All posts tagged: AP

Essex Council rapped over AP oversight failure

Essex Council rapped over AP oversight failure

Published by skeptic

More from this theme Recent articles A local authority is reviewing how it monitors children not in mainstream schools after an investigation found it “disregarded” oversight responsibilities for a pupil left without education for months. Essex County Council failed to “get involved with” the 12-year-old’s schooling because she attended a secondary in a separate area – and even told her parents to seek support elsewhere. The girl had been on a part-time timetable but stop attending school amid a delay in issuing an education, health and care plan (EHCP). A Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman probe found the council’s “refusal to recognise its responsibility” to oversee the youngster’s education “caused injustice”. Review set following probe The child, who has special educational needs, was not given alternative provision for months when she was unable to attend school for medical reasons. A Schools Week investigation in September revealed children in a third of areas are stuck on 20-strong waiting lists for specialist provision. But some are receiving no education at all as they wait, while others are …

The 20 AP free schools approved by ministers

The 20 AP free schools approved by ministers

Published by skeptic

Leading academy trust secures four alternative provision free schools while others are snubbed Leading academy trust secures four alternative provision free schools while others are snubbed More from this theme Recent articles Twenty areas will get new alternative provision free schools, the government has finally announced, but more than half of those that applied were rejected. Delta Academies Trust has secured all four free schools it applied for, but others such as Unity Schools Partnership, in Suffolk, have been snubbed. All three bids in Nottinghamshire were rejected. Just 20 schools out of 43 applications were approved (see full list below). The announcement was made alongside the spring budget today, however it was due to be confirmed in autumn last year. It comes amid a places crisis for AP, with a Schools Week investigation finding excluded children in a third of areas were stuck on waiting lists for specialist provision . In budget documents, the government said these new schools will provide more than 1,600 extra spaces and “support early intervention, helping improve outcomes for children requiring …

Expelling George Santos Was a Mistake

Expelling George Santos Was a Mistake

Published by skeptic

Forcing the New York representative out of the House after a conviction would have been justified; pushing him out beforehand is not. Graeme Sloan / Sipa USA / AP December 1, 2023, 1:26 PM ET George Santos, the former Republican representative from New York, seemed like he stepped out of an episode of the HBO political-comedy show Veep. His reality-TV antics and ostentatious fabrications about his life, and the criminal allegations swirling around him, made him a surreal character in an already surreal Congress. Today he became only the sixth member of the House to be expelled, following a House Ethics Committee investigation and his indictment on federal charges of fraud and conspiracy for allegedly stealing donors’ identities and using their credit-card numbers to “ring up tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges,” as the Associated Press reported. Of the five previously expelled representatives, three had taken up arms against the United States in the Civil War, and two had been convicted on federal charges. Read: We hardly knew George Santos Santos has not …

Photos: Evacuation of Gaza City

Photos: Evacuation of Gaza City

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The Israeli military has renewed its call for civilians to evacuate northern Gaza as troops gather on the border in preparation for a widely anticipated ground invasion. The region is home to some 1.1 million people, and the United Nations has warned that the evacuation order—foreshadowing further retaliation for the Hamas terrorist attacks that killed more than 1,300 people in Israel—will have “devastating” consequences. Hundreds of thousands of people have already left their homes, while medical workers caring for an influx of patients injured in earlier Israeli airstrikes have called the evacuation order “impossible.” ​Palestinians move toward safer ground following Israeli air strikes in Gaza City late last week. The retaliatory strikes have killed more than 2,000 people and leveled whole neighborhoods. (Mahmud Hams / AFP / Getty) Streets in Gaza City filled with Palestinians in cars and donkey carts following Israel’s first evacuation order on October 13, 2023. (Mahmud Hams / AFP / Getty) ​Palestinians carried belongings through Gaza City on Friday as the Israeli military dropped leaflets warning civilians to evacuate. (Mahmud Hams …

Images of the Mass Kidnapping of Israelis by Hamas

Images of the Mass Kidnapping of Israelis by Hamas

Published by skeptic

More accounts are emerging of kidnappings, rapes, and torture committed by Hamas terrorists against Israeli civilians. So far, at least 150 Israelis, most of them apparently civilians, were kidnapped by Hamas gunmen and stolen across Israel’s border with Gaza. Among the kidnapped are elderly women and small children. Human rights groups are tracking these kidnappings as evidence of war crimes. Within hours of the attacks on Saturday, photos and videos began to circulate showing the mass murder of Israeli civilians—including people killed in their cars, and left dead on the ground in the streets and at a bus stop—as well as the kidnapping of children, young women, and the elderly. Two widely circulated videos have sparked outrage because of the  the apparent sexual assaults they depict, the Times of Israel reports. One video shows a woman who appears to have been beaten and who seems to be bleeding into her shorts being forced out of a Jeep in Gaza. The other video shows a woman, later identified by her family as 22-year-old Shani Louk, stripped …