Nicola Sarah Hawkins

Say no to new PFI in our NHS - take action The government’s new 10-Year Plan for Health is proposing to bring disastrous private finance deals back into our NHS.

😡This must be stopped!

Labour's 2024 manifesto promised our NHS would always be "publicly owned and publicly funded".

Now they are talking about reintroducing PFI into our NHS.

PFI would set a ticking time bomb under our NHS that will blow up in patients' faces - ACT NOW.

If you are working class and in the lower sets for English you have no access to books, novels, poetry, or plays but rather a daily grind of basic literacy worksheets”, as one teacher reports in our latest blog post Diane Reay #LSEInequalitiesBlog
blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities...

Lenny Henry: We need more children's theatre Comedian and actor Lenny Henry has called for more children's theatre and wider access to the arts in education

Comedian and actor Lenny Henry has called for more children’s theatre and wider access to the arts in education 👇

Are you teaching about George Orwell's Animal Farm?

On the book's 80th birthday, discover letters, special editions and teaching resources from the Orwell collection – free and available online. @uclspeccoll.bsky.social

www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/aug/...

Girls’ voices are needed to tackle misogyny and the manosphere – but they are being ignored Young people are already very familiar with and dealing with the mundane reality of misogyny in their everyday lives.

"Coverage on online misogyny tends to prioritise the opinions, behaviour and experiences of boys"

@chiarafehr.bsky.social and @jessicaringrose.bsky.social reflect on Emmy Award-winning 'Adolescence' and the importance of centring the voices/experiences of girls.
theconversation.com/girls-voices...

Authors into Schools: A.M. Dassu - Seven Stories | The National Centre for Children's Books

Hello teachers!

My book Wild Journey will be published on 6th November and to celebrate it I’m doing a free online school event with Seven Stories The National Centre for Children's Books

sevenstories.org.uk/event/author...

Compare the list of projects being scrapped in the first two paragraphs with the claim in the third paragraph that they're focusing on society's greatest challenges

Heading of Arts Education with the description "A society in which the arts are healthy is one in which high-quality arts education is valued and available to all, fostering creativity and developing the artists and audiences of the future."

📌 THE STATE OF THE ARTS: One Year On 📌

Last July, we published a landmark report with
@ccmpswarwick.bsky.social examining the State of the Arts in the UK across 5 health metrics. One year later, we’re revisiting each one 🧮

#2 is Arts Education, with the @neunion.bsky.social

What’s it really going to take to ensure Ai and EdTech benefits our many disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils?

@nic-s-h.bsky.social of the @neunion.bsky.social
‬ tells teachers how to avoid the 'AI ready-meal diet'

READ 👉 www.twinkl.co.uk/l/si9z5

Statement from U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Transforming the U.S. AI Safety Institute into the Pro-Innovation, Pro-Science U.S. Center for AI Standards and Innovation Under the direction of President Trump, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick announced his plans to reform the agency formerly known as the U.S. AI Safety Institute into the Center for AI Standards an...

US AI Safety Institute reformed into Center for AI Standards and Innovation. Mission: “represent US interests internationally to guard against burdensome & unnecessary regulation of US tech by foreign govs & ensure US dominance of int’l AI standards” www.commerce.gov/news/press-r...

Sir Jon Cunliffe: put public ownership back on the table! From day one, the government’s “largest review of the water sector since privatisation” - a.k.a the Cunliffe Review - has ruled out the solution that 82% of the British public want: public ownership. ...

The Govt’s “largest review of the water sector since privatisation” ruled out public ownership - a solution 82% of us support - before even starting.
This review is a sham - but we still have a chance to be heard. Sign @labourlewis.bsky.social’s open letter: actionnetwork.org/petitions/si...

School phone policies in England: Findings from the Children’s Commissioner’s School and College Survey | Children's Commissioner for England Over the last four years, I have spoken to a million young people and thousands of parents about the most pressing issues facing children growing up in

“…crucially, technology companies must step up and take responsibility for making the online world safe by design.“ The children’s commissioner is right. We should force tech firms to ensure children can safely enjoy protected online spaces.
www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/resource/sch...

Palestine: NUJ condemns further killings by Israeli bombing At least 159 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed since the start of war.

NUJ condemns further killings by Israeli bombing.
At least 159 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the start of war. The NUJ strongly condemns Israel's targeting of journalists, including Yahya Subaih and Nour El-Din Abdo killed on 7 May. www.nuj.org.uk/resource/pal...

Petition: Make the arts part of UK National Renewal | Campaign for the Arts The Chancellor is reviewing all public spending from scratch. The arts make our lives happier and our communities stronger. Now is the moment to invest in them.

🚨🌱 The Chancellor is reviewing all public spending from scratch. Please join me in signing the @campaignforthearts.org petition to remind the UK Govt: the arts make our lives happier & our communities stronger. Now is the moment to invest in them. www.campaignforthearts.org/petitions/sp...

Debate: Where to next for universal school-basedmental health interventions? Time to move towardsmore effective alternativesJack L. Andrews & Lucy FoulkesDepartment of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UKThere is an urgent need to improve mental health outcomes among young people. One approach taken toaddress this problem has been the design and delivery of universal school-based prevention, based on thera-peutic models such as CBT and mindfulness. Such interventions are delivered to groups of young people, irre-spective of risk or need. However, in this commentary, we argue that the initial appeal of universalinterventions has not been supported by the evidence: universal school-based prevention is less effective thantargeted approaches, often leads to null or unsustained positive effects, has the potential to elicit negativeeffects and is not well liked by young people themselves. In addition, many young people in each classroomalready meet the criteria for a mental disorder, meaning that prevention approaches may not be appropriateor effective for this group. In this commentary, we respond to Birrell et al.’s (2025) paper by arguing that thefield should move away from universal prevention and instead invest our limited resources in the refinementand dissemination of interventions with a stronger evidence base, such as one-to-one, targeted and indirectapproaches.

For me, these new findings are exceptionally useful for suggesting we should stop universal MH interventions in schools, and focus on one-to-one, targeted and directed interventions instead. @jackandrews.bsky.social and I argue this is more detail below

doi.org/10.1111/camh...

Labour’s great nature sellout is the worst attack on England’s ecosystems I’ve seen in my lifetime | George Monbiot The horrifying planning bill, which rips up environmental protections, was drafted with CEOs in mind. We know because Keir Starmer told us, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

Labour’s great nature sellout is the worst attack on England’s ecosystems I’ve seen in my lifetime | George Monbiot

Reminds me that I once asked @sonialivingstone.bsky.social what area of public policy we could learn from when thinking about digital life and her answer was ‘town planning’

"[English now] is something that is no longer really literary study at all but rather the performance of a new kind of English that is very different and far less enjoyable"

School phone policies in England: Findings from the Children’s Commissioner’s School and College Survey | Children's Commissioner for England Over the last four years, I have spoken to a million young people and thousands of parents about the most pressing issues facing children growing up in

“…crucially, technology companies must step up and take responsibility for making the online world safe by design.“ The children’s commissioner is right. We should force tech firms to ensure children can safely enjoy protected online spaces.
www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/resource/sch...

6% is a cut too far - Protect Adult Learning It’s no secret that after decades of cuts, adult learning remains woefully underfunded whilst continuing to deliver impressive outcomes not just in skills but for health and wellbeing, work progressio...

This cause is close to my heart - please sign: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/6-...

This is Utah in case anyone’s wondering how pissed off people are. I have never seen anything like this.

Trump Says Union Rights Are a Threat to National Security President Donald Trump signed an executive order attacking the union rights of employees at several federal agencies, citing national security.

Trump Says Union Rights Are a Threat to National Security

rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

linktr.ee/shareneu?utm...

This is Julia, she live drew a whole session today at #wedemandchange. An incredible skill and makes events engaging and accessible.

Julia is available via www.juliamiranda.uk

⚠️ With no mention of school funding, Chancellor @RachelReevesMP made a choice this #SpringForecast:

To continue to deprive school budgets.

To refuse to start properly funding schools.

This is not the change that this Government promised.

Our letter in @financialtimes.com calls on the government to resist spending cuts in the #SpringBudget. After years of stagnation, we cannot cut our way to growth. Public investment is essential for delivering sustainable growth and strengthening our economy.

Read the letter ➡️ bit.ly/4bV89zl

Keir says: No return to austerity……….. REALLY?!

The money is there, they just need to look in the right place.

It’s about making the right choices: pitting the poor against the poor isn’t that!

🗣️ No cuts, No austerity, yes to a #WealthTax! RT 🔇🔇🔇

The chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves has outlined plans to cut several billion from the UK's welfare budget.

Cuts to disability benefits will worsen health and the economy
www.bmj.com/content/388/...

Will Europe Sacrifice the Digital Services Act in Negotiations with Trump? | TechPolicy.Press Jakob Ohme, LK Seiling, and Claes H. de Vreese write that European leaders must protect the DSA to ensure a democratic future.

As EU-US relations change Europe must stand firm for the DSA

The DSA is imperfect, it cannot fix everything. But the DSA is a shield to defend European democracy.

@dscheykopp.bsky.social @lkseiling.bsky.social and I argue this in @techpolicypress.bsky.social ⬇️

www.techpolicy.press/will-europe-...