Is our town a shithole..

Well a couple of miles down the road when it rains heavily the stream becomes a river which rises over the bridge flooding the area which means you can't get into town so you're stuck until it subsides.

That does sound idyllic! I’d love to move somewhere remote with land.

There's a council property in a hamlet near us that has stables, and land, but it's very rural. Oil tank for heating, septic tank for ablutions. A friend works for council said it's idyllic but not wanted because of its location.

Some of these old council properties were presumably for farm workers with big families. Built of quarried stone, they'd be popular with some private buyers.

Bollocks.

I worked for the DWP, back when benefits were actually far more generous than they are now (no benefits cap, no two child cap etc, no LHA limit) and I never came across anyone who would have been able to keep ponies.

Eta: apart from one or two travellers, but most of them didn't keep horses or ponies.

look it up on benefit rates you’ll be surprised I worked for the DWP and saw it every day

This sounds completely like one town about 10 miles from me. Always had a reputation but has just unravelled completely. We noticed it in lockdown and moved out .... The decline has been scarily quick. Other towns that are close are going the same way to a degree.

Enhanced disability is £400 per child £295 per child if disability two child cap is disregarded
Re the money for rent she is covered and has ponies in diy livery

5 ponies and 5 children? Unless there’s some additional income somewhere and land, I highly doubt anyone is able to afford it on £3500 per month (even if it’s possible to get that much). Also, aren’t horses considered assets when applying for benefits? They’re considered assets for tax purposes.

I live in the NE. It’s a shithole. Crime is rife and police do nothing. I’d move tomorrow if I could.

£700 per child?

Does the LHA really meet the full costs of renting properties with multiple stables?

@bipbopdo 5 ponies I think so

That’s still not enough to keep a family and multiple horses on

@PandoraSocks
£700 per child with disability plus adult and rent allowance perfectly achievable if diy

@nothingquitelikeathreadhighjack

"If you look at how language and maths were taught before the 60s, it explains why literacy and competence levels were so much higher then - but it is true also that there was a lack of time for free expression. It would have been better to introduce half a day of free expression and keep half a day of bums on seats rather than just stop teaching academic work!"

I'm going to guess you haven't been in a state school for the past 30 years and have no idea at all about the curriculum or modern teaching methods.

Also - there's no evidence of an increase in illiteracy since the 1950's.

That's not really how DEI works.

DEI is about removing barriers to employment opportunities for minorities. There is never a requirement to hire someone who isn't qualified or suitable for a post on the strength of protected characteristics.

"In relation to your last two paragraphs, the focus should be on raising academic standards throughout at school level, and then for all to be seen on a level playing ground at universities and in careers without messing around with standards."

State schools get roughly 7K per year per pupil. Average private school fees are now 15K a year at secondary. State schools have class sizes roughly double the size of the average class in private school.

Are you going to argue that it's either possible or probable that in our lifetimes there's going to be support for a doubling of the spend on education for the state sector, to match the resources that are lavished on kids in private schools, in order to remove the rationale for universities making contextual offers?

Of course you know that's nonsense - it will never happen.

And until we have equality of opportunity for young people universities need to take a student's potential and not just their attainment into account in admissions processes.

Not to mention how hard it is to get a diagnosis for children if you read it the threads on here.

I think parents who are on the case make a huge difference, but the curriculum and how the curriculum is taught also extremely relevant. We have been hit with progressive thought on and off since the 60s. In my primary school, all teaching of maths and language stopped overnight in the name of progressive thought, thinking we all needed to be creative not to be taught rules (after a couple of years of this I moved schools)

If you look at how language and maths were taught before the 60s, it explains why literacy and competence levels were so much higher then - but it is true also that there was a lack of time for free expression. It would have been better to introduce half a day of free expression and keep half a day of bums on seats rather than just stop teaching academic work!

How disruptive behaviour is managed in schools is also relevant. Parents' input again relevant here, but how schools manage behaviour and help children who are behind is also relevant. Far more needs to be done in relation to helping children who are behind at the start of senior school to catch up. Most of the kids with disruptive behaviour are also behind, so looking at that link and finding solutions would be a good idea.

This post made me laugh. I have visions of 5 children sitting round the kitchen table alongside their ponies with mum and dad teaching children and ponies the times table.

I doubt even people getting benefits for 5 disabled kids could afford multiple ponies, unless they had other sources of income?

Do you believe a university student from a background of care with no parental support coming from a challenging school faces a level playing field at university with a privileged student from a supportive background and family coming from an academic school?

You’re obviously enraged about something but I don’t care.

No.

I don't have two separate accounts.

Apologies if is too difficult for you to follow a conversation thread on Mumsnet.

Successive governments have starved education of funds. In Wales however there's no bloody excuse we've had labour Senedd for 26 years. But Starmer has kicked us into the long grass. Perhaps because he thinks rightly that we couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery.

The kids that did well in my children's time and the kids that do well in my grandchildren time all have one thing in common. Parents that care and uphold standards from not dropping litter to being involved enough to read with their children every night, research extra help online, bitesize, YouTube for other subjects.

And yes they all work full time before anyone raises the time poor argument. Although it would help if parents weren't so time poor.

Are you posting from two separate accounts on this thread, I suspect you are.

So you are saying that yes, offers are to do with DEI not merit now? If so, what sort of percentage?

In relation to your last two paragraphs, the focus should be on raising academic standards throughout at school level, and then for all to be seen on a level playing ground at universities and in careers without messing around with standards.