Welcome to Wikipedia: check out the Teahouse! edit

 
Hello! EducationHoM, you are invited to the Teahouse, a forum on Wikipedia for new editors to ask questions about editing Wikipedia, and get support from peers and experienced editors. Please join us!
I, and the rest of the hosts, would be more than happy to answer any questions you have! SarahStierch (talk) 23:16, 29 August 2013 (UTC)Reply

March 2014 edit

  Hello, I'm JRPG. Wikipedia is written by people who have a wide diversity of opinions, but we try hard to make sure articles have a neutral point of view. Your recent edit to Peter Birkett seemed less than neutral to me, so I removed it for now. If you think I made a mistake, or if you have any questions, you can leave me a message on my talk page. Thank you.

I should have added that our objective is an accurate and fair description of the subject. If you are connected with Peter Birkett in any way and feel the article is unfair, you should provide reasons on the talk page or read Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons/Help which includes information on how to get such material removed. Regards JRPG (talk) 15:48, 14 March 2014 (UTC)Reply

Hello - thank you for your message. I am EducationHoM and appreciate your comments, however the edit you have made talks mainly about a period post Pete Birketts time at this organisation. The page should give a balanced overview of Pete Birkett, both the achievements made during his leadership and for context also a mention of the investigation post this period. The edits you have made speak in the main of the report rather than the subject Pete Birkett. I think by reintroducing some of my edit and also a small reduction in the content on the investigation outcomes this could be achieved. Thank you.

Thanks for replying EducationHoM. My sole interest is to get a fair and informative article -& we can probably do that better together. I don't know what "this organization" refers to but agree most biographies start with details of where born etc. They don't stop when someone leaves. If you work for one of the academies you may want to declare this -in a new section on this page -and it wouldn't stop you making neutral point of view edits. I'll make further suggestions where you can help here shortly as I know its difficult as a new editor to start writing a biography. Please also sign your posts using 4 tilda's (~) Regards JRPG (talk) 13:02, 15 June 2015 (UTC)Reply

Thank you also for your reply. I would appreciate your assistance on getting this page more balanced than it currently stands - agree it should be neutral and give a greater context of the subject 'Pete Birkett'. I shall endeavour to investigate the additional info you mention and should then like to see if together we can get this page more rounded. I do not work for this organisation I am just interested (through employment in this industry for the last 5 years) in education success stories and achievers in this arena. Look forward to hearing from you. Many thanks EducationHoM EducationHoM (talk) 09:02, 16 June 2015 (UTC)EducationHoMReply

Firstly, on talk pages, its suggested you use a ':' to tab the first & subsequent lines of your reply.
I’m a secondary school governor and it is sometimes difficult finding wp:reliable sources other than OFSTED. This article needs to have details showing how well/badly these schools were doing before they became academies & Birkett was involved. In general, school websites are deemed wp:primary sources –i.e. ok for uncontroversial facts -when the school opened and the current head teacher etc. if the OFSTED article doesn’t have this but not suitable to provide an independent opinion on the teaching quality.
For new users, the most surprising thing about Wikipedia is the lack of discretion editors are given –once they have chosen their preferred reliable sources ..so choose carefully!
Another point is that we're not allowed to remove summaries from reliable sources purely because they're critical. They can only be removed if coverage is excessive under wp:UNDUE and an explanation is all but mandatory in the edit summary.
WP:ASSERT is a key policy i.e. we don’t say “the school improved” we say that OFSTED rated the school as ... & we can't say "Birkett transformed lives" -unless a reliable source says it and hence we can put it in quotes. Hope that helps Would you like to find a source for Birkett's 8 years? Regards JRPG (talk) 15:31, 16 June 2015 (UTC)Reply

Peter Birkett edit

JRPG has raised some (IMO valid) concerns regarding your "enthusiastic" editing of the Birkett article. I encourage you to reply on the article talk page lest this ends up at Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard or some similarly delightful place. Favonian (talk) 20:25, 13 June 2015 (UTC)Reply