Real world testing

After breakfast under overcast skies, packing and loading the car was the priority, as we were due to be out of the caravan by ten thirty. We were allowed the use the hotel car park to stay on longer, and went there for a coffee later before parting company at lunchtime. But first, we walked a few kilometres along the beach together and took photos of Kath cartwheeling and Owain doing star jumps to camera using burst mode to good effect.

It's been lovely to have these few days together holidaying en famille, as we haven't done for many years, apart from a few days at Christmas. Naturally we missed having Rachel and Jasmine with us. It's something I'l never get used to. Our children get on well and have fun when they're together, and this is a source of great contentment to us as we get older. 

On our journey home, Clare and I turned off the M4 to eat our picnic lunch in Margam's Country Park where cars were parked on the grass, hundreds of them, indicating how popular a place it is when beaches are miserable grey places. We wanted to return, get the washing done, the mail answered and photos uploaded before the weekend, so we didn't go into the park to have a look around. Another time we must make the effort, as neither of us has been there, that we can recall.

The last week or so has seen a marked resurgence of covid-19 cases in EU countries. It seems that it's younger people that are being infected, perhaps due to the slow return to normal social interactions. The impact is far less severe in many cases it seems. It suggests the virus is mutating in an evolutionary way, to co-exist within live human tissue rather than killing people, which isn't in the best survival interests of the virus.

Today the surge in infestions has led to the sudden imposition of quarantine for people returning from France, ruining thousands of holidays, causing mass travel panic for Brits and untold economic damage to the holiday and leisure industries. This development has seemed likely for several days, so an early warning would have served better than a sudden change. I wonder if the government really understands the impact this is going to have on people's lives. 

The same too in relation to the way grade assessments for GCSE and A level students have failed to recognise the academic achievements of many school students and devalued their performance on the basis of an algorithmic abstraction, rather than on the evaluation of their teachers. It's taken widespread uproar nationally to get it reconsidered. I don't really understand why ability and achievement aren't being monitored by continuous assessment rather than by exams, which are a contrived form of testing with a tenuous relationship to real world challenges. There are lots of smart clever people in government but decisions taken don't always reflect wisdom or reliable common sense. They fail the real world test.