Westminstenders: PreGrades (Minority Report comes to the UK)

[RedToothBrush]

In Aug 2020, London, DC's prototype 'PreGrades' launched from the education department stops plebs before they go to university, reducing the social mobility rate to zero percent. Social mobility is predicted using specialized mutated humans, called "Teachers", who "predict" grades by marking shit lots of course work and exams over a period of years. Would-be social climbers are knocked down in a computer algorithm which distorts reality and hits the disadvantaged hardest. Central government is on the verge of adopting the controversial program nationwide by applying it in all departments from the DWP, the Home Office, the Department of Health and the Department of Justice to predict benefit fraud, getting sick asylum seeking and crime before it occurs.

DC's vision of the future is based on excellence being genetically ingrained into the elite but he must sell this vision to the unsuspecting public in a series of public votes which rely on the idea of the 'undeserving'. Little do they know that they too will be the victims of this plan until a mysterious bug appears and only the wealthy and well connected are able to get hold of adequate PPE and they are no longer able to buy bog roll nor retire to Spain as they had previously and endless queues for pizza form near Kent.

The Daily Mail does appear to have turned against Johnson - there is another scathing headline.

I do like the Metro's headline - Turtle Chaos, and an inset picture of a mutant ninja turtle.

@Peregrina, my dcs go to our local private (due to the fact the local state secondaries are awful - very little choice around + most of them are oversubscribed).
They have the shirt/jacket/tie attire from Y7. And I can promise you that they all aspire to something else that being a car salesmen. They aspire to be doctors and engineers etc....

It’s perfectly possible to learn to conform to norms without the imposition of a uniform. So norms such as appropriate clothing, demeanour, work ethic, behaviour towards others. In fact, by concentrating on uniform, other appropriate behaviours are less focused on. I had a row with my HT once over students listening to music on phones or iPods while doing coursework. It helped them work and minimised distractions. I was told that I couldn’t let them because the school had to be consistent in not allowing this in lessons. I argued that if the school went for consistency in doing whatever the teacher told you in whichever lesson you were in, it would make more sense.
I do think issues in education have a huge bearing on attitudes that have shaped Brexit, starting with the fact that in this country education is driven by “form” rather than “function” (to appropriate design tech terms). Consequently education is beset by the latest whims and fancies of people who either haven’t been in a classroom for years (if ever) and those on the bonkers end of the pedagogical spectrum - and children have their heads stuffed full of stuff, but don’t actually learn how to think.
Sorry, rant over.

The best uniform in a secondary school I worked at was trousers/skirt and polo shirt. No tie, shirt didn't need to be tucked in. Easy as pie to enforce. The kids got their individuality by "accidentally" bleaching their white polos which changed the colour of the embroidered logo.

How does this apply to Dominic Cummings, who is an untidy scruff, or Johnson?
The sector in which cummings plies his trade is mandatory 'dress down' - he couldn't even get away with 'business casual' - he is conforming to the norm! (part of that norm is being an arrogant t*sser, whether or not you have earned that right)

As jason118 says, de pfeffel bought the right to not conform at the beginning of his wobbly path - not a route open to most

@borntobequiet - completely agree, keep on ranting, assert your birthright!

I've just dipped into the other thread 'aibu to be furious about no deal'. It's so depressing to see all the familiar arguments going round in circles.
Is anyone here taking any practical steps to protect their position. Apart from food stocktaking. My cousin has rushed into a Spanish property purchase so her family can start their residency process before the deadline.
We're about to sell our house in the SE without a dependant purchase and want to live away from Brexity types. It feels like it should be an opportunity but the uncertainty, national and personal is paralysing.

And I can promise you that they all aspire to something else that being a car salesmen. They aspire to be doctors and engineers etc....

I am quite sure that the local private school students do too, it was just the impression it gave off to me. Doctors are increasingly seen in scrubs or short sleeved garments with no ties. Engineers are usually seen in high vis and hard hats. There is such a thing as appropriate dress which many schools don't seem to be able to comprehend.

In fact when this school first adopted its 'smart business attire' for the sixth form, and I first saw a group of their students in their black business suits, I thought "Poor kids, having to attend someone's funeral.", thinking it might have been a fellow student who had passed away, and that's why they were dressed like that.

Ha ha at my school “smart business attire” was interpreted by many girls as “show as much flesh as you can manage” and they had to have a talking to. Boys on the other hand looked smart and well groomed, though at one stage I was amazed they didn’t all fall over their very pointy toed shoes (which were always very well polished).

Ah yes, the TOWIE phase. The boys all with their hair combed, shiny shoes, slim cut suit. And the girls all in "body con" dresses with hair long, wavy and flowing.

The obsession with uniform (which the government's favourite schools apply very rigorously) can also be seen in an obsession with 'gold standard' terminal exams. And look where that got us...

We went to visit our godson at his very expensive boarding school - all the 6th Formers were in smart /elegant suits and posh shoes, we felt like we had walked into a FTSE 100 boardroom (which was no doubt the impression that school was going for).

Oh don’t start me off on ties for school kids! DD’s school has just done a u-turn and is bringing back ties within a month of starting back, despite initially saying that no tie and an open-necked shirt would be fine. I’m furious because I’ve bought shirts that can be worn for about 4 weeks before becoming obsolete

Why do such little children need to wear ties anyway? At DD’s school they’re not even allowed the fake ones on elastic after Reception. They have to learn to tie their own at age 5. To help with this, I had to learn how to tie a tie myself, having reached my mid forties without ever needing this skill...

If you've given up any hope of actually teaching anything, then a petty focus on uniforms is probably the next best thing.

This is a cheese shop isn't it?
Yes, Sir, Best in the county sir.
How, pray tell, was that decided ?
Very clean, sir !

Scotland not looking forward to propping up England ...

Why do such little children need to wear ties anyway?
Especially when they are increasing not something that adults wear.

Don’t know if this has been linked to before, R4 How they made us doubt everything
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m000l7q1

No uniform in Germany, very relaxed and informal in school
The kids are chilled
but are well-equipped to face the world of employment later

International surveys of childhood happiness all seem to have the UK near the bottom, imo due to their regimented lives and lack of independence
In Germanic (and iirc Scandinavian & Nordic) countries, making their own way to school from age 6+ and playing outside from then does instill a greater independence & resilience

• and reduces childhood obesity (then adulthood, car, beer & pastries raises it again !)

I had a career in STEM, UK & Germany and I never once changed out of sports casual, except for 2 job interviews in the mid-1980s and early 1990s

Confusion about COVID policy kills

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/aug/27/unclear-uk-advice-on-ppe-cited-in-home-care-covid-19-death-inquiry

A home care worker who did not wear protective equipment may have infected a client with a fatal case of coronavirus during weeks of contradictory government guidance on whether the kit was needed or not, an official investigation has found.

The government’s confusion about how much protection care workers visiting homes needed is detailed in a report into the death of an unnamed person by the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB),
which conducts independent investigations of patient safety concerns in NHS-funded care in England.
.....
The government’s guidance had been a shambles that had placed workers and their vulnerable clients at risk, the policy director at the United Kingdom Homecare Association, Colin Angel, said on Wednesday.

The association also accused the government of sidelining its expertise and publishing new guidance with little notice, sometimes late on Friday nights, meaning that it was not always noticed by the people it was intended for.

< that's like advice for schools >

The Mail are trying to u turn on Boris (pictured looking a fool sitting on the floor, spliced next to a professional looking Angela M) but the commenters aren't having it, full of how we are going to show those stupid Europeans who's boss when we end transition. We'll really show them up by trading on WTO rules instead. They need us more than we need them

That was a great series. Must catch up on the ones I missed.

Back in the day before the prevalence of velcro shoes and elasticated ties... I used to be the fastest tie tier in the west....

Reception kids lined up to the left for shoe fastening and to the right for ties. About 20 pairs of shoes and 20 ties between me and coffee break.

@HoneysuckIejasmine

The Mail are trying to u turn on Boris (pictured looking a fool sitting on the floor, spliced next to a professional looking Angela M) but the commenters aren't having it, full of how we are going to show those stupid Europeans who's boss when we end transition. We'll really show them up by trading on WTO rules instead. They need us more than we need them

Riding the dragon never ends well.

No uniform in Germany, very relaxed and informal in school

To be fair, there's a very different history of Germans and uniforms than the UK ... (I know the Daily Mail found blackshirts quite fetching ...)

That may well reinforce the total lack of desire from German parents for school uniforms,
but hardly anywhere in Europe now wishes to put their children in uniforms

The UK is an outlier (but iirc Ireland may still have this uniform hangorver)