Elaine Watts

Educator - with interests in Equalities and Human Rights Education. Anti Racist. Granarchist. WASPI activist.

[Elaine Watts @ELAV1234]

@Keir_Starmer The best way to honour veterans is to put an end to war and stop sending arms to countries who conduct wars! Otherwise it’s hypocrisy.

[Elaine Watts @ELAV1234]

@kathy_frisby @ZelenskyyUa @POTUS Your President and VP are bullying idiots!

[Elaine Watts @ELAV1234]

@dpeccles @henrystoll @BBCBreaking Yep…. the bullying side.

[Elaine Watts @ELAV1234]

@BBCNewsnight @WASPI_Campaign @nicholaswatt @bbcmerseyside Remember this @Keir_Starmer ? This was the day you actually signed the WASPI pledge for fair and fast compensation. In Glasgow. At the SLP conference

[Elaine Watts @ELAV1234]

@jessphillips @BBCBreakfast Missed opportunity this morning to strongly denounce inappropriate comments and behaviour in the workplace. Poor response from Jess. Maybe she should watch reruns of Strictly all day.

[Elaine Watts @ELAV1234]

@complaintsCH @RadissonBlu @Radisson Blu Durham is also dishonest. I ordered a Cointreau
from the bar. The waitress said she’d bring it to my table. It didn’t taste right so I took it back… turns out it was a Triple Sec.

[Elaine Watts @ELAV1234]

@paulmasonnews Corbyn is right.
Labour needs to return to being a true Labour Party

[Elaine Watts @ELAV1234]

@Kevin_Maguire … or wear a white poppy?

[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.

[Elaine Watts @ELAV1234]

@naomicfisher As an ex teacher, teacher educator and grandmother, I totally agree with you.

[Elaine Watts @ELAV1234]

@cvi81 @mikklehaha @naomicfisher Do you stop to consider why a child doesn’t or can’t “behave” or comply with your rules?
It’s not as cut and dried as you seem to think it is.
Instead of being defensive, it might be better to rethink your expectations of behaviour and consider this from the child’s perspective.

[Elaine Watts @ELAV1234]

@TeachandProsper @realdoll03 @Penny_Ten That’s a silly comment.

[Elaine Watts @ELAV1234]

@RaynahTh @tombennett71 Key word in your argument…child.
Sadly, many teachers become sucked into the hierarchical and punitive culture that still exists in schools.

[Elaine Watts @ELAV1234]

@MelJStride @DavidLinden @Stuart_McDonald @gab54y @WASPI_Campaign
To question WASPI women’s collective memory is gaslighting. Time to put right a historic injustice.

[Elaine Watts @ELAV1234]

@WASPI_Campaign @AnasSarwar

[Elaine Watts @ELAV1234]

@WASPI_Campaign Two years ago @AnasSarwar
walked with us on the May Day Rally in Glasgow.
No place for abstention 😡

[Elaine Watts @ELAV1234]

Great speeches at the Believe in Scotland rally today. Very impressed by @ionasoper’s speech

[Elaine Watts @ELAV1234]

@LabourBerry @WASPI_Campaign @Keir_Starmer @AnasSarwar @AngelaRayner @RachelReevesMP @waspigl1 It doesn’t sound like you have read the final report.
This is the first time in a good number of years that the PHSO has referred a decision back to Parliament. WASPI women and their families want to know what Labour’s position will be on this.

[Elaine Watts @ELAV1234]

@Keir_Starmer @AnasSarwar @AngelaRayner @RachelReevesMP
Looking forward to hearing your plans
to compensate WASPI women @WASPI_Campaign @waspigl1

[Elaine Watts @ELAV1234]

@LabourBerry @WASPI_Campaign @Keir_Starmer @AnasSarwar @AngelaRayner @RachelReevesMP @waspigl1 The PHSO has recommended
a compensation figure but has passed it to Parliament to decide. It is the responsibility of all MP’s now to pressure Government.