Headlines from the world of education and schools work:
- Examiners suspended over claims they tipped off teachers about questions: Two examiners have been suspended after claims that teachers were given secret advice on how to improve their pupils’ exam results.
- Schoolchildren could be given lessons in being transgender: Primary schoolchildren to be taught what it is like to be transgender as part of plans to introduce “equality” lessons in to the classroom.
- Grammar schools get go-ahead to expand: Grammar schools will be able to expand and take on extra pupils after ministers abandoned plans to let hostile local parents object.
- Government to extend number of children to get £488 pupil premium: Schools will be able to claim money for any child who has been registered for free school meals in the past six years. Half a million more poor children will benefit from government help targeted at deprived youngsters.
- Child poverty targets will not be met, says Alan Milburn: Alan Milburn, who advises the coalition on child poverty, is to make the case for “increased investment” in early years funding, saying that there would be “big economic returns” for the country, with the poorest families having the most to gain.
- Schools facing head teacher shortage in pay row: Schools are facing a looming leadership crisis as primaries and secondaries across England fail to recruit head teachers, according to a new report.
- One in five children is obese by the end of primary school, NHS figures show: Ministers face call for action as figures reveal 19% of year-six pupils are obese – part of a steady rise since 2006-07
- Students turn to prostitution to fund college: Growing numbers of university and A-level students are turning to prostitution or working as escorts to fund their education, the National Union of Students said.
- One eighth of primary schools fall short of government literacy and numeracy targets: One in eight primary schools have failed to reach a minimum government target for getting 60 per cent of their pupils to read, write and add up properly by the age of 11.
- Education minister Nick Gibb claims celebrity culture and obsession with wealth is harming children: British children are growing up in an “destructive” society obsessed with the celebrity way of life and need to be taught to live within their means, an education minister has warned.
- Examiners make thousands a year providing ‘inside information’ on GCSEs and A-Levels.:
- Examiners are making thousands of pounds a year by working for private companies giving teachers and pupils “inside information” about how to get top GCSE and A-level results.
- Children must learn their times tables by age of nine: Children face being required to master times tables and division by the age of nine under Coalition plans to radically toughen up the National Curriculum.
