Staff Apartheid

Originally published in TES https://www.tes.com/article.aspx?storycode=6442389

Learning support assistants provide a valuable service yet they receive precious little thanks for it – and enough is enough.

Colleges are collaborative, supportive places. Teaching staff share resources, ideas and strategies, along with coffee and chocolate biscuits. They operate with bonhomie and improve their skills through supportive CPD and peer engagement. But although they are the visible face of learning, they are not the only ones responsible for it.

Further education colleges also employ learning support assistants (LSAs) to help the one in eight students with declared needs and the many more who require a helping hand. More than 80 per cent of LSAs are female and, amid the diverse atmosphere of further education colleges, more than 90 per cent are white. Qualified teachers make up about 7 per cent of the LSA workforce, with more than 40 per cent possessing a level 4 qualification. But nearly 12 per cent have no qualifications at all and 20 per cent have only a level 2 qualification. Most are part-time and paid hourly, have no year-on-year job security and are subject to redeployment at any moment.

Many have years of specialist experience assisting students with dyslexia, dyspraxia, mental health issues, impaired hearing or sight, emotional problems and more. LSAs’ responsibilities include note-taking, reading, enabling access to ICT, providing mobility and mealtime support, advocacy, helping learners on work experience and even covering classes for teaching staff.

And yet some colleges practise apartheid. LSAs in these institutions are not part of the teaching team, not part of the culture, not anywhere. Many don’t even have a staffroom to use, just a cupboard to hang their coat in.

In my experience, a number of staff are very reluctant even to allow LSAs into their classes. They find another “voice” distracting, as though it usurps their authority. Other lecturers find that sending the more disruptive students to the library with an LSA enables them to teach the rest of the class more comfortably. And so it might, but is that what the LSA is for?

Funding cuts over the past few years have pared staff numbers to the bone in many FE colleges, and it puts incredible pressure on the remainder when a member of teaching staff is absent. In the sepia-photograph years someone would always be available to take on a class but this is now unlikely, so the responsibility often falls to an LSA who is told to “keep them quiet”.

Frequently, lecturers do not know how to use LSAs effectively because CPD does not teach them how. Nor are LSAs given opportunities to develop their own skills. A few are paid for training but the majority are not and consequently do not attend, missing out on valuable learning and staff interaction. LSAs are often not released for training because of a lack of time or because of their low status. Their contracts usually end when the students leave and before the CPD begins. The career path for LSAs is a narrow one, and without a progression route they have little motivation to develop themselves. Yet they are often observed under similar conditions to teaching staff and graded accordingly.

Many lecturers admit they don’t have the confidence to direct support staff effectively. Many are confused about what “support” actually is – they simply stop interacting with a student when a support worker is present. This seems pretty unfair: LSAs are used to keep the “naughty ones” quiet, barely tolerated in some classes, excluded from training and development, poorly paid and have no career progression, and yet they are expected to stand in for lecturers at the drop of a hat.

Worlds apart

Discussions between teaching staff and LSAs outside the classroom are still rare. LSAs often go into classes without knowing what will be taught, what objectives are to be fulfilled, what practical work will take place or even what the course is.

Is FE like Downton Abbey, with lecturers and teaching staff on a higher tier than LSAs, who must be kept in their place? I can’t believe that is how anyone in the sector wishes it to be. We listen to students and request “stakeholder” views at every turn, yet a significant proportion of the staff are effectively treated as a stopgap.

Where is the equality in that? And what will be the impact if this keeps happening? Training all staff to reach the highest standards is surely a no-brainer. Despite the government’s best efforts, most colleges still insist on employing qualified staff to teach students, so why not extend that investment to the learning support team?

It is easy to talk to LSAs, to listen to them, to take a skills audit and match their strengths to relevant areas. It is simple to define their training needs, to include them in team meetings for the areas they work in and to value their insights. I’m incredulous that so many colleges don’t.

We present an image of collaborative harmony to the world, working in partnership with employers, parents, stakeholders and schools – pretty much anyone who comes our way, in fact. But we do not, it would seem, include a key part of our workforce, who find themselves marginalised and too fearful of losing their jobs to say so.

Building a qualified, experienced and truly collaborative workforce must be our first priority if we are to continue to enable all learners to achieve. And yes, that includes the LSAs.

Technology Lottery

The missing lottery ticket worth £33 million really caught my imagination. 

I don’t often buy a ticket, maybe once a year or so, and I don’t live in Worcester, so I know it’s not me. Every time I do buy one though, I photograph it with my phone, so if I lose it or accidentally put it in the washing machine, I’ve got a record of the thing.  It’s quick, simple and cheap; words beloved by Government and Financial Directors.

I’m pretty sure that this anal capturing of data is due to two things; my long career in FE (always have the evidence) and the availability of reliable technology. 

I’ve always encouraged students to photograph each other’s good work to provide them with a visual revision record and often, just photographing a screen is quicker than send to printer, then running around a building looking for the printer. 

I once worked in a college where one campus was 21 miles from the other. Driving there to get my printing because the system wasn’t properly configured was pointless.

#FELTAG has put forward many fine ideas for using Technology in Education and the government’s recent decision not to fund online learning at a lower rate should be acknowledged as a nod to understanding that online learning matters. To ‘learn online’ though requires tech, infrastructure and availability.

Tom Starkey @tstarkey1212 recently tweeted that his business cards were not printed in time for an event, and asked for help. Tom is a smart man, giving advice on using technology in education but even he needed to collaborate on technology so he could move over to using an App to electronically produce and send his business cards. 

This is the dichotomy for me; smart, technologically aware education experts and teachers that fully appreciate the value of using tech in teaching and learning don’t always think laterally and apply it to their own lives. That's why we need so much more collaborative practice.

Embedding tech into our lives, to make them easier, surely has to be the basis of our experience for embedding it into teaching and learning? That is why we need to share and keep sharing ideas, so we can learn.

If we don’t do it, how can we teach it?

Clearly more is needed than knowledge of technology and how it can be applied. There has to be an identified need and an identified solution but whilst the identification can be as simple as spotting something on a tweet, the matching process is nowhere near instant with a full teaching load and lack of equipment.

Teaching staff need time to explore the use of tech, it cannot be ‘applied’ to a lesson in a top down fashion, as you would select extra Hoisin Sauce to go with your Crispy Duck.

Students who take a test online, ticking a box to select an answer are not using technology for learning. There is no difference in ticking a box with a mouse to ticking a box with a pencil and if that is how tech is to be applied, then we are fooling ourselves and cheating the students.

Developing tech for effective learning requires patience, a supportive atmosphere and collaboration. All of which is expensive and not generally funded. Those who excel at tech such as Scott @bcotmedia do so because they have a natural talent and invest every moment of their time into the projects with unparalleled enthusiasm. We could all invest the time, but sadly few of us have his natural talent.

But given the right environment, access and support, we can learn.

One of the most popular #ukfechat topics recently was the hugely successful and much appreciated Using Digital Tools  by @ChrisLKirk which clearly demonstrated the need for more collaborative effort in using technology in TLA. People want to know how, what to use, new ideas and applications, to learn from each other and build on existing expertise and experience.

Teachers/Lecturers don’t want to see Pink computers for girls and Blue ones for boys, they don’t want to see students sat at terminals, bored and lifeless whilst they tick boxes on a test, they don’t want to have quotas imposed on their teaching to mention IT or Technology X times a lesson in order to hit an ambiguous target.

Teaching staff it would seem want the fundamental basics to be available so they can develop their skills and knowledge.

 

The opportunity to experiment with technology, to hear the learner views on our efforts and their impact, to share our results and experiences, without fear of repercussion.

They would like to have access to more than one trolley of laptops which in a one hour lesson takes 40 minutes to log onto the system and are only available on alternate months with an X in the name, provided you book them the day you start your job.

Teachers would like to have rooms that have internet access, rooms where mobile phone signals work so they can use Socrative.

They would like a computer system that isn’t based on Windows 2000

They would like a firewall that doesn’t stop Sports lecturers from accessing Middlesex Cricket Ground

They would like to have access to technology in the same way that management teams have iPads for their data management needs and feel that they have parity when it comes to the distribution and funding of technology.

They would like investment, not on paper but practically in time, support and equipment. 

Even now, there are colleges that have large areas with no computer access at all in classrooms.   

They would like to see technological opportunities for Teaching, Learning and Assessment that isn't a Lottery.

Too much technological investment has been into the ‘chalk and talk’ model, with the teacher at the front, one computer and an IWB, at the front. Teaching and learning has moved on but the technology still has a ‘buffer face’.

Technology that is simple, effective and useful should be as available as Oxygen; using it should be osmotic not just ‘embedded’'. Until these fundamental issues are addressed, Teaching Learning and Assessment that benefits from the use of technology, to enhance the TLA,  will be a long time coming.

Making maths work for students, Employers and Governments

Delivering the entire course of GCSE Maths in 33 weeks and expecting learners to pass is laughable. FE simply does not have the teachers, resources, time or frankly, the ability to achieve this level of magic.

I’d like to see a new approach to maths resits in FE Colleges. I suspect that I’m not alone and that many others would too.

I’d like to propose a new qualification; a modular one, shared between Schools and FE.

Students could start in Year 9 in Schools. Firstly, mix together GCSE and Functional Skills. Secondly, break it up into modules; 3 in Year 9, 3 in Year 10 and the final 3 in Year 11. The Higher component could be a tenth module to demonstrate higher learning. This isn’t impossible to deliver in schools through additional teaching, nor would it be impossible in FE.

Year 9: Start with the basics and build a mathematical foundation.

Year 10: Start to apply (Functional Maths) the knowledge to situations where maths is needed,

Year 11: Harder concepts and greater depth of application and understanding.

Each module graded A – E

Overall score to be graded A – E.

Modules that are not passed to C grade or above, to be resat in FE. Only those modules, not the whole course.

Exams to be held three times a year; November, February and May. This enables learners to be removed from classes and those who are truly struggling, to be given more tuition and greater attention.

When students enter FE, their modules are considered and any that are not achieved can be relearned, with serious subject contextualisation, and resat.

When all nine modules are passed, the learner has achieved a Foundation grade. If they are able, or willing to take the tenth module, they can do so in specialised classes.

This would spread the load of learning Maths between Schools, who obviously have a real problem delivering GCSE Maths to the required level and FE Colleges who are overloaded with resits of the entire course. 

Students who are able, would still leave school with the grades required, through taking the tenth and most difficult module.

Is this approach returning to the bad old days of multitudinous resits to achieve the grade? No, there would be one resit per module. By enabling the learners to take the modules they need, not the whole course, which is demoralising and destabilizing, we would be able to focus our attention on those learners and those aspects of the course which apply to them.

Teaching the whole GCSE maths course over and over again, is like hitting them with a lump hammer. By focusing on the areas they need and developing their skills in those areas, we are delivering truly personalised learning and learners who have the maths skills needed to be effective and  useful employees. 

To me, it makes sense. What do you think?

Time to dive it and get wet

Originally published by FE Week http://feweek.co.uk/2015/09/07/looking-ahead-to-a-watershed-year/ 

 

As the prospect of a new academic year stretching out ahead becomes a working reality for FE sector, Jayne Stigger considers what might be to come for teaching and lecturing staff in 2015/16.

FE & Skills providers are being sorely tested; no one doubts that but those who endlessly shout, tweet and holler the doom and gloom scenarios are missing the point.

Teaching/lecturing is challenging but staff need to seize this opportunity to develop both their learners and their own skills. Delivery using #FELTAG principles, working with local employers, giving learners the opportunity to develop maths and English knowledge in their subject specialism isn’t some new-fangled plan to make life more difficult for teaching staff; it is the future and we should already be doing it.

We should be building learner show-reels to demonstrate their competence to employers, crowdfunding opportunities for them like @hearnesque and #Scrawlmovie and developing our own skills if we don’t know how.

Yes, finances are getting tighter, classes may get bigger, courses may vanish from the curriculum, we may teach other things, some providers will merge and job losses may seem inevitable but they aren’t. This is the opportunity that FE staff should be taking advantage of; to really demonstrate just how valuable we are to the learners, our industries, country and its place in the wider, global market. It is the reactionary culture that needs to evolve.

The relentless push for more apprentices, better vocational education and training with maths and English for all, isn’t going away and the sooner the ‘traditional’ FE get on board with the new thinking, the smoother the transition will be.

UTCs, independent learning providers and National Colleges are stepping out of the wings and learning our lines. If FE wishes to continue to deliver all the courses it currently enjoys, then teaching staff must play our part in the development of even more effective vocational learning opportunities by adapting to the new rules and proving our worth.

We are ‘not like the brazen giant of Greek fame’, we are different. We are staff who are talented in our vocational specialisms, we take those who wish to learn a trade and develop their talent. We also take ‘your tired, your poor, your huddled masses’, and it is essential that we do, but to continue to provide that care and support, we must generate our own income streams, which requires multi-talented staff.

Teaching staff can do much to support this by changing the culture of a provider, with enthusiasm and positivity. If we constantly talk our positions down, why should anyone else value us?

The coming year will be the watershed for FE Staff; those who stand up and evolve into forward thinking, employment-focused delivery partners, those who facilitate skills development in all our learners will thrive

The coming year will be the watershed for FE Staff; those who stand up and evolve into forward thinking, employment focused delivery partners, those who facilitate skills development in all our learners will thrive. If they help develop independent income and secure partnerships, then they can still deliver A-levels, Access, Esol etc. I hope they do, for they are as needed by those the government doesn’t seem to see as clearly, as the favoured ones.

Governments aren’t always right and their hearing is very selective. This may be unfair, wrongheaded, short-sighted and ultimately destructive but it is the hand we are dealt. We should be working with employers, from choosing the units we deliver in a BTec, to relevant careers advice and great learner IAG, useful, logged work experience and staff training opportunities.

I urge all in FE to take the current political climate with a large pinch of salt. Governments come and go, their impact, for all their posturing, is only as great as we allow it to be. The time for standing on the edge, shouting at the water and urging it to recede is long past and those who do will drown.

The smart ones will develop their own training opportunities, build rafts, link together, use social media alongside local knowledge and industry to partner their ambitions and evolve so they can continue to offer courses to everyone who needs them, not just those who are caught in the current spotlight.

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Colin Gallacher

I believe that Jayne is absolutely right and if not now – when? The time is long past to have agencies ‘raise awareness’ for updating skills and processes including adopting FELTAG principles. Not because of an edict from funding agencies, but because it makes sense if they want to stay in business. ‘Business’, still a dirty word to many, a mystery to some.
In my role, I still find organisations that should know better but are still only thinking about making change’ and regard staff development as a tick box exercise that occurs a few times each year.
Teaching staff in general know what can be done to make this cultural change, but implementing change must be endorsed from the top and many are still too busy ‘standing on the edge, shouting at the water.’
For the staff and the learners sake, dive in and get wet.

September 7, 2015 at 10:22 am

Soundtrack of my life

Thank you to Theresa Young @treezyoung for the tag and the inspiration. I also found it difficult to limit it to just five, and like you, tomorrow the 'five' could easily be completely different. Today, right now though, these five, are my five.

Ian Dury and the Blockheads - Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick (listen here) This song came out in 1978, a glorious year of absolute freedom. My first completely frittered paypacket, no responsibilities, no restrictions. It was just music, fun, friends and freedom. I think I saw them at the Roundhouse, but wherever it was, they were superb. The Punk era was amazing. I wore dresses made of bin bags, stapled together just before we went out, my hair was very, very short; white blonde with bright red tips and I had a long side ponytail, in a plait. My skirts were short, my boots were long and my eye make up was distressingly heavy against my alabaster face. This song is full of life, full of appreciation for life, the joy that every life, abled or wonky, can be vibrant, full and glorious. The lyrics are smart, sharp, clever and ironic. The B side 'Clever Bastards' is that rare beast of an equally good track.


Fashion moves on and before long we were mad keen for the Madchester scene. Leaving work on a Friday night, driving to Manchester to dance the night away at the Hacienda, breakfasting in a greasy spoon, sleeping in the car and then doing it all again on a Saturday night. Sundays were for sleeping. This track The Stone Roses, Fools Gold, epitomises the time, the mood, the era of destruction that was happening around us.

It was the end of an era, socially, economically and culturally. England was changing so quickly, the optimism of the 1970's was replaced with strikes, wars, misery, closures and the music was reflective, deep and more anarchic than Punk had been but in very different ways. It was reflective of the sorrow, the end of days that was ripping like a band saw through the English landscape. I was so fortunate to have seen it; before, during and after.

On a lighter note, 'Let There be Love' by Nat King Cole, is another glorious song. A celebration of love for each other, for others and for the world we live in. The lyrics, like all good songs are simple, clear and beautiful.

Let there be you, let there be me
Let there be oysters under the sea
Let there be wind, an occasional rain
Chile con carne, sparkling champagne

Let there be birds to sing in the trees
Someone to bless me whenever I sneeze
Let there be cuckoos, a lark and a dove
But first of all, please let there be love

Let there be cuckoos, a lark and a dove
But first of all, please let there be love
Love, love, let there be love

These songs, loved by my parents pervaded my early years and formed many of my views on life: the  importance of the connectivity in our world, the importance of diversity of species and our need to preserve them, for their individual aesthetic beauty and for the mathematical beauty of the universe. These things shaped my academic development.

Two left .... so, so difficult.

Jonny Lang Lie to Me This came out in 1997. He was fifteen years old, 15!!!! I was a 38 year old mother of two small children, reading for my second degree, teaching full time and feeling a bit knackered. The song is perfect; bluesy, sad, uplifting and played with incredible, mind altering talent. I loved the song for the sound, the message, the lyrics, the sublime sadness of it. But, it made me think that I was lying to myself - I wasn't wonder woman, I did have responsibilities and that I needed to be more organised. The words 'Lie to me, tell me everything is alright', stuck with me. I could lie to myself, or I could develop a career rather than a job. My husband was always away touring and I was the fulcum of the family, the rock. It was a small thing but it inspired me. Isn't that what good music does?

One left ... puts on best Channel 4 announcer voice ....

As a child, we would always go to Cornwall for our holidays. It was my parents favourite place and they now live there during the Summer months, when it is too hot for them to be at their Spanish home. We would get up at 3.30am and sit, in height order tallest to smallest in the back of the Jag. It was a Mk10 - deep bullet grey with red leather interior and a walnut dash. It also had an 8 track stereo and on it, my father would play Frank Sinatra. This song is my favourite for many reasons.  As soon as I hear it, I am taken back to those early starts and dark nights in the car, the promise of breakfast on Dartmoor, the scent of heather and bracken, the anticipation of the sea with ice cream studded with ice crystals, fat Cornish pasties that tasted of sand and summer, the joy of Summer.

In 1966, we were on holiday in Cornwall and England were in the World Cup Final. My father went to St Austell and bought a portable television (my mother was outraged, by the cost not the tv) and he plugged it in to the Jag. Every father on the campsite sat around our television, whilst the women drank tea and gin in the back.

Us children ran wild, far wilder than Swallows and Amazons, we were Lords of all the Flies. We swam, surfed, drowned, climbed, experimented and returned to a campsite of drunken, celebratory and unreasonably good humoured adults, who proffered money for chips and asked for no reasons for lateness.

It was a magical time.

My music is central to me, it inspires, gives hope and soothes my soul. I look forward to reading about your top five choice.

Professional Status

I'd forgotten about this: Thanks to Shane for including me.

https://set.et-foundation.co.uk/publications/ifl-publications-archive/should-teaching-qualifications-be-left-to-chance/

More than four million 14 to 19‑year‑olds and adults are educated and trained through the FE system each year. Courses and options are numerous and encompass a fully comprehensive range of students. FE does not discriminate – why? It has a range of highly skilled, professionally trained and continually developing lecturing staff.

The government proposes to halt this, to remove the requirement for lecturers in FE to be professionally qualified, through its draft deregulation bill. The key driver for this is on the first page: “Publication of the draft Bill is the latest step in the Government’s ongoing drive to remove unnecessary bureaucracy that costs British businesses millions”.

Leaving aside, for a moment, the notion that this is designed purely to save money, let’s consider the impact this would have.

Learners enter FE to gain a qualification. The relentless drive by this and previous governments to qualify our young, middle aged and old, has resulted in a plethora of qualifications, courses and options. The rhetoric is well known: “You cannot expect to have a worthwhile career without a qualification”. Is lecturing not “worthwhile”?

And yet, the government now proposes that those who lecture in FE do not need a qualification to do so.

I find this deeply insulting and from the overwhelmingly positive response to the topic on #UKFECHAT recently, staff in further education at all levels agree.

Why?

At the start of my career as a lecturer, with two degrees and a PGCE, was I “grade one”? No. I had subject knowledge, yes, but more importantly, I had training in, experience of and an understanding of educational methods and pedagogy.

I was miles ahead of those without a qualification. This enabled me to develop learners, bring out their hidden talents, manage classrooms, and identify opportunities for learning in a way that a non‑qualified deliverer could not achieve. Qualifications are a measure of competence.

Those with subject experience can demonstrate how to plumb, wire or cut hair, for example. But the subject aspect is only part of the package. I have witnessed a number of people who are brilliant in their own field, some complete with PhD, utterly unable to connect with learners in their class. This has nothing to do with their subject knowledge, but is directly related to their lack of lecturing qualification.

An FE lecturer is a professional, trained to do a job and do it well for the most part. As new theories, ideas and models emerge, continuing professional development enhances their initial training and continues to prepare them to be better and more effective lecturers.

We have learners from age 14 upwards. In a school they would be taught by professionals with teaching qualifications alongside their subject specialism. A 14 year old in FE would have a ‘deliverer’.

Is the government saying that they do not regard lecturers to be worthy of professional status, but that teachers in schools are?

Are FE lecturers are not equally deserving of professional status? If not, then why are only the highly qualified teachers eligible for Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) allowed to teach in schools? I would say we most certainly are worthy of professional status.

FE teachers and lecturers – whichever name you prefer, or is that is part of the problem? Are ‘lecturers’ somehow not as valued as ‘teachers’? Labelling us one or the other does not change our professionalism, which gives us our ability to teach, yes, teach all the learners in our classrooms. We take on all comers and we are incredibly successful at making their aspirations and dreams come true. We achieve this because we are trained professionals, in both education and subject.

If the government persists with this foolish and dangerous notion, standards of achievement and progression in further education that we professionals have worked so tirelessly to improve will be decimated. Learners will leave unqualified (surely no connection to the recently introduced measure of ‘retention’ rather than ‘success’), numbers of those who are not in education, employment or training (Neet) will rise and the UK economy will suffer the greatest loss of emerging talent for generations.

FE is the engine of the British economy: removing the need for professional status will lead to poor educational standards, lack of future talent, a waste of young people’s potential and economic misery for many years to come. It will also be a betrayal of those who have worked so hard for their professional status and have shown their determination to pass that ethos on to the learners they teach.

Does the government expect future generations to be taught qualifications by unqualified deliverers? Does it expect standards to rise by removing the framework that safeguards those standards?

Don’t remove our professional status: you will be removing the opportunity to gain professional status for every learner in further education for the next 20 years.

A few days ago, @clyn40 kindly included me in a nomination with some of the loveliest people ( @MrsSarahSimons @Xris32 @sezl @FurtherEdagogy ) in #FE for the

#TwitteratiChallenge

 The instructions were slightly worrying  but I've reproduced them below and hopefully, they're not too difficult.

Here are the rules:
There are only 3 rules. Thankfully, not *those* rules
1. You cannot knowingly include someone you work with in real life.
2. You cannot list somebody that has already been named if you are already made aware of them being listed on #TwitteratiChallenge.
3. You will need to copy and paste the title of this blogpost and (the rules and what to do) information into your own blog post.

If you're going to play you need to:

1. Put up your own nominations within 7 days
2. Write your blog post, listing the people you choose and why, with the title #TwitteratiChallenge
3. Include a  photograph or video of yourself raising a glass (I cheated here - but being clumsy, couldn't manage a glass and a 'phone without getting in a mess - and ... he's just better at it)

So, here is my 'Cheers' 

Now the tough bit ... who to choose. ...

These are all people who have left their mark in my life and in my heart. Each of them have inspired and encouraged me. Follow them and they will do the same for you. They're not in any particular order, as they're all fabulous.

@hearnesque Writer/Director horror feature SCRAWL with Mark Forester Evans & Daisy Ridley. Wrestles bears in spare time. Builds robots at night. Lectures film stuff. Busy.
Pete is a great teacher, full of ideas, bravery and inspiration. Someone who battled endless issues to give his students the greatest possible real life experience by turning the BTEC specification into a movie #scrawlmovie http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2501366/ and https://www.facebook.com/scrawlmovie  which is going to be a fabulous and well deserved hit.

@bobharrisonset Bob is passionate about education and the potential of technology to transform learning. 40yrs as a Teacher,Lecturer,Principal,Governor. http://www.setuk.co.uk Tireless champion of #FELTAG A man who selflessly promotes the use of technology in learning and inspires those of us to tag along in his wake.

@BcoTMedia Scott. Specialist Practitioner of Social Media & EdTech/ Lecturer/ Director
Easily the best, most innovative teacher I've ever met and the most modest. He is an inspiration to many through his relaxed teaching style, brilliant ideas, use of tech and for just being a thoroughly good guy.


@app4England Lindsay McCurdy. CEO Apprenticeships 4 England, Ambassador at European Alliance for Apprenticeships http://www.apprenticeships4england.info A strong, beautiful and clever woman, who set up Apprenticeships 4 England. Brilliant, sharp, funny and endlessly lovely lady.

@dp40days A senior leader in Further Education. It might seem like my back's against the wall, but if you look closely, you'll see I'm on the front foot! Sharp, funny and fabulous company, David is knowledgeable, great company and has a wonderful sense of irony; he is a superb asset for #FE

I would very much like to have included @sezl but she had already been 'taken' as it were. Currently organising a huge concert to raise money for the victims of the Nepal earthquake. Support her if you can, please.

There are many, many more who deserve to be listed and I hope that they are justly rewarded elsewhere.