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Parents are allowing children to go to school laden with electronic devices but without basic equipment such as a pen or ruler, according to teachers.

By David Barrett 8:15AM BST 17 Apr 2011

They are the schoolchildren who have every imaginable electronic gadget – but are turning up for classes without pens. Teachers are warning that pupils are failing to pack their schoolbags with basic classroom equipment and instead are bringing mobile phones, iPods, hand-held computer game devices and even the latest iPads to school.

Source: TELEGRAPH

Col Muammar Gaddafi is using schoolboy conscripts as young as 15 in his battle to regain the besieged town of Misurata according to young government troops captured by rebels.

By Ben Farmer, Misurata

The teenagers are told they are going on training exercises until they reach the front lines, when they are given rifles and told by officers they will be shot if they retreat or desert. Two badly-wounded teenage fighters shown to The Daily Telegraph said they were told Misurata had been overrun by drug addicts, Islamic militants and Egyptian invaders. One said his own side had opened fire on his own teenage detachment when they later fled from the rebels.

Source: TELEGRAPH

The head teacher of a troubled Powys secondary school has been suspended while an investigation takes place.

15 April 2011 Last updated at 14:20 GMT

It follows six one-day strikes by a majority of teachers at Brecon High School against compulsory redundancies. Powys council said the head Ingrid Gallagher had been suspended while an inquiry took place “into concerns that have been raised”. It said the decision was “neutral” and was not disciplinary action. Union members have staged strikes against six job cuts, with two posts lost through compulsory redundancy.

Source: BBC NEWS

Many years ago, when I was a teenager, I asked my mother a question.

By KEITH KENDRICK
Last updated at 12:54 AM on 15th April 2011

It was a challenging question because I was a challenging sort of boy, and my mother knew it. She also knew how to give as good as she got. My question was this: ‘If my dad and I were drowning, who would you choose to save?’ She didn’t hesitate in replying. ‘Your dad.’ I was completely taken aback by her answer, but I also didn’t believe her, until I asked her to explain why.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

More teenagers will be encouraged to take degrees at private universities under sweeping changes to the student loans system.

By Graeme Paton, Education Editor

Undergraduates will be able to borrow up to £6,000 a year – double the existing sum – to cover the cost of studying at independent institutions. The move is being seen as an attempt to introduce more competition into higher education and reward private providers who are more likely to offer cut-price courses. It is believed many will charge considerably less than the £9,000 tuition fees being planned by growing numbers of state-funded institutions from 2012.

Source: TELEGRAPH

A British teacher who was fired by a Sydney college because he gave a class to adult students about the “f-word” has won his case for unfair dismissal after he argued that he was trying to teach his pupils how not to use the swear word.

By Bonnie Malkin, Sydney 5:23PM BST 13 Apr 2011

Luke Webster lost his job at Mercury Colleges when it emerged that he had handed non-English speaking students a worksheet that asked them to consider if the swear word was being used as a verb or a noun in several different sentences.

When the unorthodox teaching method came to light, the management of the college was appalled, telling Mr Webster in his dismissal letter that: “We are not in the business of teaching profanity.”

Source: TELEGRAPH

A teenager from Gateshead who was taken to hospital with suspected meningitis has died.

13 April 2011 Last updated at 15:11 GMT

Two year 10 pupils at Emmanuel College were taken ill over the weekend. Michael Lloyd, 15, died on Tuesday from suspected meningococcal meningitis. The condition of the other boy is said to be slowly improving. In a statement, Michael’s parents, Allison and Eddie, and his sister Amy said that the whole family had been left “devastated”. They also thanked medics, including the family GP, for their efforts in trying to save Michael.

Source: BBC NEWS

Skills developed in class are in demand from exam providers.

By Max de Lotbinière

Computer-based testing has made big advances in English language assessment in recent years, but the future remains bright for human examiners. Last year the Ielts test of English was taken over 1.5m times and the speaking and writing sections of the test were evaluated by up to 5,500 examiners who assessed candidates in one-to-one interviews or read and marked their scripts. Cambridge Esol, which is part of the consortium responsible for Ielts, produces its own suite of English language exams and employs either directly, in the UK, or via local tests centres, about 15,000 examiners to carry out face-to-face oral assessment and to mark written work for exams ranging from tests for young learners to its advanced-level certificate.

Source: GUARDIAN

Two men are being questioned about the deaths of two teenagers from carbon monoxide poisoning.

12 April 2011 Last updated at 15:19 GMT

Aaron Davidson and Neil McFerran, both 18, from Newtownabbey died at a holiday apartment in Castlerock last August. Detectives are questioning the men – aged 40 and 49 – about the friends’ deaths. It is understood Coleraine gas fitter George Brown is one of the men being interviewed by police.

Source: BBC NEWS

David Cameron branded Oxford University “disgraceful” after claiming that the institution admitted only one black student in the last academic year.

By Andrew Porter, Graeme Paton and James Kirkup

On a visit to the north of England, the Prime Minister singled out Oxford for criticism when he accused elite institutions of having a “terrible record” of enrolling teenagers from state schools. Senior officials at the university described the figure as “highly misleading” as it related only to British students who described themselves as black Caribbean. They said Oxford admitted another 27 students who described themselves as black African and another 14 who were mixed race.

Source: TELEGRAPH

It’s the controversial EastEnders storyline which sparked more than 8,400 complaints to Ofcom.

By EMILY SHERIDAN
Last updated at 1:48 AM on 12th April 2011

But four months after Ronnie Branning (Samantha Womack) swapped the dead body of her own baby James for Kat Moon’s newborn Tommy, the troubled blonde is seen paying for her crime as she is jailed. Sitting in the visiting area of the prison, a pale and gaunt Ronnie appears to be struggling to contain her emotions as she is visited by husband Jack (Scott Maslen).

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

Parents at a supposedly cash-strapped school have reacted with disbelief after it spent thousands of pounds supplying teachers with Apple iPads.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 7:47 AM on 12th April 2011

School bosses say staff need the tablet computers for daily registration and to ensure they have access to the internet. But parents of children at  Bishop Rawstorne CE Language College, near Leyland, Lancashire, condemned the move – which comes after they were asked  to dip into their pockets to allow a theatre group to perform at the school.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

A teenage driver who ploughed into a woman in Reading moments after receiving a text message has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

11 April 2011 Last updated at 18:42 GMT

Keisha Wall, 19, veered off Forbury Road into the path of 63-year-old Christine Lyon in February 2010. The crash happened while she was driving with her driving instructor mother, months after passing her test. Wall, of Alston Walk, Caversham, was found guilty last month of causing death by dangerous driving. Mrs Lyon, of Furze Platt, Maidenhead, Berkshire, died of her injuries at the scene, despite being treated by a passing doctor. At Reading Crown Court, Judge Stephen John described Wall as “an intelligent, hard-working, decent and caring young woman from a close-knit family”, but added “this was a wholly avoidable accident, and only you are to blame”.

Source: BBC NEWS

Head teachers at seven schools in Sheffield have written an open letter to parents urging them to fight budget cuts of 20% for sixth form education.

8 April 2011 Last updated at 11:18 GMT

In the letter the heads tell parents: “We have never been subjected to cuts of this magnitude.” The letter claims class sizes may increase and some subjects may be cut over the next three years. The Department for Education said it was moving to a fairer and more transparent funding system. The letter, signed by the heads of King Ecgbert, Tapton, Silverdale, All Saints’ Catholic High, High Storrs, King Edward VII and Notre Dame Catholic High, tells parents some classes may be taught in less time and make more use of ICT for delivery.

Source: BBC NEWS

An Australian man who threw his four-year-old daughter to her death off of a Melbourne bridge as revenge against her mother during a custody battle has been sentenced to life in prison, with 32 years without parole

By Bonnie Malkin in Sydney 7:00AM BST 11 Apr 2011

In one of the most shocking crimes in Australia’s recent history, Arthur Freeman pulled over his car on Melbourne’s 260 foot-high West Gate Bridge in the morning rush hour, picked his daughter Darcey up and dropped her over the railing. His two sons, Ben, 6, and Jack, 2, were in the vehicle at the time. Minutes earlier, he had told Peta Barnes, his ex-wife, over the phone: “Say goodbye to your children”.

Source: TELEGRAPH

Efforts by parents to monitor their children’s use of the internet are being undermined by new “smart phones” which offer speedier online access than some home computers, an official report has said.

By Richard Alleyne 5:00PM BST 10 Apr 2011

Although mothers and fathers want their children to have a mobile phone for safety and social reasons, they now realise it leaves them powerless to stop access to inappropriate internet sites, including pornography, the research has found. Parents also worry that internet-ready mobile phones leave their offspring open to direct and inappropriate advertising. Their fears were discovered by a review, Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood, which is being carried out by the Mothers’ Union for Sarah Teather, the children’s minister.

Source: TELEGRAPH

Raunchy television shows and adult-like clothes are forcing children to grow up too quickly, parents say.

By LYDIA WARREN
Last updated at 8:32 AM on 11th April 2011

Explicit advertising campaigns and ‘too adult’ soap operas are also to blame, a study for the Department for Education found.

Nearly nine in ten parents believe children feel under pressure to act older than they are. And almost half believe the 9pm watershed – in place to protect youngsters – no longer has any force.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

It is the age of the entrepreneur, so the government says. But be warned, there are many pitfalls for those who go from uni into their own business.

By Anna Tims

Simon McCann turned down a job offer from one of the UK’s top accountancy firms when he graduated from Aston University in 2009. Instead of drawing a large salary from corporate coffers he saw his future in a coffee cup, and set up his own business dispensing affordable Fairtrade coffee on his old campus. Less than two years later, he is trying to sell his ailing company and has put himself back on the job market. ”I wasn’t realistic enough about the startup costs and I tried expanding too soon,” he says. Going solo is increasingly attractive to graduates as competition for decent jobs intensifies. Britain, says David Cameron, is entering the age of the entrepreneur and a survey by Enterprise UK last month found that over half of the country’s teenagers, reared on the thrills of the TV show Dragons’ Den, would like to run their own business.

Source: GUARDIAN

A former firefighter who set himself and his house on fire was spared jail after his lawyer claimed he was suffering from a male equivalent of post-natal depression.

By Nick Collins 7:30AM BST 09 Apr 2011

Jason Jerome, 38, became depressed and suicidal after giving up work to move in with his new partner and become a house husband, a court heard. He was unable to find work and became the primary carer for a seven-month-old baby after relocating to Devon to live with Helen Jones, who he had met on the internet.

Source: TELEGRAPH

The Coalition’s policy on tuition fees risked descending into chaos after it emerged that two thirds of universities would charge the maximum £9,000 a year for degree courses.

By Graeme Paton, Education Editor

Ministers were accused of “losing control” of their flagship higher education reforms as growing numbers of vice-chancellors unveiled plans to almost triple fees in 2012.

The biggest study of its kind so far found 65 per cent of institutions in England intended to charge the maximum for some courses, with half saying they would charge £9,000 for all degrees.

Source: TELEGRAPH

Parents who went to pub while leaving boy, five, to get drunk in ‘squalid’ home escape jail.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 3:28 PM on 8th April 2011

• Five children under seven left alone in ‘filthy’ home
• Children were seen swinging from net curtains
• Officers found home strewn with dirt and smelling of faeces
• Father’s lawyer claim he is a good father when sober

A couple who abandoned their five young children at their ‘filthy and squalid’ home to go to the pub today walked free from court. Angela Freer, 31, and Christopher Steele, 55, left the dock in tears as they were spared an immediate custodial sentence for committing ‘serious neglect’.Neighbours alerted police when they witnessed the youngsters – aged between three and seven – swinging on net curtains in the front window of their home in Blackpool, Lancashire, for up to 40 minutes.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

Hundreds of extra primary school places are needed in highly-populated parts of England, Guardian poll of councils reveals.

By Jessica Shepherd, education correspondent

A baby boom has triggered record shortages of primary school places for this autumn in some of the most highly populated parts of England, it has emerged. In Essex, Bristol, Leeds and parts of London, hundreds of extra places are needed, a Guardian poll of 17 councils found. Barking and Dagenham, in east London, said it needed 443 more places, while nearby Redbridge and Essex require 375 and 300 extra places. Bristol needs an extra 479 places. All four said they had never needed as many extra places before. In Leeds, an extra 225 are needed. Poole in Dorset, Barnet in north London and Warrington in Cheshire said they had not needed to provide as many extra places for at least a decade.

Source: GUARDIAN>> Read full article and comment

Withdrawal symptoms experienced by young people deprived of gadgets and technology is compared to those felt by drug addicts or smokers going “cold turkey”, a study has concluded.

By Andrew Hough 7:30AM BST 08 Apr 2011

Researchers found nearly four in five students had significant mental and physical distress, panic, confusion and extreme isolation when forced to unplug from technology for an entire day.

They found college students at campuses across the globe admitted being “addicted” to modern technology such as mobile phones, laptops and television as well as social networking such as Facebook and Twitter.

Source: TELEGRAPH

The young boy who was saved from the Queensland floods after his brother Jordan Rice insisted that rescuers take him first has been attacked by a group of teenagers who hit him with sticks and broke his collarbone.

By Bonnie Malkin in Sydney 2:30AM BST 08 Apr 2011

Blake Rice, 10, has been unable to return to school since he was set upon by the gang, who reportedly recognised him from media reports. The teenagers later set up a Facebook page called “We Bashed Jordan Rice” to boast about the assault. The incident comes after a series of verbal assaults and threats on the Rice family following the January floods that have forced John Tyson, Blake’s father, to consider moving the family away from their home town of Toowoomba.

Source: TELEGRAPH

Teenagers who read for pleasure are much more likely to get a better job when they become adults, according to an in-depth and long-running sociological study.

By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Editor 6:00AM BST 08 Apr 2011

Of all the free-time activities teenagers do, such as playing computer games, cooking, playing sports, going to the cinema or theatre, visiting a museum, hanging out with their girlfriend or boyfriend, reading is the only activity that appears to help them secure a good job. This is one of the conclusions of an Oxford University study into 17,000 people all born in the same week in May 1970. They are now grown up and in their early 40s and the sociological study has tracked their progress through time.

Source: TELEGRAPH

A concerned father has developed the world’s first bullying alert system for Facebook which scans text and flags up abusive behaviour.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 9:00 AM on 8th April 2011

NHS consultant Paddy Clarke’s software scans walls and inboxes for trigger words and phrases such as ‘gay’ and ‘fat’ and alerts parents when they appear. The father-of-four came up with the idea after reading a string of cyber-bullying horror stories. Mr Clarke, 48, said he hoped his system – called ‘Know Diss’ – will keep children safe from online bullies. He said: ‘Bullying has now gone from the playground into children’s homes. ’Kids feel safe sending an abusive message in their rooms. It is pretty awful.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

Portable devices, especially those made by Apple, are increasingly popular with teens in the US who can’t have enough gadgets in their lives, it seems.

Thursday, 7 April 2011

More than one out of every three teens (37 percent) intends to purchase an iPhone in the next six months says a new survey by market analyst firm Piper Jaffray, while a further 17 percent say they already own an iPhone.

Piper Jaffray’s “Taking Stock With Teens Survey” catalogues a growing trend of Apple-faithful teens – but neglects to mention how many are interested in rival products running Android, BlackBerry or Windows Phone 7 operating systems.  Of the 80 percent of teens who own an MP3 player, 86 percent of them said it was an Apple-branded iPod.

Source: INDEPENDENT

Witnesses tell how gunman opened fire on pupils at Tasso da Silveira primary school in Rio de Janeiro.

By Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro

At least 13 people have died after a gunman opened fire in a school in western Rio de Janeiro. Some 20 people, including children, were wounded in the shooting at the school for students aged 10 to 15, the Associated Press reported. The vice-mayor of western Rio said 13 people had died in the shooting at Tasso da Silveira school, although it was not clear if that figure was accurate or included the attacker. Edmar Teixeira said the gunman was a 24-year-old former student who pretended to be giving a speech to students before opening fire with two handguns. When police appeared at the scene the gunman shot himself dead, Teixeira said. He left behind a letter outlining his motives.

Source: GUARDIAN

Bashar al-Assad also orders closure of Syria’s only casino in bid to appease Muslims ahead of proposed anti-regime protests.

Wednesday 6 April 2011 16.15 BST

Syria has closed the country’s only casino and reversed a ban on teachers wearing the Islamic veil – moves seen as an attempt to reach out to conservative Muslims ahead of calls for pro-democracy demonstrations. Syrian activists have urged protesters to take to the streets on Wednesday and the following two days to honour more than 80 people who were killed in a crackdown on demonstrations that erupted nearly three weeks ago.

Source: GUARDIAN

As staff walk out at one school plagued by violence, teachers who dared to confront classroom thugs reveal how THEY were the ones to be punished.

By FRANCES HARDY
Last updated at 8:56 AM on 7th April 2011

Staff at a struggling secondary school who are today staging a walk-out in protest of an escalating wave of verbal and physical abuse from pupils have won support from a teacher who made a similarly strong stand against classroom indiscipline.

Beleaguered teachers at the Darwen Vale High School in Blackburn, Lancs, overwhelmingly voted to go on strike in protest at what they see as the lack of support from senior management in dealing with pupils’ challenging behaviour. The children had been pushing, shoving and constantly swearing, leaving hard-pressed staff at the end of their tether.

Last month, a disciplinary hearing decreed that Michael Becker, 63, a teacher with an ‘exemplary’ record, should be allowed to return to the profession he loves despite an earlier conviction for assaulting a pupil.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

Teachers at a Lancashire school will strike on Thursday over the behaviour of some of its pupils.

6 April 2011 Last updated at 15:47 GMT

Unions claim management do not back staff at Darwen Vale High School in dealing with physical assaults and verbal abuse on teachers. Members of the National Association of Schoolteachers/Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) and the National Union of Teachers (NUT) will strike. Headteacher Hilary Torpey said that the vast majority of pupils behaved well. Last June’s Ofsted inspection rated behaviour at Darwen Vale as good.

Source: BBC NEWS

says Nick Cannon as heavily pregnant Mariah Carey poses for nude cover shoot.

By DONNA MCCONNELL
Last updated at 9:04 PM on 6th April 2011

Mariah Carey has posed for her fair share of portraits. But none has been as personal or emotional as the singing legend unveiling her baby bump – days away from giving birth to twins. Eight months pregnant Mariah, 42, proudly showed off the bump in time-honoured celebrity fashion – in an exclusive cover shoot with a magazine. Bronzed, radiant, with her hair tumbling softly about her shoulders, the chart-topping singer looked relaxed as she awaits the arrival of her first children, a boy and a girl.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

Teen offenders given quilts instead of blankets in one of Britain’s cosiest jails… costing the taxpayer £7,000.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 8:18 PM on 6th April 2011

Life in one of Britain’s cosiest young offenders’ prisons just became even nicer for inmates after they were all given duvets to sleep under – costing the taxpayer £7,000. Teenagers held in Wetherby, West Yorkshire, already enjoy perks such as TVs, Playstations, sports and fishing. They can even have acupuncture sessions to relieve their stress. Inmates, who sleep in private cells, also have the opportunity to earn from £2.50 to £12.50 a week if they choose to work.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

A mayor in Germany is attracting interest from other cities after he installed a special park bench for town teens who refuse to sit properly.

6:53PM BST 05 Apr 2011

After residents of the southwestern city of Eppelheim complained teenagers always sat on the top of benches, rather than on the seat itself which they dirtied with their shoes, Mayor Dieter Moerlein came up with the idea of putting the seat on top. The first of Mr Moerlein’s benches was installed last week and he is already fielding calls from interested cities in Germany, he told Reuters on Tuesday.

Source: TELEGRAPH

A mother has spoken of her outrage after her teenager daughter;’s mouth was taped shut by a teacher to stop her from talking in class.

By PAUL THOMPSON
Last updated at 2:07 AM on 4th April 2011

Leah Freel claimed the disciplinary action against 13-year-old Jazlyn at the Renaissance Middle School in Miramar, Florida was a form of child abuse. She was ‘irate and appalled’ after learning about the action during a science class at the Renaissance Middle School in Miramar, Florida.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

New research shows that maternity builds the brain up rather than dissolving it. Which makes a lot of sense.

By Gaby Hinsliff

It’s rare that anyone is quite so refreshingly upfront about it, I suppose. More often it lingers unspoken, just below the surface: glimpsed perhaps in the maddening tendency to speak unusually slowly and brightly to pregnant women. Or in the branding of any mother in a remotely high-profile position a “superwoman”, as if in sheer incredulity that anyone might possess both a baby and a cerebral cortex. However subtly it’s expressed, few mothers-to-be last the whole nine months without meeting someone seemingly convinced that an expanding midriff means a shrinking mind.

So really, one should be grateful to the man who messaged me on Twitter to insist that “mother” equals “brain turned to mush”: useful to have it out there in the open. Who knows, perhaps the Queen feels equally relieved about suggestions that the ongoing Prince Andrew debacle is all her fault for having let blind maternal instinct trump rational sovereign judgment.

Source: GUARDIAN

A teenager whose mother faced losing their home saved his family’s house just in time by winning £250,000 on a lottery scratchcard.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 3:14 PM on 2nd April 2011

Trainee chef Joe Hollick saved the end-of-terrace he shares with his mother and younger brother when he scooped the massive prize from a £2 scratchcard.

The 17-year-old was collecting a meagre £4 prize at an Esso garage when he decided to reinvest half of it on another National Lottery Turquoise card. And his six-figure win meant he could pay off the mortgage arrears on the three-bedroom house in East Grinstead Essex just before his mother Alison was about to sell up.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

Our five-year-old son has started to swear and be verbally aggressive. Is it because he’s just started primary school?

By Annalisa Barbieri

Our son, an only child aged five, started primary school in January and since then has developed behavioural problems. He has become verbally aggressive towards us, swearing a lot. These rages flash up very quickly. It can feel as if we are walking on eggshells. He has also started having bad nightmares, in which he is screaming, “Go away” and swearing violently. We know anxieties around starting school are not uncommon, but we think what is happening with our son go beyond these. He went to school from a small nursery, and he gets a lot of time with us. We know from him and his teachers that there are a number of children in our son’s class with challenging, violent behaviour.

Source: GUARDIAN

A teacher has been arrested after she forced an autistic boy to repeatedly punch himself in the head.

By PAUL THOMPSON
Last updated at 9:03 PM on 1st April 2011

Margaret Boyett is alleged to have lost her temper with the boy and had to be restrained by a teacher’s aide in her classroom before she could strike the teen. An arrest report reveals that the 41-year-old raised her hand in a striking motion, but was prevented from slapping the 13-year-old boy by the classroom assistant. The incident took place at West Prep Academy in Las Vegas, Nevada, where Boyett works with mostly autistic children.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

A 14-year-old girl suffered horrific injuries in a frenzied knife attack at the gates of her school by a youth said to be a spurned admirer.

By John Bingham, Nigel Bunyan

Police praised the bravery of fellow pupils, teachers and parents who ran to Chloe West’s aid, wrestling the 18-year-old away from her, helping to save her life. They then pinned the attacker, who is said to have been angry that she had not returned her text messages, to the ground until police arrived and led him away. He is being questioned over the attack on the horse-loving teenager who had to be airlifted to hospital with knife wounds to her chest, neck and face.

Source: TELEGRAPH

Ellie Manning’s bedroom looks like it belongs to a stroppy teenager. The wardrobe doors are off their hinges and propped against the pink wall.

By JANE FRYER
Last updated at 1:55 AM on 2nd April 2011

The pictures hang at drunken angles. A bright pink chair sits in the middle of the room, as if abandoned in a hurry, and tangled piles of clothes and toys litter the floor. So far, so messily normal. But on closer inspection, things don’t feel quite right. Three pink plastic crucifixes hang in a cluster above the unmade bed. A group of crystals line the windowsill like sentries. And the floor around the bedroom door is gritty with a thick layer of salt.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

Art teacher’s topless pictures spread like wildfire among public schoolboys.

By PAUL BENTLEY and LYDIA WARREN
Last updated at 9:07 AM on 1st April 2011

These sensational pictures have rocked one of Britain’s most hallowed institutions – Harrow School. Topless photographs of an art tutor at the £30,000-a-year private school have been circulating its classrooms, dorms and corridors. Joanne Salley, 32, a former model and TV presenter, posed provocatively in just a tight pair of jeans.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

The extent to which schools are inflating their results with “easy” vocational qualifications is laid bare in figures published today.

By Graeme Paton 7:00AM BST 01 Apr 2011

Data released by the Coalition will show that headline exam scores collapse when grades in “equivalent” courses, which are offered as an alternative to GCSEs, are stripped out.

Last summer, more than three quarters of teenagers finished compulsory education with five A* to C grades in any subject, the figures will show. But that proportion drops to 56 per cent when results in qualifications such as retail, hospitality, sport and travel and tourism are removed from the figures.

Source: TELEGRAPH

175 schools fail to enter a single pupil for the five key GCSEs.

By KATE LOVEYS
Last updated at 7:27 AM on 1st April 2011

• Thousands of youngsters miss out on chance to attain English Baccalaureate

Half a million pupils have been cheated out of a decent education by schools desperate to boost their league table rankings. A staggering 78 per cent of teenagers –  some 499,000 – were not entered for all five of the traditional subjects required to attain the new English Baccalaureate, official figures show. And at 175 state schools, teaching 24,600 pupils, not one was entered for all five subjects.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

A chair in the reception of a hotel is being blamed after seven women fell pregnant in the space of just 18 months.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 11:56 AM on 31st March 2011

Four of the women have already given birth, all to boys, after sitting on a blue chair in the hotel in Milton Keynes. The suspicion that the chair might be behind the pregnancies that other members of staff are now avoiding the “fertility chair”. Elaine Ledster, Kim Gidley, Laura Burchill and Gina Ripley were the first to fall pregnant while working as receptionists at the Best Western Moore Place Hotel.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

Thousands of teenagers in England had no chance of getting the new English Baccalaureate in their GCSEs, official data shows.

31 March 2011 Last updated at 12:17 GMT

At 175 state schools, not one pupil was entered for all five of the traditional subjects counted in the new measure. The information has come out with the publication of masses of new detail on schools’ exam performance. Parents are now able to see how local schools are doing on all 84 GCSE subjects. The additional league tables data , published by the government, is an update to the secondary school league tables released in January and allows people to see which of their local schools perform best for particular subjects.

Source: BBC NEWS

Five teenagers found guilty for their part in brawl that left a man unconscious.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 12:26 PM on 31st March 2011

A group of Asian youths taken on a day-trip to Blackpool to avoid becoming embroiled violence at an EDL march ended up knocking a man unconscious in a car park brawl. Five teenagers have been found guilty of their part in the incident in which a father-of-two was punched to the ground. The five were part of a group of youths who were taken to on the trip on July 17 last year, the day of an English Defence League march in Dudley in the West Midlands. The day-trip cost the public purse £2,113 and saw the group from the Tipton and Oldbury areas of the West Midands accompanied by a police officer and officials from the council.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

In the final part of his series on ‘free’ schools, Richard Garner meets its founders.

Thursday, 31 March 2011

Ayub Ismail says the new “free” school he is planning may not be every parent’s cup of tea. For a start, children will have to sign up for a week of summer school to ensure they do not forget what they have learned during the six-week break between terms.

That will be a compulsory part of the school year at the Rainbow Primary School in Bradford, which is to open for the first time in September. In addition, there will be once-a-month, half-day learning activities on Saturday – designed to be a “fun” part of the curriculum. Every half-term, too, children will face tests in English, maths and science to show how well they are keeping up in class.

“We won’t endlessly prepare children for them,” Ismail says.”We want tests to be a normal part of school life so they don’t build up too much for them. The model we’re proposing will be very different from the normal, bog-standard mainstream school. The first two years will concentrate on literacy, taking up a third of the timetable in key stage one for five to seven-year-olds. There will also be a drive to improve writing standards, one of the biggest areas of weakness amongst primary school children, especially boys. It will be at the expense of spending that much.

Source: INDEPENDENT

Shooting leaves youngster and man of 35 in ‘critical but stable’ condition.

By PAUL HARRIS
Last updated at 10:06 AM on 31st March 2011

Three youths on bicycles had chased two others into a convenience store. There was no hesitation, no thought for the consequences. They simply sprayed the shop with bullets and fled. In a terrifyingly casual attack, this was how gangland Britain’s sickening gun culture left a five-year-old girl and a man of 35 fighting for life yesterday. The innocent bystanders became victims of a Wild West-style shoot-out involving rival teenagers as young as 14. They were simply caught in the crossfire of someone else’s argument. Five-year-old Thushara Kamaleswaran was gunned down in front of her parents by a bullet that narrowly missed her heart.

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Man in his 30s also hurt in 9.15pm attack.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 7:14 PM on 30th March 2011

• Police say injured pair are not related
• Gunman on bicycle targeted two youths hiding in shop
  

A five-year-old is in a critical condition after being gunned down in a London street. Police believe that the young girl and a shopkeeper were caught in the crossfire of a gang targeting two youths who sheltered in their shop. The shopkeeper, 35, is also being treated in hospital after he was hit inside Stockwell Food & Wine shop, on Stockwell Road, South London, at 9.15pm last night.

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