22.5% of pupils in English schools were eligible for free school meals (FSM) in January - an increase of 160,000 on last year's figure - described as "shocking" by headteachers' leaders.
School leaders' Unions warned that these pupils' circumstances could become even "more severe" due to the #CostOfLivingCrisis & called for additional funding "for both educational & pastoral support".
No doubt the Mail & Tory MPs will ramp up their anti-union rhetoric, as usual.
Pupils in England are eligible for FSM if their parent or carer is entitled to certain benefits, such as Income Support or income-based Jobseeker's Allowance.
The proportion of eligible pupils was rising even before the pandemic, from 13.6% in 2018, but shot up to 20.8% in 2021.
Schools get extra funding (pupil premium) for each of their students on FSM - but not all students who are eligible claim FSM.
FSM eligibility varies between different schools: 23% in state-funded primaries; 21% in secondaries; special schools 44.7%; pupil referral units 54.6%.
In state-funded nurseries (where children are eligible if they meet the criteria & attend for full days) the figure rose to a new high of 8.6% & primary numbers may continue to rise.
FSM eligibility has big regional variations: 29.1% in the North East & 17.6% in the South East.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the #NAHT school leaders' union, warned that the children who have become newly eligible for FSM are "disproportionately drawn from more #disadvantaged areas & are largely those pupils who already needed more support."
Schools are "increasingly struggling" to give support due to "overstretched budgets & the erosion of the value of pupil premium funding since 2015. Additional funding is urgently needed for both educational & pastoral support. Children who are hungry are not ready to learn."
Teachers & school leaders are increasingly having to tackle the impact of #poverty before they can even start teaching.
"Free school meals eligibility should be extended to every child from a family in receipt of Universal Credit, with auto-enrolment."
Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School & College Leaders (ASCL) union, said it was "shocking" to see so many children living in extremely difficult financial circumstances - & another 800,000 children living in #poverty do not even qualify for the meals.
"Even more shocking is the fact that current eligibility does not even capture all the children who need help. Free school meal eligibility now applies to 22.5% of pupils, but we know that the level of child poverty is about 30%."
While the @Conservatives have wasted £BILLIONS, & their Party depends almost entirely on their grotesquely wealthy donors, more than 2 MILLION adults in the UK have gone without food for a whole day over the past month because they cannot afford to eat.
The latest survey of the nation’s food intake shows a 57% jump in the proportion of households cutting back on food or skipping meals over the first three months of this year, with one in seven adults (7.3 MILLION) estimated to be food-insecure, up from 4.7 million in January.
We've not arrived at this abhorrent & unnecessary situation overnight - it's the consequence of a long-term plan by deranged free-market fundamentalists, & if UK citizens were sufficiently informed about it, the Tories would NEVER form a Govt ever again.
In England, 18% of adults aged 16-65 - 6.6 million people - can be described as having "very poor literacy skills" AKA 'functionally illiterate'.
This leaves people vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation, and poses significant challenges for society and democracy.
Being 'functionally illiterate' means that a person can understand short straightforward texts on familiar topics accurately & independently, & obtain information from everyday sources, but reading information from unfamiliar sources or on unfamiliar topics can cause problems.
Adult functional illiteracy—lacking the reading, writing, and comprehension skills needed for everyday tasks—poses significant challenges for a country, society, and democracy.
The first asks "Is it OK to smoke while I'm praying?"
The Pope replies "No! You should be focused on God!"
The second Priest asks "Is it OK to pray while I'm smoking?"
The Pope replies "Of course, there's never a bad time to pray"
Nigel Farage’s rhetorical technique of framing controversial or inflammatory statements as questions, often defended as “just asking questions,” is a well-documented strategy - sometimes called “JAQing off” in online discourse - that has drawn significant criticism.
This approach involves posing questions to imply a controversial viewpoint without explicitly endorsing it, thereby maintaining plausible deniability. Farage often uses this strategy to raise issues around immigration, national identity, and 'wokeness' or 'political correctness'.
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was a response to the atrocities of WWII and the Holocaust, designed to prevent such horrors reoccurring.
Withdrawing risks weakening human rights, international isolation, destabilised peace agreements, and authoritarian drift.
Adopted in 1950 by the Council of Europe, the ECHR was a collective response to the Holocaust, during which about 11 million people, including 6 million Jews, were systematically exterminated, exposing the urgent need for a legal framework to prevent such horrors from recurring.
The Council of Europe, established in 1949 to promote democracy, rule of law, and human rights, made the ECHR a cornerstone of its mission.
Influenced by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the ECHR ensured states uphold fundamental rights.
Comparing political rhetoric across eras is a sensitive task, as context, intent, and historical outcomes differ vastly.
In 1990, Ivana Trump said her husband Donald owned a copy of “My New Order” – a printed collection of Hitler's speeches – which he kept by the bedside...
Some of Trump’s statements have been noted by historians, critics, and media for echoing themes or phrasing used by Adolf Hitler, particularly in their dehumanizing language, scapegoating of groups, and authoritarian undertones.
Below, with @grok's help, I’ll provide examples of Trump’s quotes that have been cited as resembling Hitler’s rhetoric, alongside Hitler’s statements for comparison, drawing from credible sources, focusing on specific language & themes, ensuring accuracy, & avoiding exaggeration.
Most people know very little about Trump's new best friend, El Salvador’s strongman leader, Nayib Bukele, who's been sat in the White House being adored by Trump and his team of fawning, dangerously unhinged sociopathic bootlickers...
Read this excellent article by Professor of International Politics at Lancaster University, Amalendu Misra, the author of seven critically acclaimed monographs on conflict and peace, whose primary research concerns violence in the political process.
Trump has unleashed a string of controversial policies since returning to the White House that have put his administration at odds with most of the world. He's also forged an alliance with one country that is willing to do his bidding abroad: El Salvador.
The techno-dystopia many have warned about looks a lot closer today, after @WIRED revealed that Peter Thiel's #Palantir (which has a £500 million contract with #NHS England to manage our patient data across NHS trusts) is involved in Elon Musk’s DOGE.
If you're unaware of who unhinged billionaire tech-bro Peter Thiel is, and why he should have nothing to do with the UK or our #NHS, or how he groomed and installed his protégé JD Vance in the White House, or how he's not keen on democracy, read this:
The BMA are concerned about patient data privacy & Palantir’s ties to US intelligence.
DOGE, Palantir, & IRS representatives have been collaborating to build a single API layer above all IRS databases at an event previously characterized as a “hackathon.” publictechnology.net/2023/11/22/hea…