Netra

Word of the Day is ‘uhtcearu’ [ucht-kay-aru, with the 'ch' as in the Scottish ‘loch']:

Old English for ‘the sorrow before dawn', when you lie awake in the darkness and worries crowd your mind.

Sophie Smith · Sleeping Women: On the Pelicot trial Gisèle Pelicot doesn’t conceive of her now ex-husband or the other men who raped her as ‘bad apples’, aberrations...

‘The point is that patriarchy puts women in a sceptical scenario, making the distinction between the men you can and can’t trust difficult to draw.’

Sophie Smith on the Pelicot trial: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

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Don’t look for heroes or heroines in history. Most people in the past won’t live up to our ideals. Look for complex individuals who did some admirable things and may have done some atrocious things, and study them for who they were within their own time.

Meet the ‘sickfluencers’ of TikTok – and don’t be fooled by the outrage obscuring the real scandal | Frances Ryan That desperate people have to look online for help accessing disability and sickness benefits is what should truly upset us, says Guardian columnist Frances Ryan

Meet the “sickfluencers”: disabled people turn to TikTok for help accessing disability benefits - and the media says they’re scroungers gaming the system.

My col. on Fraser Nelson’s stitch up job, and the paranoia those with the least might get an advantage. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

How to fix the primary maths curriculum ‘Phonics’ for maths and more pleasure in the subject should be the aim of the primary maths curriculum, and this is how we achieve it, argue Peter Foulds and David Thomas

"When the expected standard is 54 marks out of 110 (as it was in 2024 KS2 Sats), it’s clear that we do not really have a mastery system."

It's always baffled me how there has been a sustained national push towards a mastery approach, yet the assessment framework has remained woefully misaligned.

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In defence of the London Overground rebrand At the unveiling ceremony for the newly named lines, I found more than expensive virtue signalling.

"The main thing TfL has done with its new names is to highlight the contribution to London’s life made by people who are not the Queen of England. Anyone who sees this as virtue signalling may, in fact, be signalling rather more about themselves."

‘We live on Pot Noodles’: rickets hits homeless families with no kitchen Families placed in hotels in England are being forced to live on snack foods, putting young people’s health at risk

‘We live on Pot Noodles’: rickets hits homeless families with no kitchen
www.theguardian.com/society/2024...

Liberals have lost the argument on migration To stave off the far right, tough decisions must be made, and made soon

This argument but with an accurate list of the downsides. "Stopping the 2021-3 wave meant saying no to Ukrainians and Hong Kongers, the NHS and universities falling over, and continued high vacancy rates and inflation. But that's a price we should've paid"
www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...

Just taking a moment to think about how normal it is now for women to have a job that is talking, writing, or presenting on football.

It was inconceivable not that long ago. There is much progress still to make, but I'm proud of all of them 💪⚽️

This is the thing we so rarely talk about: The role of NGOs, think tanks charities and pressure groups to improve political debate. Was crucial today, but all took place in the background.

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Word of the day is ‘quiddler’ (19th century): one who pays great attention to trivial matters as a way of avoiding the important ones.

Do they know it’s Africa, at all? Ed Sheeran is right — the Christmas classic is painfully out of step with reality, much to the detriment of the continent

Do they know it’s Africa, at all? Great piece by David Pilling on that song. www.ft.com/content/8292...

it’s actually very easy to give people earworms, or at least that’s what someBODY once told me

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Cannot agree more. Seeing hospital letters with predominantly medical - and often worrying - words, but no explanation, can be so challenging.

Statutory reporting of use of reasonable force makes sense to me
I'd also like to see some clear evidence collected on assaults on staff.

Dropping Out Why improvements in school standards are at serious risk

New post just out:

"Dropping Out"

Why improvements to school standards are at serious risk.

(Free to read)

open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/d...

Ofsted working hard at writing their new framework. #exemplary

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