Democracy, Democracy, my vote for Democracy

Is it just me that thinks the so called government 'rebellion' was a good thing for democracy? Are the political hacks all too far up their own backsides, in saying how damaging it is that MPs should stand up and state their view and vote by it, rather than following what the party has dictated.

The whole european gravy train is just a larger example of the corruption of politics we have at home.. Imagine the financial corruption that goes on in europe where the light of "transparency" does not shine, must be like bonus day every day.

I think the real story is in the way politics has been twisted to ensure that the majority do not get a say just the few in politics and their chums.

Is this the brand of democracy we are supposedly exporting to the corrupt areas of the world?

Just a job?

We went to the school parents' evening last week, keen interest in our son who is in year 4, just transferred to junior school.

We went in, shared smiles and handshakes with his class teacher.  She told us how our son was doing, in terms of teacher assessment and placing him in the 1234/abc brackets.  If your are a parent you will know what I mean.  The generalised target for children in class is 2a/b (from memory) for this year.  Last year he was 3c in english and above that in maths. (this truely is not a my son is good blog, bear with me)
We do not think that the weekly, English and Maths, work he brings home is hard enough for him, not pushing him enough. He finds it very easy. Knocks thorugh it in 20mins and gets top marks from teacher.

Ahh, yes back to the parents evening....
Us: "Do you give harder work to those more able in the class?"
She: "No, I give same work to all. I have 30 kids in the class, some who cannot even string a sentence together"
Us: "Fair enough, but our son can and the work being set is too easy and not challenging him. We have problems getting him to do homework as he is not interested. What is top grade he can be assessed to in this year?"
She: "Well it is level 4 but I would have to give level 4 work and I have 30 kids in the class."
Us: "Errr...why don't you differentiate the work? Do you differentiate the work?"
She: "No, do not differentiate the work"
Us: "Can you send him home with level 4 work so that we know the level and we can work with him"

Some more small talk around the work and we say our goodbyes.
Next day he brings home level 4 assessment work along with his normal homework.

Now this is not a piece about the teacher but rather about the system in which she works.

She has a class of 30 children, some who are above the target for the year already and some who are below target for the year.  The focus is going on those children who are below target to bring them up to target and the ones who are currently above are not pushed as they are unlikely to fall below.

The job pays the bills and keeps a roof over her head.  She will be judged on how many of the children meet the target not on how many who are exceeding the target exceed further.
My feeling is it is the systems fault because what is reported is how many meet the target irrespective of their background.

So we will keep on pushing him at home and pushing to change things at school.  Don't consider myself a pushy parent just doing ensuring the best for my children.  She is doing the job required within the system and at the end of the day it is just and job and it pays her bills.

Yes, I get annoyed but it is tempered by the fact that it is just a job
Are some jobs staffed by so called "Angels" or just people who want to do a good job? I err on the side of the latter, which do not mean that the former does not exist, just a lot fewer and they are often working against the system rather than with it.

Disappearing comparisons

Here was my blog until I accidentally deleted it. Doh!

Be careful with price comparison sites, they give different information for gas and electric prices. The worst being go compare for my check. Saving from £55 - £237

Mailmerged

Just thought I would share my mailmerge challenges with you.  Was trying to get pictures included in my mailmerge.  Have figured it out.  If you are having same problem here you go,

MAILMERGE INCLUDING PICTURE

1)      You will require your contact list

2)      You will require your pictures, named appropriately

3)      Put you contact list and pictures in the same directory

4)      Create your document template in the same directory as contact list

5)      Create your template and document strucuture

6)      Insert word fieldcode INCLUDEPICTURE and insert the mailmerge field for your picture location

7)      Create mailmerge document

8)      If you save the mailmerge template, on opening you will need to enter the picture mailmerge field again as Word will select the picture for whichever record you are on and use same for all mailmerge records

9)      Once mailmerged you will have message that field is undefined, where your picture should be. Highlight whole document and press F9 to force update the fieldcodes

10)  Your pictures will appear in document.

See the example below for further help.

A number of files are in the directory.

The photos to be used in JPG format, a draft template and the contact list.

Your template can be created from new.

In this example the files are in a folder, D:\temp\mailmerge

Firstly open your contact list and ensure that there is a column for the photos/pictures

In this example the photo location is shown in column D “ext file ref absolute”

Ensure that the file reference is shown as X:\\location\\file.jpg

Where X is your drive letter.  Notice the double backslashes, these are important!

Save your contact list.

Open a Word document, link to your database and create your template using the word mailmerge fields.

For the picture you will need to use a Word field “INCLUDEPICTURE”.  To get the {} brackets you have to either use CTRL+F9 or use the Insert – Field option from the menu bar. Do not just type the {} brackets, it will not work.

Insert your mergefield for the picture column in the INCLUDEPICTURE field.

Now Merge to a new document.

Your picture will not appear but an error message will, similar to “Error! Filename not specified.”

Select the whole document, ALT+A and press F9 to update the document.

Your pictures will appear.

Ensure it is done this way otherwise you may find the same picture appearing for every mailmerge letter.

£10 - Cost of Human Nature

I found a £10 note today. Yes that one in the picture.  Looks like any other £10 note. Thing about this one was that I found it sitting on its own in a cash machine.  I was passing by and heard the machine beeping and saw the £10 waiting for its owner.
I took the money and went into the bank and gave it to the cashier behind the desk.  Hopefully the owner will come back to claim it and it will strengthen their faith in human nature.
I know I would hope that if I left money in the cash machine that someone would hand it in.

What would you do?

Communication on the Move

My wife got her new phone this week. A fruit phone, the berry sort rather than the apple sort.
She loves it she tells me.

The real change though is that she is now able to get email/FB on her phone and now means she is as in contact electronically as I am.  Before you have email on your phone/FB/Twtr on your phone you do not realise how useful it would be to have it.  Once you have it you cannot do without it.