Facebook mums are going wild for her. I think she might stay tonight based on their votes.

Richard has spoken about being ace, which I thought was ace!

Great guests!

Perfection 👏

Very worrying. Just like Maga, taking discredited scientists/medical professionals to justify their decisions. Repeat of Cass.

Far too little, much too late. And his message lacks charisma which is just as important when trying to get messages out there in this social media driven time. Who will remember this speech next week? Will it make front pages? Unlikely.

Thanks Zack. I'm a member of the Scottish Greens but grateful for all you are doing further south.

By 'poorer' children do you mean neurodivergent children? The evidence consistently states that neurodivergent children make up more than 90% of those persistently absent. Another test is not what these children need.

100%. I realised that too. For all those interviewed at Tommy's "Unite" march who said something along the lines of "I'm okay with people coming here through legal channels"...would love for them to be re-interviewed now to prove your point!

As soon as councils acknowledge this for what it is (no appropriate support for some children) it becomes an expensive problem to fix, it is far easier and cheaper to ignore and blame families. Children and their families are being massively failed. 4/4

I know in my local authority councillors who raised this with education officials were unknowingly gaslit. They were made to believe that there were good reasons to the way absences and part time timetables were noted with a sprinkling of parent blaming as per usual. 3/4

In my experience there is also the issue that some families want to be on part-time timetables (e.g. flexi schooling/burnout/medical reasons etc.). But encounter a push from schools to get in full time. I'm glad an Edinburgh councillor is looking into this, hope it makes a difference. 2/4