RCD

always learning

[National Education Union @NEUnion]

Schools quite simply cannot make any more cuts. This mistake belongs with ministers and they must honour the funding heads were told to expect.

School budgets are already stretched beyond breaking and children’s education is suffering as a result. Government must urgently get a grip. #ValueEducation
https://t.co/lp9tDBqyZR

[The Cultural Tutor @culturaltutor]

12 Reasons Why Cities Need More Trees:

1. Temperature Control

One large tree is equivalent to 10 air conditioning units, and the shade they provide can reduce street temperature by more than 30%.

2. Noise Reduction

Trees can reduce loudness by up to 50%. In urban areas filled with the sound of cars, construction, sirens, aeroplanes, and music, trees are essentially the best way to block noise and keep cities — along with the homes and workplaces in them — quieter.

3. Air Purity

Trees remove an astonishing amount of harmful pollutants and toxins from the air. In urban areas air quality is often disastrously bad — with severe consequences for our health. Trees make the air we breathe much cleaner.

4. Oxygen

And, while absorbing all those pollutants, trees also put more oxygen back into the urban environment. Oxygen levels are significantly lower in cities compared to the countryside; trees help to solve that problem.

5. Water Management

Trees do more than just shelter us and our buildings from rain — which is, in fact, extremely important. They also absorb huge quantities of water, reduce run-off, neutralise the severity of flooding, and make flooding more unlikely altogether. Not to forget that their roots absorb pollutants and prevent them from feeding back into a city's water supply.

6. Psychological Health

Studies have proven what we instinctively know to be true: that human beings are significantly happier when surrounded by nature rather than sterile urban environments. Our emotions, behaviour, and thoughts are shaped by the places we spend time — and trees have a profoundly positive effect on our psychology. The consequential benefits of being happier and more peaceful — as individuals and as a society — are immense.

7. Physical Health

Beyond all the other ways in which trees improve air quality and the urban environment, much to the benefit of our health, they also encourage people to go outside. Cycling, running, and walking are all more common in urban areas with plenty of trees. A knock-on effect of people spending more time outdoors is also social integration and stronger communities.

8. Privacy

A simple point, but not inconsequential, is that trees provide privacy.

9. Economics

The total economic benefit of urban trees is hard to calculate. There are costs, of course, including the repair of infrastructure damaged by roots and maintaining the trees themselves. But the total economic benefit — a consequence of everything else in this list and more — far outweighs the expenditure. Trees make cities wealthier.

10. Wildlife

Trees are miniature cities all of their own, serving as a habitat for hundreds of different species, including birds and mammals and insects.

11. Light Pollution

Trees don't only block the light shining down, therefore keeping us and our cities cooler — they also disrupt light shining up, from street lighting, cars, houses, and billboards. Skies are clearer in cities with more trees.

12. Aesthetics

And, finally, trees are beautiful. They break up the potential monotony of urban environments — the sharp geometry, the greyscale roads and buildings, the endless rows of cars — with their trunks, boughs, canopies, and flowers.

Just think: the gold and red of falling leaves in autumn, the white and pink blossom of spring, the vast green canopies of summer, and the branches lined with hoar-frost in winter. Every single tree is a myriad of intricacy and texture, of colour and scent, of dappled light on the pavement, mottled bark, knotted roots, of clustered leaves and delicate petals and stern boughs.

Few streets would not be improved by the kaleidoscopic aesthetic delights of a tree, not to mention the many different species of tree, all over the world, whether willow, oak, lime, cherry, aspen, maple, birch, horse chestnut, dogwood, hornbeam, ash, sycamore... the list goes on.

There are some drawbacks to urban trees, most of them context-specific, and they are not — of course — universally appropriate. But it seems fair to say that many cities would benefit from at least a few more trees here and there.

[Flora @FloraSCooper]

Question for the day. Please only answer if you ARE NOT in education but have children in school.

What do you see or know to be the pros or cons of @Ofstednews ?

I want to know what parents really think about Ofted & if they understand its impact.

Please RT this far & wide!

[Mr B 🙋‍♂️ @MrB_online]

What you should be getting mad about

👉90% of schools facing cuts in 2023
👉Teacher recruitment target missed by a third
👉Teacher vacancies up 93%
👉Teacher pay lost in real terms by 23% since 2010

What you are told to get mad about:

👉Teachers standing up for the profession

[National Education Union @NEUnion]

The Govt’s 4.5% pay offer was rejected by all four teaching unions as inadequate and because it wasn’t fully funded. Since then, ministers haven’t even spoken to us about a way to resolve our dispute.

The responsibility for these strikes lies with them. @GillianKeegan must publish the STRB and re-enter talks #SaveOurSchools #DoYourJobGill

[Calum @justcalum123]

@NEUnion @GillianKeegan 4.5% or even 6.5% is a drop in the ocean after over a decade of austerity. It's not just about 1 year but over 13 years of sub inflation pay. Not surprising retention & recruitment are so low. The gov. proves year after year they will underfund education. https://t.co/aKjMOamDMR

[National Education Union @NEUnion]

There are no negotiations and @GillianKeegan refuses to release the pay review body report going as far as to refuse an FOI because it’s apparently not in the public interest.

This is why teachers are strike today because we have to #SaveOurSchools

👉If you’re with us like or share this post.

[National Education Union @NEUnion]

This London march is absolutely huge #SaveOurSchools

[National Education Union @NEUnion]

Fact check @MailOnline – it’s actually 300K teachers striking today.

While we regret the disruption, this pales into insignificance compared to the impact of staff shortages, lack of resources and crumbling buildings on children’s education every day of the school year.

It is Govt inaction that has caused these strikes #SaveOurSchools #PayUpNow

[National Education Union @NEUnion]

The latest pay offer from the Govt was an insult to hardworking teachers in this country and failed to acknowledge the crisis sweeping through education. E

To win a fully funded, above-inflation pay rise, we need your vote in our re-ballot. Vote now. #PayUpNow #DoYourJobGill

[Flora @FloraSCooper]

Ofsted is adamant they know what parents want-we know many parents don't fully u/s the strikes, or why Ofsted, SATS, etc, need to change.

If you could tell parents the truth about anything in education right now that may be affecting their children-what would it be?

#ShineOn

[RCD @rcdbazinga]

@BritishGasHelp Shame they're only open when I'm at work

[RCD @rcdbazinga]

@britishgas this installation is what I've come home to - apparently I'd never notice they'd been? Maybe you should rethink that sales pitch.. #unhappy #makeitgood

[RCD @rcdbazinga]

@BritishGasHelp Will do. I was not given any contact numbers or even a customer care email to be able to speak to anyone. #disappointed

[National Education Union @NEUnion]

▶️Govt's latest offer = 4.3% and not fully funded.
▶️STRB recommendation = 6.5%

@GillianKeegan we know the STRB report is sitting on your desk. It's time to make it clear whether you intend to implement the recommendation. #PayUpNow

Make sure you return your re-ballot vote now.

[Tes magazine @tes]

BREAKING: 6.5 per cent pay award recommended by independent review body

https://t.co/oujjCRs9Vd

[National Education Union @NEUnion]

Our campaign is stronger today than when we started.

We know the Govt is feeling the heat.

To win a fully funded, above-inflation pay rise, we need your vote in our re-ballot.

Vote now. Tell us why you're voting here.👉 https://t.co/TljApOgsZJ

#PayUpNow #SaveOurSchools

[National Education Union @NEUnion]

.@GillianKeegan's insulting pay offer, resoundingly rejected by NEU members, shows she has no understanding of just how serious the situation is in our schools & colleges.

We urge you to vote straight away in our re-ballot for a fully funded, above-inflation pay rise. #PayUpNow

[#stuckinarock @Stuckinarock]

@MaryBoustedNEU @GillianKeegan And to show that striking teachers are not all militant left wingers - https://t.co/09Nw26kdRu #teacher

[Baroness Mary Bousted @MaryWBousted]

Kevin and I are doing the media round this morning, answering important questions about today’s strike. But where is @GillianKeegan? Why is she not being questioned? And would journalists please stop calling the pay review body ‘independent’. It’s not!