Pavel Iosad
@anghyflawn.net
Linguist | Cànanaiche @schoolofppls.bsky.social. Migrant | Neach-imrich: 🇷🇺➡️🇳🇴➡️NI➡️🏴. Tin whistle tragic | Droch-chluicheadair na fìdeige. 🇺🇦.
They don’t teach that in Higher English at James Gillespie’s High School! Well at least not that categorically. But that’s part of the problem huh.
December 1, 2025 at 9:02 AM
They don’t teach that in Higher English at James Gillespie’s High School! Well at least not that categorically. But that’s part of the problem huh.
💯. It seems to depend on teachers a bit (mine was completely turned off history by the Higher but English & ModStudies seem to have been better, though still not fully ideal), but basically that’s right. Many rUK students do also produce writing that has the shape but not the content.
December 1, 2025 at 8:39 AM
💯. It seems to depend on teachers a bit (mine was completely turned off history by the Higher but English & ModStudies seem to have been better, though still not fully ideal), but basically that’s right. Many rUK students do also produce writing that has the shape but not the content.
From what I understand UoE Maths have just redone their pre-Hons and they’ve basically made Yr1 into a foundation year because the incentives for incoming students are so wildly askew they need to be taught how to think in maths all over again.
December 1, 2025 at 8:09 AM
From what I understand UoE Maths have just redone their pre-Hons and they’ve basically made Yr1 into a foundation year because the incentives for incoming students are so wildly askew they need to be taught how to think in maths all over again.
Having done what would here be called an integrated Master’s myself, they most certainly have their uses. Personally I think the ‘old’ Scottish system with real exit points all along the sequence (rather than ‘BA Ordinary is where both parties have given up’) was very much the right idea.
December 1, 2025 at 7:47 AM
Having done what would here be called an integrated Master’s myself, they most certainly have their uses. Personally I think the ‘old’ Scottish system with real exit points all along the sequence (rather than ‘BA Ordinary is where both parties have given up’) was very much the right idea.
They’re not great! Not that A-levels are vastly superior, although the issues are different. And AHs do seem to mitigate some of the worst rote learning concerns. (Though this is strictly my impression from teaching first years and having an S6 in the house.)
December 1, 2025 at 7:44 AM
They’re not great! Not that A-levels are vastly superior, although the issues are different. And AHs do seem to mitigate some of the worst rote learning concerns. (Though this is strictly my impression from teaching first years and having an S6 in the house.)
*tapping my Foundation Years For Everyone sign* bsky.app/profile/angh...
My hot take on foundation years is that most students, home or international, would really benefit from them. Our terminal school qualifications produce skewed incentives and aren’t great for degree-level study; readjusting takes time. Obviously no-one’s funding that because no-one actually cares.
December 1, 2025 at 7:31 AM
*tapping my Foundation Years For Everyone sign* bsky.app/profile/angh...
We don’t teach grammar in schools full stop. Either we just don’t (hello Scotland) or we don’t but pretend that we do, which is in some ways worse. (I know this because I teach linguistics to first-years)
November 28, 2025 at 8:05 PM
We don’t teach grammar in schools full stop. Either we just don’t (hello Scotland) or we don’t but pretend that we do, which is in some ways worse. (I know this because I teach linguistics to first-years)
Something something revealed preferences
November 25, 2025 at 7:24 AM
Something something revealed preferences
Peter Mandler’s The Crisis of the Meritocracy is very good. Every time the ruling class says ‘we think that’s quite enough education, thank you’, the Plain People of England rise in revolt because they want opportunities for their children. Happened with grammar schools, happened with HE twice.
November 25, 2025 at 7:23 AM
Peter Mandler’s The Crisis of the Meritocracy is very good. Every time the ruling class says ‘we think that’s quite enough education, thank you’, the Plain People of England rise in revolt because they want opportunities for their children. Happened with grammar schools, happened with HE twice.
Small fry in the grand scheme of things but I note that the current adult dependent relative policy is they can’t join you (no matter your citizenship) if you can pay for them to receive care where they are. Which would be… quite the conundrum.
November 24, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Small fry in the grand scheme of things but I note that the current adult dependent relative policy is they can’t join you (no matter your citizenship) if you can pay for them to receive care where they are. Which would be… quite the conundrum.
An utter ‘for Britain, see England’ moment when you can immediately pick out Edinburgh and Glasgow on the chart. (Though we could definitely be building more new flats up here too.)
November 20, 2025 at 2:53 PM
An utter ‘for Britain, see England’ moment when you can immediately pick out Edinburgh and Glasgow on the chart. (Though we could definitely be building more new flats up here too.)
February is shite by definition I feel, you’re ready for winter to be over and it just drags on.
November 19, 2025 at 8:52 AM
February is shite by definition I feel, you’re ready for winter to be over and it just drags on.
That said, I had a colleague who grew up in Valencia. They hated it so much they (temporarily) escaped to *Manchester* for its better climate.
November 19, 2025 at 8:37 AM
That said, I had a colleague who grew up in Valencia. They hated it so much they (temporarily) escaped to *Manchester* for its better climate.
Valid! Though on the coast at least you actually get (or used to, thanks climate crisis) two separate seasons, vinter (rain, no snow but ice, dark af, miserable) and seinvinter (more snow than you’ve ever shovelled before, sun comes out, glorious, lasts past Easter)
November 19, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Valid! Though on the coast at least you actually get (or used to, thanks climate crisis) two separate seasons, vinter (rain, no snow but ice, dark af, miserable) and seinvinter (more snow than you’ve ever shovelled before, sun comes out, glorious, lasts past Easter)
People are different (many *hated* it) but for me winter in Tromsø was completely fine (in a big city you spend most of your day under lights in the winter anyway, if you have a certain kind of life), it was the summer that really messed with my clock and everything else.
November 19, 2025 at 8:04 AM
People are different (many *hated* it) but for me winter in Tromsø was completely fine (in a big city you spend most of your day under lights in the winter anyway, if you have a certain kind of life), it was the summer that really messed with my clock and everything else.
‘Everything is gender’, the undefeated theory of our present condition.
November 18, 2025 at 10:57 PM
‘Everything is gender’, the undefeated theory of our present condition.
Less ‘take home’ and more ‘life savings’ (I imagine many employers offer ‘loans’ that they claw back via salary: this was very annoying when it happened to me, in a low paying job it’s functionally indentured servitude!)
November 18, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Less ‘take home’ and more ‘life savings’ (I imagine many employers offer ‘loans’ that they claw back via salary: this was very annoying when it happened to me, in a low paying job it’s functionally indentured servitude!)
Having grown up in Russia, I approve. I also find that it’s a great way to get tight with Canadians. (If they are of a certain age, being able to discuss the 1972 Summit Series will make you friends for life.)
There is also bandy, which is this but on 3x speed. Shame we don’t have the climate
There is also bandy, which is this but on 3x speed. Shame we don’t have the climate
November 18, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Having grown up in Russia, I approve. I also find that it’s a great way to get tight with Canadians. (If they are of a certain age, being able to discuss the 1972 Summit Series will make you friends for life.)
There is also bandy, which is this but on 3x speed. Shame we don’t have the climate
There is also bandy, which is this but on 3x speed. Shame we don’t have the climate
See your Chile and raise you
November 17, 2025 at 10:31 PM
See your Chile and raise you
This has been the Putin strategy since essentially the beginning. Arguably the terrorist campaign (in the imperial core) didn’t properly get going until 2011 showed that the ‘everybody lies but at least we have cookies’ gambit wasn’t really working.
November 16, 2025 at 7:59 PM
This has been the Putin strategy since essentially the beginning. Arguably the terrorist campaign (in the imperial core) didn’t properly get going until 2011 showed that the ‘everybody lies but at least we have cookies’ gambit wasn’t really working.
These are all perfectly valid opinions to hold. That’s not the same as ‘it’s the most hated building in Edinburgh so knock it down’.
November 16, 2025 at 2:31 PM
These are all perfectly valid opinions to hold. That’s not the same as ‘it’s the most hated building in Edinburgh so knock it down’.
It’s a damn sight more interesting in how it sits within the space and the view to the castle compared to the insipid stuff we mostly get these days, like the boring Mainpoint across the road. I do quite like the frontage on Castle Terrace, an otherwise empty expanse with the occasional car.
November 15, 2025 at 10:19 PM
It’s a damn sight more interesting in how it sits within the space and the view to the castle compared to the insipid stuff we mostly get these days, like the boring Mainpoint across the road. I do quite like the frontage on Castle Terrace, an otherwise empty expanse with the occasional car.
Why are the only two options ‘most hated’ and ‘Edinburgh icon’? I’m often in the area and.. I don’t have mega strong feelings. Time and the weather haven’t been good to the surface, it could definitely use a face lift, but it’s serviceable, it does a job in hosting workplaces.
November 15, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Why are the only two options ‘most hated’ and ‘Edinburgh icon’? I’m often in the area and.. I don’t have mega strong feelings. Time and the weather haven’t been good to the surface, it could definitely use a face lift, but it’s serviceable, it does a job in hosting workplaces.