Solar Power Feed-in Tariff

Watching my neighbour's roof turn blue, I briefly wondered just what industry the solar power feed-in tariff is supposed to kick start. The panels are made in China, as are all the electrical bits such as the control panel and inverter (if they aren't then he is paying too much for them). The company installing the panels is British and the men up the ladders were presumably local roofers or aerial installers before they saw the light.

Would it not have been cheaper to just send them all a cheque for a few thousand quid and let them go back to their old jobs?

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Denise Milani

Thank goodness that despite cuts to front line Public Services, there is still money for initiatives such as Denise Milani's poetry competition to celebrate International Women's Day.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2102840/Ere-Sarge-rhymes-gender-sensitivity-Incredulity-Yard-politically-correct-poetry-contest.html

Unfortunately this is only open to police officers in the Met, but I'm sure that somewhere in teaching there will be a similar position (and I shall certainly be applying for it).

Denise is paid around £75 000 per year as Director of Diversity (ie to be black and female). Now to be fair, she has fulfilled all the criteria on her job description- she hasn't done a Michael Jackson and painted herself white, not does she appear to have become a man, so we cannot fault her there. You may however be wondering whether there is a job that pays you to be a white male and sit around all day coming up with mad ideas- if so, drop Fred Goodwin an email.

What does bother me though is that whenever I find myself thinking
"Great! This is the maddest thing yet", something immediately comes along and beats it hands down.

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Word Education Games

The World Education Games take place 6-8th March 2012. Here's a link to their site.

http://www.worldeducationgames.com/ so you can see what it's all about. There's a video here where members of the public are unable to answer some very simple questions.

http://www.broadcastexchange.tv/live/are-you-smarter-than-a-10yearold

If you have any bright sparks in your class then get them to have a go. Your Head might be pleased with you if somebody won a medal. When the kids ask you if there's any decent prizes, just blather something about the Olympics.

By the way if you have any seriously bright kids then you might want to look at the British Maths Olympiad http://www.bmoc.maths.org/
which is a qualifier for the International Maths Olympiad.
http://www.imo-official.org/  (North Korea has been disqualified twice for cheating)

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Knowsley Schools

Astonishing discoveries have been reported from that centre of cutting edge research- Knowsley in Merseyside.

1) Spending £157 million on new buildings does not guarantee improvements. Knowsley now has one of the lowest pass rates at GCSE in the Country.

2) Renaming the schools 'Centres for Learning' and the teachers 'Performance leaders' doesn't help much either, but gives the rest of us some amusement. Amazingly, the idea of calling the classrooms 'Warehouses' and having 'Democratised Spaces' didn't have the Head of Eton banging on the door looking for tips.

3) Keen to make capital out of this foolishness from the previous Government, Michael Gove declared that:

"Children in Knowsley suffer from some of the worst educational outcomes in the Country." 

Educational Outcomes!?! Didn't these used to be called 'results'. He has clearly picked up a bout of the same disease.

Anyone from Knowsley should feel free to comment. (After all, the schools might have been even worse before all this money was spent).

There's obviously a theme going on here as their local Safari Park advertises itself as the 'Best loved' one in Britain- I'm not quite sure what that means either.

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Facebook and Shouting

I keep telling you- be careful with Facebook. That Zuckerberg fellow will get you all fired.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-16929442


Also a study carried out by the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring (Fruits) at Durham University has decided that kids who shout out in lessons do better in exams. Their Director of Somethingmad, Dr Christine Merrell wants to see see how these pains can be encouraged to shout out as part of the lesson, whereas I just want to give them a smack.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-16836497

Why not write to her and volunteer a teacher you don't like to take part in this important research?

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Boris and Facebook

Boris Johnson asked today why we can't manage to create an internet business like Facebook?


He suggested that young people lacked the necessary single-minded ambition and also blamed our society's reluctance to praise success.


Now unfortunately you are going to have to read my tuppence worth before deciding on your own reasons.


1) He is correct in blaming lack of ambition in many young people. State education does not allow failure and teachers are actively discouraged from criticising pupils. Being repeatedly told how good your work is from the age of 5 is not likely to stoke the fires of great ambition. 


2) I'm not sure about us disliking material success in this country. There isn't much criticism of billionaires such as Richard Branson, Alan Sugar or Ken Morrison. It is however considered fine to say the most appalling things about the rich in general, without offering any justification or considering for a moment what would happen if they were not around to employ millions of people and pay a large proportion of the taxes that fund the NHS, State Education and the Benefits System.


3) Our ever increasing anti-risk, health and safety culture, along with the growing tax burden, endless new workplace regulations and our Government's willingness to go along with whatever crazy human right is dreamt up by some Brussels bureaucrat, does not exactly encourage the entrepreneur. Just try employing somebody or borrowing money in Britain.


4) Shouldn't Boris be doing something to help matters?


Right, now it's your turn. Where is our Mark Zuckerberg?

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