BC EDUCATION
Saved by @CodyyyGardner

How we got here, a thread (1/25)

 Before Christmas, owing to rising infection rates, Greenwich advised their schools to shut before the end of term – several councils later advised the same. (2/25)
https://t.co/zt5PKT06Xr
.@educationgovuk threatened these schools with legal action if they did, resulting in schools re-opening their doors for the last few days of term. (3/25)
https://t.co/F0msj2r7HL
The General Secretary of the ASCL, @RealGeoffBarton, accused the @educationgovuk of using "bully boy tactics" to stick to a "robotic mantra to keep schools open whatever the cost" but added "the costs could be incredibly high." (4/25)
https://t.co/YOPeRqFzPj
During this time, @KevinStannard1 warned that we could be heading for another exams U-turn (*spoiler alert*: he was correct). (5/25) https://t.co/ziSGCvXfQ5
On 16 December, our reporters @tweetsbyames and @JohnGRoberts started to hear that there could be a delayed return in Janurary. (6/25)
https://t.co/z5AGSjhn1c
There was also a whole outcry and U-turn around having school staff carry out Covid tests around the same time… (7/25)
https://t.co/NrFTWrHeVC
Schools were being put in an impossible position over lack of clarity about how and when the spring term would start, public accounts committee chair @Meg_HillierMP told top @educationgovuk official. (8/25)
https://t.co/yJSnNpHohi
Revealed in a scoop by us that most secondary school pupils would be learning online in the first week back next year. Only exam groups back in person. This is the same week @educationgovuk took legal action to stop some London schools moving online(9/25)
https://t.co/66wpriA4Pk
In order to get the @educationgovuk testing in place for January, @MattHancock wanted headteachers to work over Christmas to make sure it was ready. (10/25)
https://t.co/u2pRzhiWFb
The new variant of the virus was uncovered, which turned out to be more infectious – and experts warned it might lead to more cases among schoolchildren. (11/25)
https://t.co/bas8TdwxK8
During this period (WE ARE NOT EVEN AT CHRISTMAS YET) @GavinWilliamson and the government claimed that schools didn’t drive up the number of Covid infections. (12/25)
https://t.co/TOs1tppQkU
A crunch meeting between the prime minister and the DfE on 23 December about reopening schools was postponed until after Christmas. (13/25)
https://t.co/l5WwaC1glH
The government also accidentally banned the education of children around this time as well… (14/25)
https://t.co/Zwm2H7fLfE
In an exclusive from us, we revealed the government’s plans of school reopening after mounting pressure for a delayed start owing to Covid infection rates rising countrywide. (15/25)
https://t.co/yeYDz0KRcy
.@gavinwilliamson gave a speech to the Commons confirming everything we had reported on schools reopening. (16/25)
https://t.co/AEUXPZGxff
Some primary schools were to remain shut, raising questions over why some councils were chosen above others (17/25)
https://t.co/boQDtUPyFW
'Schools are safe,' insists @BorisJohnson. 🤷‍♀️ (18/25)
https://t.co/uwHjsHh3aC
On New Year’s Eve, education secretary @GavinWilliamson said he is "absolutely confident" that there will be no further delay to school return plans in January (19/25)
https://t.co/pMTsY0cQN2
School leaders started to demand @educationgovuk’s reasoning around certain primaries being closed and not others (20/25)
https://t.co/Rx6lzCntc1
U-turn incoming! This raised questions about why all primary schools in London were closed but some in other Tier 4 areas across England were still scheduled to open (21/25)
https://t.co/aczChktDlk
The government insists the U-turn wasn’t about safety concerns… (22/25)
https://t.co/xvmncmls6A
The unions then got involved, forming an alliance to protest @gavinwilliamson’s plan @NEUnion @NASUWT @NAHTnews @unisontheunion @GMB_union & @unitetheunion (23/25)
https://t.co/zLEc4W4rxo
This all leads to last night’s announcement. @BorisJohnson announced – at the end of a day when thousands had returned to school – that schools should close their buildings for all but vulnerable children and children of key workers (24/25) https://t.co/eRMOQv8vEY
There is likely a lot more coming in the next few days, so keep an eye out on our profile @tes and our website (25/25)
https://t.co/8I0Jt9nwzk

More from Education

Christopher F. Rufo \u2694\ufe0f
Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️...
@realchrisrufo
SCOOP: Seattle Public Schools tells teachers that the education system is guilty of “spirit murder” against black children and that white teachers must “bankrupt [their] privilege in acknowledgement of [their] thieved inheritance.”

Let's review the whistleblower documents.👇

The trainers begin by claiming that teachers are colonizers of Native American "ancestral lands" and that “the United States was built off the stolen labor of kidnapped and enslaved Black people’s work, which created the profits that created our nation.”


The participants identify themselves by both gender pronouns and race labels. While it has become commonplace in academia to use gender pronoun identifiers, this is perhaps the first example of an institution creating the expectation for explicit race-labeling in the workplace.


The trainers tell white teachers that they "must commit to the journey" of anti-whiteness, even if their "lizard-brain" makes them "afraid that [they] will have to talk about sensitive issues such as race, racism, classism, sexism, or any kind of ‘ism.’"


The central message is that white teachers must recognize that they “are assigned considerable power and privilege” because of their “possession of white skin.” To atone for this guilt, they must “bankrupt [their] privilege in acknowledgement of [their] thieved inheritance.”
EDUCATION
James Munday
James Munday
@JDMunday
Our preprint on the impact of reopening schools on reproduction number in England is now available online: https://t.co/CpfUGzAJ2S. With @Jarvis_Stats @amyg225 @kerrylmwong @KevinvZandvoort @sbfnk + John Edmunds. NOT YET PEER REVIEWED. 1/


We used contact survey data collected by CoMix (https://t.co/ezbCIOgRa1) to quantify differences in contact patterns during November (Schools open) and January (Schools closed) 'Lockdown periods'. NOT YET PEER REVIEWED 2/

We combined this analysis with estimates of susceptibility and infectiousness of children relative to adults from literature. We also inferred relative susceptibility by fitting R estimates from CoMix to EpiForecasts estimates(https://t.co/6lUM2wK0bn). NOT YET PEER REVIEWED 3/


We estimated that reopening all schools would increase R by between 20% to 90% whereas reopening primary or secondary schools alone would increase R by 10% to 40%, depending on the infectiousness/susceptibility profile we used. NOT YET PEER REVIEWED 4/


Assuming a current R of 0.8 (in line with Govt. estimates: https://t.co/ZZhCe79zC4). Reopening all schools would increase R to between 1.0 and 1.5 and reopening either primary or secondary schools would increase R to between 0.9 and 1.2. NOT YET PEER REVIEWED 5/
EDUCATION
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Tes
Tes
@tes
Given @GavinWilliamson failure to apologise this week for 'last-minute' decisions on schools policy during the pandemic, we thought it might be useful to put to together one handy thread of every U-turn from the @educationgovuk since April last

Free school meals will come up a lot in this thread, but here is the first governmental U-turn before the Easter Holidays. (2/43) #FSM

.@educationgovuk then decided not to fund #FSM in the following half-term break, they changed their minds after a public outcry.

Taking a break from #FSM, we head straight into the #Alevels2020 exams debacle, with Scotland’s grade U-turn putting pressure on the @educationgovuk (4/43)

Ministers in Westminster were determined not to U-turn
EDUCATION
Danial
Danial
@DTehrany
What is the Quincy Institute?
What was the purpose of its establishment?
Who is the Mastermind behind it ?
I’ll explain in the following that Quincy institute was founded by the most powerful and famous Islamic regime lobbyist @tparsi based in the United States of America .


1. @QuincyInst for Responsible Statecraft
An American think tank founded in 2019
Location: Washington DC, USA
The initial budget of this institution; Includes half a million dollars from the Soros Foundation (George Soros)
And the Cook Foundation (Charles J. Cook).


2- George Soros,Hungarian-American businessman and a Billionaire, investor, political activist, and an author.Soros is the Chairman of the Board of the Open Society Foundation and Soros Capital Management and is the founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Soros Capital.


3- Charles J.Koch, a businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the Chairman and CEO of Cook Industries.
He is the eldest child of Fr. Cook, the founder of Cook Industries, member of the Cook family and one of the main inventors of the new gasoline refining technology.


4- As described by the founders of Quincy; The purpose of the Quincy Institute (Research Institute and Office of Studies and Research) is to promote ideas to redirect the American foreign policy from endless wars around the world .
EDUCATION
Greg Spencer
Greg Spencer
@SingleBlade1
What does it take to sustain screwiness in the way the world works? Mostly, it's just good people, trying their best to get us to a better place... within constraints which pretty much preclude us actually getting anywhere! A case in point with

These authors come across as hugely committed to something we might all agree upon: improving young people's experiences of physical education through better school-based-interventions. Sounds great? Agreed, & pretty much everything about their study models best practice 🥳


Sadly, established "best practice" involves further embedding the medicalisation of PE as if it should be about the potential contribution of physical activity to everything from quality of life, self-perception & cognition to the likelyhood of becoming healthy & active adults 🤯


We're reminded of the Chief Medical Officer's "recommended guidelines of 60 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) per day for healthy growth and development" 👇 This is a focus on what we can easily measure (generic) rather than on what we might value (individual).


We get recognition that PE "is not merely an opportunity for children to engage in PA" but that's linked to its role in "the development of knowledge & skills to foster their PA engagement throughout life" - so further focus on health outcomes. A long way from @meaningfulPE 🙄
HEALTH , EDUCATION

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ashkan soltani
ashkan soltani
@ashk4n
BREAKING: @CommonsCMS @DamianCollins just released previously sealed #Six4Three @Facebook documents:

Some random interesting tidbits:

1) Zuck approves shutting down platform API access for Twitter's when Vine is released #competition


2) Facebook engineered ways to access user's call history w/o alerting users:

Team considered access to call history considered 'high PR risk' but 'growth team will charge ahead'. @Facebook created upgrade path to access data w/o subjecting users to Android permissions dialogue.


3) The above also confirms @kashhill and other's suspicion that call history was used to improve PYMK (People You May Know) suggestions and newsfeed rankings.

4) Docs also shed more light into @dseetharaman's story on @Facebook monitoring users' @Onavo VPN activity to determine what competitors to mimic or acquire in 2013.

https://t.co/PwiRIL3v9x
TECH
Jaya_Upadhyaya
Jaya_Upadhyaya
@Jayalko1
GHATI SUBRAMANYA, DODDABALLAPURA (KAR)
#bharatmandir

One of the most important place for snake worship.
The murtis of Kartikeya and Narasimha are self-manifested.
There is an anthill which is opposite the shrine. Bhaktas pour milk on it as part of rituals.


Here Subramanya performed penance in the form of snake. He sought protection from Narsimha for Nagas from Sri Vishnu’s vehicle Garuda, known for his dislike towards serpents.
The Pushya Suddha Shasti is one of the biggest festivals here believed to be appearance day of Subramanya


It was in this region where Subramanya vanquished Ghatikasura, the demon. Hence called Ghati Subramanya.
Childless couples visit here to seek blessings for getting a child.
The installation of snake murtis near the shrine is believed to be an auspicious act.


The murti of Karthikeya with a seven headed cobra faces eastwards while Narasimha faces westwards.
To ensure that both are visible to bhaktas at the same time, a huge mirror is placed in the rear in the sanctum sanctorum.
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Jaya_Upadhyaya
Jaya_Upadhyaya
@Jayalko1
SRI SWETHA VINAYAGAR, THIRUVALANCHUZHI, KUMBAKONAM
(TN)
#bharatmandir

While main deity is Shiva as Kapartheeswarar, the kshetram is famous for Ganesha, known as Swetha/Vellai Vinayagar (white Vinayak)

During samudra manthan, Vasuki snake (used as rope) started spewing venom.


Unable to bear the intense heat, Devas rushed to Siva. He told them that this was because the task was started without getting Ganesha’s approval.
So the Devas created a Ganesha murti from white sea foam and worshipped it.
It was later taken by Indra to Indralok.
@GunduHuDuGa


But once Indra had to come to Earth to pray to Shiva to seek relief from a curse inflicted on him. So he brought the murti of Ganesha with him. When he came here, he wanted to take bath before puja. So he gave the murti to a boy to hold for sometime. The boy was actually Shiva.


He kept the murti down and vanished. Indra could not lift it again and a divine voice told him to let Vinayagar stay there and visit every Ganesh Chaturthi to pray.
Since Vinayagar is made of foam, no abhishekam is done here. Only punugu is applied n camphor powder is sprinkled
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Anu Satheesh
Anu Satheesh
@AnuSatheesh5
Importance of Famous Payyannur Pavithra Mothiram or Ring

Payyanur Sri Subramanya Swami Temple 🚩
Kerala

Temple, constructed by Parasurama is known as the 'Pazhani' of Kerala.The place got its name from 'Payyante Ooru' where Payyan is another name by which Subramanya was called.


There are references about this temple in Brahmanda purana. Muni Garga mentions this temple and the place to  the Pandavas when they were in Vanavasa. Temple was destroyed two times, once due to fire and then during the attack of Tipu Sultan.


Important tradition here is wearing of Pavithram by the temple priest. Pavithram is a sort of  ring worn during performing Vedic rituals or during the "pithrubali". Usually worn while performing Tarpana or Shradham. The traditional Pavitram is usually made of Dharbha grass
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\u09a8\u09bf\u09ac\u09c7\u09a6\u09bf\u09a4\u09be
নিবেদিতা...
@NiveditaNarayan
Remembering the Bengali scientist Dr Subhash Mukhopadhyay- the Pioneer of IVF in India, the creator of India's first and world's second child using IVF on his birth anniversary. The Father of IVF in India who was rewarded with suicide was born on 16.01.1931in Hazaribagh.
#Thread


Dr. Subhash was the son of a doctor and studied at the National Medical College in Kolkata after completing his schooling. Fascinated by innovations in gynaecological surgery from his early days as a medical student, he completed his PhD in reproductive physiology +


from the University of Calcutta before going to the Edinburgh University in UK for a PhD in reproductive endocrinology. On his return to India in 1978, he started researching ovulation and spermatogenesis. Soon after, he teamed up with Sunit Mukherji, a cryobiologist +


and Saroj Kanti Bhattacharya, a gynaecologist, to work on a method of in-vitro fertilization for a patient (Bela Agarwal) with damaged fallopian tubes. +


Mukhopadhyay with a double PhDstarted work on IVF techniques in the mid 60s and created history by becoming the first physician in India and second in the world after British physicians Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe) to perform the In-vitro fertilisation. +
INDIA