Boat race protester Trenton Oldfield"s wife asks UK not to punish their child

The British wife of Australian boat race protester Trenton Oldfield says the couple have to battle his impending deportation because the government’s selection is affecting their 5-month-previous daughter.

On Monday Oldfield will appeal against the British government’s determination to refuse him a spousal visa on the grounds his presence in Britain is “not conducive to the public very good”.

The 37-12 months-outdated swam into the path of the Oxford and Cambridge rowing crews on the Thames in April 2012 and was subsequently jailed.

“It would be devastating to be torn apart for a peaceful protest which our little one and I had no portion in,” Oldfield’s wife Deepa Naik advised AAP in a statement.

“It is difficult not to see this as collective punishment and without any sense of proportionality for the perceived ‘crime’.”

Naik said her husband had served his prison sentence, paid the Crown’s charges and worn the consequences of getting a criminal record.

He did not appeal against the judge’s verdict and adhered to all the restrictions placed on him, she stated prior to Monday’s immigration tribunal hearing in London.

“[But] it is now impacting on our little one – we have to battle this. Sufficient is adequate.”

Oldfield, initially from Sydney, has lived in the Uk for a lot more than a decade. He stated he disrupted the boat race in 2012 to protest against elitism and inequality.

His lawyer, Stephanie Harrison QC, says she has never noticed a situation in which someone with a six-month conviction for a public order offence has been examined above the “public good”.

Staff and students from Cambridge and Oxford have thrown their support behind Oldfield

A lot more than 250 people from both institutions have signed a letter in the past handful of days that calls on the property secretary, Theresa May possibly, to stop the proceedings against Oldfield.

“The boat race is a game – its disruption should not consequence in any individual’s deportation,” the letter states.

“Definitely its disruption should not be trigger to separate an individual from his family which consists of a lately-born little one.”

Priyamvada Gopal, a senior English lecturer at Cambridge, stated staff and college students realised only a few weeks in the past that the deportation threat was real due to the fact it had appeared absurd.

“It was totally out of the question that such an excessive measure was going to be completed in the title of our universities,” Gopal stated. “We had to make clear that it was not getting carried out with our consent or support.”

Gopal is a member of the Cambridge Academic Campaign for Larger Education, a group of lecturers and professors that desires to democratise public greater education.

She explained there was no irony in personnel and students backing Oldfield.

“Trenton was protesting a social and political construction rather than everybody who actually attends or teaches at Cambridge,” she said.

“We are a quite big institution with an undoubted historical past of shoring up British elitism, but once more, there are many folks here, dons and college students, who are deeply committed to democratising the institution and widening accessibility to greater training.”

The activist group Defend the Appropriate to Protest is organising a rally outdoors Monday’s immigration tribunal hearing.

Its spokeswoman Hannah Dee said she hoped the display of public support would influence the tribunal, which is due to hear from many witnesses who will argue Oldfield is an asset to the Uk.

“There is a widespread opposition to government austerity measures and cuts, so, in that sense, the [boat race] protest and the things Trenton stands for are for the public good at a time when many individuals come to feel the government doesn’t have a common mandate,” Dee stated.

Boat race protester Trenton Oldfield"s wife asks UK not to punish their child

Child dies in Canyon County school bus crash

Tragic news out of Canyon County Thursday morning: A youngster died in an accident involving a school bus and a dump truck.

According to the Idaho Statesman, four young children were taken to two location hospitals soon after the crash, which occurred at seven:56 a.m. at the intersection of Deer Flat and Pleased Valley roads.

9 young children were on the bus, according to the Statesman’s report. They had been college students in the Kuna School District, and all had been sixth-graders or younger.

Here are backlinks to additional coverage of this establishing story:

Child dies in Canyon County school bus crash

What to buy your student child this Christmas

What must you get your student kid for Christmas? Photograph: Alamy

The best Christmas I’ve ever had was after my very first phrase at university. It was the 12 months it snowed really late in December, and public transport was in a state of bewilderment at how to cope with it all.

My brother and I managed to get back home to Dorset, but my dad was in China. By the 22nd it was even now snowing and planes weren’t able to land so it didn’t look like my dad would be capable to get home.

But somehow – in a single of people rare moments where what you are wishing for so desperately truly takes place – his flight was one of the really few that produced it back. And it was the ideal Christmas. When you’ve grown up and left house, coming back and seeing your family helps make it some thing unique.

If you are a parent awaiting the return of your student offspring this Christmas, you might be dealing with the dilemma of what to get them. Now they no longer dwell with you it can be harder to know what they want, or what will be helpful to them at university. To assist, we’ve compiled a handful of ideas of items every uni pupil would be delighted to acquire come 25 December.

Helpful things

It seems to be a peculiar tendency of students to fail to personal anything that may be regarded vaguely valuable. I graduated five months in the past and have nevertheless in no way owned a bowl – I consume cereal out of a mug each and every morning. So maybe this post should best be deemed a message to my mom to purchase me some kitchenware. But, for other mother and father, it could be a great thought to get some cheap, valuable items that your child could have forgotten to acquire.

• Prominent in this listing are kitchen implements like cheese graters and bottle openers if you want to make it a bit a lot more fun then you can get a variety of novelty themed tools.

• Perhaps your little one relies on caffeine to get them to their 9am lectures? If so, a cafetiere or travel mug could be invaluable. This rather nifty creation from Bodum combines the two, and my uni housemate swore by hers.

• Or, if you’d rather buy a gadget that aids their academic work past just helping them keep awake, there is loads to pick from: a dictaphone for recording lectures a cheap black-and-white printer for lecture notes and coursework and so on.

Things that last longer than Christmas

The difficulties with Christmas, of program, is that it comes but once a year, and when it truly is above you get the usual January slump. This can be particularly challenging if you are a student, going back to a – possibly quite cold – university home and the actuality of essays and coursework after a wonderful break.

• 1 way to counter this is by offering a present that you get more than once. Graze boxes are quite well-liked they’re parcels of healthful-ish snacks that get delivered in the submit when or twice a week, and undoubtedly liven up your day when you are just reading through by by yourself at house.

• Or, if your child is into sports and fitness, a gym subscription for a handful of months could be a great concept as it is a luxury that lots of students can not actually afford by themselves. Their uni gym may be the ideal and most affordable selection, or there are chains like Virgin Active, Fitness First and Much better leisure centres.

• If sport is not truly their issue, an intriguing magazine subscription is yet another great selection. If they like politics and recent affairs, then a weekly subscription to New Statesman, the Economist or a equivalent publication would be effectively-obtained, and can be truly affordable. Whatever they are interested in, there is most likely a magazine for it.

Good items

• Anyone will inform you that university is an encounter you want to remember. A very good diary could be a wonderful gift to motivate your pupil child to publish in occasionally and, if you’d like to make it a bit a lot more personal, you could write a message to them on the 1st web page, or place a few notes during the guide. Paperchase, W H Smiths and Waterstones all have a good range of cost-effective diaries.

• And continuing the more personalized theme – if your little one has just lately began cooking for themselves soon after leaving catered halls, they might be struggling to think of issues to make themselves each evening. An affordable existing is to acquire a simple notebook, and then handwrite their favourite family members recipes.

Most critical, though – aside from the food and crackers – is that there have to be stockings. I are not able to recommend stockings sufficient. Nor can I be scathing sufficient about the a variety of family members of mine who have suggested I may possibly be “getting a bit as well previous for stockings”.

You are by no means also previous to be provided presents in a sock. Have a pretty Christmas!

What to buy your student child this Christmas

My autistic child receives great social services. Adulthood is another story | Kristina Chew

American children with disabilities are entitled to social companies till they are 21 many years of age. Photograph: Corbis

This fall, my son reached a milestone I would been dreading for years. At sixteen-and-a-half years outdated, he is almost the very same age as my university students.

Have been factors distinct, Charlie would be in his junior year of high college, prepping for the SAT and asking yourself what colleges to apply to. Charlie is severely autistic and has intellectual disabilities. He can compose one word (his initial title) and his academic perform is not at very the identical level as some kindergarteners.

With Charlie receiving older (and Jim and I also), a gnawing anxiousness has taken root in us. In the US, young children with disabilities are “entitled” to receive solutions till they are 21 many years outdated beneath the Men and women with Disabilities Training Act. It’s a various story for adults. With this in mind, we are taking him out of the college he loves in December and moving him 3,000 miles away to California.

It was 13 many years ago that we returned to my husband Jim’s residence state of New Jersey so Charlie could attend one of the state’s properly-regarded public college autism packages. Soon after a lot of struggles, Charlie is pleased at a public autism center, smiling when he sees his school and calling for his teacher on the weekend.

I grew up in Oakland and we have prolonged imagined we may sooner or later move there. Charlie is an only youngster and I have a network of relatives, numerous younger than me, in California. As he’s been so settled in school, we had believed we’d wait a handful of a lot more many years just before leaving. My husband Jim and I are the two professors, in tenured positions at universities in New York and New Jersey. For just one of us to find a new position mid-job is daunting.

A quantity of agencies at the state and federal ranges (Departments of Developmental Disabilities, Medicaid, Social Protection) oversee programs that Charlie is “eligible” for. The dilemma is, he could not be capable to get a spot in the system or group residence that best accommodates his wants. In New Jersey, the waiting checklist for housing for people with developmental disabilities has above 8,000 people on it. The estimated wait time to get a residential placement is 15 years. As a state worker once explained to me, the only cause somebody will get off the record is because of “an emergency” – the sudden illness or death of his or her parents.

Our concerns about Charlie’s future following he finishes school are shared by 1000′s of households. A current survey about the wants of autistic adults carried out by the New York-primarily based Autism Speaks discovered that, with nearly half a million younger men and women who are on the autism spectrum getting to be grownups in the subsequent ten years, the need for housing and help solutions is paramount.

Out of the ten,000 caregivers and 400 men and women who are themselves on the spectrum who responded to the survey, 84% of caregivers reported that an personal on the autism spectrum is at present residing at property. Nearly 70% said they had no outside help to offer care.

It does not surprise me that families are mainly left to rely on their very own resources to care for an older child with disabilities. Every thing we have heard about daily life after college solutions finish has been disheartening. College students might have attended hugely regarded personal schools for autistic young children in New York and New Jersey however, on “aging out,” they graduate “to nothing,” and are left to “sit at house”.

A 14-year-old autistic boy, Avonte Oquendo, has been missing given that he wandered from his New York City college on four October. At the age when most young men and women are at the cusp of independence, youngsters like Avonte and Charlie are more in need of care than ever.

One scorching day last July following Charlie had a quite painful outburst due to nervousness about his summertime college plan and a pay a visit to from my parents ending, we determined it was time to depart.

The following morning, I woke up for the very first time in many years without having a nervous stomach and with a renewed sense of hope.

The choice to move has caused a lot of disruption. Charlie has lived in New Jersey for most of his existence. He knows the streets and highways here like the rooms of our home. He has been at the exact same college for four straight years each instructor and workers member is aware of him. His basic response to modify of any type is a panic attack, and there have been a handful of.

The more we feel about it, moving Charlie now just tends to make sense. My dad and mom have been possessing health difficulties. Moving now implies that Charlie can turn out to be employed to living in the place the place he will very most likely dwell for the rest of his life. We can commence getting his identify on these waiting lists for programs for adults with disabilities. Charlie, like several autistic individuals, relies on an extreme, obsessive amount of program and familiarity in his daily life. The longer we stay in New Jersey, the tougher it will be for him to depart.

Just as many mothers and fathers of higher school juniors, we want to give Charlie the ideal likelihood attainable as he commences the rest of his life.

My autistic child receives great social services. Adulthood is another story | Kristina Chew

How to privatise child protection in six easy stages | Ray Jones

The critical situation overview into Hamzah Khan’s death was criticised by the children’s minister, Edward Timpson, for failing to apportion blame. Photograph: West Yorkshire Police/PA

Occasionally seeing the entire image is challenging when the detail is drip-fed. But soon after a 12 months of comprehensive announcements and modifications, the education secretary Michael Gove’s agenda to privatise youngster safety is becoming visible. Right here are the government’s 6 measures to little one protection privatisation.

1. Rubbish social workers by requiring that a severe situation overview into a child’s death is published in full and then describe it as “risible” if it does not provide on a plate the heads of social workers, as happened final week when children’s minister, Edward Timpson, criticised the SCR into the death of Hamzah Khan (pictured). Make certain there is lots of crucial comment to feed the press. And if there is any regional reluctance to publish in total a overview, to shield the identities and welfare of remaining children, have a nationwide panel with no sharp-finish expertise in kid protection to bully the neighborhood safeguarding young children board into publication.

2.Take care that attention is not on the role and involvement of the police, physicians, well being workers or schools.

3.Give the blame culture credibility by creating sweeping statements about politically right and naive social staff who are concerned about the rising deprivation designed by welfare cuts for a expanding amount of children and families they meet each and every day.

4.Introduce rapidly-track education for a little quantity of brilliant graduates They will form the long term cadre of leaders, with no robust roots in social operate, but who will be the ambitious long term managers in privatised kid safety. Discredit existing social work training.

5. Generate a kid safety technique nationally that is at the point of breakdown. Then fragment organisations, such as schools and well being services, that require to function with each other locally to shield young children, and set them up, as an alternative, in competition. Ensure support by way of children’s centres and Sure Start is diminished for struggling families. Drastically cut council funding so that as a lot more work piles in, councils are not able to boost their capability to deal with it. Social employees then have to lower corners and, when anything horrible occurs to a little one, are targeted for blame and abuse.

6.Use other organisations to fuel the privatisation agenda. Ofsted, as the nationwide hit-and-run inspectorate, tends to make its requirements harder to accomplish at the same time as councils’ child safety teams struggle to cope with rising workloads. Each and every separate Ofsted report focuses on the failings of individual councils, with no comment on the national context. In addition, ask folks with no experience in child protection to put together public reviews that will undermine social work practice.

So, the way has been paved for Serco, G4S and venture capitalists to make funds from kid protection. It will not only lead to rising charges, but will undermine one of the safest and strongest kid protection methods in the planet.

It really is scary that Gove’s government dogma is most likely to lead to so a lot injury and disintegration leaving young children much less protected. This has been a government journey for some time, but now the location has turn into considerably clearer.

How to privatise child protection in six easy stages | Ray Jones

How to get ahead ... in child protection training

Trainees on the Frontline programme will be appointed a advisor social employee. Photograph: Alamy

Frontline, the government-backed graduate advancement programme for children’s social perform, looks set to be as popular as other public-sector programmes, competing for the identical pool of talented, ambitious graduates. Just 6 weeks right after applications opened, four,000 people have registered an curiosity for one of the a hundred locations on supply on the first cohort, and one,500 have completed the application procedure.

Josh MacAlister, who set up Frontline and already has the assistance of Training Secretary Michael Gove, believes the degree of curiosity implies the scheme is interesting to those graduates who in the past would not have considered a social work job. The Frontline chief executive says: “I believe that the four,000 figure is good … it does indicate some new interest. I feel what will be interesting will be a few months down the line when we appear back and will be in a position to say no matter whether these folks would not have otherwise picked social perform.”

Trainees will devote the two-12 months programme with a host nearby authority, either in London or Manchester. Particulars of which councils have joined Frontline will be exposed in the New Yr, but the variety previously exceeds the number of trainees. The tri-borough in London – Westminster Hammersmith and Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea – has put its name to the scheme. It will be taking sixteen Frontline trainees and recruiting 4 consultant social employees to mentor and train them. Its executive director of children’s companies, Andrew Christie, who is also a member of the Frontline board, is hopeful that the scheme will support with retention problems because it will offer you seasoned social workers yet another job alternative to specialise in training. “By and big, we have been in a position to recruit to our requirements but we have not been as effective as we would have liked in trying to keep individuals and delivering a excellent profession pathway.”

The initial Frontline cohort will start their education up coming summer, taking part in a summer institute – an intensive 5-week introduction to children’s social function. When completed, they will be allocated a host authority. Teams of four trainees will be appointed a advisor social worker who will accountable for their professional development and instruction. The consultant will be picked jointly by Frontline and the neighborhood authority. “The trainees will be immersed in the practice of advisor social operate,” says MacAlister.

The graduates will devote their first 12 months operating in direction of their skilled qualification and will acquire a £19,000 bursary. They will commit 210 days on practice placements, which is 50 much more than the minimal advised by the School of Social Function. Their degree of practice observation is also higher than that of a conventional social work degree programmes. “On a whole lot of social operate courses undergraduates will have to submit 4 observations of practice, whereas Frontline trainees will be observed after a week,” says MacAlister.

In their second yr, trainees will have a caseload, and as newly qualified social workers will be paid a salary of £24,000. They will also have the chance to comprehensive a Master’s qualification or qualify in Systemic Practice of the Institute of Family Therapy.

Like Educate Very first, the work-based graduate programme for teachers, on which the Frontline model is based, there is a deferment option with the civil support fast stream. If a graduate successfully applies to join each graduate programmes, the individual’s area is stored open. This implies the graduate could complete Frontline and then move to the fast stream or vice versa.

As with other public sector graduate programmes, the trainees are not assured a task at the end of the programme. However, it would be extremely unlikely that they would not be offered a position by their host authority following two years of investment, says MacAlister.

MacAlister is open to Frontline trainees moving to other components of the public sector, this kind of as the civil services or the division for schooling, and taking their expertise and knowledge with them. “I believe that would be really a powerful thing. It is something that social function at the moment lacks, which is a wider societal knowing of the important role that social staff play. Social function is 1 of Britain’s toughest jobs – and that is not a throwaway remark.”

The application deadline for Frontline is November thirty.

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How to get ahead ... in child protection training