Live IT & Love IT

  I wrote this blog post in 2015 https://beyondthepast13.blogspot.com/.../all-i-can-say... BUT this current shower of Tories take conscious callousness to a whole new level with an opposition that is too weak to take them on! On the day (Friday) they issue a mandatory online learning option to schools, the Department of Education send an email reducing each schools free laptop allocations. One of our local schools needed 160+, they were allocated 63 initially then told Friday night - the start of half term - this would be reduced to just 13!! How on earth can teachers allocate these fairly? This is putting more pressure on teaching staff who are doing an amazing job. They are being forced to work even in Tier 3 restrictions! The Govt has given £112million to a company (two contracts) Computacenter whose founder's wife gave £100,000 to the Conservative Party. https://schoolsweek.co.uk/96m-laptop-contracts-went-to.../ WE SHOULD ALL BE ASHAMED!! The level of corruption during this pan...

Unless you suffer from an illness you never really appreciate how debilitating it is, and I include doctors in this. I remember discussing with my GP the symptoms I was suffering from and her telling me “you don’t feel that way with Meniere’s”, only to find when I discussed these issues with fellow sufferers, many of them suffered the same symptoms and their consultants had confirmed these were part and parcel of the illness.   Meniere’s Disease and Vestibular Migraine are misunderstood and can devastate peoples’ lives to differing degrees. It is very difficult to explain to people what they are and when you do, people zone out or comment “I get dizzy sometimes” or “it’s just a headache. Go to bed and take some pills.” It's right up there with "well, you don't look ill!!!"   I thought I would give you an insight of one of my Vestibular Migraine attacks. Stress, salt and rapid changes in air pressure are my biggest triggers although others can include sensory overload,...

As you probably know by now, I am exploring a new pedagogy for computing in secondary schools, looking at the possibility of an online system encapsulating online exams, testing and teaching performance in one system. It is a passion of mine as I believe EVERY child deserves the opportunity to learn computing skills. At present, under the new computing curriculum if a student does not select computer science for their GCSE, after the age of 14, in some schools, they receive NO computing or digital skills training at all. This will result in a huge skills gap and skills deficit in the future.  If you can indulge me a little, I would like to explain my background and how this became a passion and my mission in life. I was born in East Leeds, a deprived area of the city. My father was a bus driver, my mother a full time stay at home Mum. I was a mistake and for my whole life, my mother and sister made sure I knew I was and did everything they could to prevent me from having and purs...