Grammar school expansion divides Kent town

campaign a success

Sevenoaks parents' places raises concerns that wealthy families can take advantage of the system

When the first extension of a high school in more than half a century, was approved last week, the result surprised even the parents who had fought so hard to achieve.

a campaign in the sleepy town of Sevenoaks Kent, who has no school of his own, to provide its most brilliant son had raised a petition of 2,600 names.

Currently, 1,120 children in the city have to go to selective schools in nearby towns. The decision of the County Council means the schedule in relation to these schools can be built in Sevenoaks. "People power is alive and well," said Mike Whiting, Conservative County Councillor for Education in Kent.

changes in the law schools of the coalition last December had paved the way for Kent to approve the provision new elementary school, spearheaded what many fear could be a resurgence of selective education in the country.

Tory councilor Jim Wedgbury declared triumphantly. "We can make history and begin the deployment of high schools across the country"

But for others, the campaign led to a division between those who can afford tutors to get children to exclusive schools, and those who are "making do" with the state providing not selective in Sevenoaks is Knole Academy.

Mary Boyle, director at Knole, said: "Consequently, what they say about my school, my children, my staff and governors is unfair that parents of grammar school saying "the only alternative one. Knole Academy and is not to go", while most of them have not even visited.

"We are not just stumbling around in the background. We are a new school and a negative view of us has an impact. We have children who arrive with very low self-esteem after experience of 11-plus [and] we need to create a backup. just wish all these people going around saying, "Oh, my child can not go there" in reality, we can visit and see what we do here. "

She told the recent production of Knole

Twelfth Night

had demonstrated prejudice. "I tell people and it is not surprising:" What is Shakespeare? "

• Boyle said there was little interest in the new primary school places among the leaders, both public and private, in Sevenoaks and noted the logistical difficulties in the operation satellite sites.
• Boy
• Knole head and she wrote a letter to the Council, noting the impact on students to be considered a school of last resort. The head of the man Oliver Nichol, 18, said that they felt was unfairly let Knole. "My results are better than some people I know who went to grammar" he said.

"I'm glad I went to this school because it is much more inclusive, I met people from all types of bottom and made me the person I am. Ago a true team spirit. I think parents want the social prestige of having children in primary school, who are clinging to old ideas and we want to make things clear. "

advisor Whiting said Knole was a "very good choice." He said he was convinced that the recession has had a role in places like the anxious parents facing high costs for the private sector. "There is a certain pressure that comes from those who migrate here from London. Come for the selective system and, of course, puts pressure on places. Educate parents, for 11-plus in the private school sector and then in a good grammar. "

Work new grammars banned in 1998. In 2007, the Conservatives said they would rather extended schools program of the academy. But in December the education secretary Michael Gove announced that the 164 remaining grammar schools could expand and create satellite schools.
Parents who organized the petition

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Favourite science writing: Carl Sagan's Cosmos

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Weinsteins to release Bully unrated in protest at censors

Decision

MPAA to describe the film anti-bullying R for foul language means your target audience under 17 years can not see that unaccompanied, the Weinstein Company, said

The Oscar-winning producer Harvey Weinstein will face censorship in the U.S. for the release of the documentary harassment despot without a rating.

The Weinstein Company, which owns with his brother Bob Harvey, warned the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which was given the position after the decision to censor the high profile of the hand Lee Hirsch's film an R certificate, namely children under 17 could not see unless they are accompanied by an adult in the United States. After censorship refused to revoke the decision that was made on the basis of several cases of bad words, Weinstein issued a statement yesterday announcing the film will be released without a rating.

The move means it will be in single rooms in the United States to decide to show the film. It is considered a risk: many channels tend to follow the orientation of the letter from the MPAA, especially in more conservative areas. However, Weinstein is expected that the publicity surrounding Bully and the controversy over the decision of the MPAA will change the minds of the owners. An online petition launched by the young Katy Butler prohibitive to change the classification has gained about half a million signatures.

"The small amount of language in the film who is responsible for the R rating is there because it is real," says Hirsch. "These are children who are bullied against almost daily. See that all our supporters and we are grateful for the support we have received through the board. I know the kids will come, because it goes to the theaters to let them in. "

• "Children and families in this film are the real heroes, and we believe that theater owners everywhere step up and do the right thing for the benefit of all children out there who have been victims intimidation or otherwise may have been the aggressors, "said President of Marketing Weinstein Company, Stephen Bruno." We are working to do everything we can to make this film is available in many parents, teachers and students throughout the country. "

Comment theater owners

far has been uneven. The Weinsteins have been supported by the CMA, but the National Association of Theater Owners, said last month to follow the instructions of the MPAA advising its members.

Bully follows school students in Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, Iowa and Oklahoma during the 2009-10 school year, with their families. Particular emphasis is placed on the death of Tyler Long and Ty Smalley, who committed suicide after being bullied.

The MPAA says that only a small edition of the language used in the film would have come to a PG-13, allowing the film to be seen by your target audience. The filmmakers claim that the recovery is in line with the abuse suffered by children in the United States on a daily basis. They have been endorsed by celebrities such as Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Justin Bieber and Ellen DeGeneres.
Bully opening is scheduled for March 30 in theaters in Los Angeles and New York. Still no release date in the UK and seem to have been classified by the British Board of Film Classification.

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Thailand takes first steps on long road to inclusive mainstream education

cultural barriers continue to deny access to schools for disabled children, but progress in inclusive education is finally collected

strict hierarchy in Thai society means that the drive for inclusive education requires a strong commitment from politicians and school leaders. In the last decade there has been significant progress in policy measures to implement a system that ensures that disabled children have access to regular schools. However, cultural barriers and the reluctance of some managers, the way to a fully inclusive education has just begun.

"Even when he volunteered to work for free, could still not be convinced," said Paul Lennon, a British expatriate, whose son was born with Down syndrome. When he started looking for mainstream schools for your child in Chanthaburi province six years ago, administrators in the region was denied a place. However, the National Education Act, passed in 1999 - and accompanied by signs stating: "Every person with disabilities who want to go to school can do" - supposedly guaranteed to all children with disabilities access to public education

Some managers spoke with Lennon were sensitive to the concept of inclusive education, but do not feel they had the resources and training for effective implementation. Others, with decades of experience working in special schools, was this institutional model was more appropriate.

legal education has had some success. Between 2000 and 2004 the number of students with disabilities access to education has increased from 145000 to 187000. These students learned more than 18,000 inclusive schools, which is defined by the government that those who teach children with and without disabilities. No new legislative developments in educational provision for people with disabilities, adopted in 2008, making it illegal for schools to refuse entry to children with disabilities.

After much perseverance in obtaining a school place for your child, Lennon turned his attention to helping children with access to inclusive education, helping to create the Good Foundation Child.

Nanthaporn (Nuey) Nanthamongkol, a six year old with Down syndrome, were to return to boarding school before he intervened. "Without our work, Nuey who were separated from their parents, sent to a school 80 kilometers," says Lennon. "For children with Down syndrome, this is the worst thing you could do."

• Aa Nuey
story also highlights the cultural complexities of disability in Thailand. Sermsap Vorapanya, who is the author of A Model Inclusive Schools in Thailand and has conducted a study on the Thai practice of inclusive education, said: "It is very important to understand that most Buddhists [Thailand] believe in the reincarnation is widely regarded as invalid. failure deserved positive lead past lives. "

Theravada Buddhist teaching of rebirth has led some families to inform ashamed of having a disabled child.

However, many managers in the study cited Vorapanya Buddhist belief in the necessity of compassion as a reason to support inclusive education. Meanprasat private school in Bangkok, which combines Western style "child-centered" learning a Buddhist spirit of moral ethics and regular meditation, is recognized as a national leader in the integration of educational practices . A total of 130 of its 1,300 students are disabled. The school's philosophy is that children with disabilities "should have the opportunity to mingle with society and be accepted by her." More than 5,000 teachers each year to visit the school and attend workshops to help spread good practice.

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The working poor: this country will only prosper when fair wages are paid | the big issue

need a real guarantee that a person with a family with one full-time job pays enough to live

Thank you for highlighting the plight of ordinary working families struggling to make a living in poverty ("poor workers of Great Britain", In Focus).

beyond the control of inflation paralyzes the household, but this government is too cowardly to tackle the real problems. When they learn that it is ordinary people who physically run the country: doctors, nurses, teachers, policemen, clerks, drivers and not the bankers who play with our money

The only country that develops when there are jobs that pay fair wages, social services work for the common good, and vigorous enforcement that corruption clamps.

Pat Smith

Pershore

Worcs

Conservative MP was positive that Dr. Dan Poulter has bothered to visit the Rowleys damage but that his analysis has dwelt mainly on the complexity of the benefit system than going to the "heart of the problem. "

The problem is that people can work full time (when they can get the hours or job) and still require taxpayers and state support because some employers ( with big profits and big bonuses to their CEO) does not pay a living wage and thus, in effect getting a state subsidy.

Hopefully Dr. Poulter takes the warning Sue Royston Citizen Services in the same article, that families like the Rowleys could lose 75 pounds a week in tax credits for smaller jobs.

Better yet, we hope that Dr. Poulter said his editorial on the budget in the same number to make their political bosses. This analysis provides beautifully the true heart of the problem. And it is this: the poverty of the lack of opportunities for young affordable housing, pensions, or job security, minimum wages, odd hours, child care and indifference super expensive the fate of society in general. About you, Dr. Poulter!

Gaukroger

London E11

The article clearly describes the enormous challenges faced by honest people who work hard and completely destroyed a government-backed attack on the benefit system.

Far from this system is too generous, the real scandal is that a couple with two children only - work, effort, and life care - the need to maintain profits, the same style Basic Life. They need a better support system, not a minimum wage, which can be circumvented by the "home" scams use, as the Agency limited construction mentioned in this article, but a real guarantee that a person with family employed full-time paid enough to live.

If Dan Poulter, Conservative MP seriously review this work, want to do something useful, we must support the Living Wage Campaign (www.livingwage.org.uk). It's just £ 8.30 per hour in London.

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Laurence Clark: the 'sit-down' comic fighting for the right to the good life

The actor and his wife Adele both have cerebral palsy, but this does not prevent them from raising two children while campaigning for disability rights

When Laurence Clark tells people who is an actor, you receive one of two reactions. "Anyone taking my act will be a story worthy of triumph over tragedy," he says. "Or they will use" inspiration "of the word. I" inspired "a lot".

Clark is not your average up. Indeed, it has been described as "a comic-slow" as is done in a wheelchair and uses her experiences living with cerebral palsy as a material. Next month, is touring his show,

Health risks

he describes as "a mission of a man to sell the benefits of free medical care . "And in case anyone is confused by its modes of expression clumsy, Clark was able to open his act with words." No, I'm not angry "

If some audiences may find it uncomfortable, sorry Clark. "All the comics are based on their own experience - which is work," he said, when we met at Bar Soho Theatre in London. "Nobody told Jo Brand, do not eat a cake or things of being a woman. "

Clark, 38, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth. Does not interfere with nerve signals to muscles, which often leads to complications develop in the uterus that leads to problems with posture, movement and coordination.

After a long period during which she suffered from a lack of oxygen, doctors warned his mother that he would probably have learning difficulties and be unable to s' care of itself. "I actually used" vegetables "in the word" he said.

At school, despite being interested in the drama, which was advised by the office of career to enter. "Computers are like basket weaving," Clark said, dryly. "It's a job today stereotypical disability because you can make you feel." He ended up getting a Ph.D. in computer science and biology . But he found the work boring and began writing comedy scripts. Soon it was done: "I thought it was the only way to get my stuff heard."

His appearance at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival was the first of six acclaimed performances here and happening now Clark 100 nights a year in comedy clubs across the country. Has won an order for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad - the comedian just to make it

Has it ever been interrupted? "I can only remember one time and it was just a button on the bottom, an insult."

But not only as an actor that Clark is trying to challenge our notion of what disabled people can or can not do. He and his wife, Adele, 34, who also has cerebral palsy, are parents of two healthy children: Tom, eight, nine months and James. As a couple, they refuse to be defined by their disability in a society that is still scandalously used to see prospective parents with disabilities in achieving independent living.

• When Adela was pregnant with Tom, she recalls going to the pharmacy in his hometown of Liverpool to buy folic acid tablets, and looked up and down the pocket. "She said," I do not think that people like you could have babies, "said Adela." I could write a book about all the times people say things like that for me. "
• The history of
• 'Clarks appears in a documentary tonight on TF1 as part of the season beyond the disability, a series that looks at our attitudes towards people with disabilities in the 21st century. In

not reduce the baby

, narrated by David Tennant, the Clarks are presented juggle their lives around caring for their children in much the same way than any other family. Your home is tailored to its needs (with wheelchair access and key fobs) and rely on the help of grandparents and "personal assistants" that directly depend on their care budget, which is provided by the State .

"Caregivers do not say that because it involves something you are doing so instead of something that is in control," said Lorenzo. The recent government cuts have not done that this way of life easier. "It is becoming increasingly difficult to get funding for independent living, but at the same time, people are in retirement and disability benefits being told to leave and find work.

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My hero: Stephen Haff by Peter Carey

"It was a very successful teacher, but the public school system has difficulty dealing with someone who does not fit into the mold. So he went and started his own small school

Stephen Haff

runs a school in a poor country, sometimes violent, of Brooklyn, New York, called Bushwick. The area has a large immigrant community, everyone is legal, mostly Spanish speaking. The school system is not equipped to deal with these children, some of whom arrive with no English. Stephen is a graduate of Yale, in the theater. One would expect to find a relatively bright, but left the theater and chose to teach in one of these New York schools that teachers seem to fear. He taught, but also created a theater group from the ghetto, whose version of

Romeo and Juliet

finished around the world.

It was a very successful teacher, but the public school system has difficulty dealing with someone who does not fit into the mold. So he went and started his own school as a child.

Esteban is so concerned about the "transparency", the first thing I did was to install a huge plane of glass in the front wall, so the neighborhood can see exactly what is happening in this room classes of bits. Students came from more of them: some regular after school, some were older children who had left school or the school had given them up. Soon, there were about 30 students, and soon the older students helped the younger ones. The people in the streets was difficult, but it was a friendly environment, very quiet, especially reading and writing. School called "Still Waters in a storm."

Imagine the student who was at the bottom of your reading group at school, on his return after three months to the class and discovers that she is now in the top reading group. And imagine the shy little boy who does not speak English in three months that can stand in a room and read to their classmates. Children are so happy to be there, school is the best part of their lives. Stephen, meanwhile, lives on food stamps and support of others who are trying to raise money for him. It is truly a great man.

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