Clare

It must have been around 1990 when I first started reading newspaper articles pontificating about how 5-day red-ball test cricket was basically finished. Today at the Oval, India & England showed us how stupid that judgement was. Yet again.

Woakes apparently has whites on 😳

He could be politely described as unconvincing in that innings.

This was an extremely moving gesture. Brilliant to see.

Joe Root dons the headband in tribute to Graham Thorpe after his century at The Oval ❤️

Game is definitely getting beyond them. Although I think India will want 300 plus just to be safe.

Thank you for organising this. Such an important day and cause. #thorpey

Thank you for helping us raise over £107k and counting for Mind on A Day for Thorpey. 🫶

Fans have purchased around 18,000 headbands online and at the Kia Oval today. 🤗

You can still get yours in the ground or here 🔗 shop.mind.org.uk/cart

🤎 | #SurreyCricket

Young carers face higher risks of depression, anxiety and lost futures – and most receive no support Young carers are less likely to finish school, get a job, or stay well.

Young carers face higher risks of depression, anxiety & lost futures – & most receive no support
theconversation.com/young-carers...

A Day for Thorpey 🤎

Hear from some of England’s current players about one of England’s greats!

You can get your headbands at buff.ly/8rReW2Z or in the ground tomorrow!

🤎 | #SurreyCricket

Home comforts. 🏡

🩵| #SurreyCricket

Grace Harris’s sparkling 63 took Surrey home as the Three Feathers became the inaugural Women’s Vitality Blast champions in front of their home fans at the Kia Oval. 🫶

www.kiaoval.com/surrey-crown...

🩵 | #SurreyCricket

I’m not even English, but can we use the Lionesses’ victory as an excuse to all be nice to each other for 24 hours?

We ask a lot from small towns that take migrants Norfolk market town of Diss has quietly accommodated families since 2023 but the mood changed this week

I spoke to women sexually harassed by staff, I spoke to a woman trapped in her room because she was visually impaired and no one would assist her.

scabies break outs, staff bullying, kids held in rooms with no windows.

Janice doesn’t mention them in her article

www.thetimes.com/article/a50f...

When I did a story on conditions in migrant hotels, there was a woman who would have to wash the spicy sauce off the pasta - in the sink - because there was no meal suitable for her toddler. She felt like a bad mum who couldn’t feed her own child

Things are so gloomy at the moment, the 2005 Ashes feels like a great place to escape back to.

The cover blown here: fundamentally, taking away SEND rights is all about the money

Test match cricket is the best of sport (even if I did have to turn off TMS for most of the afternoon because it was just too tense!). #EngvInd

This feels very concerning for people with sickle cell too. That condition fluctuates but can make it difficult to attend work regularly particularly when having a crisis.

Norman Tebbit had become a prolific blogger in 2005. But I remember noticing that summer that he did not write even a single sentence about that greatest ever Ashes series. It made me wonder if he had never even been a cricket fan in the first place ...

The increase in children with additional, complex needs was something politicians and society were warned about in the seventies in the Warnock report.

But we can’t go back to a system to declaring children to be ineducable and leaving them behind with no education and no chance to be as independent as possible. Even if looked at solely from a financial perspective, that’s a huge further cost to society as they will need extra case as adults.

Why should only some children get access to that help and expertise?

Far higher for send children on every measure. But why should disabled children have to be out of school for the right to be in education to be met? By which stage they (and their families will have lost faith in the system). Also the schools and professionals that can help are so good.

And often they have unmet send. The only positive change I can see from having IRPs in place would be give them powers to get children with unmet send into the send system so their needs could be met, ie a referral for a send assessment.

And, I should add, that in my experience, the IRP system is usually a very negative outcome for families. Resulting in not being listened to and their children/YP being left out of school/education with all that entails.

I hear you but what if it doesn’t result in any changes for the child/YP involved? Too many schools know that there is no negative outcome for them from an IRP hearing, add SEND children to that unenforceable system and you have more children/YP out of school. I fear that’s where we are heading.

Mediation doesn’t work because it’s unenforceable. You can give all the advice you can finance to families, but if you can’t make the provider of the education (whether that’s the LA, school etc) provide it then it’s performative and won’t make any difference when LA budgets are so stretched.

In fact I worry it’s going to be the opposite. In an attempt to save money.

Which means, unless you really understand the law or have access to someone who does (and legal aid is almost impossible to access) then you won’t be heard. I don’t think the current system functions but nothing I hear tells me the process will work better for families like mine under any reforms.