Parent Pages new website

The privately-owned children’s home accused of failing to protect a victim of the Rochdale sex abuse ring is being investigated by standards watchdogs. Inspectors turned up unannounced at the single-occupancy home which is now part of a group owned by an Anglo-American private equity company. The education watchdog Ofsted, which is responsible for standards in [...]

Read the full story

Security forces in Cambodia have killed a teenage girl during a clash with villagers armed with axes and crossbows in the latest of a series of violent evictions aimed at clearing land for development. Reports said that during a clash between up to 400 soldiers and police and villagers in Kratie province in the east [...]

Read the full story

A 15-year-old youth is facing a life sentence after being found guilty of stabbing a student to death in a row over conkers. The youth was found guilty at the Old Bailey of murdering architecture student Steven Grisales, 21. Mr Grisales died after he went over to remonstrate with three boys throwing conkers still in [...]

Read the full story

Some of London’s most deprived children will be damaged further by being struck off the special needs list, a leading headteacher warned today. Children who act as carers, those who are homeless or whose parents have died could lose out on extra support, Jo Shuter, head of Quintin Kynaston school in St John’s Wood, claimed. [...]

Read the full story

Yesterday she was told in no uncertain terms to stop playing mother to her fiancé’s children. But Elizabeth Hurley is clearly a woman who doesn’t scare easily as she stepped out with Shane Warne’s daughter. The model was snapped with her betrothed and his youngest girl Summer, and her son Damian, both 10. They were [...]

Read the full story

A mother whose baby died after being deprived of oxygen when he was born has told an inquest that she is “tortured” by the memory of his birth. Noah Tyler died 10 months after suffering irreversible brain damage at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, a pathologist said. A midwife admitted making “catastrophic mistakes” [...]

Read the full story

Schools in England will be banned from taking pupils’ fingerprints and using face-recognition technology unless they get permission from parents. New government guidance says written parental permission must be obtained to use students’ biometric data. Pupils themselves will also be allowed to refuse to participate. Schools can use fingerprinting or face scanning for recording attendance, [...]

Read the full story

There is no clear link between performance pay for teachers and raising standards in schools, says an international survey. The OECD has examined data from its Pisa tests to find whether targeting pay improves pupil achievement. Previous studies have identified the importance of high-quality teaching. But the OECD’s Andreas Schleicher says the international evidence reveals [...]

Read the full story

Childminders in England say their professionalism could be undermined, and families ill-served, if government plans to change the way they are regulated go ahead. Liz Bayram, joint chief executive of the National Childminding Association, said she was “very concerned” about signals that the government is seeking to bring “a lighter touch” to childminding regulation based [...]

Read the full story

Lady Gaga will have to cancel her sold-out show in Indonesia following protests by Islamic hard-liners and conservative lawmakers, who said her sexy clothes and dance moves will corrupt young people. National police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar, responding to the pressure, said today that the permit for her 3 June “Born This Way Ball” concert [...]

Read the full story

A mother-of-four who killed her children and then herself early on Tuesday morning said she wanted to be cremated with them, in a harrowing text message sent to a friend hours earlier. Sheriff’s deputies in Brevard County, Florida said 33-year-old Tanya Thomas shot her four children, who ranged in age from 12 to 17. They [...]

Read the full story

Women’s empowerment guru, Tyra Banks, has spoken out in support of Vogue’s decision to ban rail thin models from its pages. The 38-year-old media mogul and former supermodel praised the fashion glossy’s 19 editors today for banding together to put a stop to ‘thinspirational’ editorial and called for a toast ‘over some barbecue and burgers’. [...]

Read the full story

Charities, teachers’ leaders and campaigners yesterday condemned plans that could remove thousands of children from the special-needs register. Ministers have announced a series of reforms in the belief that too many children at schools in England have been wrongly labelled as having special educational needs (SEN). There will be a new single category of SEN [...]

Read the full story

The average family with children throws away £680 of food a year, according to research. The sum, which equals £13 a week, makes a total of £12 billion across the nation. The study found that the average household spends £68 a week on food but that 91% of households with children admit to throwing some [...]

Read the full story

When I was 18, I changed my name. Crucially, I gave myself a new middle name — Justine. Actually, it wasn’t new at all. It was the name my birth mother gave me before I was adopted. I can still remember the horror my teenage self felt  when I saw my birth certificate and realised [...]

Read the full story

A schizophrenic who knifed a schoolboy to death and wounded three other pupils after failing to take his medication was today jailed for at least 20 years. Serif Aslan stabbed Kasey Gordon, 15, in the heart in front of horrified shoppers. Aslan, 34, who was free to roam the streets despite a long history of [...]

Read the full story

The global mortality rate for women giving birth has fallen by half over the past two decades, a UN report released today said. While there has been considerable progress, more work remains because a woman dies of pregnancy-related complications every two minutes, the report said. The report from the World Health Organization, United Nations Children’s [...]

Read the full story

UK families are wasting £270 a year (£5.20 a week) on discarded food and drink, according to a survey of their kitchen habits. Most families massively underestimate the amount of food they throw away each week, according to new research. Despite the economic downturn they admit to buying more than they need, often tempted by [...]

Read the full story

A study led by a University of Bristol academic found that a child’s educational achievements can be harmed when a father loses his job. Using British Cohort Study data, Professor Paul Gregg studied job losses during the 1980s recession to assess the impact of unemployment on children’s academic performance.   The research found that children [...]

Read the full story

My younger brother never has any money and for years my parents have bankrolled his various career changes and batty business ventures. Now he is in his thirties I feel it’s time for him to stand on his own feet. Constantly bailing him out only encourages him and I’m resentful that he’s received so many [...]

Read the full story

Terminally-ill Australian Shaun Wilson-Miller, 17, has become an internet sensation after accidentally posting a heartbreaking and inspirational farewell message to the world on YouTube. Shaun, who has been told by doctors he does not have long left to live after his body rejected a SECOND heart transplant, was only trying to post his tragic goodbye [...]

Read the full story

Five family members were arrested after authorities found a one-year-old child and 58 dogs living in near squalor and surrounded by filth. Teresa Weldon, 48, from Springtown, Texas, claimed to run an animal rescue operation from her home and had as many as 200 dogs sent to her over the space of two years. However, [...]

Read the full story

Some people are born a success, scientists believe. Research shows that much of our predisposition towards determination, sociability and self-control and sense of purpose is in our genes. In fact, our DNA plays a bigger role in influencing these traits than our upbringing and the company we keep. Taken together, these facets of personality can [...]

Read the full story

Police missed chances to bring a takeaway owner to justice earlier for a string of sexual offences against under-age girls, a judge said today. Several witnesses, including a 12-year-old girl, complained about Azad Miah pestering them for sex in exchange for money but no action was taken and he continued his “corrupting and degrading” sexual [...]

Read the full story

A “wicked and controlling” man who murdered his “fun-loving, mischievous” stepson has been ordered to serve at least 17 years in prison. Elvis Lee, 34, was found guilty yesterday of murdering Tyler Whelan, five. Lee admitted he kicked and bit Tyler on the day of his death but denied murder. The kick was so hard [...]

Read the full story

After giving birth to her third child last summer, one could forgive Claudia Winkleman for wanting to take it easy. However, the Strictly Come Dancing presenter tells Mandrake the new child has made her so broody her husband has had to impose a baby ban.   “I’d like another baby but my husband has banned [...]

Read the full story

A man accused of murdering his wife said their children would soon forget her as relatives waited for news about her disappearance, a trial has heard. Nat Fraser, 53, denies murdering his wife Arlene. Mrs Fraser was 33 when she disappeared from her home in New Elgin, Moray, on 28 April 1998. Her father, Hector [...]

Read the full story

Thousands of parents whose children fall behind in reading will get vouchers to spend on private tutors under plans unveiled by Nick Clegg today. It marks a major new drive to provide “catch-up lessons” for struggling youngsters from poorer families in their first year of secondary school. Mr Clegg hailed the Evening Standard’s Get London [...]

Read the full story

Grownup children still living with their parents get a pretty bad press. In Britain and America they’re labelled “Kippers” (Kids In Parents’ Pockets Eroding Retirement Savings) or “Yuckies” (Young Unwitting Costly Kids). In Australia it’s “Slops” (Singles Living Off Parents). In Italy it’s “Bamboccioni” (Big Babies). The Japanese are even less delicate: their “parasaito shinguru” [...]

Read the full story

A homeless man was discovered sleeping on an “all mod cons” children’s ward at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Bosses launched an investigation after the man wandered on to the site in Bloomsbury through a fire door. Staff had apparently confused him for the parent of a patient, the hospital said today, because he was “smartly [...]

Read the full story

It took Muscadeu, a small, portly white horse, and his rider, Luke Tucker, a teenager from Yorkshire, almost six months to trek from the Camargue region of France to England. For both the trip was a job of work: they were part of the 2008 Caravan of Hope, a charitable mission to deliver Camargue horses, [...]

Read the full story

A married couple living in Spain masterminded the kidnap of a British boy by an armed gang in Pakistan, a court heard today. Four masked men wielding assault rifles and hand grenades seized Sahil Saeed, five, while he was visiting his grandmother’s home in Punjab, prosecutors said. Muhammed Zahid Saleem and his wife Monica Neruja [...]

Read the full story

Levi Brailsford’s grandmother was reportedly driving when she heard him unbuckle the harness in his car seat and friends say she was trying to pull over to re-fasten the buckle when the door opened and he fell out.   Police are investigating the possibility that Levi was then crushed under the wheels of the car [...]

Read the full story

A workman who cut the base of a lamp post that later fell, fatally injuring a baby, wishes he had died instead, an inquest heard today. Tommy Hollis suffered severe head injuries when he was struck by the falling lamp post as he was sleeping in a pram being pushed by his nanny in Chiswick, [...]

Read the full story

When Maria Concetta Cacciola drank the bottle of acid that would kill her in August last year, one can only imagine what was going through her mind. The mother of three, 31, had effectively been imprisoned in the family home in the dreary town of Rosarno, in the southern Italian region of Calabria, and probably [...]

Read the full story

No three-year-old’s birthday would be complete without a brightly-coloured cake with candles on top. But Oscar Barlow was left in tears when police swooped on his party at a play centre – after staff said his cake was a health and safety risk. Bosses at Rumble Tumble play centre said the candles constituted a safety [...]

Read the full story

Like most loving parents, Chris and Kathy Coker were anxious when their son Bradley embarked on his gap-year trip around the world. Even though they knew he was sensible, it was hard not to worry about what could go wrong. And so, the Cokers recall, they breathed a sigh of relief when they learned that [...]

Read the full story

Thousands of children have lost the chance of a decent life because of the ban on mixed-race adoption, the state equality chief has admitted. Trevor Phillips said it was his greatest regret that he failed to challenge the race rules which denied children the chance of a loving family and instead left them at the [...]

Read the full story

Mega-wealthy Chinese parents are paying out hundreds of thousands of pounds for their children to have lessons in the art of chit-chat – to help them get into Oxbridge. The families are doing their utmost, including paying out the huge sums to British ‘education consultants’ based in China in order to give their children the [...]

Read the full story

A Carlisle takeaway boss has been convicted of attempting to recruit four girls aged between 12 and 16 into prostitution. Azad Miah, 44, was also found guilty at Carlisle Crown Court of running a brothel from his business and paying for the sexual services of teenagers. The owner of the former Spice of India restaurant [...]

Read the full story

As many as 450,000 children could be removed from school special needs registers because they have been wrongly labelled as requiring extra help, the Government will announce today. Campaigners fear the cuts could leave thousands of children “cut adrift”. One in five schoolchildren in England is on the register. The rules are designed to toughen [...]

Read the full story

Babies born this year will not get their state pension until the age of 77 – and their own children will have to wait until they are in their eighties, a shock report has revealed. The findings raise the prospect of a baby girl, born today, retiring nearly two decades older than her grandmother who [...]

Read the full story

The 14-year-old half-brother of six children who died in a Derby fire says the family is “struggling” to come to terms with their loss. Five children aged between five and 10 died in the early hours of Friday after the blaze at a property on Victory Road in the Allenton area. A sixth child, 13-year-old [...]

Read the full story

Parents in England are to be given control over their children’s special educational needs (SEN) budgets, allowing them to choose expert support rather than local authorities being the sole provider. In what the government described as the biggest reform of SEN for 30 years, the measures will also legally force education, health and social care [...]

Read the full story

On Thursday, the education secretary, Michael Gove, eloquently described how much of this nation’s talents and capabilities are strangled at birth by the power of the old school tie. “Those who were born poor are more likely to stay poor and those who inherit privilege are more likely to pass on privilege in England more [...]

Read the full story

What is it about men in the kitchen that makes them so outspoken? The latest to let off steam is the top chef, Marcus Wareing, who criticises the trainee cooks working for him as lazy and clueless, only interested in how many hours they have to work and having an exaggerated sense of entitlement. Asked [...]

Read the full story

Rhys Watkins is just 11 years old but he has been forced to battle cancer twice in little over a year. His latest operation, in the week before Christmas, was to remove a very aggressive, tennis ball-sized tumour from his lung. His family were not expecting him home in time for Christmas Day. However, he [...]

Read the full story

Four in 10 couples have shelved plans to start a family because they can’t afford it, according to research from the Skipton Building Society. A survey of 2,412 childless couples showed that 901 have been delaying having children for the past two years due to the poor state of their finances. Of these couples, 47 [...]

Read the full story

Seventy thousand primary school leavers will take part in intensive two-week summer schools this year to keep them from falling behind during the six-week break. Nick Clegg will announce tomorrow that the “top-up” lessons will be provided to children from poor backgrounds by two-thirds of secondary schools, as part of a drive to highlight the [...]

Read the full story

One in four women do not have  a midwife present during the crucial moments of giving birth, according to a new study. The research, for the Royal College of Midwives, reveals that women across the country are being let down by under-staffed maternity services. On average, a quarter of women said they did not have  [...]

Read the full story