Headlines from the world of education and schools work:

• Only 6 per cent learn facts of life from their parents: Most young people learn about sex from television, the internet or their friends, a survey has found.
• Teachers caught calling pupils ‘inbred’ and ‘thick’ on Facebook: Teachers have angered parents after posting on Facebook that their children are ‘inbred’ and ‘thick’.  But school apologises over ‘inbred’ Facebook comment by teacher: A primary school governing body has apologised to parents after a message appeared on Facebook, apparently posted by a teacher, which described locals as inbred.
• Schools are key to safeguarding runaway children: The Children’s Society is calling for better training for teachers so they can help to identify children at risk of running away and take preventive action.  The Children’s Society estimates that 100,000 children run away each year.  Many are fleeing family conflict, neglect or abuse.  Up to a quarter are “kicked out by their parents or carers”, according to the charity’s Make Runaways Safe report.
• Award A-level A*s to a fixed percentage of pupils, Gove proposes: The A* grade at A-level could be awarded to a fixed percentage of candidates each year, the education secretary, Michael Gove, has proposed.
• A third of teachers face ‘devastating’ false claims by pupils: Tens of thousands of British school teachers have been subjected to false allegations from a pupil that has placed their careers at “significant” risk, new research suggested yesterday.
• Mossbourne head is new Ofsted chief: A headteacher hailed as a “miracle worker” for dramatically improving failing inner-city schools will be the new head of Ofsted.  Sir Michael Wilshaw, renowned for showing “tough love” to pupils and their parents, will start his new job in January 2012.
• Private schools win case over showing benefit to society: Court rules Charity Commission was wrong in defining how private schools show public benefit.
• Warning over children’s ‘appalling’ handwriting skills: Children are struggling to write their own name because growing numbers of schools are shunning traditional handwriting lessons, academics have warned.
• Schools to ban skirts if pupils don’t lower their hems: Headteachers across the country are banning girls from wearing skirts in school for fear that their ever-shorter hemlines put them at risk of attack.
• Bishop of London attacks top public school after it demolishes its chapel: St Paul’s has become the first of Britain’s top public schools to pull down its chapel and do without a place of worship.
• School places shortage leave children facing being taught in ‘split shifts’: Children may be taught in “split shifts” at primary schools because of a critical shortage of places sparked by immigration and a rocketing birth rate.

Headlines from the world of education and schools work:

• New university gathers top academics to teach £18,000-a-year degrees: New College of the Humanities promises more direct teaching by likes of AC Grayling and Richard Dawkins.  A new private university in London staffed by some of the world’s most famous academics is to offer degrees in the humanities, economics and law from 2012 at a cost of £18,000 a year, double the normal rate.
• Exams system risks ‘damaging teenagers’ reading ability’: A-levels often fail to provide teenagers with the tools and hunger to read beyond the narrow confines of an exam specification, says John Newton, headmaster of Taunton School.
• Teachers ‘expect less’ from black, middle-class pupils – study: Teachers expect black middle-class pupils and their parents to be far less interested in education than their white middle-class counterparts, a study has found.
• Government ‘underestimated’ university tuition fee hike: Ministers “significantly” underestimated the number of universities charging £9,000 tuition fees, MPs warned, raising fears of a huge funding black hole.
• Ofsted warning over ‘weak’ vocational qualifications: Pupils are being awarded top grades on “weak” vocational courses that leave them with a poor grasp of business, Government inspectors warned.
• Exam boards told to raise game after rogue question in AS-level biology: Exam boards have been told to raise their game after another rogue question appeared on an AS-level exam paper – the third this summer.
• Thousands of children ‘fail to make progress in three-Rs’: Up to a third of children are effectively going backwards in reading, writing and arithmetic at secondary school, new figures suggest.
• Primary schoolteacher filmed himself abusing pupils: A primary school teacher filmed himself sexually assaulting pupils as young as six in his classroom, sometimes when other children were present, a court has been told.
• Fees will put teens off, say 42% of vice chancellors: A poll of university vice-chancellors shows that nearly half believe that it will become more difficult to convince young people of the benefits of a degree once higher tuition fees have been introduced.
• Soaring school meal prices threaten to wreck ‘Jamie effect’: The price of a school dinner has jumped 10 per cent this year, an Independent on Sunday investigation has found, sparking fears that the financial crisis and rampant food inflation could jeopardise the “Jamie Oliver effect” of healthy eating for pupils.

Headlines from the world of education and schools work:

• British Crime Survey finds one in five children frightened by bullies: Nine out of 10 report bullying taking place at school in the past year, with boys aged 10 to 12 the most likely victims.
• Education spending in UK reaches £87bn: Public spending on education and training has more than doubled in the last 20 years, according to the latest Social Trends study, published by the Office for National Statistics.
• Help with homework part of the curriculum: Parents will be expected to spend more time helping their children with schoolwork under plans to extend the reach of the national curriculum beyond the classroom and into the home.
• Creationism ‘banned from free schools’: Creationism, intelligent design and other theories that contradict evolution are to be banned from being taught as science in free schools.
• Children growing weaker as computers replace outdoor activity: Modern life is ‘producing a generation of weaklings’, claims research as physical strength declines in 10-year-olds. Children are becoming weaker, less muscular and unable to do physical tasks that previous generations found simple, research has revealed.
• Labour ‘failure’ blamed as truancy rate hits record high: More than 64,000 pupils skipped school every day last year as truancy rates hit a record high.
• Warning over drop in GCSE and A-level entries: GCSEs and A-levels are in decline as more teenagers turn to practical courses in subjects such as food safety, sports coaching and health, official figures show.
• Give children feedback to improve standards in school, says new guide: Forget school uniforms and streaming by ability: schools will raise standards if they focus on giving children effective feedback. New guidance developed by academics at Durham University shows what works and what doesn’t to improve exam performance. Reducing class sizes and setting homework for primary school children are among the least effective ways to raise standards, the research finds.