AIBU to think the Education Secretary interview with Gemma Collins was a mistake?

[PinkBobby]

I have just watched a clip on social media of the Education Secretary sitting down with Gemma Collins (of TOWIE fame) and cannot believe they thought that’s the conversation schools/parents/teachers/SEN children need to hear right. I have nothing against Gemma Collins and think she could probably give a few govt departments some useful, blunt feedback but this feels like a huge fail.

Interested to hear if anyone thinks this is a PR success or agree it totally misses the mark.

YABU - It was a great discussion and you’re being unfair.

YANBU - The chat totally misses the mark and highlights the divide between politicians and the real world.

Phillipson is now accusing everyone who objects of having vested interests and/or being joyless miseries. Despite having been claiming for weeks that she's listening to SEN parents, she just doesn't get it that her proposed reforms to the SEN system are causing massive worry and distress because they involve taking away significant rights, while she has no proposals to deliver what SEN parents actually want, i.e. adequate accountability to ensure that local authorities stop blatantly breaking the law. Accusing the parents of disabled children who have legitimate cause for concern of lacking "joy" is quite unbelievably crass of her.

I wish the leadership would realise that these proposed reforms are potentially disastrous. There's a very substantial sector of people involved one way or another in the SEND system, including teachers, who have been put off voting Labour for this reason alone.

How cringeworthy. Really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

I just would have loved to be a fly on the wall for the brainstorming session that produced this idea . I’m cringing just thinking about it.

I’d research the story of Jesy’s twins before I posted such a judgy comment, if I were you.

I am aware of it, thanks.

It’s like something out of W1A

Also I said they were all over social media - am I wrong?

She's raising awareness. She has a large platform and is using it to try and make positive changes regarding the condition her twins have.

What is wrong with that?

Did I say there was? If she wants to post about them then fine.

Given the shitshow that is the NHS right now, Wes Streeting having a photo op with her wasn’t a good look, in my opinion.

I’ve only seen the clip that was shared upthread but I don’t get the link to the SEND reforms. Did they talk about those?

From what I saw they discussed Richard III for some really fucking weird reason. No idea who formulated that script.

It's totally cringeworthy and does nothing to help the issue.

Bridget Phillipson strikes me as someone who is totally performative and has zero substance.

It is so bad it can only be good to show just how fuckIng clueless the whole shower of shit is.

I can't think of any logic that makes more sense than this.

Is this an actual stereotype of SEN parents? I have a child with SEN but wouldn’t consider myself to be a chav, I have a PhD if that counts. The other SEN parents I’ve met haven’t been ‘chavs’ either, perfectly regular respectable people. How can being a chav and having a child with SEN even be linked?

Also did they discuss SEN? All I saw was Gemma Collins spouting off about her bizarre love of Richard III.

You can't actually imagine who is sitting round the table and coming up with an idea like this. I mean if this is their final polished product, fuck knows what the rejected ideas were like. It is embarrassing for them and a kick in the teeth for anyone with a SEN child trying to get bloody support. Idiots.

Could a FOI be put in to request the minutes and all written notes from attendees at this meeting that decided this would get the go ahead? Plus the original oroposal?

It is so totally batshit it is has to be by design.

They made a choice to put Gemma in an outfit that's reminiscent of a school uniform - tie, waist coat that is much too tight, a shirt that is probably very expensive but gives the impression of holes at the shoulders. They went for a scruffy visual caricature off a schoolgirl. Why?.

The comments about her maths grade. What do we take from that? That it doesn't matter if you fail your exams you can still make a success of yourself by becoming a celebrity?

The 'joke' about pi/sky. That it's fine for someone Gemma's age to continue to show no curiosity? Academic learning stops at 16?

Who is it aimed at and what is the message they were trying to get across?

So is gemma now representing the average sen child???

I think it may be aimed at who the government believes the average vocational learner is. I’ve just thought about it a bit and it clicked with me. They think people who do apprenticeships are working class and thick like GC so will relate.

I’m sorry I’ve only watched the Richard III section, not any more. Why so many comments specifically on SEN parenting? What’s the link?

That aside, NO ONE should ever have signed off on this. Even if they did it and then said ‘nah, not quite right’. It’s horrific.

"Quiet bat people...?"

In Amandaland the school head teacher tears her a new one for completely undermining his efforts to get the message across that SM influencer and 'being a slob' is not a sensible career choice. Now we have the Minister for Education undermining him as well.

I don't know much detail but they are making sweeping changes to sen provision in school that people are very worried about and these skits appeared the day after there was a consultation on Sen provision that many parents, teachers and other people who will be affected will have spent a lot of time thinking about and carefully contributing to.

Families are frustrated, are desperate for their children to have a suitable education but feel let down as in many cases it falls far short of meeting needs. The timing of this propaganda, making a joke or if education rubs salt into that wound when families crying out for decent provision feel they're not being taken seriously.

Schools are also waiting for the updated child protection guidelines which will need to be implemented in time for September but still aren’t out and the summer holidays are approaching.

Seeing the DfE fannying around on shit like this instead of getting the statutory safeguarding guidance out is rather frustrating.