Ditto

Autocorrect would be interesting. I wonder how well Grammarly would do with these and then compare with Word.

All good with me! Country born and bred is me, so I grew up with delights and gruesomeness of nature. I have a lifelong fascination with science and nature. I remember as a (oldish) child watching open heart surgery - it was so interesting I completely forgot the fact it could be seen as gruesome too. I do recall, it's the first surgical cut that's the hurdle though, but after that, the interest takes over.

I have to be honest, I had one name in mind when I posted this

The last two posts seemed to be covered in the the BBC article published a few hours ago https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-57075618. Similar high local rates in Long Eaton - near Derby/Nottingham.

Uncanny timing - test yourselves (yourself's?) here.

I know a few of you are keen on good grammar and punctuation, so here is 5 minutes of fun I did quite well on this grammar and punctuation 5 minutes of fun. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/12vbByzjT1hcmFgh79f2MHw/are-you-grammatically-gormless-or-a-punctuation-perfectionist I did quite well - how did you get on?

Cases have crept up a little in 6 out of the last 7 days. The 7 day average per 100,000 has crept up a little since a low om May 3rd. With restrictions easing next week, I think continued vigilance is advisable.

Well, he's right though. I earlier suggested we might need the red triangle, but things have stepped up another level!

I thought you had already with the last joke - that certainly drone'd on!

Yes, the numbers will become more challenging. I suspect supply will still be the limiting factor. I think schools could roll out at scale as they have done in the past, but I haven't read anything that projects future supply.

Having all adults vaccinated in 3 months would be good news, ask almost any country around the world if they would swap position with us. Vaccinating under 18's is a harder call than older adults ask the risk profiles are very different. I think AZ is already ruled out for most children due to the clot risk, which if it occurs has a high mortality rate. For the under 12's, Pfizer looks safer, but I know parents will need reassurance as no vaccine is 100% safe. I wonder if vaccinating children will be more to reduce spread than protecting against Covid, which is overall is much less severe for the vast majority of children.

Great to have you here as a sponsor. I met you at BETT and was impressed, as much by the cultural stance of the organisation as the product. I do have a questions about a controversial dispute that kicked off with a 70+ MAT and a competitor last year. I realise that you may not be able to say anything, but has there been any progress with this or is it ongoing?

I think it has an impact but not 100% success. My local primary has had windows and doors open throughout in spite of the heating bill, but I would agree more focus on air circulation solutions would help, both in schools and other venues - including hospitals! I was in one a while ago and every windows I came across was shut which I found deeply frustrating.

It's possible but I'm not wholly convinced, but without more info, I think are stuck with speculation. What I would observe through the schools I'm involved with, is that they have very strong covid-safe instructions and they follow them strictly. From seeing local business operate, general public gatherings locally, adherence to guidelines is much more variable. The very fact the cases were picked up at school shows that testing regime is working to a degree and people being asked to isolate to prevent further spread.

The article states "Latest figures show Erewash, where the school is located, has the third highest infection rate in England at 65 per 100,000, a near five-fold increase on the previous week". So there's a likelihood that some of the spread to school children happened locally outside school. Any steps taken would need to address the local circumstances as much as any at the school. It would be interesting to know the numbers for staff testing positive and their demographic spread, as well as a analysis comparing those who have had a vaccine and those that have not.

The rate of decline has slowed, but by my reading it is still dropping - I attach a graph for this year. There is some way to go to reach the lowest incident rate of last summer, but we have more transmittable variants and more testing now. The rate dropped most last year between May and July, so we'll have to wait and see what occurs this time. I believe it has been stated rates may well rise, but severe cases, hospitalisations and death won't follow the same trend as before. The number of people who have been vaccinated is an all time high every day.

Into the Wild on Amazon Prime. This is the film of the book where a young graduate escapes the cities to head for Alaska. You may remember the bus he stayed in getting removed as tourists were dying trying to visit. http:// https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53106441 An excellent truth-based film, but ultimately quite sad.

Just needs re-pointing!

Gov. policy?! Ooops - maybe construed political - nope, just humour ;-)

You might find this useful/informative https://blog.theserverlessschool.net/

Looks like some of them are being converted to gliders - it's gonna need one 'ell of a towing plane!!! Seriously though, are the engines being reused or just generally dismantled?

I guess the first thing to say is congratulation on moving to a modern MIS. Doing so in an LA is often harder than within an academy. I guess one lesson for others is when moving MIS, consider all aspects of the project - but hindsight is a wonderful thing of course . Several suggestions in the thread already, but Arbor are approachable and I'd ask them how other of their schools manage in this scenario - a reference school would be nice to have.

The Hunger Games on Sky. Elder son had read two books. Younger son has read all 3. Mrs. Ditto was disturbed by the concept of the book but read the with younger son. She said it is extremely well written and got absorbed by the book in spite of the concept. I was reluctant to watch the film for much the same reason. It's weird, but I got drawn in too and it's an excellent film. There's something more to this story in terms of social or political commentary. I haven't processed exactly what yet, but maybe book/film 2 & 3 will crystalise that for me. There's something about it that reminds my of the school texts that I had to read, Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies. To quote a good friend, it exposes the "thin veneer of society". In some ways, I wonder if it will become a literary classic and used as an educational text, but that may take some time, maybe never. Not sure if I should now read the books?

What randomly selected fact leads to this post? Fossil fuel usage? Or something related to coronavirus? 9 days ago you posted: I replied in relation to that post with a much broader view of the vaccine roll-out, one that paints a fair picture. I posted a graph to help visualise the ups and downs of the vaccine roll out. Below is an update of that graphic - 3 times over. All three use the same data. The first shows a trend projection based on 4th order polynomial which shows we heading towards a negative vaccine rate. The second uses 5th order polynomial and shows we will be vaccine 4 million per day soon. Both those are using inappropriate statistical techniques for this data set, but are valid mathematically. My point is: data needs to be used intelligently, not pulling single data points with sweeping conclusions - that's little better than clickbait. To conclude, I have included a third graph which has a trend line over a rolling 14 day period. It shows vaccine rates varying 300,000 and 600,000. It shows a decline during early April but an steady since then. Moderna availability may lead to a further increase.

We had a local pub that had those. A meal with Mrs Ditto I'd be Ok, but not otherwise.