attended school. Cue lots of horrible comments about 'pushy parents' and 'normal childhoods'. Perhaps some people here might consider going on to the DM site to voice support and indeed congratulations to this boy and his family, I think they deserve it!

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from Big Brother
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Further to this thread, Joan McAlpine is the only MSM journalist who has bothered to report that there has been a row over the BBC's recent anti-Scottish Any Questions broadcast which included blatantly racist comments by Baroness Ruth Deech and Douglas Murray.

Predictably the BBC sent out the same sort of dismissive standard reply to complainants that we have grown accustomed to receiving as home educators in the face of biased reporting. Since the rest of the MSM has chosen to ignore the massive reaction across the social media, Wikipedia editors are refusing to include any reference to it in Deech's entry.

Wikipedia enters anti-Scottish BBC radio row

BBC failing Scots by allowing prejudice on air (premium link, but read Joan's post for most of the content)

It is refreshing to see that Newsnet Scotland is going from strength to strength, despite sidelining attempts by the EBC and the usual suspects. We are doing the same here and nothing's going to stop us! :cheer2:

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Are ex prime ministers spokespersons, member's of his staff funded by the taxpayer?
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from the

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...ork-plans.html

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Gordon Brown who is MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency.
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I went to find the Global Campaign for Education website to read their announcement of his joining them , but they haven't put any notice up. Whilst on their site I clicked the link to the UK version ~This is the Link
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Chameleons (family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of lizards. They are distinguished by their parrot-like zygodactylous feet

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from the Evening Standard
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from the

Evening Standard

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from Raquel
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Allow private firms to run schools, says Ofsted chief who has now joined GEMS Education, an independent schools chain.
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from the

Telegraph

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