Lack of education of many of the population chimes with me. Our education system totally and utterly fails to cater for the non academic and changes made by Gove have made it all much much worse. In science my subject a few years ago we could do BTec Science with weaker pupils or single award gcse science, now everyone has to do double award GCSE, many just cannot do it. Combine this with needing 98/420 over 2 papers to get a 4-4, (equivalent of 2 C’s) or maths 47/240 we teach kids that having no idea what is going on can still lead them to be successful. At the 289/420 got you a 9-9 in science thats beyond A* level at less than 70% of the papers correct.

Its no wonder people dont see the value of understanding things.

… she repeated the lies about a Brexit dividend for the NHS at PMQs this week…

i think she was hoping BoJo would pay it for her…

Combine this with needing 98/420 over 2 papers to get a 4-4, (equivalent of 2 C’s) or maths 47/240 we teach kids that having no idea what is going on can still lead them to be successful. At the 289/420 got you a 9-9 in science thats beyond A* level at less than 70% of the papers correct.

I don’t particularly like what Gove’s done to the education system but I believe the various grade boundaries are adjusted each year so that the percentages achieving A* (or 9 etc) are roughly the same as the year before.  Obviously it varies; the year below me was clearly thicker and this was reflected in the results.

Harder paper: fewer marks required to get higher grade.  It’s also possible that someone is technically correct but the mark scheme doesn’t permit them to gain more points for the answer, either because it’s missing key words or a logical step is missing in the working.

One of the problems I have with Gove is my own ambivalence towards him: in many respects he’s a raving, idiotic, backwards, gammon Brexiteer; yet on his previous secretarial postings he is by all accounts the only person to have ever aimed to understand them.  He was the least “conservative” justice secretary in 20 years, and for that I do give him credit.

As someone who went through their GCSE / A Levels in the early 00’s, I can distinctly remember that formalised exams started in year 9 with SATS, then mock exams or early GCSEs in year 10, then GCSEs in year 11, followed by AS in year 12, and taking them to A2 in year 13.

Double science was compulsory when I was at school; that’s not a recent change.

So – and this is solely my opinion – fewer exams are a good thing.

Obviously it varies; the year below me was clearly thicker and this was reflected in the results.

I would imagine it would be very hard to see that in a big enough sample which AQA take. How do you know they were clearly thicker?

Double science was compulsory when I was at school; that’s not a recent change.

Oh right, all those kids I taught BTec science or single award science for about 10 years must have been a figment of my imagination!

How do you know they were clearly thicker?

You didn’t really take that seriously, surely?

and i do think we need to be serious about the ramifications of ignoring the result,

I’ve said this since practically day 1.  We don’t have to leave in order to not ignore the result, that’s not the only course of action available to us.

The referendum didn’t tell us that the country wanted to leave the EU.  It told us that we were a country divided.  The result was as near a 50:50 split as makes no statistical difference.  The sensible thing to do, and what we should have done, is to look at the result and analyse why people voted to leave and then worked out the best way of acting on that in the country’s best interests.

And we’ve done this subsequently, of course.  The single biggest motivator by a long way was concerns around our immigration policy.  It was in our power to address this internally, we have the flexibility to exercise tighter checks and balances around immigration but we choose, as a country, not to do this.  We could have shored up our policy and that would have been a great chunk of leave voters appeased straight out of the gate.

The NHS was another hot topic.  Giving more money to the NHS sounded like such a great idea that they wrote it on the side of a bus.  Don’t tell me the money isn’t there – how much have we spunked in the last two years on court cases, general elections, bungs to the DUP, cash to South African countries to secure trade deals we already have, corporate funding to bribe people like Nissan into not doing a runner, and so forth?  We send £350M a week to the EU, why not give it to the NHS as well?

I could go on.  All of these things are, ipso facto, honouring the result of the referendum.  A referendum which, let us not forget, was a non-binding opinion poll and could cheerfully be ignored anyway if parliament had wanted.  Boaty McBoatface was just as much “the will of the people” as the EU referendum.

Whereas (ironically), blindly triggering Article 50 was in fact actually ignoring the result – it conveniently ignored the sixteen and a half million people who wanted to remain.  Who’s giving a remote shite right now about the will of those people?  We won, you lost, shut up and get over it, something about bananas.  It’s perfectly acceptable to ignore the result of the referendum when it involves people you don’t agree with, that’s how 21st Century “democracy” works now seemingly.

Double science was compulsory when I was at school; that’s not a recent change.

When I was at school, “Science” (double or otherwise) was taught to the lower streams.  The more academic kids got separate subjects for Physics, Chemistry and Biology (and Electronics at GSCE Options time).  For reference, ours was the first year ever to do GCSEs rather than O Levels.

I can’t find how many people are attending the pro march in Harrogate.

Has anyone turned up?

Good numbers here in London.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-45925542

1/5 Million apparently, looking packed there.

When I was at school, “Science” (double or otherwise) was taught to the lower streams.

When I was at school….is usually followed by some pointless, inaccurate or just plain stupid statement.

Before the Gove reforms to GCSE which had the first exams for science last summer a number of different courses were available which fulfilled the requirement for everyone to do science. With the the very low ability having to now do a double award GCSE it means you needed less than 25% to get a C equivalent.

I love the BBC reporting on the demonstration. Several hundred thousand is as far as they will commit, although they do admit stewards estimates as high as 570000 people. And then, just to add kudos they choose to mention that some 150 coaches from all over the country have brought people to the march. Now unless I am way out with my calculations, 150 coaches with 50 people max on each makes about 7500 people. Hmmm, either someone has miss-counted or else that was a wholly pointless statistic to even mention!

When I was at school….is usually followed by some pointless, inaccurate or just plain stupid statement.

Was there any need for that?

Nothing I said was incorrect.  “When I was at school” is perfectly valid when talking about being at school rather than making a pissy comment about someone not being able to add up or something.

Meanwhile a typical leave voter…

https://news.sky.com/video/lets-get-back-to-being-a-british-empire-11530606

Jesus, that’s depressing.

That’s why London needs to sow a giant strip of landmines outside the M25 – maybe with a West Bank style guarded corridor to Oxford and Cambridge and then cut the rest of the country off.

Those people shouldn’t even be given suffrage – they didn’t even vote because they seem hard up or depressed – no they voted cuz “empire”.

Idiots.

China has the right idea with re-education internment camps for anyone who gets uppity.

Just got back from the march. A very British, good natured thing with babies though pensioners queuing quietly (apart from the “Bollocks to Brexit” and “Where’s Jeremy Corbyn?”) waiting for the march to start. Took until 14:00 for my part of the crowd to get out of Hyde Park and I wasn’t at the back. I got as far as Green Lane by 14:30 but bailed out as I’ve got to pack for an 06:00 flight tomorrow. Crowd was massive – way more than 100,000. I can easily believe 500,000+ as the whole route was packed with the head of the march arriving at Westminster whilst we were still on Park Lane.

Be better to split the country in half and have brexiters on one side and remainers on the other side.  Only then the less than super rich people on the brexiter side will realise there error of their ways but tough, they are not allowed into the remainer side.  I would love to live in a country such as the remainder country – reasonable people who are able to think about the good of society past their own selfishness

Can’t see that plan going wrong, splitting countries in two always works out well…

BBC estimates the crowds in London at 670,000 – any estimates for Harrogate?

Farage, some bloke and his whippet?

Partition should surely be easy.

The brexiters have been saying for months there is no reason why NI needs a hard border with the Republic

So there is no reason that London, South Cambs and Scotland couldn’t remain in the EU with the rest off the country departing.

While I have some sympathy with building a bloody big wall between remainers and leavers you do all know there are plenty of us in the North who voted remain don’t you? 🙂

So there is no reason that London, South Cambs and Scotland couldn’t remain in the EU with the rest off the country departing.

Except about half the country voted remain. I know it’s a bit of a joke but it’s also missing the point by over generalising where people voted leave and remain.

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/fintan-o-toole-here-s-how-post-brexit-ireland-could-turn-out-1.3667967

in a possible universe.

When I was at school” is perfectly valid when talking about being at school 

Yes but as I keep saying up until about 3 or 4 years ago double science wasnt compulsory, I know I was teaching single award or Btec. So people banging on about when I was at school and then sticking their fingers in their ears about an actual fact is well you know, quite Brexit.

What’s the problem? And what has it to do with Brexit? Double science isn’t for high achieving kids anyway. Oh yeah, was the link Gove? Don’t make this a Gove thread… argue/agree with teachers elsewhere… start a new thread if you want.

It was compulsory for certain streams at my school. The top sets got separate sciences, the next down got double science, next got single science, the very bottom set got “why you shouldn’t eat crayons” or something.

If you’re talking about at a National Curriculum level then you well may be correct, but you cannot possibly dismiss what I said as false unless you attended Hollins County High School in Accrington in 1983.

Except about half the country voted remain. I know it’s a bit of a joke but it’s also missing the point by over generalising where people voted leave and remain.

I apologise. I thought about listing all the remain areas, but on a phone, with the new website, I couldn’t quite face it.

So instead, a referendum for each constituency to decide whether they remain or leave. No need for any walls, and we can use the same advanced technology being proposed(*) for the Irish border to maintain frictionless borders between different parts of the country.

For example, South Cambs would probably have a simple EU/EU border with Cambridge, but a WTO border with South East Cambs, but that would be no problem at all.

(*) Unicorns and pixies.

I apologise. I thought about listing all the remain areas, but on a phone, with the new website, I couldn’t quite face it.

So instead, a referendum for each constituency to decide whether they remain or leave. No need for any walls, and we can use the same advanced technology being proposed(*) for the Irish border to maintain frictionless borders between different parts of the country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Results_of_the_United_Kingdom_European_Union_membership_referendum,_2016#Results_by_United_Kingdom_regions

Just had a go at making some sense of the breakdown.. but at a regional level Leave never cracked 60%, remain did so over the country it was still way to close. If you break it down further you get some more extreme areas but as no area appears to be the same population size it makes them very hard to compare after that.

Anyway who was in Harrogate to see Nige today?

We could have ‘EU’ and ‘Brexit’ counties, like the US did with free and slave states for a while.

Anyway who was in Harrogate to see Nige today?

Anyway who was in Harrogate to see Nige today?

https://news.sky.com/story/farage-happy-to-have-another-referendum-in-20-years-11530869

Sky reporting 1200 people.

The MEP was joined by Labour MP Kate Hoey, who has been heavily criticised in her part for her vocal support of Brexit.

“We shouldn’t really be here,” she said. “We had a clear vote to leave, we know that people knew what they were voting for, even though we are being told people were stupid and racist.”

May I suggest a referendum with the simple question of do we want Farage and Hoey in the stocks outside parliament for a week?

The entire cabinet signed off on the NI backstop last December, even Mogg hailed it as a victory, now they say they didn’t understand it. That was a 15 page document, trade deals run to many 1000s. They have got a hope.

I thought I’d dreamt there’d already signed off on it so the only thing stopping the deal is something they’ve already agreed to.

That makes sense er not…

Meanwhile in the real world.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7546214/theresa-may-tory-leadership-challenge-brexit/

rumours are they (swivel eyed brexiteers) want everyones favourite 70 year old permanently pissed & befuddled politician (not juncker the other one) ………….. David Davis in as caretaker PM  until were out & the real power play can start

Would the **** wits have enough votes?

I want a second vote . Apparently that’s not democratic but you can oust a democratically elected leader.

Would this in any way trigger a GE?

I’m not having that **** running my country.

Anyway who was in Harrogate to see Nige today?

I ran past the convention centre yesterday with the intention of shouting some abuse but there was no one there. Which I suppose is reflective of all the Brexit planning, come to think about it.

Perhaps we should have good old DD at the front of the queue, to take some responsibility for the shambles as opposed to resigning out of it all.

Just absorbing some of the recent coverage and I think there is a real danger of Brexit apathy allowing a shit deal to get through. The beeb seems to be trying to spin the “95% of the deal is done, just the knotty little side issue of the Irish border to crack on with now” bullshit. Endangering 20 years of peace and commentating on it like it’s just that last awkward clue in the Times crossword. Idiots.

Crass, bluff, dismissive and showing wanton ignorance. Pretty much how a lot of this disaster happened in the first place.

Still, in other news, I reckon I could have a pretty safe bet on how the racist twunt on the Ryanair flight voted in the referendum (if he could actually get to the polling station without attempting to lynch anyone with a suntan).

Funny thing that we’re all obsessed by the “Withdrawal Agreement.”

We haven’t even got onto trade yet, and by Christ, when we do, the gammons will start to spontaneously combust on QT once they see what happens when the EU trade negotiators get going on us.

Implementation period my arse. There’s **** all to implement. Anyone remember the phrase “parallel talks?” LOLz.

2 years and really, we’re nowhere in the grand scheme.

We haven’t even got onto trade yet, and by Christ, when we do, the gammons will start to spontaneously combust on QT once they see what happens when the EU trade negotiators get going on us.

Ahh but disgraced Liam the Fox said it would be  “one of the easiest in human history” because our rules and laws are already the same.