Sue Dunn 🌈

Happily single, gay, chronically ill,pro EU, mother to a 23 y'old doing a maths phD Ex-NHS worker. Yoga, mindfulness, meditation, love, kindness and peace 🌈🙏

[Sue Dunn 🌈 @SueBeSelfless]

Could someone with more followers retweet this?
Huge thanks to @WelshLabour for providing loft insulation & fitting solar panels FREE OF CHARGE. I'm disabled & on a low income. Labour government making a real difference addressing climate &fuel crisis #ToryCostOfLivingCrisis

[The Tweeting Owl 🦉💚 @LindaEnfield]

@Otto_English Important to note 👇
https://t.co/CzobgaMxlQ

[Hey Ho 🏴‍☠️ @RosyDarling66]

@Otto_English Dyson's pile is near me, it's absolutely huge but the most important thing to remember is that he has been able to avoid inheritance tax for years by using some of his land for farming. Obviously he didn't buy it for the 51 bedroom house, ornamental gardens and lakes 🤔😉

[Naomi Fisher @naomicfisher]

I was talking to a grandmother last week about schooling. ‘I can see the difference’ she said. ‘When my children were young, primary school was relaxed. If the weather was good, they went outside and ran around. If they were sick, they stayed at home. Now with my grandchildren they are seated in desks for more of the day and if they are ill, they are worried that they’ll lose their 100% attendance for the term. The pressure is on to pass their phonics test when they are six and then to learn their times tables at speed by the time they are nine. They feel it and their parents feel it too’.

There’s lots of talk about SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) at the moment, and how increasing numbers of children are being identified as SEND. It’s less common to ask questions about what SEND really means, and whether the education system creates more children ‘with SEND’ as it becomes more pressured and rigid.

For what SEND really means is that a child cannot learn in the way which mainstream education expects. They cannot keep up with expectations, either for academic work or for behaviour. SEND is something which happens in the interaction between a child and the education system. In a system where no 6-year-old is expected to sit still and learn to write their name, then a 6-year-old who just wants to run around outside isn't a problem. In a system where everyone is meant to be able to read by age 6, then they are.

We know from research that if a child is young in their year, they are more likely to be identified as ‘having SEND’. We know that summer born boys are far more likely to be identified as ‘having SEND’ than autumn born girls. We know that the impact of this immaturity resonates through the years, with the youngest in the year doing less well at GCSE. We know that the number of children ‘with SEND’ is going up year on year.

It's not really plausible that more children each year have difficulties in learning, nor that being born in August makes you more likely to have learning problems than if you are born a few weeks later in September.

It’s far more likely that in the push to ‘drive up standards’ the education system is becomes less, not more, suited to how children develop and learn. It’s more likely that the system is penalising immaturity – and children are inherently immature. That isn’t a lack or a defect, it’s a defining part of childhood.

As the education system becomes more rigid and pressured, we’d expect more children not to be able to manage without adaptations. This is exactly what we see. Those children are holding up the flag for all the others, saying that this system is not child-friendly and doesn’t take account of developmental needs and differences.

What if, instead of having higher expectations of the children, we had higher expectations of the education system? What if those expectations were of flexibility, reducing pressure and prioritising lifelong learning and wellbeing instead of short-term testing?

What if we saw the increasing number of children ‘with SEND’ as a sign that the system isn’t working for the many ways in which children develop, rather than a sign that more and more children have learning difficulties? We’ll never sort the ‘SEND crisis’ until we start looking at SEND as an interaction between children and the education system. The more rigid the system is, the more children it will fail.

Illustration by @_MissingTheMark from the book A Different Way to Learn.

[Sue Dunn 🌈 @SueBeSelfless]

@mrjamesob How can anyone who is locked up for practically 24 hours a day, then be expected to act like a normal person!

[David__Osland @David__Osland]

'Charity is a cold, grey, loveless thing. If a rich man wants to help the poor, he should pay his taxes gladly, not dole out money at whim.' - Clement Attlee, Labour prime minister

[Rangzen @revoltinghippie]

Just Stop Oil supporters listen to climate scientists & the data.
This year has been the wettest on record & wheat production in the UK is down 22%
Get ready for higher prices & shortages

[A C Grayling #FBPE #Reform #Rejoin #FBPR @acgrayling]

BBC-speak for 'Brexit is a disaster'.
A tide is turning.
Truth & common sense might yet prevail.

[The90%. No to Charter Cities @90percenters]

@sturdyAlex Rent a flat above a shop
Cut your hair and get a job
Smoke some fags and play some pool
Pretend you never went to school

But still you'll never get it right
'Cause when you're laid in bed at night
Watchin' roaches climb the wall
If you called your dad he could stop it all, yeah

[Sue Dunn 🌈 @SueBeSelfless]

@Valerygirl67 Love them. Saw them live, was amazing. All his lyrics talk to me.

[Sue Dunn 🌈 @SueBeSelfless]

@trussliz Well it gave me a good laugh 😂

[Black Lives Matter Cardiff&Vale @BLMCardiff]

CARDIFF! YOU DID NOT DISAPPOINT!! 🚨

We've outnumbered the fascists last Saturday, Sunday and Friday. And now we come out in our masses to draw a line, very clearly, that Cardiff does not tolerate hate, racism, or fascism. ✊

[🇯🇲 TMC Music Connoisseur @MusicConnoisseu]

11 years ago Akala DESTROYS Tommy Robinson with facts 😭

This is what happens when racists come up against an intellect btw

[Just Me…Dee🐟 #FBPE #FBPR #GobshiteClub @deelomas]

Dear @Nigel_Farage

How are you feeling this morning after being told to fvck off and keep fvcking off and just when you think you can’t fvck off any more you find that little bit more space to fvck off even further.

Nige, you can fool some of the people some of the time but…

What a loser and a gobshite.

[Taj Ali @Taj_Ali1]

Pubgoers embrace Muslims defending their community in Accrington. This is the way forward. Unity. The racist thugs are in the minority.

[James Kennedy ✊ @JamesKennedyUK]

Immigrants are not the problem.
Refugees are not the problem.
Muslims are not the problem.

The politicians, the bankers, the multinationals & the tax havens are the problem. They are why our country is in a mess.

Get wise, people.
Follow the money.
They're playing you.

[Adam Kelwick @adamkelwick]

THIS IS HUGE!

After hearing about our response to the protests in Liverpool, one of the people who attended the "save our children" rally reached out to me and asked if I would join him for a coffee. I obliged, of course. He reassured me that he and his people were there out of genuine concern, and not for violence and hate

As I've been saying all along, I knew there were people on "the other side" who were sincere and genuine.

After the coffee, he invited me for a discussion with several other people who are seen as grass-roots influencers here in Liverpool.

We had a 90-minute discussion about the Southport tragedy, the riots, immigration, racism, the psychology of hate, and media narratives.

By the end of the discussion, we didn't agree on absolutely everything... which is fine. But we did reach a consensus that it feels like we're being pitted against each other by forces out there.

Our dialogue is now continuing, and I have a feeling there are great things to come.

[SHARE]

@tonymoranpt
@markscano
@mindthatmusicofficial
@abdullah_ahmed_Ivp_
@richard.grannon

[ALASTAIR CAMPBELL @campbellclaret]

They don’t. Believe me. Why do you talk such utter shite? And why are you morphing into a sovereign individual
anarcho-capitalist narcissist with fascist leanings? Some journey you’ve been on.

[Guy Verhofstadt @guyverhofstadt]

If you tell people migration is why they lack opportunity, this is the result.

Bad governance, inequality & unregulated social media have a lot to answer for.

Silence from Farage & the Tory hard right who blew the dogwhistle for years.
https://t.co/90Z2lrXYXP