James Handscombe

Sure, since the invention of the railway we’ve had to compromise a few minutes either way on this for the benefit of the community - that doesn’t mean we should give up completely and add some arbitrary quantity on for the lols.

GMT has the advantage that midday happens at midday - choosing anything else is perverse (unless you live in Oxford and choose Christ Church time)

Baku is great.

Yep - GMT all year.

Never forget the panic double.

I think they had not come across it (also I think it’s the bit I do worst at explaining)

A lovely review in Teach Secondary for my Cabinet of Curiosity. “School life ought to consist of far more than just a utilitarian pursuit of exam grades”
You can buy a copy here if you like books and think this is interesting:
www.hachette.co.uk/titles/james...

Bridge competition this evening (annual event - at some point I’ll return to playing more frequently). Coming in the top half will be a pb- staying awake until 10pm the endurance aspect of the challenge.
Respond to a double with a double
Seven heaven, eight hate
Blacks before reds
Hand over fist…

“A memorial of one of the most virtuous and wise sons of their city”
I can see why this was inflammatory

Thank you!

Adding Raja Ram Mohan Roy to the list of things (people in this case) I need to know more about.

“I have lots of thoughts and feelings about the Colston statue … Its place of honour in the middle of Bristol was objectionable to me … Having said thst, as Mayor of the city I cannot condone people taking ropes to haul it down... [I see] the historical poetry in the way the statue was treated”

“Statues aren’t about history, they are about adoration … This was not an attack on history, this was history.” David Olusoga

Misty moisty morning, but a nice view.

Starter pack!

And they’ll all be Ja Ja Ding Dong

Our party has just come third in Gorton and Denton, a previously safe Labour seat - an area where we haven't lost an election since 1931.

It is those running our party who are to blame. We need change at the top and serious lessons need to be learnt:

Oh no!

Not weaker. More complex philosophically.

That’s liquids for you.

We’ll swap them for Nevada.

I love this scene with the two gentlemen - awful misogyny, but excellent nonsense from Shakespeare (the plot, just in case you’re not following is that Pericles’ daughter Marina was rescued from an assassin by pirates who then sold her to a brothel despite her protestations).

First and second things are written about here:
james-handscombe.co.uk/perserveranc...

That’s a fair point - nobody says “teach to the lower quartile”

Yes - I think there’s a drift upwards - optimal aiming at the bulge would hit the middle third but I think we hit the 2nd quartile from the top instead.

I still think that’s not right. Driving a class to match the optimal pace for the brightest out of the 30 in there is not only not desirable, but is really hard, energy intensive. The top ones are left to cruise, the bottom ones to struggle and we serve neither well.

I'm not using "help" in the same way, I think.

I really don't think it is built around the most able in any framing.
I agree about the vulnerability of those who find things most difficult.

A school aimed at those who need it starts by teaching students they are good at things, they can do things, how to behave socially, how to be organized and be on time.
Maths and history would start as incidental to this (and we’d eventually need both, but as second things rather than first things).

It’s not the rational response to work that’s hard (as has been suggested) - it’s kids who find things hard, across a wide range of things, who need more help, and the more resources are squeezed the more we withdraw the extra help.
So maybe the answer is that help should be the starting point?