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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

The celebrity couple reveal their approach to parenthood in a heartwarming interview with Hello!

By Alexis Petridis Thursday 31 March 2011

And finally, to the pages of Hello!, where Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster joyfully present their beautiful baby boy, and, perhaps more importantly, the 66-year-old singing legend offers a shining example to other expectant fathers. His wife reveals that when she announced she was about to go into labour, Stewart responded by packing a selection of swimming trunks for himself.

Source: GUARDIAN

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.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

The Royal Academy of Dance has spotted a sharp drop in exam registrations – and our doldrum economy is to blame.

By Jessica Shepherd

You’d think the recent glut of TV dance shows, and the success of balletfilm Black Swan, would have us dropping by the nearest children’s tutu and legwarmer shop, and signing our little darlings up for ballet classes pronto. Not so, according to The Royal Academy of Dance. The academy, which has set and marked hundreds of thousands of (mainly little girls’) ballet exams over 90 years, has spotted a sharp drop in exam registrations. In the last two years, across the UK, these have fallen by 11.5% – from 63,996 to 56,661. It’s not, the academy insists, that it has raised the bar – or even barre – by making its exams more difficult, or that the cost of lessons and exams has spiralled. Instead, it says, our doldrum economy is to blame, with parents struggling to find the cash.

Source: GUARDIAN

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.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

Charity Teach First is to place trainee teachers in England’s most challenging primary schools for the first time.

By Hannah Richardson BBC News education reporter

About 80 trainees will join primary schools this September, but ultimately the charity wants to provide about 5% of all primary teachers. The independent charity, which trains and fast-tracks top graduates into teaching, also wants to train primary heads in due course. Currently it provides 5% of teachers to England’s secondaries. Teach First only places teachers in schools with what it describes as “challenging circumstances”.

Source: BBC NEWS

Fewer students will be eligible for grants to take college courses under Government plans to slash £30 handouts for teenagers.

By Graeme Paton, Education Editor

The amount of money set aside for 16- to 19-year-olds to take qualifications such as A-levels will be cut from £560m to £180m, it was announced. Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, said the move would ensure that remaining cash was focused more on the poorest students. He criticised the existing scheme – the Education Maintenance Allowance – which awards grants of between £10 and £30 a week to almost half of young people in England.

Source: TELEGRAPH

More schools should involve pupils in the recruitment of teachers, says the children’s commissioner for England.

By Hannah Richardson BBC News education reporter

A survey of 2,000 children aged nine to 16 for commissioner Maggie Atkinson found two-thirds would like a role in the recruiting process. But only 18% of children had been involved in choosing a teacher, the survey added. The Nasuwt teaching union said putting pupils on an interview panel undermined the authority of teachers. The survey suggested some 87% of children feel they know what makes a good teacher.

Source: BBC NEWS

Pupils at Cherwell School in Oxford have more of a role in the recruitment of teachers than their peers in many other schools.

By Hannah Richardson BBC News education reporter

All candidates for teaching posts are asked to give a lesson, or part of one, in front of a class, on which students feed back. And those seeking senior management posts are subjected to a tough interview by a student panel of pupils aged 13 and above, as well as by a number of adult panels. Assistant head teacher Julie Stuart-Thompson says being a good teacher is not about having a wonderful CV and being good at talking to adults, they have to be skilful in the classroom.

Source: BBC NEWS

Twin baby pandas playfight after being put into a nursery for cubs at a breeding research centre in Chengdu, China.

4:10PM BST 27 Mar 2011

The video shows twin panda cubs tumbling around in a playground at Chengdu Giant Panda Base in Sichaun province, China. The twin brothers have been moved away from their mother and into the nursery as part of their mental and physical development, accprding to scientists at the centre.

Source: TELEGRAPH

The latest fad in education is performance-related pay. It didn’t work in England in the 1700s, and it doesn’t work in the US now.

By Walt Gardner

At wit’s end over the tortoise pace of school reform, taxpayers constitute a perfect audience for self-styled reformers who claim to have the solution for failing schools. The latest panacea being peddled by these modern-day Elmer Gantrys is merit pay for teachers.

The pitch is straightforward: education is no different from any other policy area in what shapes behaviour. Paying teachers strictly on the basis of their classroom performance will result in positive outcomes for students.

Source: GUARDIAN

A family circus turned into a horror show when a one-year-old boy in the audience suffered head wounds after falling 15ft through the bleachers to the ground.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 2:19 PM on 26th March 2011

The boy had been watching the Universoul Circus in the Bronx, New York, with his family when the accident happened. Darius White was immediately rushed to hospital on Friday where his condition was described as critical but stable.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

As the fighting in Libya continues, the legacy of an armed conflict more than three decades ago on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus has brought teenagers from the two communities together in a unique commemoration.

By Tabitha Morgan BBC News, Cyprus

For the first time, Greek and Turkish Cypriots have come together to share their common grief. Many of them are relatives of the hundreds of people who were killed or went missing during the island’s conflicts in the 1960s and 70s. Teenagers gathered to chant for peace on a windy hillside outside Nicosia. Around 100 Greek and Turkish Cypriots formed a circle of commemoration to remember those killed during the years of violence in Cyprus during the 1960s and 70s – the intercommunal bloodshed and the Turkish invasion that followed.

Source: BBC NEWS

A school praised by Gordon Brown when he was Prime Minister has been criticised for using ‘Victorian’ teaching methods after it put photographs of badly behaved pupils onto a “wall of shame” to punish them.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 5:41 PM on 25th March 2011

Unruly children in Year 10 at Chorlton High School in Greater Manchester were taught that in order for justice to be done it must be seen to be done – but that view was not shared by everyone. The father of one of the girls who was named and shamed has said he will make a formal complaint against the scheme, which was designed to encourage good behaviour. Carlo Robinson said it had shattered his 15-year-old daughter’s confidence and she came home in tears after finding her mugshot had been put on display for truancy and being late.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

Two midwives have been suspended after a mum tragically died giving birth to a stillborn little girl at a trouble-torn hospital.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 12:14 PM on 25th March 2011

Tebussum Ali, 27, known as Sareena, plunged into a coma after having an emergency Caesarean section on the ward floor in Queen’s Hospital, Romford, Essex. Staff desperately battled to revive her after her tiny daughter Zainab was born lifeless. But they only noticed the oxygen mask they were using was not connected to a supply when Sareena’s horrified husband Usman Javed, 29, pointed out the glaring error.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

Thousands of children are being turned off maths and science at school because of “tedious” lessons, according to one of the world’s top physicists.

By Graeme Paton, Education Editor

Michael Green, Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University, said teachers failed to present the “glamorous” side of the subjects as classes often descended into “drudgery” and “boredom”. He called for a major overhaul of the curriculum and improved teacher training to stop teenagers deserting maths and science when they turn 16. The comments come just days after a major study found that trainee teachers in England have worse standards of maths than those in other developed nations.

Source: TELEGRAPH

Adorable baby elephants love playing in their new paddling pool.

By MARK DUELL
Last updated at 2:19 PM on 23rd March 2011

Baylor and Tupelo are certainly making a splash at Houston Zoo right now. The baby elephants, who weigh 1,100lbs and 600lbs respectively, have been given a new 120in family-size pool to paddle around in together after outgrowing their small inflatable one. Zoo keepers have upgraded ten-month-old Baylor and five-month-old Tupelo to the bigger pool as warmer weather approaches in Texas and they need to cool down in rising temperatures.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

New iPad app allows busy parents to read their children a story – even if they are at work

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 11:44 PM on 22nd March 2011

For parents too busy to read to their children at bedtime, it could be the perfect solution. That’s because the latest iPhone and iPad app can actually read your child a story – and even sing them a lullaby – even if you are at work. The Nursery Rhymes app with Storytime is marketed as a tool parents can use to ensure they never miss bedtime again, no matter where they are.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

Maths teachers in England are among the most poorly trained in the developed world, a report revealed yesterday.

By KATE LOVEYS
Last updated at 11:28 PM on 22nd March 2011

And it found that the average maths specialists in our secondary schools are inferior mathematicians to those teaching primary pupils in Japan. The research saw England languishing second from the bottom of an international league table which included China, Russia and Hungary. Only the Czech Republic was ranked lower. Not only are our teachers ill-qualified but many drop out of teaching within five years, which is the point at which they reach their potential in the classroom.

Source: DAILYMAIL

New iPad app allows busy parents to read their children a story – even if they are at work.

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 11:44 PM on 22nd March 2011

For parents too busy to read to their children at bedtime, it could be the perfect solution. That’s because the latest iPhone and iPad app can actually read your child a story – and even sing them a lullaby – even if you are at work. The Nursery Rhymes app with Storytime is marketed as a tool parents can use to ensure they never miss bedtime again, no matter where they are. Parents can use the microphone to speak to their child, while the touchscreen on the gadgets can also be used to make the pages move. Currently, Humpty Dumpty, Jack & Jill and Three Blind Mice have been converted into the new format.

Source: Dailymail>> Read full article and comment

A young woman and her grandmother were stoned to death by a gang of teenagers in South Africa who accused them of being witches.

By STEWART MACLEAN
Last updated at 5:08 PM on 22nd March 2011

Cynthia Lemaho, 26, and her 81-year-old grandmother Mupala Motopela were dragged from their home at 5am yesterday by a gang of youngsters who pelted them with rocks until they died. Today police launched a murder investigation following the tragedy, which happened near the town of Tzaneen in South Africa’s northern Limpopo province.

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First man in U.S. to get full face transplant.

By MARK DUELL
Last updated at 9:59 PM on 21st March 2011

• Dallas Wiens’s relative says transplant is beyond what he thought possible

This father is closing in on a dream of kissing his three-year-old daughter again. Dallas Wiens has become the first man in the U.S. to have a full face transplant after a 30-man team of Boston doctors worked for 15 hours to complete an operation on him. The 25-year-old, of Fort Worth, Texas, had his entire face replaced – including his nose, lips, skin, animation muscles and nerves to power them and give sensations.

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With her former band mates Victoria Beckham and Emma Bunton pregnant, perhaps she felt left out.

By ANDREA MAGRATH and JODY THOMPSON
Last updated at 6:43 PM on 21st March 2011

Mel B has announced that she, too, is pregnant. The Spice Girl is expecting her first child with husband Stephen Belafonte this summer. ’We’re really excited. We wouldn’t have planned and waited for four years to have a baby if we weren’t really excited about it and ready for it. Even though you can never really be truly ready,’ the 35-year-old told Hello! magazine. The couple, who began trying for a baby around Christmas and fell pregnant soon afterwards, say they were surprised it happened so fast.

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