Bullying is defined as any unwanted and harmful verbal, physical, psychological, sexual or social act committed by an individual or group, as well as any real or perceived threat or imbalance of power. In the UK 50% of young people have bullied another person, out of half of all young people 30% of those bully others at least once a week - and as a result of bullying 29% self harmed, 27% skipped class, 14% developed an eating disorder and 12% ran away from home. These statistics are far too high, I'm passionate about this because when I was younger I got bullied and I developed an eating disorder but I didn't know then how frequently this happens. If you report bullying to a teacher you're supposed to feel safer and that they CAN help you but what if those teachers are being told to keep bullying 'under wraps'? How can young children feel safe being at School when the very teachers that teach them are getting told to keep the bullying at that School quiet? I'm a mental health blogger and an anti bullying campaigner, if you tell someone high up like a teacher or a headteacher that you know someone is or that you're getting bullied you EXPECT a change to happen. Not to feel like you're in the wrong and you shouldn't speak up. Please do NOT let another child go without the help and care they need. Nobody needs to suffer in silence.

I'm concerned about the candidate Amanda Speilmans experience and business interests in Academies and Qualifications is not wide enough to support, care or protect all the different aspects of Ofsteds remit. The Education Select Comittee had this to say amongst other concerns : "While Ms Spielman, through her work at ARK and Ofqual, has gained experience of secondary education, she did not convince us that she had a clear understanding of the other aspects of this complex role, such as: early years; primary education; children’s services; child protection; looked-after children; special educational needs; further education; and the educational support role for which local authorities are inspected. We did not leave the session feeling that she was prepared for the vast scope and complexity of this important role. Notwithstanding our views on the candidate, we have been concerned for some time about the lack of expertise on children’s services amongst Ofsted’s senior management, particularly as Ofsted does not currently have a permanent director of children’s social care. Ofsted’s social care work is currently overshadowed by that on education. In context of recent high profile failures in children’s services over recent years, it deserves a higher profile and is an issue on which strong leadership from Ofsted is needed." These are important recommendations and should not be discounted!!!

Over the lifetime of the Hub, students developed and led their own sustainability projects through our WHOLE EARTH? Fellowships Programme, helped local enterprises recognise and develop their sustainability potential in the Green Impact Enterprise project, reviewed the university’s focus on sustainability in the study programmes working as Sustainability Researchers in the Education for Sustainability initiative, and worked on a number of other projects such as Grow At Home and Behind Your Screen. The Hub provides a great example that illustrates the institutional responsibilities and provides a programme that helps utilise our knowledge, skills, creativity and passions to act responsibly and as active, engaged citizens. The proposed closure of the Hub takes away this opportunity that helps not just the students on many different levels, but also the University, the Students’ Union and the wider community. We also have a crowdfunding page for anyone who would like to help keep the Hub alive - we would be so grateful for any donation, big or small. https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/sustainability-hub

Tuition fees are currently set at flat rate of £9k per student per year regardless of the future value that each student will deliver to the country. This is short sighted and counterproductive, producing thousands of graduates that no-one needs and students destined to undertake "non-graduate" jobs. At their age, money talks. Being offered a "free" degree in Computer Science, for example, will encourage more candidates to apply to learn useful skills.

The safety of our children

During the latest EU referendum it was apparent that the youth of the country did not want to leave the EU. Unfortunately the percentage of young voters (18-25) was too low to make a difference. It's thought that during the 2015 general election only 52% of the eligible young voters participated. Whilst up from the 38% experienced during 2005, it's still well below that of other demographics. By educating future generations around the importance of voting along with the practicality's of how to vote, voter apathy can be reduced before it's a problem.

As British and most of all being human, we have no room in our society for racism, it is a backward policy. We have hope that entry of a racist party into Downing Street is not possible, as the electorate is now becoming more cautious. However the result of the 23rd gives us cause to act. We need to protect this country for the greater good.

The track record of academy schools is mixed at best with little or no added value achieved in comparison with state schools. Amanda's biased credentials cannot provide an independent perspective on the future of schools. This compromises Ofsted's value and significantly threatens children's education.

It is utterly immoral that one child can have more spent on their education in one year (£24000 at the most expensive public schools for non-boarding pupils) than is spent on another child for the whole of their secondary education (it can be as little as £4000 a year). I went to one of those expensive schools (albeit back in the 1970s) and have worked all my professional life in the state system. The unfairness of a society in which one school can barely fix a roof while another is busy putting in a second theatre or an olympic swimming pool. Why on earth do we tolerate it? It doesn't have to be this way. Finland, one of the top performing education systems in the world, has no private schools at all. For many successful systems private schooling is very unusual. We may not be able to shut private schools, but who could resist the moral case for a system where all children had the same money spent on them, to give them all the same start in life?

School meals are very important for pupils health and it has been proven that students who eat school meals they produce more work and they are more focused. It has also been proven that Scotland is better at education than England and they are higher in the score table because they do have free school meals.

Already, fees for university are £9000 per year, and this is only for tuition. Students are leaving with massive debts which have the potential to loom over their heads for the rest of their lives. We are 15 years old. We want to go to university and we don't want to be repaying debts for the rest of our lives. We have a friend who came to school in tears, believing that she couldn't go to university as the fees are too monumental. We believe there are many others all over the country who believe the same thing, and we want to stand up and tell them, No More! We have been told we are the future, but soon the future will too expensive to materialise.

These musicians are the future of our orchestras, pop band ensembles, film/tv soundtrack session musicians, pit players for ballet, opera and musical theatre shows and your childrens' future teachers and mentors. The great majority of classical musicians flourished from training orchestras such as these! Closing the orchestra down is ignorant and shameful. -- "EU has just cut every Euro of funding to the young musicians of the Orchestra (backdated to last October), without so much as an advance whisper? The consequences of this decision are incalculable: the destruction of one of the world’s greatest training orchestras, generations of young musicians denied unique opportunities, and the loss of 40 years of patient tradition, and one of the EU’s greatest arts organisations. This funding decision is simply the consequence of a change in the EU’s cultural funding policy. Two years ago it was decided by the EU that there was to be no more cultural funding for any single organisation. Instead, €1.45bn of cultural support over seven years (a 7% increase on the previous programme) was only allowed to be used on projects with a highly complicated partnership structure. The new Creative Europe programme has wonderful objectives. But it is project funding to encourage national organisations to get together to become more European, not core funding for what is the original pan-European organisation. This “one size fits all”-approach to cultural funding doesn’t work for an EU orchestra with members from 28 countries, and that we were being forced into the wrong funding box. “The European Union Youth Orchestra remains one of our most distinguished ambassadors … a potent symbol of our European Union.” (Jean-Claude Juncker, EU Commission President). “I was moved not simply by the beauty of the music they produced, but also by what they stand for: the EUYO perfectly embodies the power of being united in diversity,” (Juncker’s colleague Martin Schulz, European Parliament President). And here is Tibor Navracsics, EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport. “The EUYO is remarkable - both for the outstanding quality of its performances and for its exemplary function … it inspires us”. And finally, the EU’s number one foreign policy politician Federica Mogherini: “This is Europe at its best … In hard times like the ones we are living, the EUYO sends a powerful message to all the young people of our continent: your time is now.” " >source: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/13/marshall-marcus-the-european-union-youth-orchestra-cannot-be-strangled See them perform: European Union Youth Orchestra - EUYO - Flashmob - Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam - 23.08.2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOs72u5FjCE EUYO Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6, 'Pathétique', Movt I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lft2isVp0kk SHOSTAKOVICH 4th Symphony mov-1 (part 1/3) Vladimir Ashkenazi (BBC Proms 2006) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YVGZy2nsWA ---- Email: [email protected] Or send a letter or postcard to: Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner, Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, European Commission, Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat 200, 1049 1049 Brussels, Belgium