Dissent over Theresa May social work tweet
Prime Minister (at the time of writing) Theresa May took time out from Brexit negotiations recently to tweet her support for children’s social workers.
In a tweet to mark the expansion of the Frontline children’s social work training programme, May referred to social workers as “heroes of our society, working on the frontline to offer care and support to some of the most vulnerable children and families”.
However, if the PM thought she might be onto a winner with this tweet she had another think coming. There was little love for her among the 400-odd replies.
One wrote: “With over four million children living in poverty, your priority is making sure that the one per cent increase their wealth.”
While another chipped in with: “Child and Adult Social Care is in crisis and your record on keeping your promises speaks for itself.”
You get the drift, although the feedback wasn’t all critical. May did receive a very nice message of support from… South America.
Ferret’s grasp of Spanish is not great, but thanks to Google Translate it says: “Good morning, Mrs. Theresa. Investing and working for better training in early childhood should be a commitment for the future of nations. A hug from Colombia.”
Ferret imagines that the PM will take all the nice words she can get.
Bailey’s past comes back to bite him (again)
Talking of embattled Conservatives, the party’s 2020 candidate for London mayor Shaun Bailey has again come in for criticism as a result of things he’s said in the past.
In an interview with The Times in 2007, Bailey praised the discipline shown by his teachers because they “were men”.
In the article about classroom discipline Bailey harps back to a childhood where “there was none of that PC nonsense” and “if you were wrong” teachers “told you so”. He goes on to say: “Our teachers were men, and we looked up to them. It was not a democracy.”
It is this last statement that has left some in the education community scratching their heads. Writing in the TES, Anjum Peerbacos, a teacher at a London secondary school, says Bailey’s comments imply female teachers are unable to command the same level of respect as their male counterparts.
“To say that men can instantly assume the role of the disciplinarian is just not true,” she writes.
The criticism follows negative headlines last autumn over comments Bailey had made in the past about benefit claimants and racial integration.
With such a rich back catalogue to mine, Ferret is going to delve into the CYP Now archive to read some of Bailey’s columns for Young People Now, one of its earlier incarnations.
Get in the zone with Prince’s Trust music
Children’s charities are starting to tune into the potential that YouTube has for helping them get their message across, but few have set up their own channel on the video sharing website, and even fewer will have hosted performances by some of the top musicians of the past 40 years.
Step forward The Prince’s Trust, which last month launched Prince’s Trust Music at an event held at YouTube’s London studios which was co-hosted by former Boyzone heart-throb and now radio DJ Ronan Keating.
The Prince’s Trust says the channel is a way of celebrating the youth charity’s “musical heritage and to raise funds”.
There are also new tracks by artists, interviews with celebrity ambassadors and exclusive content from singer-songwriters.
Norma’s hampers for care leavers
Although the Christmas holidays seem a long and distant memory, Ferret wants to give special praise to Norma Wilson, a placement support worker for Warwickshire County Council.
For 18 years, Norma has created hampers for the Warwickshire Fostering Service to go to young people and asylum seekers who have recently left care and live alone without family support.
For Christmas 2018, Norma put together 219 hampers, compared with 175 the year before. They contain gifts and mince pies plus essentials such as socks, gloves, toothbrushes and sheets. Many of the items are donated by neighbours, friends, colleagues and local businesses.
The Ferret salutes you Norma.
EasyJet helps Brownies to reach for the skies
These Brownies were given a tour of a flight deck by Captain Kate McWilliams, who herself was a Brownie before becoming a pilot with EasyJet. The airline and Girlguiding have joined forces to encourage more girls to consider a career as a pilot. At present, just three per cent of commercial pilots are women but EasyJet wants 20 per cent of its new entrants to be female by 2020. Girlguiding is introducing a new aviation badge that Brownies can achieve by performing aeronautical experiments and naming 40 things that fly. The EasyJet partnership is part of Girlguiding’s recent overhaul of badges and activities.
