Education and schoolswork update

News from around the world of education and schools work:

• Faith schools ‘should not select on religion’: Religious schools should be stripped of their right to select pupils according to faith or lose their state funding, according to a two-year study into church and other faith-based state schools.
• Jonathan Romain: Faith schools can and should operate without discriminating on the basis of belief: Jonathan Romain: The Runnymede Trust is right: faith schools can and should operate without discriminating on the basis of belief
• Most adults feel exams failed to gauge real ability: 77 per cent of adults believe that exam results should not be used to judge their suitability for jobs
• Scrap history lessons in primary, says study: Traditional lessons in history, geography and science should be removed from the primary curriculum and children taught their essential content through cross-curricular themed classes, the biggest inquiry into primary schooling in a generation has reported
• Experts caution against themed classes: Subject associations have voiced concern about proposals to move away from traditional subjects in favour of themed classes in primary schools.
• Rose calls for review of primary Sats: Ministers should put the Sats system of testing primary pupils under review to help free up schools to teach more in depth, according to the government’s chief adviser on primaries.
• Dramatic improvement in science and maths: A Sharp improvement in the performance of 14-year-olds taking maths and science in England has been revealed in an international study.
• England’s playgrounds get million-pound makeover: England’s playgrounds are to be given a £235m makeover from next spring, ministers revealed
• Ofsted proposes whistleblowers hotline for child abuse cases: Ofsted considers introducing a ‘whistleblower hotline’ for social workers in light of Baby P case
• Most UK toddlers ‘cared for out of home’: A childcare revolution has meant the majority of toddlers in the UK are for the first time cared for outside the home before they reach the age of one, according to a major international study published today.