#I have GCSEs in less than 2 years now too.

[kitchenscissorbangs]

Magnetic - chapter one

Reincarnated as a roadman in another world?!

"This time, I want you, you, you, you, like it's magnetic"

On a seemingly normal morning, you wake to find your JoJo merch gone and run into a familiar group of weirdos. So now you have to worry about getting them home and not failing your GCSEs. Presented as a series of vignettes detailing your bizarre adventures with your new and old friends.

ao3 (prev) (masterlist) (next)

wc : 1,759

a/n: they aren’t actually roadmen but you get it

Waking up at 6:50 to catch the 7:30 bus is never a good idea. Especially not if you stayed up so late it feels like someone is hitting your head with a hammer. But who really cares? It had been Y/N’s routine since year 8 and it was too late to change. She did consistently arrive 30 minutes early to school so maybe whatever she did worked. School… Some part of her wondered how St Daniella’s school (or STDs as the students referred to it) kept its status as a top 50 private school. Many of the classrooms in the older buildings were being held together with duct tape and the school had gone through six heads in less than a decade. It really was a sinking ship.

With a long sigh, the girl got out of bed. You had already missed the first week of school after spending all summer with her grandparents abroad and you couldn’t miss anymore . Though she mostly hung out alone in the room she shared with her brother… Sure she had friends but she had found out that her phone was the best company.

After going about the rest of her morning as usual and skipping the skincare routine she promised herself she’d do everyday to look like her bias, she threw on your uniform. Her trousers were fraying and she desperately needed a skirt after baking in last year's heat. She shrugged and decided she would worry about that in summer. While the girl was changing, she noticed something odd. The copious amounts of JoJo merch she dedicated her life to collecting had seemingly disappeared overnight. Even stranger, it had all been replaced with a mix of csm and jjk merch. At first, Y/N suspected her mother had finally lost it and threw out all her merch, but then why would it be replaced? The fact bugged her. She must be dreaming.

The fact gnawed at her thoughts as she made her way to the station, with the sound of kpop blaring in her ears. It wasn't until a voice interrupted her thoughts that she snapped back to reality.

“‘Scuse me lady but ummm, d’ya where we’re meant to be going” spoke a boy with strawberry blond hair which ,by the looks of it, he spent a lot longer styling then the now very ticked off teenage girl. He had a thick southern accent and was wearing the same ugly green uniform as the girl.

The girl pulled down her headphones. “To school..” Y/N replied with boredom lacing her voice. Like most people, she was not interested in entertaining some clueless American at 7:25 am.

“Yeah but where is tha-” he was cut off by another boy pushing him aside. Boy 2 was taller than boy 1 by about an inch. He also had blond hair but a golden shade. Boy 2 was also wearing the same school uniform.

“I’ll take care of this, you idiot . Miss it’s our first day of school and noticed that we’re the same uniform as you so we thought that you could help us?” Boy 2 had a smooth accent not too dissimilar to Y/N’s.

“Use google maps or something I dunno,” Y/N replied growing even more agitated. Both boys shared a confused look. As they stared at Y/N in joint perplexity, she noticed that both boys shared an eye colour reminiscent of the lanky man with white hair who stood on her windowsill instead of her precious Giorno figure.

“Santa Maria, both of you are helpless. That’s not how you talk to pretty girl.” You guessed it, another even taller blond boy said to the two boys. He turned the teenager, who was currently debating how an anime character look alike could find her pretty. “Hey bella, wanna see something cool?”

“Go ahead. As long as it's not your penis though,” Y/N said. Boy 3 gave her an amused look and then dug around in the deep pockets of his Superdry coat for something. ‘So he’s gonna show me a dumb vape trick’ Y/N mused to herself. Nothing could have prepared her for what boy 3 did next.

He had pulled out a green steel ball not unlike the weapon of a certain Italian jockey. Boy 3 spun on his finger then threw it at the hedge near the bus stop. The ball trimmed off most of the branches before returning to him. The other six people at the stop didn’t even seem to notice. Y/N however seemed to have her whole reality flipped on it's head.

Y/N gave him a slow clap with a false sense of composure. She was either dreaming or had finally lost it. Her post-pandemic JoJo phase had driven her crazy. She was hallucinating anime characters or seeing them in her dreams. It was hard to decide which one was worse.

“That’s great Gyro Zeppeli. Now can I wait for my bus in peace?” Y/N responded sarcastically. The three boys’ jaws fell slack.

“How’d’ya know his name lady? Who the fuck are ya? You’re not working with Valentine are ya?” boy 1 lunged forward and grabbed the girl’s shoulders with enough intensity to confirm whatever was going was real and leave a nasty mark. He seemed the most distressed out of the group. Recalling the manga she had spent many a night reading and re-reading, the group did look strangely familiar.

“Hold on a second. You’re Johnny Joestar,” Y/N turned to boy 2. “And that’s Diego Brando. What the fuck is going on?” They both nodded as the girl said their names.

“We don’t know either. We were chatting at one of the checkpoints and then there was a loud bang. Next thing I know I’m in some futuristic city and I’m 5 years younger and Joestar can walk again and I’m wearing a hideous green uniform” Diego concluded with a frustrated scoff. He had turned his gaze away from the girl and now started down at his uniform with a look of disdain. Y/N couldn’t help but relate.

“At least the blazer’s not mandatory,” the h/c girl sighed.

Gyro gasped. “Wait a moment. HP was there too. Where is he?”

The trio of disorientated jockeys started murmuring among themselves while occasionally glancing back at the teenage girl. She was just happy that they left her alone. She glanced up at the bus times. Still another 4 minutes. ‘How the fuck did this happen?’ the girl thought to herself. Y/N's mind immediately jumped to the cast of SBR. Maybe it was the surreal feeling from seeing the Gyro use the spin with such precision or the way Johnny introduced himself, but it felt like she was living out a scene from her post-pandemic JoJo phase. She half expected Valentine to crawl out a bush or find a corpse part in her bag.

“That fat slag! I’m gonna kill the bitch the second I see her!” Y/N jumped. The yelling of a fellow teenage girl yanked her out her thoughts. Those words sound like they were being screamed down her ears. Y/N whipped her head around. No-one new had come by. Though there was another teenager across the road yelling into her phone… Y/N couldn’t have heard that… She shook her head.

A shiver ran down the girls back as though something had touched her. There had to be something there. "I didn't get the job. I don't know if I can keep going like this." Another voice spoke. This time a man. Something had to be going on.

“Are you OK, miss?” Johnny asked the girl with a flash of concern in his eyes. As he rest a gentle hand on Y/N's shoulder, she realised that e wasn’t that much taller than her.

“Y/N. That’s my name. Y/N L/N”

“Pleased ta meetcha.” He stuck his hand out. “Name’s Johnny Joestar. But ya already knew that…” He added with an awkward chuckle. For some reason, Y/N found this kind of… cute.

“Oh umm… The bus is nearly here. D’ya have a zip card?”

“A what?”

“One of these.” The three boys looked at Y/N while she dug around for her wallet. She then gestured to the green photo card. The boys did the same before wordlessly getting on the bus with the girl and copying whatever she did.

The group sat in the four seats in the back facing each other.

She found herself caught in the middle of an unexpected and bizarre situation, surrounded by the boys who were bickering and bantering. While they seemed to occupy themselves in their own company, Y/N found time to text Louis some of the situation.

Pookie

You: Pookie guess what?

Pookie: what..?

You: I’m surrounded by teenage boys on the bus

Pookie: are they gorgjoes

You: *gorgeous And yes, they don’t smell like toes—

Pookie: That’s what matters most, right?

Pookie: I love toes

read 07:39

“Flattered you think that Y/N but what is that? And who’s that?” Diego pointed to your phone and the photocard.

“It’s a phone. You use it to call and send text messages. The guy is Yeonjun. He’s a singer ”

“Cara, what’s that around your neck?”

“These are headphones. You can listen to stuff on them” Y/N unpaused the song and gave the headphones to Gyro.

“What kind of witchcraft is this?”

“Bluetooth”

“Gyro, give me a turn!”

“Just wait Johnny, Jesus.”

“It’s not that deep, just give it to him."

“Fine. But only ‘cause a pretty girl asked me to.”

“Idiots.”

“So you don’t want a turn Dio?”

“Not what I said Joestar.”

The boys quickly began squabbling among themselves while the girl laughed. Y/N snapped a photo of the boys for Louis.

Pookie

You: >delivered

Omg

sent 7:43am

“Can I have my headphones back?”

“Oh yeah, of course.” Diego took them off and handed them back to the girl. "So about before. How'd you know our names?"

Y/N sighed. She hoping this conversation wouldn't happen. The thought of everything being fake would probably give them an existential crisis so it was best to save this for later. "Lucky guess."

He gave the girl a questioning look. Fortunately for her, the boys had found their own phones and somehow knew the passwords. She didn't really question it as she put back on her headphones and let herself be drowned in the music.

a/n : i think i made the song reference for the readers stand too obvious. the fic was originally meant to be called who really cares but that didn’t match the vibe and the photocard was meant to be felix but his toes deterred me from that idea

taglist: @lv11sawrr open if you’re interested

[onlyplatonicirl]

henlo it is i the headcANON, here to go ramble about everyone's favourite little guy, casey. its insane to me just how much you've endeared me and many other tcoti fans to this silly fella

i can see casey going to a religious school (the only difference from a non religious school is you learn re but literally no one cares lol), most parents will try and send their kids there cause they are known for being better schools (they get more funding for extra lessons), and casey couldnt give less of a shit about it

i also think he wouldve went to an all boys school, he just sorts acts like he did lol

whilst in school my man would try and break every single dress code policy known to man, half of the time hed just show up in his pe clothes, the other time hed show up with no tie, no jacket, a coat and whatever else he could fet his hands on that he wasnt supposed to have (english schools have really strict dress codes, idk why its dumb)

he knows a small amount of spanish, in most british schools you are forced to do mfl (modern foreign languages) and its usually either french or spanish (you rarely have a choice to pick which you want to do), some will let you pick up german and even mandarin but thats usually at gcse level or as an extracurricular activity (which most kids are also forced to do). he isnt fluent in spanish, not by a long shot, but he definitely knows how to have a conversation, albeit very scripted and short. however, one thing he does understand is how to swear in spanish, and what it sounds like. i imagine him and his friends just looking it up on the laptops during class time, definitely to annoy their teacher.

so i have this image in my head that gray doesnt like swearing all that much (maybe fresh got to him lol), so he tends to swear in spanish or french because the british boy wont understand - alas he does

casey could not be arsed with most lessons because he didnt really care about getting a good education since he couldnt see all that bright of a future for himself, if one at all, but he was actually quite good at maths and history, even when he tried not to be

he has been shown on more than one occasion, undernovella, and whilst he was put off it due to it 1. being in spanish, and 2. the cast being played 99% by monsters, he actually really ended up enjoying it by the end

hes also been getting into anime and manga ("dude its like a comic book but even more brutal"), mostly shonen like one punch man and dragon ball, but he also really enjoyed sailor moon and doesnt want to admit to it, he liked the romance and friendship aspect of it, also pretty girls

he has always been into comic books, his favourite super heroes are deadpool and spiderman

before he met gray (properly), he mostly played shooter games (ones that were free or cheap), fortnite, valorant, and a pirated copy of fifa, because thats what guys play. if his past self saw his year 4 stardew valley save file, hed spontaneously combust

i think he also plays splatoon now, he mains the dualies because theyre cool, hed definitely be an inkling as well but thats an au for another day

zelda too

despite everything thats happened, he really did grow to love his last foster mum, she was a single lady and she treated him like her own son. hes had bad experiences with the foster care system in the past (breaking news: fork found in kitchen), parents only taking him in for the money, some wanting to complete their family and forcing him to live by their ideals, all that bad stuff, which is why he often ran away from them. he had run away from his last foster mum, two times before, but it was very early into their relationship before they got to understand each other better.

his last foster mum asked him what his hobbies were his first night at her house, he didnt know, so she suggested he pick up an instrument - he decided the guitar, because it looked cool. he almost cried when she offered to buy him lessons, he didnt take her up on the offer, determined to learn it by himself, and he did

he has a really nice singing voice he'll never let anyone see - hes a lyric baritone

also whilst in canon hes a brummie, i like to imagine he was born a bit further north (hes a mackem to me), and moved to birmingham to be with his most recent and last foster parent, and that he lived there for so long thats hes picked up the accent

he felt really bad leaving her but managed to convincr himself that she would be better off without someone like him in her life

casey is a very traumatised child, he has a lot of triggers and boundaries he doesnt fully understand himself, plus a boat load of unhealthy coping mechanisms (mainly smoking and socially isolating himself)

he tries to keep his bad habits a secret from gray, because he doesnt know how he would feel about it - he knows, he doesnt like it but he isnt exaclty the greatest at having healthy coping mechanisms himself, at the very least he tries to get him to swap one for another, instead of smoking play stardew valley with me for 37 hours straight :) ?

he often struggles with the idea that hes a burden, so he doesnt let people spend money on him, or give him gifts

he also struggles to express his emotions (hes british unfortunately), and has a hard time saying 'i love you' to anyone, the only person he never strugfled saying that to was his mum

bit of a trigger warning, im going to be talking about casey's injuries and all that jazz, so if you dont wanna read, head to the next bullet point! casey shouldnt be alive, the injuries he suffered were severe, the paramedics were convicned he was a lost cause (still they have to do everything they can), so it was a shock to all when he pulled through. this was, however, not without a bit of a battle, and it left permanent effects on his health. casey's lungs are horribly scarred (smoke inhalation will do that to you), and it doesnt help that he smoked before and after. his nerves on the left side of his body where the support beam collapsed on him, are quite literally fried. where it hit directly, he cannot feel anything there, the areas that were dames by the fire however are unbelievably sensitive and painful to the touch. even after the scar healed it stills remains sensitive, so he bandages up those areas. the beam also broke and bruised a lot of his bones, mostly his ribs and the bones in his arms. his left ear is also burnt, and a portion of it, mostly the tips of it, are straight up missing. after recovering from the initial injury, he had a skin graft taken from his right thigh to supplement the damage done to the left side of his face. for a while after he had to take a lot of pain meds, and undergo a ton of therapy both mental and physical - even still hes not fully healed

casey loves animals, particularly dogs. his last foster mother had a german shepherd, and he used to let it sleep on his bed. it made him feel safe and loved. dogs and cats also just like to come up to him on the street, bros a disney princess for real

beefed with paperjam for a while, both had a lack of trust in each other, but they got to be on equal ground after a while, that didnt last long, not since after chapter 31..

hes fighting demons (bisexuality)

ever since he met gray and by extension his wack ass family, hes grown more and more accustomed to monster culture, particularly their disregard for gender norms and compulsive heterosexuality, and hes been experimenting with his gender expression, he never thought hed actually enjoy dressing in pink or taking care of his hair. he tried painting his nails, but did not have the patience to let them dry, he still sometimes wears it, albeit chipped and blotchy, but he thinks it suits him

he has always been fine with being labelled a man, but sometimes he doesnt feel as though it fits him, not entirely, hes not sure what his gender is because sometimes male really does fit him, but other times he just wants to throw the whole concept of gender away, hes stuck with unlabelled for a while and feels as though it somewhat fits him

he once buzzed his hair cause all the guys in his school did for whatever reason, he cried for several hours afterwards and got nicknamed sampson for a week, biggest mistake of his life - bro experienced dysphoria for the first time in his life

celebrates gyftmas because its way cooler than christmas (I NEED A GRACEY GYFTMAS ONESHOT ASAP), he celebrates the majority of monster holidays since everyone (1 to 2 people at max lmao) in the house he currently lives in does too. is confused as to what monster halloween is supposed to be

likes going out with gray (which is once in a blue moon), his favourite spot is waterfall, but he also really likes snowden and hotland

- headcANON

Holy shit HEADCANON I AM EATING SO WELL

Also I hope you don’t mind me tagging @ottererpop because they’re a Casey enthusiast as well and they must see all of this solid gold.

I Must respond to some of these AAA

- I talked with multiple people about how Casey is ABSOLUTELY breaking every dress code he possibly can. Like he would come to school in the bare minimum to not get expelled but his “uniform” would just be wrinkled to hell and his tie would just hang around his neck completely untied

- Casey is genuinely intelligent and if he actually tried in school he would do really well. However he’s a massive shithead and doesn’t care because of how depressed he is

- I do have a very specific speech pattern and tone of voice for him in my head but I’m not sure exactly how to write it. Also about him being from Birmingham - he’s not really from the main city itself but more generally around that area, so he very well could lived farther north and end up closer to the main city has he went to live with foster parents. Im purposefully avoiding getting too detailed with exact places and cities because then it just becomes hyper-specific.

- he absolutely would love undernovella - he love sitcoms so he would adore those over-dramatic plot twists

- He and his current foster mom (before he left ofc) have a tolerable relationship. She was often gone from the house and left him to his own devices, so he would mostly just skip school and play games on his computer all day, which did annoy her significantly.

- his smoking is partially a coping mechanism, partially a peer pressure “cool guy” thing that he picked up, and partially something that could very subtlety equate to self-harm. I could get into a whole thing about his smoking habits. He doesn’t smoke that often, but it is definitely something he tries to hide from Gray. Or at least not make it obvious. Like I said recently PJ has caught him smoking cigs over the kitchen sink while Gray’s been asleep.

- you are correct in your assumption that he doesn’t feel anything on the part of his torso that was severely burnt.

- I’m sure he has shaved all his hair off at some point. In the past he for-sure had one of those haircuts that’s short and buzzed all on the sides but long on the top, or at least buzzed in the back.

- gray’s family and the entire omega timeline being extremely unlabeled when it comes to gender and sexuality, like it’s not a big deal in the slightest, is definitely a massive change for Casey and he struggles to understand it. He’s grown up in an environment where he’s constantly felt like he has to prove how tough and unfeeling he is in order to get ahead. That’s why he’s so embarrassed of his severe sweet tooth, because he’s scared it comes across as “girly”. He’s by no means sexist but he definitely is over-anxious about not being perceived as “weak”.

- I’m sure he would absolutely adore waterfall :)

[theladyofbloodshed]

You’re a teacher in UK (I’m assuming based on a few posts from before). Rishi Sunak (the new prime minister) is making plans to make maths compulsary for kids upto 18 years old.

All over social media, british people have different opinions about it. Most are however against it. The most common reason is that they believe it kills creativity, and that the cirriculum could use some other useful subjects.

What is you opinion on the matter as a teacher?

(Sorry if you only take fandom related questions. You can totally ignore it if you don’t like non fandom related questions)

I think it is ridiculous. Long post so I'll put under a read more

If everybody studied maths to 18, it wouldn't make anybody more employable because all would have that qualification. The majority of jobs do not require you to use maths. So often my kids will ask me why they have to learn something and the honest answer is that the government told me I have to teach it.

The shift between GCSE to A Levels was hard. That was ten years ago for me, but it was hard. It's a big jump in terms of depth of learning. In order to study maths to 18, either students have to drop a subject they had wanted to take to fit it in (in the UK, you generally take 4 subjects for AS Level then drop one for the final year. I took biology, chemistry, psychology and philosophy & ethics then dropped the latter) or will have an extra subject wedged on top which gives them less time to focus on each class - or they won't actually care about taking maths so won't put effort into it.

I work in a primary school and how it works here is you teach the same 30 children every subject for a year. My role is slightly different as I am a cover teacher and cover all across the school so when a teacher has the afternoon to plan, I'll teach their class which means I can teach from 4-11 years old in the same week. We already have children who declare they hate maths and its hard. We have parents who when we ask them to support their children's learning will say that they were bad at maths so it doesn't matter if their children give up on it. I had a child last year who at 11 years old was greater depth for writing and reading (the highest level you can be) but wasn't secure in her number bonds to ten so massively struggled with all areas of maths. Number bonds to 10 should be secured at age 5. Our curriculum is so big that sometimes we run out of time to teach everything or children have absences and they have so many gaps. She was missed every year as somebody who should have been higher and I spent so much time trying to catch her up by filling in all of her gaps on number bonds and times table knowledge which filter into every strand of maths. We had 2 years of covid so maybe if that hadn't happened, the gaps would be apparent sooner, but she's not the only child like that.

Maths isn't valued here. Partly that comes down to the way it is taught. It's not a criticism of teachers, but the syllabus is so massive that you have to hit everything at pace and for those who can't keep up, they end up with massive gaps in their learning. If they've struggled with fractions for the 3 weeks they've studied it, too bad we're onto area and perimeter now, you'll do fractions next year!

In the mornings, I tutor a group of children who have fallen behind and I have to plug any gaps and try to catch them up to age related expectations. This past week, I taught them bus stop method for division because that was what I was told to teach by their regular teacher. I then found out what we aren't supposed to teach that method until next year.

But they had understood it, because they know how to exchange from subtraction because we ensured they really were secure and understood what exchanging means rather than "you add a 1 to the next number".

So then we had to go back a step because the government said they need to learn how to partition it into a whole part model... which is actually harder because they didn't know how many tens or ones they should be splitting it to. It's just so ridiculous. They completely understood the one on the left and will be taught that next year and will use that method forever. But the one on the right has confused them - and they won't need to do that ever again after this year - but we have to teach them like that because that's what the government says?

I didn't really enjoy maths. I never gelled with my teacher and I had the same one for 4 years and I knew I wasn't taking it beyond a compulsory level. I got a B at GCSE which was bad in my school so I had to go to a remedial math class at the start of year 12 because there was maths in biology/chemistry which I had chosen. But in the first lesson my teacher was like "why are you here?" because the small branch of maths that I needed for my science subjects was secure. I've not needed trigonometry or the quadratic equation ever in my life.

I've needed maths to teach maths but actually my understanding of fractions and place value has only become secure since I've had to teach it.

That time would be better spend in teaching young adults how to apply for jobs, for understanding taxes and insurance, for developing contacts in careers etc. The average grade for maths at GCSE level is around a low B/high C. At my school, if you received a B in a subject that you wanted to take for A Level, you would be warned that it would be difficult. If you had a C, they'd advise you against taking that subject because it would be too hard.

It would be better for the government to look at the national curriculum and see how many hoops educators have to jump through and how many boxes we have to tick to please them first. It's so stupid!!!

[famderfries]

love when adults with "Minors DNI" follow me. like homie did you not check?

[hella1975]

I go to to college which isn't in England but it follows the British education system (cuz it's both half British AND it's in collaboration with a huge British university) and I went for the interview they told me that I won't have exams ( maybe I'll have like 2 exams MAXIMUM when I'm a third year) because they follow the British education system, so I'm very confused rn lol

um yeah im also confused bc i fucking WISH we didn't have exams?lmao? idk what they're chatting but we very much have exams. to be brief, british education is split into 4 sections (primary, secondary, further and higher) and it's the usual 'you have to stay in education until you're 16 and then you can either go onto further education or do an apprenticeship until you're 18' and higher education - university - is totally optional.

primary schools we have SATs exams in the final year which just determine where you're at when you start secondary they're not actually that deep seeing as ur like 10 at the time lmao, but then at the end of secondary school - when you're 15/16 - you have GCSEs and they are fucking AWFUL. every single subject you study typically has a minimum of 2/3 exams, meaning for two months you can have up to 30 exams, the results of which not only determine if you get into college/onto certain a-levels, but are also whipped out for university and interviews for the rest of your life. it's really fucked up bc reminder you are SIXTEEN when you do these exams and they haunt you from there. also, the sheer amount of information you have to study is ridiculous. i said in that other post but for gcses i was doing six hours of revision every single day for three months and i still got some shitty grades. ive also seen in america they can give you notes/headlines of what topics come up on the exam? we dont get that. there's a whole side of youtube dedicated each year to trying to predict the exam questions bc no one ever knows what's going to come up on the exams. so yeah. i have never been more miserable and it's quite honestly the worst my mental health has been in years. im not an anxious person i actually think im TOO laid back but i genuinely think the anxiety i felt in that time has crippled me when it comes to exams bc i just totally shut down now whenever i know i have an exam coming up even if i KNOW it's not serious.

a-levels are similar but there's a lot less exams. you only do three a-levels or four if you're insane and a couple exams for each, but while there's less exams, the content is a lot harder and you only have 2 years at college to get into the swing of further education, so it's again pretty cruel especially if you've never studied the subject before (so i did economics and law for two of my a-levels and id never studied EITHER before and in two years i had to figure out how to exam in them more thoroughly than i would during gcses which you do for five years. fun fun fun). i got 'lucky' (it's too complicated to get into but there were swings and roundabouts to put simply) in that covid cancelled all my PROPER exams, but also meant i wound up doing 30+ exams to find a 'grade average' instead of just sitting normal exams, and it was basically all a shambles.

so now im 19 at uni and haven't sat a proper exam since i was 16, a time i remember as being extremely anxious and honest to god miserable because the workload was just so fucking ridiculous. so yeah. shits and giggles

[wizkiddx]

Nothings changed at all

ooh my first lil one  shot on here?!?! not really sure how I feel abt this one but hey ho we move.

summary: 2 years have passed with 2 people living completely separate lives. That’s until Paddy the matchmaker gets involved by not liking exams.

“Y/n?…. Y/n?” Brought out of her ferocious typing, Y/n dragged her attention away from the screen infant of her and looked around the coffee shop to identify the owner of the voice. Sure enough, standing opposite her was an adult and teen who both smiled excitedly at her.

“Nikki! Pads!” Y/n exclaimed while she jumped out of her seat to hug Nikki first, then Paddy. “Wow it’s been ages! You want to join me?”

“Yeh that’d be great!” Nikki smiled already pulling out the free chair opposite, while Paddy stole a chair from a nearby vacant table and pulled it up next to Y/n.

“God you look so grown up since I last saw you!” Nikki grinned, but her eyes held a little surprise making Y/n giggle. It had been at least 2 years since she’d seen the Hollands, and life had changed tremendously for her.

“Yeh well 24 and a qualified doctor now so it’s all happened. But speaking of… what the hell have you done with my fake baby brother Paddy?”

The three spent 40 minutes just catching up with each other, it felt like some weird family reunion. Nikki knew she would be told off by her other sons for ‘consorting with the enemy’ but Nikki really did like and miss her. It was more than clear Paddy did too. Y/n had practically been a part of the Holland family for three years while her and Tom were together, it was fair to say they had all got used to having her around. So when Nikki saw this elegant, grown young woman sat in the coffee shop she couldn’t help but say hi. 

They chatted about everything… well almost everything. There was a large gaping hole in the conversation though, where casual references to Tom would usually lie - but neither felt comfortable broaching that subject with the other. Not yet anyway. Y/n could not believe that paddy was in year 11 and taking his GCSEs, in her head he was still the hyperactive young boy who loved to play spies.

“We only came out today to give this one a break from his revision did we?” Nikki spoke kindly towards her youngest, Y/n raising her eyebrow at the tone.

“Yeh I just proper hate maths and I know I’m going to fail it-“ Paddy sighed, suddenly feeling the need to twist his empty hot choclate mug round and round, clearly nervous just talking about it. He clearly wasn’t especially gifted academically and in a school system where talents for the arts and less ‘mainstream intelligence’ isn’t celebrated - he was just considered a write off.

“We’ve been looking for a tutor for him but… well you know at this point in the year so is everyone.” There was almost a look of resignation in Nikki’s face, quite clear that Paddy had already given up. Y/n knew she had to offer, her history of tutoring meant this would be just like any of her other clients and she knew the curriculum inside out and back to front.

“Well you know… only if you want… but I still do tutoring when I have the time?”Looking cautiously between the other occupants of the little table, she wore a kind smile. It would be weird - yes. Tutoring her ex’s brother. But he didn’t have to know, and the Hollands had always been a second family to her. 

“Mum can she? Please I really need help and-“

“Only if you have time Y/n, sorry I dint mean to guilt you or anything?”

“No no you didn’t! But I would love to, you know Paddy’s always been my favourite Holland!” Nikki laughed at that, nodding her head as she looked deep into Y/n’s eyes. 

“Well then, no harm in trying right?” 

///////////////////////////////

Y/n the tutor was a massive hit. Paddy’s confidence almost instantly sky rocketed, with Y/n’s familiarity with him she knew exactly how to approach different subjects and get the best results. She would come over twice, sometimes three, times a week - but there was never any issue since Tom was away filming with Harry, meanwhile Sam and Dom were sworn to secrecy. The one hour sessions quickly evolved into staying for dinner just so Sam could practice from his cooking course. Then there was a little extra tutoring of english too, then a glass of wine or so. 

Then came the actual exams. A terrifying process not only for Paddy, but everyone else associated with it also. Somehow though, they all made it through alive and without the excuse of tutoring it just became an invite to dinner once a week. Just ‘because’. Nikki and Dom would love to say they only offered because Paddy wanted her there, but truth be told they all enjoyed her company. Especially with two of their sons on the opposite side of the world, it was nice just to have that familiarity again. She would go to the pub every now and again with Dom and Sam and just generally was a part of the families day to day life. 

Then came the night before Paddy’s results.

As expected Y/n had been invited round for a barbecue that evening, with the Hollands and some of Paddys friends families. The whole thing was just a distraction for Paddy who was nervous beyond belief. He really needed to pass to go on to college and chase his dreams of going to university. He couldn’t afford to cock up, even at the tender age of 16.  So fair to say a jovial evening where the word ‘GCSEs’ was banned - it was exactly what the boy needed. Everyone sat in the garden chattering away happily, enjoying the glorious and rare British sunshine. 

Sam popped inside to go to the loo, but on his way was dragged by unfamiliar hands round the corner into a study room. He shrieked in fright, before his eyes widened in recognition.

“Missed us?” Harry smirked as he let go of his twin however he was immediately pounced on by Sam, who had of course missed his twin brother for the half a year he’d been away. Next he turned to Tom, the both of them laughing as he hugged his older brother, Sam having to hide his surprise at his bulkiness. The new role obviously had him working out a hell of a lot.

“What are you doing here anyway?”

“We got some time off and mum said Pads is terrified so we thought we’d pop in for moral support.” Harry exclaimed, clearly very proud of themselves for organising it for their littlest brother. 

“ Does anyone know?”

“Um… well you…now” Tom couldn’t hide his mischievous grin, making Sam shake his head at his over excitedness “So what’s going on? Is it a party or something?”

“I’ve just done a barbecue for Paddy friends families… you remember Jack? Another guy called Zak and then two girls too-“

“Ah cool so we will just walk out and surprise him?” Harry asked and Sam was about to encouragingly agree, until something struck him.

“I…um…Tom there’s something you need to know.” His voice was deadly serious and Harry noticed the warning tone; Tom always oblivious didn’t catch on so quick, just scoffed and asked why.

“While you’ve been away…. Paddy had tutoring to help and um well… Y/n-she’s here.” Tom closed his eyes and shook his head, taking a breath and gulping it down before looking intently at Sam.

“She…she what?”

“Mum bumped into her in town and she got Y/n to help Paddy with maths. I don’t know… she’s here for Paddy and well…”

“Mum knows that we aren’t speaking right?” Sam nodded in defeat, taking a small step back from his brother “and she still…she still did this?”

“You were the other side of the country and you know how close Paddy and Y/n were. And by the way she worked it looks as if she might’ve made him pass which would be a miracle in itself! So please can you just be civil?”

“It has been like 2 years Tom” Harry, very unhelpfully, felt the need to input - earning him a glare from both of his brothers. Tom just shifted his weight nervously from foot to foot, eyes glued to the floor.

“Yeh…I mean we are adults” His words were stuttered, as if his brain was desperately trying to force out words his heart completely disagreed with. Harry and Sam knew of course, they knew their brother never really had got over his first love. With a sympathetic smile Sam led the way out of the study room.

It was fair to say to Holland’s were ecstatic about the twos return, Paddy’s face had been the most priceless because although he was 16 - he still really was an overexcited little kid. The whole garden energy skipped about twelve levels when they walked in, Paddys friends and families also a little excited to see ‘spiderman’ in real life. Yet Y/n… she was less pleased. Sam had instantly come over to her asking if she was okay. Which she was. Unlike her ex, Y/n had properly got over him and had serious relationships since. She just felt awkward for him, she was in the way of a family reunion, she was the sceptre at the feast. Bless Sam for keeping her company, they sat on the outdoor furniture in the corner and just chatted, while Mr centre-of-attention relished all the love from his family. She knew she should leave, so leaned closer to Sam to barely whisper. “I’m gonna go now”

“Y/n you don’t have to, Pads still wants you here and-“ 

“Sam could you give us a minute?” 

Interrupted by the oh so familiar voice, Y/n smiled nervously at him, before giving Sam a side eye saying it was okay for him to leave. Swapping seats Tom sat down in Sams seat, running  a hand through his hair nervously. 

“Look Tom I was just going to go so you guys can have a proper reunion and-“

“Please stay. Paddy wants you here and tonights about him so?”

“That’s very kind of you but...well you made it clear we couldn’t be friends. I don’t want to intrude and-“

“That was years ago and I was being naive. For paddy please?”

“Tom I….I’m-“ Stopping promptly as she was interrupted.

“staying yes I agree. Now come on he’s looking…” Tom lowered his voice as he motioned over to Paddy standing with Sam, who appeared to be watching the exchange between the two ex lovers intently “so pretend I said something funny, laugh and then we can go mingle”

“Hard to imagine… you have no sense of humour” She smiled sarcastically, before throwing her head back laughing - as if she had said something hilarious. Tom knew he had to join in, however much he tried to hide the grimace at her remark.

“ You haven’t changed at all” He muttered under his breath following her as she stood up and headed back towards the main group.

“Oh but I have” Tossing her head to look back at him, flowing hair flicking round too “I’ve learnt my worth.” Her words were dripping with sass and a little passive-aggressiveness, but all Tom could think was how amazing she was, how much he had missed that little smirk she did while flicking her head back round and pull Paddy in for a side hug. 

////////////////////////

The evening flew by, all of Paddy’s friends and their families went home, yet Y/n stayed and chatted with the Hollands as if this was completely normal. They had all long since migrated into the sitting room while the sun was setting, playing some board games of Paddy’s choice - his results long since forgotten early that evening. Truth be told, Y/n really enjoyed catching up with Harry and although they hadn’t really had any personal conversations- seeing Tom and taking the piss out of his uselessness at the games was also very enjoyable. After her and Paddy’s turn ended Y/n excused herself to go to the toilet but instead of going straight back to the living room she went to grab herself a glass of water.

“Oh Y/n… I was meaning to catch you” The soft and very very familiar voice startled her a little, the warm tone sending shivers down her spine as if a reflex. Turning round to see Tom leant against the counter with a small smile.

“Well what’s up then?” She tried not to be too open too quickly, as much as her heart just wanted to skip the small talk. 

“Just wanted to catch up, it’s been a while and just feel like we should be friends since my family seem to sort of adopted you” She scoffed at his statement, very obviously rolling her eyes, a little annoyed.

“And who was it that didn’t want to be friends huh?” She raised an eyebrow and this was Toms turn to scoff as he looked down at the ground.

“Yeh yeh I deserve that… shall we just skip past the blaming me huh?” The cockiness wasn’t hidden in his voice and that made her laugh, clearly not that shy. In fact he was terrified, but wanted to look as if he didn’t care, like he was flippant. 

“Alright Spiderman, so how’s life?” …

The truth about their break up was quite simple. Tom had got too busy and had stopped making time to their relationship. Y/n grew tired and had had enough, which he completely understood. He’d tried to promise more effort, flying back for extra weekends but they both new they were hollow, it wouldn’t be maintained. Their last meeting hadn’t been an angry shouty one, rather just depressingly sad. They’d both been upset, recahingn a mutual conclusion it was just the wrong time. Which they had both agreed with... but one thing they hadn’t. Tom thought it was like dangling a carrot in front of his face, having Y/n still present in his life. He had given her an ultimatum, they either keep going on together p as a couple or they would become strangers. And that’s where it had been left 2 years ago. 

They spent the next half an hour or so, chatting away as if nothing had ever happened. It felt normal again, all jokingly catching up about the most ridiculous things - the low hum of the left on radio in the background. That was until a certain song  came on the radio - it was ridiculous, the most insane unlikely eventuality to happen. Their old song. 

Of course that would happen. Y/n released a breathy laugh and Tom’s grin just grew and grew across his face, slowly transferring into a smirk. He stood up from leaning across the counter, that Y/n was now sat cross-legged on top. In his ever so dramatic movie like style, he rounded the counter to her side, and held an arm out to her. 

“Dance with me”

“Tom that’s-“

“Oh come on, dance with me!”

“You’re ridiculous”

“I know. So dance with me?”

“Tooommm” She drew out his name in refusal, but her body said something else as she slid off from the counter - delicately landing on tiptoes as she lowered herself down. 

“Just come here, for old times sake” He grabbed her hand and pulled her close to him, transferring his hand to hover at her waist, not touching until she  gave him a small nod in permission. Hesitantly she knew where her hands were supposed to go and slowly drifted them up to round his neck, but balanced  her forearms further on his collarbones so she held her own hands rather than gripping his neck as was natural. They slowly moved in unison, just slightly rocking from one side to another - Tom’s eyes locked on hers.

“So are you happy?” Something about the way he said it made her internally shudder. It was the pure care, all his sarcasm and cockiness stripped back to expose himself just for this moment.

“Um yeh… I don’t know feel like I’m starting to figure out this whole ‘life’ thing.” She smiled up at his chocolate brown eyes, while he seemed to absorb all she said. 

“And he treats you well?”

“He?” She narrowed her eyebrows in confusion, cocking her head to the side slightly.

“Oh er… before you said that ‘we’d moved out’ and I just assumed-“

“Ah um yeh I moved in with someone but he’s not in the picture anymore… got the bed to myself again” Tom thought she didn’t seem very affected by it yet still felt guilty for bringing it up.

“I’m sorry… er how long? Are you okay?”

“Yeh I really am. A year and a half so we taught each other a lot, but it was mutual. We’re still friends.” Smiling, Y/n watched as Tom nodded minutely and they drifted to silence, listening to the song bringing back all sorts of memories. “What about you? Got yourself a super model I assume?” She didn’t mean to ask that. Because why did she need to know? She didn’t care about that. Did she? Tom chuckled nervously before replying.

“Umm no. I haven’t really dated anyone since… just all the travelling and everything doesn’t really work with the dating scene.” His voice was quiet, as if hiding something, and he couldn’t meet her eyes looking at the floor.

“Oh… yeh I get that” Unconsciously letting her hands slip back, connecting with the back of his neck- instantly making him meet eyes with hers again. They just stared at each other, still swaying from side to side as the music flowed. He didn’t want this moment to end. And secretly… neither did she. 

“I can’t take you seriously when you look at me like that”  Breaking the intensity, nervously Y/n giggled, leaning away - but Tom’s arms, still on her waist, kept her from going anywhere. 

“Like what?” His eyebrows raised, enjoying her nervous flush present on her cheeks a little more than he should. 

“Like nothings changed” She all but whispered, the gap between the two almost magically diminishing. The pause was long as Tom tried to  formulate the idea he so wanted to get across. 

“ Maybe that’s because… right now I have exactly the same feelings I did two years ago… that maybe I want so badly to kiss you?” His voice was barely audible at the point, but their faces were barely centimetres from each other; noses hovering side by side as his lips brushed hers. He didn’t want to push her, yet at the same time one of his hands moved to her cheek - gently cupping it as his eyes flicked between her wide eyes and pink flushed lips. 

“Maybe… maybe you should kiss me then?” The tension was palpable as she drew out her words, purposefully teasing him a little. Because she wanted to keep him on his toes. When her heard her suggestion she had to stop herself from giggling at the smile that instantly grew across his face, the way his pupils grew in shock . Safe to say he didn’t reply, instead slowly and delicately pressing his lips on hers. She reciprocated tentatively and deepened the kiss bit by bit. Her hands now running through his hair on the back of his head, Toms other hand now on the small of her back - closing the distance completely, their bodies connected. It didn’t last long before she pulled away the most seductive smile on her face, while Tom subtly tried to regain the breath that had been knocked out of his lungs. 

“We should go back” She whispered, while running her thumb over his left flicky eyebrow that always intrigued her. Suddenly his eyebrows furrowed in concern, worried he had made her feel uncomfortable. Instantly recognising this, she calmed his nerves very simply by pressing a fleeting kiss on his lips once again, grabbing his hand and pulling him toward the living room.

As soon as they entered Y/n and Tom both realised how long they’d been in the kitchen. The game long since abandoned, probably waiting on one of their returns at their go, the rest of the Hollands now all sat lounging on different areas of the sofa - who all immediately looked up as they shuffled in. Luckily the lights were dimmed for the movie playing on the TV screen, so that no one would see her blushing cheeks. She sat in the middle of the sofa which only paddy was on, and Tom followed sitting next to her - but not too close that it would be suspicious . No words were exchanged throughout, though Nikki did exchange a knowing look with Dom - who had seemingly finally learnt when to keep his mouth closed. Both Y/n and Tom pretend to fix their full attention on the film for a short while, even if both their brains were whirring away with very very separate thoughts to any critical analysis of the storyline. 

After about 10 minutes though, Tom pulled his leg up, just so it was obscuring the view to the sofa opposite and took the opportunity to clasp Y/n’s hands in his. Slickly, even though she wasn’t expecting the contact Y/n didn’t react her eyes still trained on the TV. However, Tom didn’t miss the small upward tug on her lips as she squeezed his hand back. No one noticed.

Except Paddy. 

Paddy from his vantage point on the sofa he was sharing with the two, peered over subtly as he went to the loo - and a massive smirk appeared across his face. He might just’ve got his sister back.

[scribbling-dragon]

2, 3, 8, 24?

2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

uhh, there's an argument in FiB that I am particularly looking forward to writing. Mainly because of the things that are going to be said in it and what's going to happen during it

but i'm also looking forward to starting to write for the vigilante au! it probably won't be for a few months, because i want to leave it until after my gcses have finished (which is around the end of june) leaving me with a buncha time to do it

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

there's this one scene, for an au that i've never really talked about very much. and it was a third life au, where some,, less than ethical occurrences happened thanks to the watchers watching over the server

the scene was something along the lines of the red army approaching where fh live, and are surprised to just see scott there, completely unarmoured beside a pond.

he doesn't looked too phased to see them either, simply watching as these heavily armoured and enchanted people walk through his front gate (not destroying it thankfully). just. one of them tries to threaten him, and the next thin they know, there's someone else there, sword out and ready as it's pointed at their throat, scott giving them a shit-eating grin from behind jimmy's shoulder

8. Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?

mostly yeah! i do sometimes diverge and go to other fandoms, but most of the time what i read is the same as what i write (though i am beginning to run out of things to read hdjdkd)

24. Would you say your writing has changed over time?

definitely. my writing last year (aka when i started writing) was..not good. i couldn't write dialogue at all, and it's painful to look back on. the formatting was bad, the story was bad and rushed and unfinished. but it was the stepping stone to what ive written now, so i'm glad of it for that, at least

(Send me an ask!)

[eroticcannibal]

Common myths and misconceptions about home education

So in case anyone has somehow missed it, I have recently become a Big supporter of home education in a very lefty way, which has meant I have had to challenge a lot of views I have previously held about home education and that I know a lot of other lefties hold too. I am of the opinion that embracing home education, not as a last resort, but as the primary form of education for as many children as possible, is a vital part of achieving the required shifts in society needed to meet the goals of most leftists. So I am taking it on myself to convince you all that it is a very good thing, and also to clear up some misconceptions people have about home education that may make them feel they are unable to do it.

(A note, I am from the UK and shall be using UK terminology and specifics regarding law, policy and other such things will be from a UK perspective. I shall be using the term home education, as that is the legal term in the UK and is distinct from home schooling, which is the term for what school children have been doing during the pandemic.)

And I would also like to extend a quick thanks to Education Otherwise and the mods at Home education and your local authority for teaching me A LOT.

Have any questions about anything I’ve not covered here? Just let me know!

1. “Home education is illegal.”

- Sadly, home education is illegal or restricted to the point of inaccessibility in most of the world. From the research I have done, it seems that only the US and the UK have reasonable laws around home education (if I am using a very broad definition of reasonable, it is still not great). I do hope I can change this section soon, and I would *heavily* encourage people to campaign for the right to home educate post pandemic, perhaps cite any benefits learning at home has provided to children, perhaps???

2. “Home education is a tool used by religious fundamentalists to brainwash children!”

- This is a view many hold, and for good reason. For many of us, when we think of home education, we think of christian fundamentalists in the deep south of America, pulling their children out of school to avoid the liberal agenda. The truth is, anything can be used as a tool of indoctrination. This can happen in home education, and it can happen and has happened in schools too. In my own communities we have had instances of schools being a site of religious radicalization of children. The reality is this is far too complex and deep an issue to be solved by deeming any particular form of education as “bad”. I am not an expert on how best to deal with such issues, but I do feel that things like outreach and building a healthy community with otherwise more isolated religious groups would be a better way to address these issues.

3. “You need to have x qualification to home educate.”

- Again, a reasonable view to hold, given that state run and private education does require educators to hold certain qualifications, but in practice it quickly becomes evident the same does not necessarily have to apply with home education. Educational qualifications are very much focused on delivering an education in a classroom, which is a far cry from home education. During our home education of our child, my partner, who is a qualified SEN TA, has struggled far more than I have with educating our SEN child, despite the fact I hold no qualifications.

We live in amazing times when it comes to education. There are many things that parents and communities have to teach a child, and there are many things a child can teach to themself if given the tools to do so. You can even learn together! Their are endless resources available, books and games and documentaries, and even home education groups and private tutors if you feel that is the right fit for your child. You don’t need a piece of paper for your child to spend a day with their nose buried in a book, or to help the neighbor with his vegetable patch, or to cuddle up on the sofa while watching Planet Earth.

4. “You are required to follow the national curriculum.”

- This does vary by country (that allows home education). As a general rule, the stricter a country is about who can home educate, the stricter they are about what must be taught. In the UK, you are not required to follow the national curriculum. Education must be “efficient” and suited to the child’s “age, aptitude and ability”, and LAs do require that english and maths are covered. Other than that, you are allowed to tailor the content of education to the child and their interests. We have recently dropped geography for now and are only just picking up history again. It has also given us the freedom to focus on areas our child needs that would not be covered in mainstream education, such as anxiety management, trauma processing, self care and hygiene.

5. “Home education looks like school/is just filling out workbooks/etc”

- The thing you will always hear from experienced home educators when you begin home education is “home education doesn’t need to be school at home”. Much like you can tailor the content of the learning to the child, you can also tailor the delivery to the child. Some child need structure, timetable, instructions. Some need freedom and to bounce between topics. Some need to have an hour learning maths and only maths, some need to go dig up your garden “for science”. Some want to learn every day, some will need extended breaks.

Learning happens all the time, from the moment they wake to the moment they sleep. As an example, at home we have some workbooks, as both me and my child have ADHD and need someone to go “ok learn this” rather than us having to work out for ourselves what we need to cover for core subjects like english and maths. For the rest of most days my child is left to their own devices to binge youtube and netflix and work on their art. We try and go for a woodland walk every few days, where we have Deep Discussions about all kinds of topics, and we are also working on growing edible plants and baking cakes from around the world. We are more hands-off at the moment, due to the current bout of anxiety, but when that settles again we will get back to history themed crafts and STEM activities. Post-pandemic, we will be signing our kid up for swimming classes and “after school” clubs, and looking at sending them down to my mum for the home ed groups where she lives, like the forest school. A lot of home education outside of a pandemic is in groups and community based, or will make use of libraries and museums and other public learning opportunities. Frequently very little will happen at home.

In fact many home educators will advise new families to “deschool” for a while before jumping in to learning. This is a period where you “get school out of your system”, and just exist. Learning does not have to be intentional, you will be surprised how much you can achieve by just having fun.

6. “Home education is expensive.”

- It can be, ask my bank account. However, it is perfectly possible to deliver a quality education with little to no money. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s doable. Their are many online resources for free (check out oak academy), and libraries have plenty available too. Even paid resources can be very cheap if you know where to look. (psst, if your kid thrives with worksheets and powerpoints, get yourself a twinkl subscription, download everything you need for a year then cancel it.)

(This does not apply to exams. Get saving!)

7. “Home educated children are not properly socialised.”

- This is only really true during the pandemic. The rest of the time, home educated children are free to socialise whenever they want, with whoever they want, in whatever setting they choose. Socialisation while home educating is in the opinions of many of a higher quality, as they are not limited to groups of a similar age and background. Many home educating families form groups for their children to socialise together too. For ND children especially, socialising while home educated can be far less stressful and far more fulfilling than in school.

8. “Home educated children won’t get qualifications.”

- Just plain not true. Arranging qualifications can be costly and time consuming, but it is possible and regularly done. Some children may return to school or college to access exams for free, and I have heard of a handful of cases where individuals were able to secure prestigious university places without any qualifications. Home education also allows for more freedom with how exams and qualifications are approached, for example, many home educated children will pick one GCSE to focus on at a time, rather than covering numerous topics over 2 years and having exams for all of them at once like children in school will.

9. “Home education is a safeguarding risk/is used to cover up abuse/home educated children are not seen.”

- In the UK at least, home education is not considered a safeguarding risk, no matter what authorities may tell you, nor are home educated “not seen”. They still visit medical professionals, they still engage with their communities.

Now I shall add the relevant paper here should I find it again, but the idea that home education is used to cover up abuse to a statistically significant degree, or that home educated children are at more risk of abuse, is false. Home educating families do face a significantly higher risk of social services involvement than other families, but far less abuse is found in comparison to other families. It is also worth considering, when talking about social services involvement, that many families pursue home education due to failures by schools regarding a child’s vulnerabilities. In most cases, especially the Big Ones, where a home educated child is abused, the child was already known to authorities as a victim of abuse, therefore home educating did nothing to hide said abuse.

Children are also routinely abused in schools, which is another common reason for home educating.

10. “Home education has to be monitored or approved.”

- Depends on the country, I know in Japan home education is monitored by schools, however in the UK, monitoring is not lawful. Local authorities may make informal enquiries to ensure a suitable education is being facilitated (keep EVERYTHING in writing and please go straight to “home education and your local authority” group on FB for advice, you WILL need it!). In England, if your child is in mainstream education, you can deregister at will, from a special school will require LA approval. In Scotland deregistering requires LA approval. (Again, head to the aforementioned group for advice).

11. “You can’t work/get an education while home educating”

- It is hard to balance work, education and educating your child, but it is possible, people do it every day. Obviously, having at least one parent free to educate unhindered at all times is an ideal situation, but in the real world it often does not work that way. Parents may have to home educate regardless of their other commitments if a child truly needs to escape the school system. Many parents work or learn from home, and sometimes it is even possible to combine these activities with home education. Professional artists and crafters can pass down their skills while working, distance learners can invite their children to sit in on lectures. The really great thing about home education is it is flexible. Do you have a whole day of meetings? Let the kid play minecraft all day! Going to be in the office all day? Drop the kid off at the local forest school or something else they can do all day. Drop them with the grandparents to help with the gardening!

12. “Home educated are behind/achieve less than school children.”

- Their is no evidence that home education is of a lower quality than school education. Many children are home educated specifically because the school environment was detrimental to their education, and thrive with home education. Plenty of children are able to learn more simply by having 1-to-1 attention, without the distraction of an entire class. And others may well be “behind”, and are educated at home because of their specific needs that mean they will never thrive in an academic setting, so they are allowed to focus on learning skills that will allow them to live independently.

[microbiologynerdd]

Effective Revision Methods - Learn Smarter NOT Harder

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all well! Lets jump straight into it!

Revision. The daunting task for every student, with the hardest thing being where to start. So, today I’ve decided to share with you my process, things that have worked for me, things that haven’t, and where to start.

What type of learner are you?

This is such an important question because you need to cater YOUR revision to YOU. This being visual, auditory or kinesthetic/tactile learning. If you aren’t sure just google ‘what type of learner am I quiz’ you can find hundreds of quizzes to find out. Or usually, you can deduce it from your current revision methods or the methods you know you defiantly hate. But remember you can be a mix, e.g. I’m both a visual and kinesthetic learner. Auditory learning is not my jam – seriously I hate it… haha. 

Once you know this you can make your learning EFFECTIVE, use your EVERY ADVANTAGE to learn content. No point listening to your notes if you are visual learner right? Catering to your style means that content which took you 1 hour to learn before could actually be learnt in 30 mins. Who doesn’t want SHORTER REVISION TIME but with the SAME quantity of information absorbed?

Ineffective revision methods:

1. STOP READING THE TEXTBOOK. – I’ve said it, your teachers said it, EVERYONE has properly said it. So STOP! This passive revision method well sucks. If you do not attempt to recall information from your brain you are not making ‘connections’ between neurones (cells) within your brain – or at least not at the rate you could be. More ‘connections’ = More information learnt (more or less).

2. Copying your notes – Not as horrendous as the devils spawn above, but still not ideal. You are not retrieving this information from your brain, and as mentioned above this is a really important factor.

EFFECTIVE revision methods:

This section is split into 2 parts depending on the type of assessment.

For multiple choice questions/ short answer questions:

1. Flashcards - Flashcards are my favourite. 

Writing the cards allows you to consolidate your learning, find out what you don’t understand and what you do understand. I recommend Anki or Quizlet for my visual/kinesthetic learners and recording your cards on your phone for my auditory learners. You can’t write a card on something you don’t understand! Once you’ve consolidated into cards you can go straight to learning! Skipping the time consuming and ineffective ‘copying your notes’ stage. More Time spent Learning the cards, rather than copying notes = more knowledge obtained, and most likely better grades! 

I know a lot of people are guilty of writing their notes out, then writing flashcards - me included. But this is essentially the same step. I’m not saying you wont absorb any knowledge from doing this, but you will learn more from practicing the flashcards... hence why you write them in the first place ;)

2. Practice papers/ Questions

Would you go into a driving test without ever driving a car before? No? Then, why are you doing this for exams? Practice papers don’t only allow you to test your knowledge but also practice your time-management during the exam. And if you are lucky sometimes questions can be repeated between each different exam years. FREE MARKS – HELL YES!

3. Focused group revision

I use the word ‘focused’ for a reason. Going to the library with your friends to ‘revise’ aka chat about last nights football game or the latest group gossip isn’t really going to help your grades – but you already know that. However, coming together, each with a set of questions, and asking each other about them will help. You will consolidate further the information you do know, and you will learn new information from your friends and vice versa. This method is great for kinesthetic and auditory learners.

For essay-based assessments:

1. Essay plan mind maps

Mind-maps. Mind-maps are a great way to plan potential essays for an exam, but you don’t want to be writing out full essays word for word. Hence why I recommend mind-maps. This style forces you to stay concise so you do not run out of room on the page. Try and keep 1 essay plan per page.

2. Recalling essay plans

Writing them is great, but no point writing them if you can’t remember them. So practice writing them out from memory and then fill in the gaps. Great for information learning but also great for structure learning too! This also helps you link ideas together, practicing what the you’ll be required to do in the exam. This is often a problem I find with using flashcards for essays, you are ‘triggered’ by the MCQ (multiple choice question), whereas in an essay exam you must create your own triggers to unlock the information you have learnt, from the previous sentence you have written

3. Essay plan lists: 

For my friends who hate mind-maps. I use essay lists – picture below. Simply write those mind map branches in a chronological bullet-point list. I use different colours to separate the information. Try and keep all the information on one page!

4. Group Study: 

This is the same as the group study above but this time discuss topics as a group, as though you were writing the essay aloud. Or work together to plan an essay together, using as much detail as possible. You will learn new phrasing and information from your peers. Use mark schemes too if they are available, but often at university level, they are not – a bit annoying I know.

But what if I love note taking/ reading from the textbook?

Okay, let’s make your note-taking a bit more effective. 

Write out your notes, but ensure you are consolidating and not copying. Copying won’t help. At the end of each page or each topic, write yourself a list of questions about the information you have just written. And then when you come to learn the information e.g. by reading it out loud to yourself hundreds of times; make sure you test yourself with these questions at the end and see what you can recall. This way you are still actively recalling this information.

My experience:

What I am trying to ‘sell’ you is this concept of active recall. If you actively recall something you are more likely to remember the information than if you are passively writing or reading. Once you have done this you need to go over this information at different time intervals i.e. spaced repetition. Anki – the flashcard app I mentioned earlier really helps me do this. If you want more information on space repetition or how I do this then let me know in the comments.

All of the above information comes from my education experience, I have tried note copying, reading my notes throughout GCSE and A level. Yes, they got me where I am, but using my time with efficient methods could have given my grades an extra boost like it has done at university. Once I took some time to look into ‘effective’ revision methods AND implemented them, my revision game changed – and so can yours.

 The information I’ve provided above is based on studies, not just some fairy-tale I have made up – This source and others online can show you the real positive impact active recall methods have on your learning. My explanations above are purposely ‘not sciencey’ but understanding this concept matters not the exact science. Active recall sounds like a big word, but its literally just testing yourself from the earliest opportunity.

Conclusion

I think by now you get the point and I don’t need to keep babbling on. But if you are to take anything from this post about revision is to:

1. Revise by the type of learner you are

2. Test yourself from the earliest opportunity.

Switch up your learning, make it exciting, make it effective. Then, you have more time to learn different content or for your leisure activities. More knowledge in less time!

As always you’ve got this!

Speak soon,

Lucinda x

P.s If you have any methods that work for you, mention them in the comments below!

[inthedarkofficial]

Stats at 25

I did this at 18 and at 21 because they felt like milestones, and... well, so does 25, I guess. It's going under this time though, because you know what that is? Growth.

Novels Written: In the Dark (no, really, it's done this time!), Dragons, In the Flames (which was meant to be In the Know), and I'm about 31,000 words into the real In the Know

Poems written: 40+

Agent Rejections: 21 this year alone (and I at about 30 total? Fuck)

Agent Requests: On their way, of course

Works planned: 15 novels, 4 short story collections, 1 encyclopaedia. 1 poetry collection, 1 short play, 1 nonfiction essay.

Publishing credits: 1 that we talk about (FourxFour baby!)

Characters: where do they keep coming from?

Lives lived: Why did I phrase this in the past tense? It's still happening

Life path: One step at a time, but an author, always

Books Read: Not as many as I'd like

Books to Read: A lot more than I'd like

Concerts seen: 27

Grades in piano: 3 (why do I keep including this?)

Memories: Treasured and painful and apparently something I have to fight for

Time: Lost all meaning this last year

Nickname: Still going by Padfoot, call me Roro and I will cut you

Clothes: So! Many! Clothes! but they make me feel better than ever

Style: It changes every day because I change every day

Friendships: How did I make new, incredible friends during a lockdown? I don't know, but gods bless D&D

Parents: We survived together in one house locked down for over a year, I'm so grateful for them

Family: I miss you Kali. I miss you nan. I want to hug you, Maddison. I want to give all of you a hug, honestly.

Enemies: I'm still coming for you, Derek

Sexuality: I keep looking closer and closer to see what the ins and outs are, but I'm bi and queer and that's enough

Gender: I fucking came out as genderqueer and I've started playing with pronouns and gender presentation and honestly? Never felt better

Hair colours: Literally could not tell you anymore. How many? Who knows. I want another.

Education: A in 11+, 2 A* and 8 A GCSEs, 1 A* and 2 A A Levels, 2.1 English Literature Degree, and I will finish this fucking proofreading course! Also, that masters degree is really calling me like a siren...

Tattoos: 2, and as soon as Covid allows it, I'll be getting more

Continents : 3

Countries: 10

Cities: I clearly counted this wrong and now? no clue

Homes: About to be 9!

Places to visit: I just want to go and see (and meet!) my friends, honestly

Vaginismus: Diagnosed! Fucking diagnosed!

Dilators: size 2!

Relationship status: Not going to be fucking decided by what some fucking Western doctor thinks I should be using my vagina for holy gods.

Standards: I want to be loved right down to my scalp. I enjoy my own company too much to settle for less.

Tears shed: My eyes hurt

Laughter: My ribs hurt

Jobs: 5, +writer, always. Fingers crossed for some sweet, sweet income soon though.

Readings: More! Let me do more! Covid, you bitch!

D&D campaigns: 1 abandoned, 1 shelved, 2 ongoing, 1 beginning soon

D&D Podcasts: R.I.P. Edge of Night

D&D characters: Where are all you stupid bisexuals coming from? (Not you, Caleb, we're thrilled to have you here)

Clean: Been a daily struggle this year. Not quite succeeding sometimes. But never fully relapsed. I can be proud of that.

Mental health: Ups and downs, but I'm taking back control

Physical health: Ready to fight doctors, but I'm getting there

Height: 5′2″, do I really need to keep recording this?

Shoes size: 3 (uk), I totally need to keep recording this

Weight: Most days I like my body, and that's a big improvement

Puns: cannot count how many times I got kicked out of skype calls this year

Beliefs: Maybe it's better to have ideas, but I've found names to give power to, powers to give love to, I have principles I live by, the faeries in the garden still get offerings, hawthorn trees carpet the garden in flowers, and I am enough. The worls is on fire, and full of people doing harm for no reason, so it's hard to believe that the world is good, but my life, at its core, is a good life. And I'm so grateful, even when things are hard.

Happy memories: even in the darkest and hardest of times, I have had moments of pride, and moments I felt loved. I know what unconditional love is. What could be better

Sad memories: Reclaimed, remembered, and not going to fucking control me.

How the things I planned to do at 21 panned out: actually learned what it takes to find an agent and though it took longer than I planned, I am now doing that process. Gave up krav maga, no regrets. Did finish my third novel (at least, first draft), then learned it was the wrong novel. But I did write a whole other novel. Graduated UEA with a 2.1. Successfully left Norwich and never have to fucking return! Have done freelance editing work and got a job at Debenhams, though Covid fucked those a bit. Wrote that fucking dissertation and it's fabulous. Did see Hamilton. Did put more hats on Cicero before he broke (but he's now getting repaired!) Decided a TEFL was an insane idea, I hate teaching. Did, indeed, continue to live and did a whole lot else.

Goals at 25: Keep submitting to agents, finish In the Know and work on the faery books, continue my physical and mental health journey, keep working with the dilators, move into my own house (!), find a steady source of income, start getting my poetry and other writing out there, finish my vaginismus article, visit my friends, get a new tattoo, keep volunteering at Pride, play enough D&D to justify all these fucking dice sets, get Cicero back, keep building the life I want.

Life at 25 years: when I wrote my "Stats at 21" post, I didn't know how much denial I was in. I'd totally repressed the memory of being sexually assaulted and I didn't even know about a condition that I've just learned has likely been impacting me in multiple ways all my life. I hadn't even met a person who would become one of my best friends, and then my boyfriend, and then my ex, and then totally out of my life by the time I write this. I barely knew the guy who is now one of the most important people in the world to me. I was only beginning to question my gender. I'd not questioned my sexuality in years. I've been through counselling, learned to stand up for myself, worked on so many projects I couldn't even imagine being a part of back then, been on a huge vaginismus journey that's still on going, started playing D&D, went to the graduation ceremony I never planned to attend, and I'm about to have my own house, just to point to a select few things. There's been a global pandemic (still ongoing), movements and trials that helped me find my truth and broke my heart, Brexit fucking happened, I lost my best, dearest and oldest friend (I love you Kali) and my nan... I could not have imagined what 25 would look like on the night I turned 21, just like at 18, 21 was impossible to picture.

So I guess... hi future Rowan. Happy 27th birthday (of course it's going to be 27). What does your world look like now? Did we fall in love? Did we make good dilator progress? How's the house? Did we decide on kids? I cannot begin to wonder what your world looks like, but I swear, I'm working on making it good.

"Soft and slow/Watch the minutes go/Count outloud/ So we know you don't keep them for yourself." - Halsey

[meichenxi]

For langblr asks: 7, 10, 11, 18, and 49

Thanks!! This may get long, so I apologise in advance! I’m learning German and Esperanto alongside Chinese, but since my German is fairly advanced and I don’t really learn actively any more (I just read, listen to talks etc - mainly because I have no reason to actively speak German sadly) and my Esperanto is basic I’ll just talk about Chinese. 

7 -  What are some things that you learned about language learning that really improved your studying? 

- Hands down learning about the role of attention in language learning. In an ideal situation, you are exposed to the target feature, then have your attention drawn to it/figure it out yourself, and are then exposed to it in natural language again. I think we all know the wild experience when you learn a word and then magically the universe provides it - and suddenly you know that word forever. I now like to think of word ‘learning’ as incremental rather than binary: recognising a word in a familiar context, an unfamiliar context, and then finally using the word are all different levels of ‘knowing’ that word. What this means in practice is that I worry less about not being able to use all the vocabulary actively that I recognise passively, because I know once I do use it actively that item will be easier to access. So there are two things here: first of all, that I don’t worry if I’m watching or reading something and don’t actively extract vocab from it, because I know that hearing it will make it easier to remember later on; and secondly, that if I ‘pay attention’ to a word but don’t ‘learn’ it because I haven’t seen it in context, that state of not knowing is temporary. The moment I see it in context - sometimes months later, when I had completely ‘forgotten’ that word - I know what it is. So I don’t stress as much about not being able to remember words from flashcards or whatever, because I know that seeing/hearing them in context is what cements that word, not just repetition. 

10 - What are some thing that you love about the language you’re learning?

Oh my goodness. So many things. I love characters; they used to absolutely drive me crazy, but the ability to read after so long being unable to read now just feels wonderfully exciting every single time. I love learning about different components and how they combine together. I love too that the idea of ‘the word’ is tied so intimately to characters: there are psycholinguistic experiments showing that Chinese native speakers learning English show interference effects when two words are presented in English that have the same component (not even whole character!) and it slows down decision making. I love the way that tone and intonation interact and I love seeing how far I’ve come from not understanding how I could express emotion at all. I love what Chinese shows about the power of the second language learner: it’s incredibly homophonous because of limited syllables even with tones, and it’s radical pro-drop, the more formal you are the shorter/more concise sentences tend to be, and when you’re in a different dialect/Chinese language even those useful initials or finals can change and still you know what is being said. It’s incredible. I love the sound of <q> and <j> and <x> and especially the final <ing>. 

The thing I love most about Chinese is its conciseness and elegance. I love learning about different systems of politeness and register and Literary Chinese is just so incredibly concise: if learning modern standard Mandarin is interesting, Literary Chinese is just...it blows my mind. It’s very unique: and I don’t mean this in the sense of ‘oh look how Exotic and Different’, I mean this typologically: it’s arguably the most analytical language in the world and is regularly used in linguistics papers to exemplify phenomena found in such highly analytical languages. I also think the encoding of order-based pragmatics into actual linguistic implicature is absolutely so cool. 

I love the difference registers it has, and I love that it feels such a good language to moan about the bus being late in and also, you know, that kind of poetry which just takes your breath away. I love how the same sentence can be expressed in different registers and how grammar patterns from literary Chinese can be used in modern Chinese. I love how compounding and derivational morphology work in Chinese (it’s absolutely nuts?? and so versatile??) and I love how names carry so much meaning. I love it for its ambiguity and conciseness and completely *shrug* lack of need to express tense or person because you know, if you know you know.

And from a synesthete’s point of view, Chinese is beautiful too: it’s a crisp clear dawn-like language, cool and misty. 

Finally, I love it for what it has taught me. It’s the first tonal language I’ve ever learnt, and the learning curve has been huge. Parts of it have been massively frustrating (we’ll get to that). I remember the week before I went to China for the first time hurriedly trying to learn some phrases, and I just couldn’t get them to stick in my head. I think I practiced ‘good morning’ about 10,000 times and I still couldn't say it right, or remember it. Languages were sort of my thing - I had taken my German GCSE early, done French and Spanish 0-GCSE in one year each, done three language A-levels (Spanish in five months because I dropped out of another A-level, self-taught German) as well as an extracurricular Latin GCSE. I was cocky!! And so not being able to do it was crushing at first and also just, what?? So learning Chinese has taught me patience, and it’s a useful bench-mark now if I ever feel like I can’t do anything. It’s taught me that you just need patience and determination, and that you'll get there in the end. Genuinely, that’s the most useful lesson I’ve learnt in my short life. 

11 - What are some things that you don’t like / find frustrating about the language you’re learning?

Originally, I found both the pronunciation and characters immensely frustrating. I think I’m over those hurdles, and now what annoys me most is the grammar - and if anyone says there is no grammar in Chinese I may just murder you. Chinese grammar is hard because, as I’ve talked about before, a lot of rests on sentence patterns and a lot of it seems to shift in ways that, say, Spanish grammar doesn’t, depending on context, formality and so on. But the reason Chinese grammar is difficult is again because the categories it manipulates are ones that don’t map perfectly onto what we think is being manipulated. So we build representations in our mind and try to learn structures without realising that a lot of it is patterns, not something set in stone. This includes phenomena like topic-marking, fronting, emphasis and so on. The most ‘grammar’-like of Chinese grammar actually is based in large parts in implicatures and the pragmatic-semantic interface, which is very hard to teach. This is why I think that input is especially crucial in Chinese. 

Also, embedded wh-questions are hard. 

As I’m learning more, though, this is all gradually becoming less frustrating. I don’t want to jinx anything and I still have a lot to learn, but I’m feeling cautiously optimistic that the worst is behind me. Things are making a lot more sense now anyway!!!

18 - Have you had any conversations with natives of your target language/s? How did that go?

Haha, of course. I lived in China for six months and then visited again for two months. I also work as an English teacher online and have a lot of Chinese students. I also sometimes chat with other Chinese students in the German classes I was taking. I’m really excited though to go back to China though now that I’m a little bit better and see how I can improve from there!!! I feel like last time I wasn’t really at a good enough level to improve quickly; I think this time would be really hard, but I can communicate well enough that I hope people wouldn’t switch back to English. 

One of the problems I have always had though has been that my pronunciation sounded better than my knowledge of the language - because of immersion. So people always assumed I understood way more than I actually did which was always terrible because I never knew wtf was going on. 

One really really nice conversation I had recently: in my English class, a young girl’s mother asked if I could explain the present simple vs present continuous to her daughter...in Chinese. And regardless of what nonsense I said, the little girl understood! Ahhhh that warm glowy feeling of human connection and accomplishment. 

49 - What are your language goals for 2021?

Since I’m learning quite intensively at the moment, these goals will be appropriately intense. Gulp. 

1) Pass HSK5 (March). This is my biggest goal, and the first time I’ve ever worked towards a language exam so I’m a little nervous. I think it’s do-able (especially with the help of the course that I’m taking, HSK Online), but still large enough to be scary. 

2) Be able to write all words up to HSK5 by hand (July). I have a little more time for this one - normally I don’t think handwriting is particularly important, but since I’m going to be studying in a Chinese university next year with the dreaded 听写 I need to be able to do it. They sort you into groups depending on your exam results, and if I can’t handwrite more than 我 then I’m not going to get very far. How do I plan on achieving this? I’m planning maybe on buying a subscription to Skritter again and working through (I really like them), but most importantly, just handwriting freely in a notebook and building up the habit. 

3) Be able to read at the same speed as the subtitles. I know, I know, most people can. But I can’t lmao so let me practice. 

4) Be in a good place to take HSK6 in early 2022. I don’t actually know if I’m going to take the HSK6 exam: maybe not. HSK5 is only important for me because I need it for a scholarship. But as random as some of the words are, it’s a very good benchmark and a useful list. Considering I’ll have from March until the end of the year, and from the end of June onwards I’ll be in a Mandarin-speaking environment (and be in a Chinese university from August/September) I think it’ll set me up well. It’s way too much to do by the end of the year though, so this goal is just to do as much as I can before 2022. 

5) Read the first Harry Potter in Chinese. Guys, I’m not looking to understand the descriptions of the moat or Hagrid’s beard. But I want to be able to read the dialogue with ease, and be able to dip in and out of the book with ease. 

6) Complete my literary Chinese textbook (mid-year). 

7) Be able to watch shows like Streetdance of China without subs. I can watch some shows already without subs, but I often feel that’s more to do with galaxy-brain thinking, ‘reading the room’ and being lazy than actually understanding all the words. Despite shows like the Untamed having more ‘difficult’ vocab, I find them a lot easier to understand than variety shows etc because the audio is extremely clear and not too fast. Watching Nirvana in Fire without subs will have to be a goal for 2022 lmao; no way will that happen by this time next year. 

8) Learn the top 1000 traditional characters and practice reading traditional more. This is not as hard as it sounds: past about the top 500, many of them differ in very predictable ways. 

And here are three long-term goals I have no time limits on:

1) Read MDZS and TGCF in Chinese. Ahhh. The dream. 

2) Read lots of wuxia!!!!!!! All the wuxia!!!!!!!! Be able to read actual books, imagine.

3) Use Chinese for academic research on Chinese dialects and Tibetan languages. This is kind of...my career path...so! 

Thanks for the ask!! 

[jamiejohnsontalk]

LGBT Representation in Jamie Johnson as Compared to Other Kids’ Media

Pinned to the top of my blog because I’m quite proud of this post, and I still want newer followers to be able to see it.

From what I know, LGBT representation is relatively new in media. Not just kids’ media, but media in general. I don’t even think I knew what gay meant until I was like 11. And I didn’t know that religions didn’t exactly have the greatest opinion of gay people till my GCSEs. In that sense, I was lucky. I knew I was gay before I knew what homophobia was, so I have always been comfortable with who I am. But others didn’t have life that... Well, simple I suppose. I’ve always known who I am, but other people, well, in the worst case scenario, gay people can become homophobic themselves and grow to hate themselves. This might seem like a sidetracky introduction, but I think it shows the importance of LGBT in media. For someone like me, it can help to start to normalise gay people to my family. Even though they’re still homophobic, at least they’re able to watch programmes with LGBT characters in. I met someone who’s dad wouldn’t watch any shows with LGBT characters in it. And for how rare gay people used to be in media in general, they’re even rarer in kids’ media. Why is it that Disney Channel only had their first gay main character in 2017 when homosexuality was legalised in... 2003 in the US. Wow, I can’t lie, I looked up that statistic expecting it to be way earlier. OK, but it was legalised in 1967 in the UK. So why did I never see any gay characters in my childhood? I’ve known I was gay since I was 9, but I must have first seen a gay character in, OK, it was Doctor Who. Captain Jack was pansexual. So I did have some LGBT representation. But there wasn’t much. And again, not in kids’ media. So, let’s look at some of the kids’ media that changed the landscape for LGBT rep in kids’ media. Sarah Jane Adventures and Wizards vs Aliens We’ll start with what I think is probably the worst types of LGBT representation. First of all: Wizards vs Aliens. Benny came out. But I can’t remember the show ever talking about it again after he came out. Sarah Jane Adventures. Yes, it’s not Russell T Davies’ fault that he never got the chance to let Luke come out in the show, and yes, he got to have Luke come out in the memorial episode for Sarah Jane on YouTube, but even before Liz had... Luke had left the main cast, so his coming out would have still meant less to audience members. Gravity Falls had a coming out at the very end of the show, and I believe so did Adventure Time, so they fit in this category too. Compare that to Dillon from Jamie Johnson. Yes, there’s a reasonable chance we won’t see him again after this season, but if it is, he gets to leave on a high. We get to explore his coming out journey. Steven Universe Steven Universe is great for LGBT representation, and it’s great for normalising LGBT representation. You’ve got a huge variety of LGBT characters, because the Gems are all gay (Except Rose). So you can understand that there are different types of gay people (Love Victor did that too, but I’m not sure how many people would watch it). Steven universe is definitely the gayest kids’ show. High School Musical the Musical the Series fits in this category too. Carlos is out and proud. And we don’t see his coming out, more his love life. Again, great rep. Normalises gay people. Jamie Johnson is nowhere near the level of gay that Steven Universe or High School Musical the Musical the Series is, but I think that it’s less meaningful than other shows I’ll mention and Jamie Johnson. It’s the same reason Victor said “Screw you” to Simon at the beginning of Love Victor. We don’t want to see gay people who have it easy. We want to see gay people who are like us. Who have been through stuff and have come out the other side alive. We want hope, but that doesn’t come from seeing gay people who have it easy. I see people playing football and risking corona and I’m jealous. I want to play football again. I see gay people have it easy: Same. I wish I could have it that easy, and it makes me sad. Steven Universe is a great show, and has great rep, but I think even kids’ media should have something closer to home. Andi Mack and Diary of a Future President I love how they portrayed Cyrus and Bobby. We got to see Cyrus’ story from realising he liked guys to being able to say “I’m gay” to showing his crush he likes him (though homophobes can pretend the bench scene was just a friendship scene). Cyrus’ arc was great, and the bench scene was perfect and the only problem with it was that it deserved a fourth season so we could see Cyrus and TJ in a relationship. Diary of a Future President though. I was heartbroken when Bobby didn’t come out to Liam. But then I found out there was a season 2 and I was OK, because it’s hard to come out. It’s as if all the shows make it so easy to come out to the first person, but it’s not. The first real life person I came out to, I came out at 22. And they had come out to me first. And I had to write it down on my phone. I couldn’t say it out loud. So yeah, seeing Diary of a Future President take it slow is amazing, and I love it, and it’s also what they did with Dillon. Some people think that they only really intended for Dillon to be gay from season 4. But, I think that they’ve known since the beginning. I plan to do a character analysis on Dillon after my rewatch, but I think I found something that shows they must have known since at least season 2. (I expect the analysis will be a lot shorter than this. Sorry for the crazy length. And if it’s a crap read. I don’t essay well). But if they knew from the beginning, that was a brilliant move on their part. The only thing that makes me unsure is how Dillon took 3 years to realise he might be gay, but it’s possible that he denied it to himself until he realised Elliot was gay. Because there’s no way he wasn’t thinking he was gay in season 4 episode 5. He didn’t think he was asexual, his reaction to Ruby’s foster mums suggested that he was interested because they were gay. But regardless, I love that they took it slow. Not everyone can come out as easily as others, and having someone like Bobby, or like Dillon, is so much more meaningful than Cyrus, even though Cyrus is an amazing character. Bobby and Dillon are more relatable because they’re finding it tough to come out. The Dumping Ground I kept trying to decide whether I thought the dumping ground or Andi Mack/Diary of a Future President had better LGBT representation. In the end, I decided that I preferred the Dumping Ground’s representation. Yes, in Andi Mack and Diary of a Future President, we get to see the coming out journey of Bobby and Cyrus, but even though Andi Mack touched on homophobia, a lot of people didn’t even realise Kira was blackmailing TJ, making him afraid of how people would react if they found out he was gay. A number of people just thought TJ was being an idiot. But the Dumping Ground had a gay couple wanting to foster Gus. And IIRC, Johnny thought it was wrong because they were gay. Something like that would foster (see what I did there?) potential discussion between parents and children about gay adoption. Some kids watching the show might have been gay and if they watched it with their parents, they could talk about it with them. Gage their reaction. Maybe even come out to them. The Dumping Ground’s episode was great. And then May-Li came out. And we never got to see her full journey, But we did get to see her journey to being accepted by her grandmother I think. And that’s something. And Now On To Jamie Johnson Just like the Dumping Ground, Jamie Johnson has been able to tackle serious issues. I mean, season 1 dealt with Jamie’s cheating father. You’ve got Zoe being a carer, Dillon getting diabetes. But in terms of LGBT representation, it’s season 4 and season 5. Season 4 episode 5 was incredible. I remember telling all my friends about it, and how amazing it was that CBBC were doing this. To recap: Ruby said her heroes were her foster parents, causing Dillon to ask Ruby about it. She thought he was being an idiot, even though in actual fact, he was excited that someone else was gay and trying not to show it. Dillon told his dad that Ruby had foster mums while he was telling him how Ruby’s biological parents weren’t in her life anymore. Liam, Dillon’s brother, used it to rile up Ruby’s sister Alba until she attacked him. She probably would have gotten expelled from the club, but Sienna filmed the incident so everyone found out what really happened, and it was Liam who got expelled. I think Alba only got excluded. What I find really awesome about the storyline though is not just that they had it. It was that the consequences of Liam’s actions set the course for the rest of the season, aka Dodgy Duncan. Liam’s actions caused the club’s image to go down the drain, and sponsors to leave, and that’s what made Duncan turn to the dark side. And it’s a subtle way to just say “Homophobia is bad”. Because Liam’s homophobia caused all the problems in the rest of the season. The First Time Dillon Let Himself “be Gay” Dillon took a long time to come out. And, like me, I think for a long time, nobody really suspected he was gay, in real life or in the audience. He never really showed it. I’m pretty sure when I was a kid, I would act super offended and upset if someone jokingly called me gay. So, yeah, it’s a slow burn. And we didn’t get any hints that he was gay, but that happens. Gay people are good at hiding, I think that’s why gay kids are often portrayed as loving theater. They already have to act their whole lives. It’s not easy to be in the closet. But I think that once Dillon was able to leave his father’s shadow, he was able to be more comfortable with himself, leading to him coming out to Elliot in episode 7. I think he had crushes before, specifically Michelle from season 2, but Elliot was the first time he felt like he could be himself. So here we have two massive points from other shows, but they haven’t been done together. The discussion of homophobia in the Dumping Ground, and the Slow Burn from Diary of a Future President. Social Media Presence Andi Mack made a huge deal about Cyrus being gay, like a week before the episode where he came out aired. HSMTMTS had Carlos be a gay stereotype from the trailer, and OK, Steven Universe was always gay. But Jamie Johnson, and the Dumping Ground didn’t make a big deal about it beforehand. They didn’t scream to the world “Look at us! We’re woke!” They showed it. They let people see for themselves, they let people debate for two weeks on Dillon’s sexuality, and they didn’t tell everyone that this was the episode Dillon would come out (though they made sure that everyone knew they should watch this episode). They just let people see for themselves. And after the episode aired, they made their move. They had the Jamie Johnson logo in rainbow colours to celebrate pride, they had a guide on how to react if someone comes out to you, and they had a history of pride, and I expect they’ll do even more on their social media after this week’s episode. @tkstrand​ reckons the Delliot post is Jamie Johnson’s most liked instagram post. I don’t know whether the other shows did this, but it’s a great gesture regardless. Oh, and there’s the fact that they’re doing a Bafta zoom conference on how they tackle issues. Choosing the Right Character and Breaking Ground for CBBC A lot of people on Instagram said that they thought it was Boggy who should be gay, and while I think either storyline would be great, I think that the writers made the right decision. 1) Boggy is an amazing person. He’s not afraid to be himself. I think, if Boggy was gay, then he wouldn’t have as much trouble coming out as Dillon is having. Of course, Boggy is going through stuff right now, but I still think he would have been a lot braver than Dillon and so we wouldn’t get the storyline we’re getting now delving into homophobia 2) If Dillon does have a minor or major role in season 6, we might get to explore homophobia in professional football, which would be super exciting 3) While Boggy is an amazing character, I’d reckon kids tend to gravitate to the coolest character as their favourite. And while Boggy radiates cool. (Seriously, check out the two posts I made on how sarcastic he is. And just look at his hat at the beginning of episode 1!

But Dillon is the more traditionally cool character, so he’s more likely to be a fan favourite (that and the fact that he’s the best developed character in Jamie Johnson). So for those who aren’t necessarily homophobic, but don’t really understand homosexuality, Dillon is the perfect choice to have written as gay. Because after next week, the people who don’t believe Dillon is gay might leave the episode with a new understanding of LGBT people. It’s been done with TJ, who’s also a cool character, but people who want to ignore the gay subtext can because it was never said out loud in the show. And I reckon Dillon is a groundbreaking character for CBBC. Benny left soon after he came out, Luke left before he came out, May-Li is part of an ensemble cast, so in terms of a small number of main characters (the core 4 in JJ being Dillon, Jamie, Zoe and Boggy), so I think Dillon is the first gay main character (not ensemble character) on CBBC who has gotten a major gay storyline. Could be wrong, let me know if I am! Groundbreaking in General From what it looks like, the next episode is gonna focus completely on Dillon’s coming out storyline. Forget kids’ media, I don’t think I’ve seen an adults’ show that has an entire episode solely dedicated to an LGBT storyline. (Even Reunited from Steven Universe wasn’t completely focused on Garnet). Love Victor was jam packed with side stories and I think even Real O’Neals always had side stories to it. If another show has done this, I’d love to hear, but if Jamie Johnson really has the whole episode dedicated solely to Dillon, I think it’s huge. I only hope it doesn’t mean that the storyline will be forgotten about in the last 4 episodes, but since the head writer of Jamie Johnson is LGBT, I have no doubt they’ll do it justice. Does Jamie Johnson Have the Best LGBT Representation in Kids’ Media? No, I don’t think it does. Andi Mack has 2 seasons where we follow Cyrus on his coming out journey and Steven Universe has a lot more LGBT people, including a non-binary character. But in the aspects Jamie Johnson does well, it excels at. The homophobia storyline(s), and Jamie Johnson’s instagram presence. And having the best developed and best defined character be the one to show kids how to treat gay people. Thursday could be a historic moment for Kids’ television if they do this right, and I think they will. So I hope that everyone enjoys the episode! No, I swear this wasn’t a long promo for the next episode. No, I am not sponsored. Yes, this post was extremely long, I’m really sorry about that. I hope it’s worth the read. If not, don’t worry, this will almost definitely be my longest post. No, I don’t know how to have a “continue reading” button. Does anyone happen to know how? Thanks! Edit: Apparently 4 O Clock club had a gay main character first, so I got that wrong, but I still hold that Jamie Johnson is groundbreaking.

[a-room-of-my-own]

Hello, I was wondering if I could discuss something with you? I'm training to be a teacher and last week we discussed whether boys and girls learn (foreign languages specifically) differently and if so, how we could best adapt our teaching. The topic came up since girls, broadly, achieve better results in FLs than boys. A number of reasons have been identified (I'll come back to this) but the consensus seems to be that teachers need to do a better job of teaching boys. Now, I think the reason/1

boys do less well is that languages aren't as valued a subject as STEM and so boys can't see the point (less prestigious), boys need to be coddled and don't like being told they're wrong (so less likely to show up a funny accent or a grammar mistake and therefore less likely to participate in class), among other things. FL teachers are more likely to be women too, so I wonder if that plays a role, even if subconsciously. This prompted a conversation about "how to get boys involved in FL" /2

Apparently, we need to make lessons more dynamic, more interesting, cater more to "boys' interests", get them moving in class, not just copying out words, etc. Which fine! Those are good ideas! HOWEVER it implies that girls will learn in any old boring lesson, even when the topic doesn't interest them but boys, oh no! boys will NOT learn anything in a boring classroom. I'm sorry, what Maths lesson were you ever in that was 'dynamic'? I don't see research /3

papers being churned out on that topic. I tried to mention a few of these things in class- such as how examples in textbooks use male pronouns and names approx. 70% (?) of the time (despite there being fewer boys taking languages!!! it's not compulsory at GCSE in the UK so it's up to the pupil), etc. and I had some of my colleagues disagree. According to them gender has nothing to do with it and saying so is stereotyping, to the disadvantage of boys. Not all boys are rowdy, and some even like /4

languages! Fancy that! By the end of the session I sounded like the hysterical woman who wanted to frame boys' underachievement as their fault instead of improving my teaching to be more inclusive of boys, I'm sure you can picture the scene. Do you have any thoughts? Am I insane for thinking that a big part of the reason boys don't perform as well is because... they don't want to? Another colleague brought up girls and boys having "different brains" but I didn't have the courage to get into /5

conversation (although I need to learn to dismantle this!) OBVIOUSLY I want boys in my lessons to do well, but equally, they're still statistically more likely to be hired as a translator than any girl I ever teach so who is really disadvantaged here? This turned out to be quite long, I'm sorry. I was hoping you'd be able to offer a radfem perspective on this. Equally, if I'm barking up the wrong tree please point it out! 6/6

----

You came to the right place as I am very (very!) old-fashioned as far as school is concerned.

Once upon a time, my grandmother was an elementary school teacher in rural Alsace, Eastern France. She was 18, since teachers in those days started working at that age, and she had 60 pupils. In the same class. It was during the 1930's, and these children's maternal language was either the local dialect or Polish, as many polish workers had immigrated there. So my 18 year old grandmother had to teach French to children who didn't speak it, children of different ages and origins, plus writing, reading, calculus, history etc... Amazingly enough she managed to do that, just like every other teacher.

Nowadays, in our school system, many children arrive in middle school without being able to read or write. Many graduate without even being able to write a text without grammar and spelling mistakes. And what do people say? We need smaller classes! Innovative methods! Computers! Interaction!

Nope. You need simple methods and authority. That's about it.

You know why girls thrive at school? Because school is for many girls an environment that is less authoritarian than their home, where they can thrive and be praised for their efforts. And the more conservative the family, the truer it is. Girls are expected to be good, they're not raised to be rebellious, but to listen to figures of authority. At home they're not complimented when they behave well, it's considered normal. Whereas at school they have an opportunity to shine, to be noticed for their good work and their behavior. Since they instinctively respect your authority as a teacher, they don't need to be scolded or punished in order to do a good job. So they perform better, because new teaching methods (less authoritative, more interactive) are adapted to them.

Boys don't perform well nowadays because while they are still raised like little princes, the institutions that used to keep them in check are gone. And if they're raised in conservative environment it's worse. Teachers are women and they don't respect women as authority figures. Their vision of authority is 'someone bigger than me who can use violence against me' therefore your status as a teacher means nothing to them, and the punishments you could use are seen as ridiculous. You may even have several cases of parents who think their sons are extraordinary, and that if they have bad grades it's only because you're mean.

So what can you do? I'm not a teacher, I only gave private tutoring classes when I was a student (I would burn out in 6 months, you people are heros) but honestly in my opinion it's not a problem of method, but of behavior and education. I don't know what you're allowed to do to assert your authority and put them back to work, but if your method works with girls, it means it's a good one!

[theselfcaregirl]

Should you let your hair air dry?

As someone who religiously lets my hair dry naturally and has done since forever, I was shocked when major hairstylists began to claim this may be worse for hair health than a blow-dry.

It seemed counterintuitive since we are always told that heat on hair = bad. It occurred to me that a lot of these claims came from owners of major beauty salons. So, the 'scientific' explanation may just be to boost their sales. So I decided to do a little research and cut the sh*t. Here's the tea…

The argument for air drying as more dangerous than using heat: 

When our hair is wet, it changes its molecular structure. The hair strands swell because water is absorbed through the hard outer layer of the cuticle and into the cortex. This does not cause the hair to become weakened straight away, but repeated swelling and slow drying puts pressure on the proteins that hold the hair together and causes the cell membrane to crack. Overall, this weakens the hair and leads to split ends.

Supposedly, it is the slower process of letting your hair dry naturally that makes this damage more exaggerated when air drying it. It suggests that the damage occurs either way, but less so if the process is sped up by using an expensive gHD hairdryer. This is said to be because it maximises the amount of time that the hair retains water for, i.e. the time that the hair strands are swollen and subsequently weaker. Therefore, the hair is simply more susceptible to damage during this time, but not necessarily prone to it.

I hate to name and shame but, after extensive research, the only 'scientific' explanations of why air-drying our hair is bad came from gHD workers when marketing their heat-using products, such as the first 'smart' straighteners. This appears a little biased and fishy to me.

The argument for air drying as less dangerous than using heat:

So, what happens to the hair strands when heat is applied while it is wet?

Wet hair is a very good conductor of heat (taking me back to my GCSE Chemistry days here!) When heat is applied, wet hair can really quickly heat up, to hellish temperatures which burn and break your hair cuticle. That is because the outer cuticle of the hair shaft lets a lot of water absorb into the hair cortex. As the wet hair heats up, the water turns to a gas. (This is where the dodgy burning smell comes from). As this happens, the water expands. In doing so it breaks out of the hair cuticle. This breaks strands and causes split ends.

This is why your hair is sometimes too hot to touch when blow-drying it, and it sometimes gives off a burning smell.

So what is the best thing to do? 1. Squeeze After hopping out the shower, gently squeeze out excess water with your hands. Keep doing this until it is no longer dripping and is simply damp. Make sure not to tug or be rough as this may lead to breakage. If your hair still feels too wet, use a soft towel or an old Cotton t-shirt if you want to be super safe. 2. Serum Using your fingers, gently run some serum through the strands. This is going to prep your hair for any brushing or styling you do later on. It will reduce the effects of damage that is supposedly caused by air drying.

I have used John Frieda Frizz Ease serum for years. It retails for just £6.99 and it lasts forever! You can get it in most supermarkets. I like it because not only does it stop my natural curly 'fro from going wild, but it protects hair from heat damage and is safe to use before heat.

If you're not intending to add any heat before the next wash, add a little Argan oil to the ends. This will improve hair strength and prevent breakage (see my post on Argan Oil).

3. Set Now, leave your hair alone! No touching, pulling or brushing. I recommend plaiting it to reduce temptation. (Plaits are better than buns or ponytails because they put minimal pressure on the root of the hair, preventing breakage).

Unless you have a brush specifically designed for detangling wet hair,  avoid brushing your hair. As your hair is weak when it is wet, the brush is likely to tear and damage the strands.If you do feel the need to brush your wet hair, do this after you have ran serum through with your fingers and use a detangling spray first. 

[dont-offend-the-bees]

A Rambling Yarn about JK Rowling

TW, obvs, for non-in depth talk of transphobia, misgendering, and cancer

So, storytime: when we were both kids, about 7 and 5 respectively, my brother and I spent a lot of time in hospital. He had an uncommon strain of cancer in his leg and knee and I, having no one else to stay with, had to come with my family to the specialty hospital in Birmingham for the majority of his stay there. And it was a traumatic experience, for him because he was enduring a cancer that killed the two other children admitted around the same time, and for me because at the tender age of 5 I was surrounded by kids dropping like flies, and had nowhere to go or be besides my own sick brother’s bedside. It stuck with us both in very different ways- now he is a restless person who can never stop or slow down because he feels he owes it to his survival and to the other kids who didn’t make it to wring every drop of life he can out of every given moment, and I... Well, I sort of forgot that most people live to adulthood and never planned ahead to do so myself. It was around GCSE when I realised I was very much alive, probably going to stay that way, and I had no clue what to do with it. Slight mental breakdown that year, but we’re not getting into it, that’s not my point.

My point is, as badly as that experience affected me, it affected my brother worse. And two things kept him going that time in hospital. One was Pokemon- he got given a Gameboy Colour, played Pokemon Blue til his hands went numb, all that jazz. And the other was Harry Potter- or, more specifically, JK Rowling herself. Turns out someone- and I can’t remember who it was, someone we met on the ward I think- had a connection to her. And when they sent her a message about this poor kid in hospital with the 2 in 3 chance of dying, she picked up her pen and she did something nice. She wrote him a letter, and sent it to him in the hospital with a whole box of that sweet, sweet HP swag. Pretty great, right? He was over the moon. So was I- even though I was also jealous because I was 5 and didn’t really grasp that maybe my brother who might be about to die deserves some toys and VHS tapes more than I do. I got over it though, and throughout his chemo and recovery and the years of homechooling afterwards when we were both too damaged in our own ways to handle primary school, we watched and read Harry Potter non-stop. I even won a Waterstones costume contest by dressing up as Fawkes the pheonix. Not super relevant to the story, just a lil brag, felt very vindicated winning my own box of Harry Potter swag that my brother had no claim over.

So, needless to say Harry Potter meant a lot to us both. For me it was just about a book/movie series I liked. For him, is was the creator too- it didn’t last forever but for a while, he and ol’ Jo actually had a little pen pal thing going. He wrote back thanking her for the stuff, she wrote back congratulating him on his recovery, and on it went. It would be months, even years between replies sometimes, but it meant a lot to him and it was nice of her to keep it up- if it was her and not a specially hired letter-writer, I guess, but whatever. She even invited him to the launch event for the final book, he got to hang out with Evanna Lynch, I wasn’t jealous at all no ma’am. Shush. But yeah, he was grateful to her, inspired by her, more or less worshipped the ground she walked on, and who can blame him?

Harry Potter has been a staple of our house ever since; even with the controveries about JK racking up in recent years, there’s still a fondness there. In fact, me and my parents were about halfway through a staggered re-watch of the movies a couple of days ago, when Ms Rowling looked at her timeline, saw a world in chaos over a global pandemic and the senseless murders of black people by police with too much power, and she said ‘I am uncomfortable when we are not about me?????’

You all can probably guess what I think about her comments. I am an AFAB nonbinary person, who has been the target of misogynistic harrassment, who experiences dysphoria whenever I have to think about my boobs or periods, and who has maybe a 20% chance of being correctly gendered in my own home at any given time and who is scared of wearing skirts/dresses even though I love them because when I do, that chance drops to 0%. I find her stance reductive, tired, easily debunked, and an insult to the feminists who came before her who rallied for women to be seen as people beyond their parts. And I find her delivery of said stance childish and careless.

I’ve always loved the series, but I can see its flaws, see how many of them are clearly fed by the biases and negativity of the author. And while seeing a person who wrote something I loved fall from grace and turn hateful is hard, it’s not hard for me to decide I can keep the things I liked, look at the rest with a critical eye, and see its author for who she really is and decide not to support her in future. Done, dusted, simple, right?

I’m starting to realise now, that my own feelings on the matter are the least of my worries.

I should start out by saying that my family aren’t abusive, or bigoted. In many ways I’m very lucky, I grew up with a lot of support, opportunities and freedoms that others did not. And while my parents have not always understood me, or necessarily been in favour of who I am or what I do, they’ve never told me I can’t. Dad will grumble and say it’s not feminine when I cut my hair, but he won’t stop me. It’s not a perfect situation by a long shot. Neither of my parents tends to acknowledge my nonbinary identity or my preferences for they/him pronouns. My brother does, although has confessed to me relatively recently that he doesn’t understand why it’s necessary for people to label themselves as nonbinary at all. I tried to explain, still unsure if I was successful. Basically, I’m not in an ideal quarantine situation, here, am I? But I’m lenient with my folks. I’ve learned to shrug it off and move on when I am misgendered, because it rarely feels like there’s any point to arguing it. I’ve learned not to talk too much about queerness with them because most of it falls on deaf ears and blank stares. But when last night Dad asked if we were carrying on the Potterathon after dinner, I took a chance and said I’d rather not; I’d spent enough time looking at the shitstorm of her transphobia and I’m done with it for now. I’m in a pretty delicate mental state at the moment right now, I’m sure LOTS of you can relate, and I have more important things to think about than unpacking my own feelings about the transphobia of a lady I’ll never meet.

He looked confused, and off-put by my frankness, but gotta give him credit, he didn’t push. ‘Til tonight when he suggested the exact same thing. And he and mum decided to watch it in the room next door anyway when I wasn’t keen, so it’s not like I have to see it! Just hear it through the wall. And at least my brother didn’t join in! Granted, that’s because he’s busy on a film set today, but. Well. I’m sure he’d stick by me even if he wasn’t. He’d just grumble a lot about it. And maybe say he doesn’t really get what the big deal is.

I don’t think my family would turn their back on me completely. I think, if push came to shove, they would be on my side. But the pushing, such as it is, has not been enough to dissuade any of them so far from maybe giving the Potterathon a rest for a week or so. Or, in the case of my parents, learn to use a slightly different pronoun for me than they’re used to. And maybe if I stopped fucking around being timid and afraid of causing discomfort, if I put my foot down and said you guys are gonna learn something and this time you’re not allowed to get bored, defensive, or pay more attention to the cat, then they would actually give a shit. But advocating for my own self-worth has never been my strong suit. I can’t do it when people use homophobic slurs around me and my brother doesn’t say anything, and I certainly can’t do it when people are consciously or unconsciously reinforcing a gender role they placed on me.

Suffice it to say, I’m not upset by JK’s opinions themselves, as such. I saw them coming, I don’t agree with them, I think it was a cheap ploy for attention from a middle-aged has-been desperate to stay relevant at all costs.

I am, however, in the back of my mind, perhaps a tad concerned that when it comes to a choice of me or her, my words, my existence against her point of view, the people who raised me will choose her, because in many ways she’s been ‘part of the family’ as long as I have, a constant presence in our lives since I was small and not obviously a confused deviant predator queer yet. And unfortunately, I know I’m not the only one with that same worry. Creators like her have clout, the highest platform and the biggest voice, and to parents and siblings of queer kids, teens, young adults who are on the fence about the topic anyway, that kind of voice carries a lot of weight. Creators like her who’ve been around for the last twenty years of peoples’ lives can fill a seat at the table from miles away, and have their voice preside over the dinner table like a loud, xenophobic uncle. I may be my brother’s sibling, my parents’ child, but she is the voice that helped him through the hardest time of his life, and like it or not they will occasionally choose her and her worlds over the kid they never quite got a handle on.

I don’t think I really have a point to this. Idk, maybe I did when I started writing it, but I got pulled into the yarn and lost the thread. I suppose all I’d say is don’t underestimate the effect even under-researched and transparently debunkable statements can have from people with power and a platform. If you’re not trans, if you’re wondering what all the fuss is about, please do your own research, from a variety of sources and form your own opinions, because I guarantee you JK feels comfortable enough in her following now to tweet whatever the hell she wants. And please, don’t invalidate the feelings of the trans people, old and young alike, who this hurts. The UK is already a cesspool of harrassment and restrictive practices for trans people, and it’s hard not to see that disgusting national mindset mirrored and amplified by one of our most famous and culturally impactful living authors and feel like the answering #IStandWithJKR hashtag (which is still trending two days later) is the final nail in the coffin.

Trans, enby, agender, etc. friends- it is not the final nail. Even if the entire word turns against us, I am on your side, I see you, I love you, I understand you. I’m not always in the best frame of mind these days, I can’t guarantee fast replies, but if any of you just need someone to talk to for a little bit, my DMs are always open. Be excellent to each other <3

[chemistry-and-cupcakes]

General advice for GCSE and A levels

So I was asked a question by a follower and I thought it might be beneficial to post some general advice for all the future candidates whose GCSEs and A levels aren’t cancelled because of a pandemic. Here’s a short list of what helped me get through these exams.

1) Getting exam technique down is IMPORTANT! Do not underestimate this importance - knowing what the examiners want from you is (sadly) almost more important than knowledge of content (though you do have to know that, too!)

2) Understand the question words. For example, explain means give detail, and list means don’t waste time with such detail.

3) Answer the question as it is written, not what you want the question to be. Some questions are really long winded - they’ll wrap up the question with some background material that you haven’t learnt about per se but is still relevant and applicable to your course. You have to be able to unravel the core of what the examiners are asking. Don’t worry about the wall of information. Do read it as be ready to glean clues from it, but find the question first.

4) Read the mark schemes AND THE EXAMINERS’ REPORTS! Last year’s documents are locked because teachers like to use them for mocks, but if you’ve already done those papers, ask your teachers to send you them. These are gold! Use the mark schemes to know which buzzwords and details the examiners will reward and use the examiners reports to see which questions candidates struggled to answer. There is almost always detailed analysis of common mistakes and advice to future candidates there!

5) Look through the teacher-oriented documents. I know for OCR A Biology A level, there were sample documents that gave examples of full marks, mid marks and low marks for long response questions. They literally hand you “what a good one looks like” (and it was easy to find because of how new the specification is). I was never given these documents in class! Nobody you have contact with knows the course better than a teacher who is meant to teach it. For A level languages, I read every single document, no matter how boring it seemed, which perhaps was a bit overkill, but it helped me know what exactly was expected of me. I’m talking everything from the specification to exemplar work and speaking exam conduct (which actually was useful because I then knew what would happen if I got too distressed to continue for example, as I knew what the teacher/examiner would be required to do in that case). It sounds nuts, but seeing it from a teacher’s perspective helped me. I knew the structure of my course by heart; I knew weightings of different aspects of exams and the learning objectives by which I was assessed. A lot of it is irrelevant admin, but there are actually some useful documents so do have a root through!

6) Don’t be afraid of old spec questions if the subject matter is relevant.

7) Revising using past papers is always the best way, ultimately. If you run out of past papers, make your own questions and file them away and come back to them! I buddied up with a friend and we tested each other, swapping our own exam-style questions at periodic intervals and marking our partner’s answers. You get to be the examiner, the marker and the candidate in one simple activity!

8) Learn from your mistakes. Don’t look at a lower mark and think you’re doomed; rather, think about where you went wrong. You’d be surprised at how many marks are lost to silly mistakes for which you’ll absolutely kick yourself in hindsight! Little mistakes might be avoided by doing something as little as slowing down, taking a toilet break to clear your head and generally being aware of them.

9) If there’s a certain type of question you struggle to answer, it may help to make a checklist of what to include. For example, whenever I’m asked to draw a graph, I write down things like “suitable axes using more than half the available space, x is independent variable, labels, title, units, correctly plotted points, line of best fit” in a corner somewhere out the way - and I’m at university rn! I do this before I start fumbling about with the question; it takes less than 30s to jot it down in a shorthand I understand.

10) Teach someone else, or pretend to! Even now, I remember stuff and understand it better if I’m “explaining” my thought process out loud as if I were teaching it. Understanding things will make subjects like chemistry a lot easier, because then you can apply what you know rather than blindly rote learn a bunch of examples. Mechanism you’re not quite sure of? Draw it out and talk it through! You’ll quickly pinpoint exactly what you’re struggling with.

11) Breathe and look after yourself. It’s not impossible; so much of success is about confidence. If you convince yourself you can’t do something, you absolutely won’t - attitude is everything and so is your health.