[Watchman]

I occasionally wonder what trauma she suffered during her own time at school

[Andy McDandy]

There's a few clues. Oxford university, the SWP, Living Marxism...

AFAICS, considers herself a genius, leaves university and decides to play at being a teacher (no mention of her taking (let alone completing) a PGCE in her wiki bio) and then gets all into the old discipline:

In an interview with Nick Robinson, Birbalsingh said that she previously identified as being on the political left at university but formed many of her current views through teaching in inner-city state schools and seeing the contrast between state school pupils and the educational opportunities of her fellow students at Oxford. She argued that her experiences working as a teacher in deprived areas led her to believe that the state education sector encouraged a "culture of excuses and low standards" with regard to discipline and quality.

Translation - the little scrotes cheeked her, her, who had come down from Nice Oxford to magnanimously share her wisdom and that is how they repaid her generosity??? And what's worse, the experienced teachers didn't rally to her defence (at least to her expectations), but told her that shit happens, here's how you best deal with it.

She then bought into the idea that school should be all about facts and discipline*, which is what Gove wanted to hear, and she got lots of publicity and if you disagreed you were a sexist and a racist and aaaaah.

So, short version, she thinks she's a fucking genius and everyone better do what she says.

*I'm imagining her banging on about the importance of memorising facts, and insisting "Dickens said that!", while one of her pupils, Stephen Daedalus-like, mutters "Gradgrind".

[Tubby Isaacs]

Liberal mugged by reality, as this stuff is called.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

More likely, 'authoritarian finds other people just don't do what she tells them' followed by Violet Elizabeth Bott.

[satnav]

Just like Toby Young, Birbalsingh has just gone with the flow for the last 12 years. The Tories would rather have anybody running schools apart from local authorities so Free schools and Academies have been given free range to take over as many schools as they like. Birbalsingh has fully embraced the flag shagging and British values nonsense that plays well with the Tory right.

Where the academy initiative appears to have gone slightly off track is that the academies have largely stopped competing against each other and now they are working in partnership with each other to extract as much cash out of the government as they can. Several academy chains put in a joint bid to run their own teacher training scheme which will make them plenty of extra cash.

I saw an interesting tweet yesterday which suggested there had been an incredible rise in the number of pupils who are now on part-time timetables. While these can sometimes be justified on health grounds in many cases these were entirely linked to behaviour with schools sending kids home at lunchtime so that they did not have to deal with poor behaviour in the afternoon.

I have certainly see this in the academy where I work and think that it almost entirely down to the fact that we now have 5 Teaching Assistants instead of 12. I think this is pretty common in most academies with Teaching Assistants being made redundant or encouraged to take other jobs in the academy.

[mattomac]

I’d to suggest to any student thinking of doing an in house PGCE, don’t.

Even SCITT has an out to complain when a University accredited it or provides it, and bar business it’s my biggest business as an advisor.

[Tubby Isaacs]

[Tubby Isaacs]

There's more absolutely laughable stuff BTL.

[satnav]

Toby Young was spouting similar nonsense on Twitter early basically saying that it is OK to criticise Clarkson but calling for him to be sacked crosses the line. I'm pretty sure in the last couple of years Young has called for a number of people to be sacked including the chief medical officer.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Taxi!

Translated: I'm too reactionary and ignorant of good practice and they've sussed me...

[Bones McCoy]

Or perhaps:

Oh shit, this fancy title has an associated workload.
It isn't just rolling out of bed at 10:30 and sending a couple of inflammatory tweets.

I could do better for less effort at GB news.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I agree with Bones.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I think she's a bit more complex than that. I think she can't handle not being praised and féted. Her ego is huge, but fragile - that is clear in everything she does.

[Tubby Isaacs]

She wasn’t universally praised before. Part of the point is winding people up. Don’t see that having changed recently.

She might us well wind them up and get paid more. And she can add “too outspoken for the government” to her pitch.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

She was praised - fulsomely - by the right. Darling of the Tory Conference and all that.

Plus a lot of support from Afro-Caribbean parents, who were getting fuck-all from anyone else.

[Tubby Isaacs]

She's still getting praised fulsomely by the Right, isn't she? And she's broadened her range from school discipline to Meghan Markle. That suggests to me where her future is going to lie.

[satnav]

According to Wikipedia she is meant to be opening a new school in Stevenage this year so she has probably decided that it is not possible to run two schools and be the social mobility commissioner. Equally I could well see her end up working in the media because she is very popular with TalkTV and GBNews and most of the right wing papers would be falling over themselves to offer her a job if she left education.

[Bones McCoy]

According to Wikipedia she is meant to be opening a new school in Stevenage this year so she has probably decided that it is not possible to run two schools and be the social mobility commissioner. Equally I could well see her end up working in the media because she is very popular with TalkTV and GBNews and most of the right wing papers would be falling over themselves to offer her a job if she left education.

One thing here:
Nobody on the right "leaves" education, they all have a sob story about being "driven out" or "cancelled".
A story which they repeat regularly on their new high-paying media slot.

[Tubby Isaacs]

And here she goes.

[mattomac]

According to Wikipedia she is meant to be opening a new school in Stevenage this year so she has probably decided that it is not possible to run two schools and be the social mobility commissioner. Equally I could well see her end up working in the media because she is very popular with TalkTV and GBNews and most of the right wing papers would be falling over themselves to offer her a job if she left education.

One thing here:
Nobody on the right "leaves" education, they all have a sob story about being "driven out" or "cancelled".
A story which they repeat regularly on their new high-paying media slot.

Yup Toby Young well known for being driven out of a job he wanted all his life that had approximately existed for 6 months.

Talking of the OFS really… what’s the point.