An apt day to remember that Dolly Parton once recorded a cover of Stairway to Heaven - and, in defiance of every moral law in the universe, she absolutely owned it.
I'm sorry we never got a chance to meet, but getting this note from Dolly really had a an impact on me. She definitely didn't have to take the time to do it. Even for a kid who mostly listened to rap music, she was an icon. A superstar in every sense. Rest easy Dolly. And thank you for the kind words.
Michaela has two grammar schools nearby - one for boys and one for girls.
At 11, top set kids don’t get in. The ones who might have had a chance, sit the exam and don’t pass it.
Then they attend Michaela: we are their consolation prize.
But 5 years later, they get, on average, more than 2 grades higher on their GCSEs thanks to what they and their teachers do: work hard, no excuses, traditional values and teaching, warm/strict discipline, drive, ambition, and above all, the ability to ignore the haters.
They get GCSE grades that compete with Eton that costs over 50k per year.
They (and other lower ability Michaela kids) then do their A levels, do so well to compete with Winchester and other big boarding schools that cost a bomb.
In a school building with no trees, no grass, no sports hall, no car park for the staff to park their cars! With the trains so loud next to us that the heads of year can barely be heard in the asphalt yard.
Then their headteacher posts a ‘Hooray’ online with a few videos of them getting their results.
Happy kids. How lovely. 🥰
But what do the haters do?
ATTACK!
Over and over.
How dare I be happy our kids have done well! Apparently saying ‘hooray’ is ‘crowing’ and ‘over the top’ and I should shut the hell up. How dare I say anything: I should hang my head in shame apparently.
Without irony, these same people post about Jason Arday and how the hate sent his way was unforgivable.
But your hate for me has no bounds.
I said ‘Hooray’.
ONE WORD. ONE F’ing WORD.
You people are the worst hypocrites imaginable.
Inner city kids do incredibly well and you dare to criticise this as some kind of abomination.
Do some inner soul searching.
God knows, you need it.
When our GCSE results come out on Thursday, I expect the hate to come again. That will be despite the comprehensive intake given to us by the council like any other school, kids starting below their chronological reading ages etc.
The hate is always the worst in August: because that is when results come out.
Nothing you all hate more than seeing inner city kids succeed. Videos with brown and black kids celebrating.
You just can’t stand it.
Depraved and disgusting.
That’s what you are.
GREAT NEWS!
Do you remember these two (criminal) clowns...?
They've now both been issued with £1000 fines by North Warks Borough Council. Also, the vehicle they were driving was issued as part of the taxpayer-funded Motability Scheme. This has now been seized by the police on behalf of the Motability company.
These young women are heroines. They're peacefully protesting against the grotesque unfairness of men playing in women's sport. The only people who are "f*cking insane" here are those making a mockery of fair sport for women and trying to bully girls like this into silence.
This is very worth reading because it beautifully lays out the faulty thinking that has given us suicidal economic policy that has also made no impact on climate change whatsoever.
Characteristically, it pretends that those who oppose Net Zero do so because they deny that the climate is changing (no one sensible does), that outsourcing our emissions to poor countries, an accounting trick, is somehow green (it's not) and, most importantly, challenges the argument that the overwhelming majority of carbon emissions produced in the world today are emitted by countries that care about economic growth way more than they care about "saving the planet" (China, India etc) by citing Kenya whose entire annual emissions are roughly equivalent to what China emits in about 8 hours.
The hoax is not climate change. The hoax is that we can stop it by making ourselves poorer.