A senior pharmaceutical executive has been forced to resign his position as an advisor to the schools inspectorate, Ofsted.

GlaxoSmithKline executive resigns as Ofsted adviser
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Paul Blackburn, the vice-president and financial controller at GlaxoSmithKline, was appointed to Ofsted two weeks before the company won a contract to vaccinate 12 and 13-year-old schoolgirls against the sexually transmitted virus linked to cervical cancer.

Yesterday GSK said "unfounded allegations" were made to Ofsted and Mr Blackburn had been asked to resign by the schools watchdog.

It had been hoped that Mr Blackburn would bring private sector expertise to the public sector. His contribution had been praised by Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary."

Schools Secretary Ed Balls is at the centre of a controversy over the appointment of a top executive with the drugs company GSK to the board of Ofsted

The following paragraph is copied from http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/Newsletter/archive/newsletter_2008_07_jul_09.html

A scandal is mushrooming because the Schools Secretary has appointed a Glaxo exec to the board of the government's official education watchdog agency, known as Ofsted. And the move occurred less than a month before the government awarded a reported $200 million contract to Glaxo for its HPV vaccine for school-age girls 12 years and older, which some parents fear will give a green light to teenage sex, The Daily Mail reports. The appointment also comes at a time when a growing number of families are filing lawsuits against Glaxo over its Paxil antidepressent, claiming the drug caused suicide or attempted suicides.
Read article at pharmalot.com

Smells fishy to me...

"Orwellian" Ofsted survey on pupils

Row over 'intrusive' Ofsted survey of pupils - Telegraph

Extract:

"Pupils as young as 10 are being asked if they smoke and whether their mothers are in paid work as part of a Government-backed survey branded "Orwellian" by parents' groups.

About 120,000 pupils have already completed the survey by Ofsted, the education watchdog, which is compiling a database on children's lifestyle, health and happiness.

Children, who do not need to ask parents' permission before taking part, are asked: "Does the mum or step mum that you live with have a paid job?"

They are also asked to rate how "safe or unsafe" they feel at school and home, how many times they have drunk alcohol in the last month, the number of cigarettes smoked, and whether they receive free school meals.

Although pupils do not have to give their name, they are asked to provide postcodes, sparking fears the information could be used by police or social services.

Some schools are refusing to take part amid fears that it is too intrusive. Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said the survey smacked of "Big Brother".

Margaret Morrissey, a spokesman for the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, also attacked the "Orwellian" scheme. "It is absolutely inappropriate to be asking these kind of questions and it is totally out of order to ask for their postcode," she said."


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Ofsted inspections are causing so much pressure on teachers that some of them kill themselves.

Inspection pressure 'drives teachers to suicide' - Telegraph

Extracts:

"Teachers are being driven to suicide because of pressure from school inspectors, it was claimed yesterday.

Others are becoming hooked on drink and drugs or developing eating disorders after being swamped by work, according to the National Union of Teachers.

At the union's annual conference in Harrogate, teachers told how they had been reduced to tears in the classroom and warned that colleagues had taken their lives after working up to 90 hours a week.

One head teacher committed suicide just two months after quitting because of a critical inspection by Ofsted, the education watchdog.

Another teacher disappeared on the morning she was due to face Government inspectors and was found dead more than 10 months later in parkland.

A snapshot survey of primary and secondary school teachers in Nottingham, which was presented to the conference, revealed that a third resort to drugs, drink, smoking or binge eating to help them cope. One in 15 takes prescribed medication to get through the day, said the survey of 140 teachers."

"The NUT said it had written to Beverley Hughes, the children's minister, requesting a meeting to discuss the problem of stress, but had been refused."

Teaching is a very stressful job and most teachers get little or no help with their stress problems. I suspect it is the 'prescribed medication' that is precipitating any eating disorders that arise. - It's a very poor show that Beverley Hughes has refused to discuss the problem of the stress that teachers experience.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)