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Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧 Profile
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧

@sf_lang

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Historian, playwright, broadcaster. Chair of Govs. Hon. Visiting Fellow at Anglia Ruskin University. Author of British History for Dummies. And other things.

Cambridge
Joined December 2009
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
4 years
Deeply unpopular opinion alert - I really like plain chocolate Bounty.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
10 months
Spare a thought for Nick Hilton, TV critic on The Independent, who got Mr Bates v The Post Office so catastrophically wrong: "It is hard to imagine many will stick with Mr Bates vs the Post Office for the full duration of its four-night run."
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
3 years
What sets #CalltheMidwife apart is how it treats the Big Questions as normal parts of life. So this series' train disaster climax wasn't really about rescuing the victims; it was about deeper questions of mortality, loss, humanity, faith and meaning. Sheer class. @StephenMcGann
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
6 years
@Longshanks1307 This is the episode everyone knows about but no-one likes to mention, pretending it's not there...
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
3 years
The lesson from MR James's ghosts stories is: Academics, don't stay in under-subscribed hotels while conducting archival or archaeological research during the university vacation.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
11 months
Sir Michael Wilshaw said on Newsnight tnt that Ofsted's claim that all Inspectors are school leaders does NOT mean, as Spielman says, that they are headteachers. It can mean middle management, effectively Heads of Dept with no specialist knowledge of what they are inspecting.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
7 years
#callthemidwife Powerful and moving mental health storyline - a reminder of how mental hospitals used to be used to punish behaviour of which society disapproved. Well done to all the production team and cast.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
4 years
People outside Cambridge may not realise what the cause of history has lost in today's sad news of the death of Allan Brigham. He was a history graduate, an Hon MA of Cambridge University, a road sweeper who cared about the city he cleaned, and a huge enthusiast for history /1
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
2 years
Absolutely shocking revelations about Ofsted's methods from former Ofsted inspectors. One calls the process 'callous' and 'evil'. If you thought Ofsted arrived with their minds made up - read on:
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
2 years
The closed captions on Sky News have just announced that the Queen will be placed on a catapult...
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
6 years
@RevRichardColes Did you order water last time and somehow it just ... you know... ?
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
6 years
This must be the first British royal wedding where the acknowledged stars of the day - the bishop, the mother, the cellist and, of course, the bride are all black or part-black.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
5 years
Can't help feeling this headline could have been better phrased. BBC News - Sex and religious education to be compulsory in Wales
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
6 years
@Joannechocolat Hello, I teach history. You may know me from my greatest hits. "I'm sorry to hear you hated it at school", "Yes, people do get jobs with history GCSE, actually", "No, I don't know what's going to happen with Brexit".
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
2 years
@rboyle For balance, the Shadow Cabinet includes: Anneliese Dodds (PPE, Oxford); Shabana Mahmoud (Law, Oxford); Rachel Reeves (PPE, Oxford); Lucy Powell (Chemistry, Oxford); Yvette Cooper (PPE, Oxford); Bridget Phillipson (History, Oxford); Nick Thomas-Symonds (PPE, Oxford).
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
2 years
It is a scandal that schools have no independent appeals panel to which they can appeal after being mauled by Ofsted bullies. Every other area of work has one, including schools for exam results. There used to be one for inspection - bring it back!
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
3 years
@IanDunt No point having a proud history if you have a shameful present.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
5 years
@RevRichardColes Will you have a cake? Or a meringue? No, you're right - I'll have a cake.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
2 years
My mum, Patricia Lang, died last night, a couple of months short of her 97th birthday. She was wonderfully cared for at Coloma Court care home in Kent, and we all had the chance to say goodbye before the end. RIP
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
5 years
Italian priest saying Mass this morning, in England to improve his English. "I-a hope", he said, "you will-a all-a be very-a passionate with me". It took a moment to realise he meant 'patient'.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
7 years
@CallTheMidwife1 Whoever writes Sister Monica Joan's dialogue is a genius! What wonderful command of language.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
11 months
The description of the bullying, sneering condict of the Lead Inspector is an almost exact replication of the conduct of the Lead Inspector at Queen Emma. Sheer contempt for the staff, governors and headteacher. Because inspectors know they are completely unaccountable.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
7 years
I teach at @AngliaRuskin & I know the dedication of my colleagues to our students, the quality of their teaching, and the enthusiastic appreciation our students show. We offer HE to many who might otherwise never have access to it. Today I am prouder than ever of where I work.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
3 years
I *think* they mean "Out of Order"
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
4 years
@RevRichardColes The Rector of Kettering said "It's green, but it's made see red. A car-crashing curate? I will not endure it. She'll have to start cycling instead".
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
3 years
I don't think I have ever in my life known a situation in which there is more honour, moral consciousness and courage in the England football team than there is in the Cabinet.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
4 years
@RevRichardColes Ecumenical vicar would like Environment-friendly e-bike. Will swap for a car, An electric guitar, A drum kit, two amps and a mic.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
2 years
This is the controversy over Ofsted's inspection of Queen Emma School in Cambridge, where I am Chair of Governors:
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
11 months
Some have misunderstood the coroner's verdict that the conduct of the Ofsted inspection 'contributed to' Ruth Perry's suicide as a suggestion that there were other factors involved. The other factors she identified were Ofsted's procedures. So, yes, Ofsted caused her death.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
1 year
So Amanda Spielman finally concedes to @BBCr4today the Limiting Judgement is there to trigger academisation. So, nothing to do with parents' wishes.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
3 years
To those who say you don't change leader during a war crisis, you might like to tell that to Pitt, Lord Aberdeen, Asquith, Chamberlain, Eden and Thatcher.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
7 years
My letter in today's Telegraph against the snobbish attitude towards 1992 universities.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
2 years
Remember, kids, always proofread your work before you submit it!
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
3 years
@exitthelemming Good use of the "Disingenuous Passive" mood. I conflated them/They were conflated (or, better: Conflation occurred)
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
6 years
It's definitely an interesting time to be living and voting in Cambridgeshire. One MP is in prison, another has just joined the Independent Group and one is the Brexit minister. I tell you, it's never a dull moment round here!
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
5 years
Fascinating "Titanic" documentary on C4. I thought we knew everything, but this changes everything we thought we knew.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
4 years
And so today I hit 60. Big gulp. New stage of life.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
5 years
@KateWilliamsme Unlike Boris Johnson, the Queen knew Tommy Lascelles very well and will have a rather better idea of the meaning of his code. #Johnsonisjustdesperate
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
3 years
Can't help thinking they missed a trick with the choice of flowers here.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
5 years
@heidiallen75 Time someone stood up for you, Heidi - you are a rare politician of courage and integrity.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
11 months
It's very important to be aware that there are plenty of dedicated, professional and responsible Ofsted inspectors. If they identify weaknesses in a school, then the school should certainly take note of their judgement. But: 1/3
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
1 year
Labour is 100% right to remove Safeguarding from Ofsted. Ofsted are not Safeguarding experts, but very ready to ignore the views of those who are.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
5 years
Oh bloody hell. They're not going to have to make another film, are they?
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
6 years
@greg_jenner @JeffdeBoer9 Owned no cats? There was Caterine of Aragon, Caterine Howard, and, best of all, Caterine Purr!
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
1 year
Congratulations to @BBCRadio3 , the only outlet to broadcast the superb pre-Coronation concert conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. It takes searching on BBC Sounds to find it, but it's worth it. I'd have much preferred more of this to some of the studio guests on the day.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
5 years
@SimonFraser00 The leaker is indeed the culprit. But the President is the fool, for proving the ambassador right so conclusively.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
11 months
c) nor does it justify Ofsted's routine refusal to accept that its inspectors can be very badly in the wrong or the near-impossibility of getting a change of grade d) the bullying incompetence of some inspectors undermines the professionalism of the others. 3/3
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
5 years
@StigAbell 'Unelected' PMs: Balfour 1902; Campbell-Bannerman 1905; Asquith 1908; Lloyd George 1916; Bonar Law October 1922; Baldwin 1923; Chamberlain 1937; Churchill 1940; Eden 1956; Macmillan 1957; Home 1963; Callaghan 1976; Major 1990; Brown 2007; May 2016. It's virtually the norm.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
6 years
Unpopular Opinion Alert! I really dislike introductory paragraphs in essays. Complete waste of precious wordspace. I don't need to be told what you're going to say - I'll find out in a minute. Get stuck straight into the answer and make sure you write a good conclusion!
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
2 years
@victorianclare PG Wodehouse - The Lack of the Bodkins Thomas Mann - Debt in Venice Winterson - Oranges Are Not the Cheapest Fruit Austen - Price and Prejudice
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
4 years
@alexvtunzelmann I'm on Clearing standy-by today. What a day to be given, eh?
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
5 years
Everyone lay off Naomi Wolf. Point made, lesson learnt, story over. Show some decency.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
4 years
Chindits weren't Special Forces; that was the whole point! They were regular regimental soldiers operating jungle warfare deep behind enemy lines.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
3 years
@Joanna__Hardy Does a double-take, reopens the fridge ... and finds the prime minister in there.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
8 years
@CadburyUK I'd rather deck them with Fairtrade, thanks.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
1 year
@DalrympleWill @Sathnam @JLFLitfest @britishlibrary Well, it's not a competition, of course, but I think that suggests an umerited rosy view of just about every European country with an overseas empire I can think of.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
6 years
@HistoryExtra The question is wrong. What is in question is our search for heroes rather thsn heroic moments. To save both Britain and the world from Nazism while staring down defeat is breathtaking heroism. It doesn't efface his faults but neither do they efface the heroism of that moment.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
1 year
I described James II to my students this morning as a sort of Stuart Liz Truss.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
3 years
Well, that was unexpected.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
9 months
@Edmund_B_W Edmund, you and Julia have been utterly heroic. You have both evinced dignity, rock-like tenacity and courage on behalf of the whole teaching profession. If this HoC report does bring in change, much of that is down to you both.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
1 year
An outline of Queen Emma School case against Ofsted in the Queen Edith Community Newsletter:
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
4 years
@ClareWilsonMed @alicevjones @benallenwf He could call it "Byline of Duty"?
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
10 months
@branwenjeffreys It seems incredible that Ofsted inspectors should need special training to teach them to try not to drive fellow professionals to suicidal despair.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
9 months
The women on Call the Midwife are amazing. And it's a reminder of how insensitive and brusque some doctors could often be.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
7 years
@RevRichardColes The Marquess of Queensberry said, "When I curl up my toes and I'm dead, I shall not lie cosy Like Wilde or Bosie: Cremate me in Woking instead."
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
4 years
The real issue in the Statues controversy is not race or slavery; it is our insistence on making heroes, venerating them and putting them on pedestals. Why do we always feel the need to? It will always be highly selective and will always end in tears. Yet still we do it.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
5 years
Well, I am proud to teach at @AngliaRuskin and I know the high quality and worth of our degrees, of my students and of my colleagues. And I think foul scorn of anyone who thinks otherwise.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
6 years
@alanbeattie Queen enters HoC with detachment of the Coldstream.Guards to arrest five MPs. Debate follows on which five.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
5 years
@anne_theriault Scorpios are THE BEST. I am a Scorpio.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
11 months
a) even the most professional and reliable inspection does not justify a one-word judgement on the school as a whole b) the professional conduct of most is of no comfort to those subjected to the unacceptable behaviour of the minority 2/3
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
4 years
For those arguing that slavery has been ignored in school history. The major problem is not the history curriculum but the severely restricted time available to it and the fact that it is not compulsory beyond 14 and often not beyond 13.
@mfordhamhistory
Michael Fordham
4 years
This was the wording of the National Curriculum from 2008-2014. The wording may not be perfect and there are clear ways this could be improved. Keep in mind, though, that its presence on the NC doesn't mean it was always taught, or taught well.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
5 years
@RevRichardColes Your dog is, I take it, like the cat I had when I was younger, named after Pongo Twistleton-Twistleton, of the PG Wodehouse books?
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
1 year
@william_whyte I was once asked the way to King's in Oxford. I directed them to Magdalen Bridge and told them to keep walking a very long way.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
2 years
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
11 months
@Edmund_B_W Edmund, your reports have been invaluable. The coroner's verdict is damning, because it does not point to one mishandled inspection, but to a combination of the inspection and the whole, rotten Ofsted system itself.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
4 years
You know that thing about the first sign of ageing being noticing how young policemen look? For me, it seems to be noticing how many people you knew in your twenties are now bishops.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
5 years
@RichardEvans36 I cannot vote for a party whose leader has infected it with a powerful overtly anti-Jewish dynamic. The Chief Rabbi's statement tonight is astonishing and a terrible judgement on a once noble party.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
8 years
@DrJaninaRamirez @BBCFOUR What's the point of BBC4? How about: 'Regularly showing something worth watching?'
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
4 years
@JamesHarrisNow Does Nearly the Ending count? The Railway Children. Never fails.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
4 years
- specifically this history of the people and town of Cambridge, as opposed to the university. He ran tours, he spoke, he wrote, he broadcast, he invited local people to discover a history they never knew they had and which he, through his cleaning work, saw up close. /2
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
4 years
There are plenty of right-wing comedians. It's just that they're in the Cabinet, not on the telly.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
1 year
To all those who think that Ruth Perry's suicide is being used for political purposes, this powerful post reminds us that hers is far from the first or only such Ofsted-induced tragedy. This issue has not gone away. We need to fight for change.
@johncosgrove405
John Cosgrove
1 year
At the end of a beautiful half-term week when I hope everyone in education managed to switch off completely and recharge and as we look forward to sports days, residentials, trips, transitions, let's not forget the still unfinished business...
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
4 years
@AuschwitzMuseum Dear God. Such details underline the sheer wickedness of what those people did, even more than the statistics do.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
4 years
He was much loved in Cambridge and rightly so. There may well be such people in your own towns. If so, look them out, listen to them and learn - even the most learned have much to gain from the most local. /3
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
11 months
@TTRadioOfficial @BenKentish Well, he should know. He was removed from his.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
4 years
A reminder that even at the time, not everyone bought into the "Britain Alone" idea.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
11 months
I have worked at Anglia Ruskin for sixteen years and working here has filled me with pride, for what our students achieve, often against the odds, and how we all try to help them get there. I have never prouder than now, to see all our work recognised nationally.
@DrCatherineLee
Professor Catherine Lee MBE
11 months
Just fantastic! @AngliaRuskin are University of the Year #THEAwards 🤩 🏆
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
2 years
@DrFrancisYoung He hasn't even landed in the Highlands. He could always take a coach south as far as Derby.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
5 years
Congratulations, Imogen Lang on your graduation day!
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
11 months
Ofsted should hang their heads in shame, if they only knew the meaning of the word.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
2 years
I am prepared to campaign for an Independent Appeals Panel for school inspection. DM if you'd be interested to join me, and please retweet as widely as you can.
@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
2 years
It is a scandal that schools have no independent appeals panel to which they can appeal after being mauled by Ofsted bullies. Every other area of work has one, including schools for exam results. There used to be one for inspection - bring it back!
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
4 years
@ProfGSheffield Don't know about you, but I get very tired of this journalistic use of "forgotten" to mean "history I've never bothered to read about".
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
6 years
Do these politicians not realise that some of us are going to have to TEACH all of this in due course with at least the appearance of a modicum of understanding?? Have they no soul?
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
6 years
On the British Boer War Concentration Camps, #JacobReesMogg got two things right but the rest was dangerous and either ignorant or disingenuous nonsense. The two things he got right were: 1/
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
11 months
@jennyfog2 Primary schools are society's rock. If they fail, we have no future. Primary headteachers are among the most important citizens we have and they should be supported and treasured, not bullied, scorned and treated as mere political collatoral.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
5 years
This is brilliant and hilarious and dreadfully, scarily, unbelievably - true. Tom Peck: Grenfell residents too stupid to live and Tony Blair death celebrations — what did we do to deserve this idiots-only Battle Royale?
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
4 years
I know a joke about the Western Front, but it's a bit over the top.
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
8 years
The Postman Always Rings Twice, then leaves a note to say he's left it with the nextdoor neighbour. #MakeAFilmAwfullyBritish
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@sf_lang
Sean Lang 🇺🇦 🇬🇧
1 year
Oh, come on Ten Pound Poms. No-one in the 1940s/50s said "I was like..." or referred to "The UK". No point getting the cars and clothes right if the language gives it away.
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