• Take the pressure off of parents, schools not to stipulate full uniform from 8th March
    It is important for two reasons: 1. The ease of sourcing uniform which will not always be available online 2. Will give time for schools to prepare their second hand shops, especially for parents under financial pressure
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    Created by Nicola South
  • Children in Scottish Schools need to repeat the School Year
    Since March 2020 children in Scotland have spent the equivalent of 6 months home schooling. In the majority of public sector scenarios this has involved little or no direct teacher contact. Children need and benefit from being 'taught' by teachers. Reading and self guiding through work is not an adequate substitute. Our Curriculum for Excellence promises an education which considers every child and their needs individually. This cannot and has not been delivered over 2020/ 2021. Not all children can learn in the same way. Self guided material is impossible for the less able particularly when children's home circumstances are so varied. There is no guarantee of parental support. The gulf between the have's and have not's grows ever wider. The negative impact on our children's mental health over these months is unimaginable. Do we want to ramp this pressure up a level by returning them to school under the cloud of needing to catch up on all the education missed? We need to acknowledge how much we value 'teaching' and allow children in Scotland to move forwards together by repeating the last academic year.
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    Created by Gillian Smith
  • Fake news consequences - Educate UK teens
    Just check your social media feed - it won't take long.......... Fake news is becoming a regular occurrence in everyone's social media feeds. However, youngsters in the UK are the first generation to be exposed to this radical fake news whilst being at their most impressionable age. According to the National Literacy Trust (2021a) only 2% of children and young people in the UK have the critical literacy skills they need to tell if a news story is real or fake. Moreover half (49.9%) are worried about not being able to spot fake news (National Literacy Trust, 2021b). Fake news not only increases anxiety among teens and damages their self esteem, they can also reduce teens trust in formal news. All this can have far-reaching and dangerous consequences, such as when teens lose the fear of dangerous diseases, start to exclude and separate on the basis of political propaganda or trivialise radical groups and to the extent they can be brainwashed into becoming members. This is never more important, with the government delaying the online harm bill until 2022, we need to act now to protect our children's mental health and futures. Please help by signing our petition and united, we can spread our message across the length and breadth of the UK.
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    Created by Sharon Sinclair
  • Captain Sir Thomas Moore day
    the day Captain Tom passed is a day that should be celebrated in the calendar by everyone. Espescially the younger generations who didn't know about Captain Sir Thomas Moore and the amazing things he did and acheived in his lifetime. He was a hero and a hero he shall remain, but it wont be too long before his efforts and acheivments are. and will be forgotten. r.i.p Tom
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    Created by frank pickard
  • Students finance for single immigrant mothers.
    Because single mothers need to be able to have higher education in order to help their children at home with their studies. Most children of single mothers are behind their studies because their mothers don't have the knowledge and skills to teach them at home. Single mothers may not have the means to employ private professional teachers.
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    Created by Marian Anim-Boadi
  • Reduce University student tuition fees
    Students whose courses have been thrown into chaos by the coronavirus pandemic should be reimbursed for the year or allowed to retake it at no further cost, Why should the students have a debt for something that they havent had?
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    Created by kerry cooper
  • To make 30th April officially Captain Sir Tom Moore Day
    Captain Sir Tom Moore was and is an inspiration to all - showing that signs of life will never slow us down, to remain positive, to keep on smiling and to remember tomorrow will be a good day.
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    Created by Elizabeth Mapleston
  • Make the syllabus more diverse for high school students
    I believe this will not only help the future labor force but teach them that things they learn in school have real life application. This will teach younger students to be more involved in their local community to respect and understand people they live and work with a little better. Not only this allowing for work experience is an invaluable experience as most jobs nowadays require previous experience which is quite hard in the current environment as well as sparking real interest into future career. Allowing for this material to be compulsory will help make better well rounded individuals and hopefully prevent people from falling through the gaps.
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    Created by Beth Wordley
  • Cash payments, not food boxes, for East Ayrshire children
    Providing boxes of food is degrading, doesn't represent good value for taxpayers' cash and does not allow parents to choose what is best for their children. Almost every council in Scotland provides cash or vouchers directly to families. East Ayrshire should do the same.
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    Created by Natalie Anderson
  • Make Permanent Exclusions Illegal
    In state-run schools, and in private schools where at least part of the funding came from government, corporal punishment was outlawed by the British Parliament in 1986, following a 1982 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that such punishment could not be administered without parental consent, and that a child's "right to education" could not be infringed by suspending children who, with parental approval, refused to submit to corporal punishment. It became apparent that hitting children in school was morally wrong and now it is illegal. Permanently excluding a child is an act in which a school decides, plans and then executes the traumatic punishment of rejection. The similarities with the decision making, planning and then execution of a physical attack on a child are painfully obvious. There is no moral argument to justify saying to a child they are no longer wanted by the institution that is set up to act in loco parentis for a substantial period of that child’s life. The first objection to making permanent exclusion illegal will inevitably be that schools cannot cope with the behaviour of some children and they need to be able to safeguard other children and staff. In order to make permanent exclusions illegal this objection has to be answered to the complete satisfaction of both teachers and parents. If the law were to change then it would have to be accompanied by an increase in school budgets to ensure they are able to adequately fund the options that are available instead of permanently excluding the child. This proposal fully recognises that this is a pre-requisite and requires all those who might support this movement to sign up to ensuring schools are able to deliver their new statutory duty and ensure all their children receive a full-time education until their legal school leaving age. The moral argument for not permanently excluding a child is clear. If for a minute you ignore the reason for the permanent exclusion, then the action of removing a child from its school is a traumatic event which inevitable has consequences for the child. Put simply it is a rejection of the child by an organisation which is charged with acting as a good parent while it educates them. The act of a permanent exclusion (rejection) is not one a good parent would countenance and yet we allow schools to do this based on the excuse that there was no other option. We aim to prove this is a false premise which allows schools to abdicate all responsibility for a child who they were supposed to nurture and educate. To demonstrate the number and variety of options a school can already use instead of a permanent exclusion the following list (which is not exhaustive) has been assembled. 1. Managed move to another school 2. Move to a pupil referral unit 3. Counselling 4. Mentoring 5. Therapy 6. Move to a special school 7. Part time timetables 8. Alternative education providers 9. Colleges 10 Temporary exclusion while other options are sought. “But children who are permanently excluded are not singled out; it is only based on what they have done?” 78% of pupils who are permanently excluded either have SEN, are classified as in need or are eligible for free school meals. 11% of permanently excluded children have all three characteristics Boys with social, emotional and mental health difficulties (SEMH) but no statement are around 3.8 times more likely to be permanently excluded than a non-SEN child. SEMH girls are around 3 times more likely. Children in receipt of Free School Meals are around 45% more likely to be excluded than other pupils Black Caribbean are around 1.7 times more likely, and Mixed White and Black Caribbean children were around 1.6 times more likely, to be permanently excluded compared to White British children. Children on a Children in Need plan are around 4 times more likely to be permanently excluded compared to those with no social care classification Children who have a Child Protection Plan are around 3.5 times more likely to be permanently excluded. Children who are looked after are around 2.3 times as likely to be permanently excluded than children who have never been supported by social care. It is clear that if you are a vulnerable child, you are in far more likely to be excluded than those who are not vulnerable. It is perverse that the children in most need of stability, understanding and support are those who are far more likely to be rejected by the very people who are paid to prepare them for adulthood. This campaign seeks to make permanent exclusions illegal whilst funding and supporting schools to find and organise a form of education that removes the stigma and trauma of a permanent exclusion. The IRCT is starting this national campaign in order to encourage all schools, politicians and parents to come up with a different system than the current one which officially tells children they are no longer wanted by their school. Many of the children permanently excluded have already suffered Adverse Childhood Experiences. To officially inflect another trauma on these children is both cruel and unnecessary. All children permanently excluded are still legally entitled to a full-time education which the local authority has to provide. Why then does there have to be a formal rejection of the child in order to try and find suitable education for these children? Surely the organisation that knows them best should be central to ensuring any new plan addresses the needs of the child.
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    Created by Patrick Finegan
  • Apple - Discount for Parents
    Covid and lockdowns has impacted the economy whilst parents have to ensure their children are educated from home. Many parents have seen their income shrinking but their costs escalating. The government has a big drive to provide laptops for children at home. Many schools have opted to provide iPad's to the children in school which they get an educational discount on when they purchase it. The children are forced to use these even if they have a laptop or iPad of their own at home. They are required to take these iPad's to home and use in school but if the iPad is damaged, lost or stolen they force the parents to replace it with a new one. The school doesn't replace it themselves with their discount and a parent is forced to pay the full price for it. The education minister needs to ensure that the children's education needs are met whilst also ensuring that parents is not unfairly targeted with additional unnecessary costs. Apple's policy currently does not support parents in K-12 situations and is unfairly discriminatory. This needs to change immediately. Microsoft is doing the right thing by providing this discount. Let's change Apple's policy by standing together and demanding a change. Please sign this petition so that we can help thousands of students and parents and get the government to change this profiteering by Apple on parents.
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    Created by Walter Holder
  • The Claudes SEN Law
    As a Youth Delegate and 22 year old student who believes in a decent standard of education to be delivered in result of my own challenges of still being denied of an education from 2017 till now which is 4 years of lost provision which was unelected.  Which I am legally lawful entitled to Education. Like millions of SEN families and younge adults. Which have to face these fights each day. That's why I came up with the idea of (The Claudes SEN Law)  Which will be acknowledged in the UK ~ The United Kingdom and around the world #spreadtheword  My Goal is 10,000 signatures.. the deadline to support is June 10th 2021. (Please all support @a_claude_2020 and The Claudes SEN Law!!)
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    Created by Aquayemi-Claude Garnett Akinsanya