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As more people struggle with mounting debts and recession looms, financial education is under threat with leading organisations responsible for promoting the subject in classrooms suffering brutal budget cuts or focusing their resources elsewhere.

Financial Mail warned in July that money for the Personal Finance Education Group, the biggest independent resource for teachers introducing finance into lessons, was drying up.

Now the scale of the cuts has become clear. Pfeg’s budget has fallen 80 per cent since spring, with staff cut from 56 to 12. The work Pfeg can do to assist schools and teachers has reduced accordingly. This will store problems for the future, warn experts in debt advice and education, such as Madeline Thomas, a Citizens Advice branch manager.

She is a staunch ‘prevention’ advocate, believing that resources are more effectively used educating people about money to fend off problems before they emerge. ‘I see our role like that of a dental hygienist,’ she says.

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Two-thirds of Britain’s schools do not know where the food in pupils’ meals comes from, a study by the Countryside Alliance will say tomorrow.

Despite campaigns by Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for schools to use more local produce, only 60 out of 172 Local Education Authorities – which procure food for schools – knew the country of origin of the food served.

Public support for buying school meals locally is high – a survey by YouGov reveals that 61 per cent of people say schools should buy British meat even if it costs more.

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A north Wales council says “procurement problems” meant a quarter of its schools have had to pay an extra £27,000 for their electricity.

Anglesey council says it will pick up the bill for the extra charges to 15 schools on the island, saying it is “disappointed” over what happened.

The authority did not renew the contract earlier this year which led to schools being charged a higher rate.

One school was charged £3,000, double its anticipated bill.

The council confirmed that 15 schools were affected by the electricity contract problem.

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London schools are so overcrowded they could be forced to teach children in shifts to cope with the emergency, the Standard can reveal.

Primary school pupils would be sent home for part of the day under plans to make sure every youngster gets a place in schools that are bulging at the seams.

It comes after warnings that London needs an extra 70,000 school places to cope. Overcrowding has become so dire that Boris Johnson today launched an inquiry into the state of education in the capital.

The Mayor’s adviser on youth and culture, Munira Mirza, confirmed that the plans were being considered. She warned that 11,000 pupils in London are already being taught in temporary classrooms, and increasing numbers are being taught in classes so large they break the law.

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The part that grammar schools play in the education system of Kent has been championed by two MPs from the county.

Gareth Johnson, Conservative MP for Dartford, said comprehensives only “is a one size fits all system”.

Laura Sandys, Thanet South Conservative MP, believes grammars are “a route into higher education at the first generation level”.

The Kent-based campaign group Stop the Eleven Plus says grammars negatively impact on nearby non-selective schools.

In a special Commons debate, Mr Johnson, a former pupil of Dartford Boys Grammar School, said: “In Dartford we have first rate non-selective academies, one of which is the most over-subscribed school in Kent.

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Most primaries and many secondaries face closure on 30 November day of action

Head teachers are to go on their first-ever national strike, closing almost all of the country’s primary schools and hundreds of secondary schools, their leader predicted last night.

Schools throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland face the threat of closure on 30 November – the day of a scheduled strike by public-sector staff and civil servants against plans to cut their pensions, Russell Hobby, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), said in an interview with The Independent.

Members of the union are incensed about the proposals, which would mean increased contributions and a cut in pensions for most heads, as well as the long-term prospect of a higher retirement age. The result of the ballot will be revealed this afternoon, with a Yes vote marking the first national strike in the union’s 114-year history.

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A major publisher of illustrated classics has offered to boost the libraries of poorer schools in London with a remarkably generous offer of 1,000 free books worth £30,000.

Inspired by the Standard’s Get London Reading campaign, and our report yesterday of how St Marylebone School in Westminster transformed their run-down library into the “coolest room in the school”, the Folio Society has pledged to help another 20 high schools kick-start their own libraries.

The first 20 eligible schools to apply will each get 50 superbly illustrated hardback classics delivered to their door free of charge. The selection will include Moby Dick, Tom Sawyer, Robin Hood, The Canterbury Tales, Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, the Complete Works of Shakespeare, A Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World, and dozens more.

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Boris is to send volunteers into London state schools to promote Latin.

The Mayor has set up the Love Latin scheme alongside educational charity the Iris Project which will see graduates give one-off talks.
The aim is to reach more than 2,000 children in the first year and City Hall today said 60 volunteers have already been recruited. The project is part of Team London – the Mayor’s programme to recruit 60,000 volunteers by next spring.

Mr Johnson said: “I believe that the classics have a vital role to play in the development of young minds. There is still an undeserved cultural divide in the way that the classics are perceived.

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State schools will be told to teach the classic English novels they currently ignore in a radical overhaul of what is taught in the classroom.

The move comes after a survey carried out for ministers found state secondary schools tend to teach children aged 11 to 14 works by contemporary writers such as Louis Sachar and John Boyne, rather than classic authors such as Jane Austen and William Golding.
Ministers now want to see more challenging texts introduced in state schools to mirror what is taught in private schools, where pupils are much more likely to read dead authors whose work has stood the test of time.
Changes to English lessons will form a central plank of the proposals to be made in a sweeping review of the national curriculum which will report in the New Year.
They are expected to specify the key authors, as a minimum, that pupils should read in each year of schooling.

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