UFO Info Week-End

But Chris Mead senior officer at the British Trust for Ornithology insisted that the society provided a network for illegal collectors and said it

But Chris Mead, senior officer at the British Trust for Ornithology, insisted that the society provided a network for illegal collectors and said it had become the “pariah of the bird- watching world”.. Trafalgar House’s assault on Northern Electric has set the City abuzz with talk of rule-bending, and whether the whole sector is about to change hands. The financier George Soros’s stake in Northern has added to the juicy speculation, as has the b ehaviour of Trafalgar’s adviser, Swiss Bank Corporation, in buying 8.24 per cent of Yorkshire Electricity and lesser stakes in four other regional electricity companies (RECs). The move comes three months after Operation Avocet, Britain’s biggest police operation against collectors of wild birds’ eggs, in which 11,000 eggs – including those of golden eagles, ospreys and peregrines – were seized in raids on homes in over seven counties.

Criminal charges may be pressed against some illegal collectors or “eggers”.
A commission spokesman said that a complaint had been received about the society and was being considered. But he refused to give any details about the complaint or reveal when it was made.The Jourdain Society recently rejected allegations by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds that the registered charity – named after the Reverend FCR Jourdain, a Victorian clergyman and prominent ornithologist and oologist (egg expert) – was be i ng used as an information exchange by Britain’s 200 hard-core eggers. She said she was very pleased with the result.”The parents actually felt they were being listened to and it wasn’t just an exercise so that Ofsted could say they had talked to 16 parents. I feel very optimistic,” she said.A spokesman for Ofsted said inspectors were to be sent the interim guidance in advance of a year-long consultation on the future shape of inspections, due to be launched next month. It would help to lift the pressures both on them and on schools.”While we are doing that we are going to improve things like the parents’ summary, which everybody felt wasn’t always a fair or a true report and was still too full of jargon,” he said.”We are also looking to make significant changes to the framework for inspections, and not just for primary schools. There is a general wish to make the whole inspection process tighter, neater, lighter and better.”. THE Charity Commission is considering an investigation into the Jourdain Society, a group of birds’ eggs enthusiasts which conservationists claim is used as a network by illegal egg collectors, writes Mary Braid.

It asks inspectors to use “a warmer, easier style” and to “seek to capture thespirit of the school”.For example, it says that instead of saying that a school has the equivalent of 45.2 teachers and a pupil-teacher ratio of 15.5 to one, inspectors should say there are 50 teachers, eight of whom are part-time, and that there are 22 pupils in each class.Margaret Morrissey, spokeswoman for the National Confederation of Parent-Teacher Associations, set up last week’s meeting. They also said the summaries were too short and did not reflect the findings of the full reports. In addition, schools objected to the huge amount of paperwork which they had to produce before visits.Last week parents were shown a draft of a “parent-friendly” inspection report summary which will be sent to all inspectors to show them how to make their language more direct. Head teachers had similar complaints about the inspection handbook which they had to use. Some parents had feared that if they made negative comments the schools might find out.The reforms are to be announced next month after a period of turmoil for the newly privatised inspection system. One third of the primary school inspections planned for autumn 1994 and spring 1995 had to be cancelled because not enough inspectors were available to carry them out.In addition to practical difficulties, both schools and parents have complained that the system is unworkable.

Designed to cover every school within four years, it was accepted by most secondary schools when launched in 1993, but primaries complained that it was unwieldy when they came on stream a year later.Parents complained that the language used by inspectors was incomprehensible, even in summaries of reports which are meant for lay people. Other topics covered included the possibility that parents’ questionnaires sent out by inspectors should bear a note saying that they could be filledin anonymously. The moves are among changes aimed at improving the school inspection process and slimming it down. In future, reports on primary schools will concentrate more heavily on the “three Rs” and will not always deal with subjects such as history and geography.
A group of parents met the chief inspector of schools, Chris Woodhead, last week to discuss the changes. Officials at Ofsted, the privatised inspection body, plan to produce new, parent-friendly reports and are considering demands for a parents’ m eeting at the end of every visit. PARENTS are to be given a greater role in school inspections as part of a major shake-up of the system. The fire wrecked the castle’s St George’s Hall and the Chester Tower.Terry Glossop, chief fire officer of Gwent and chairman of the CACFOA fire safety committee, said: “We must get people to be more vigilant and alert to the dangers in renovation of old buildings.”.