Headlines from the world of education and schools work:
- Pupils sent home early in cost-cutting drive: Children at a comprehensive school are to become first in the country to be sent home early every Friday in an attempt to save money.
- Children bored by ‘tedious’ maths lessons: 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.
- Universities ‘to charge average £8,600 tuition fees’: Average university tuition fees will soar to £8,600 a year under the Coalition’s higher education reforms, according to research.
- Students ‘put off university by fee hikes’: At least 45,000 students will be driven out of higher education because of rising tuition fees, according to research.
- Gove’s bursary plan ‘is a shambles’: Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, was accused of presiding over a “shambles” after he announced a £180m bursary scheme to help the poorest teenagers to continue their studies after 16. The fund will replace the £560m Education Maintenance Allowance, which was controversially scrapped last year.
- Primary school truancy rate hits record high: At least 22,600 primary school children skipped school every day last year as truancy rates hit a record high.
- Children’s laureate damns Michael Gove’s ‘arbitrary’ reading plan: Anthony Browne is latest critic of the proposed campaign for children to read 50 books a year.
- Top teachers for deprived schools: A programme designed to address the link between poverty and low academic achievement is to be introduced in struggling primary schools.
