Teenage knife possession offenders do worse in GCSEs – report

June 14, 2018, 3:23 am

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Knife offenders also perform worse than those committing other offences, study finds

Teenagers who have committed knife possession offences achieve poorer results at GCSE or equivalent level compared with the entire pupil population but also with other types of offenders, official analysis has revealed.

Just under 50% of young offenders who have committed knife possession offences attained five or more GCSEs with an A* to G grade, compared with 90% of all pupils, just over 60% of all offenders and 55% of theft offenders, according to a report from the Ministry of Justice and Department for Education.

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University guide 2018: league table for law

May 15, 2017, 11:00 pm

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The study of criminal legal systems – includes criminology and jurisprudence

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Exams rewritten after van containing papers stolen

June 11, 2015, 3:53 pm

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Theft of Parcelforce van earlier this month forces AQA to write brand-new set of GCSE and A-level questions

An exam board has been forced to rewrite a group of A-level and GCSE exam papers at the last minute after a van delivering the papers to schools was stolen earlier this month. AQA, the exam board, confirmed the theft of a Parcelforce van containing exam papers for a number of different subjects, leading it to produce replacement papers to guard against the possibility of fraud.

“There’s nothing to indicate that [the van] was targeted for the papers or that any of them have come to light. However, we don’t leave anything to chance, so as soon as we knew about it, we contacted our senior examiners and asked them to write some brand-new papers,” an AQA spokesman said.

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Howard Hutchings obituary

May 28, 2018, 9:57 am

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My husband Howard Hutchings, who has died aged 64 of pneumonia after suffering from pancreatic cancer, was a lover of the countryside, an environmentalist and a supporter of vulnerable people. For most of his working life he was a teacher, but he also spent much time as a volunteer in various capacities.

He was born in Birkenhead, Wirral, along with his twin, Bill. Their mother, Eleanor (nee Keating) died when the boys were two, and their father, Albert Evans, a heavy goods vehicle driver, was often away. They were looked after at first by relatives and their older sister Lesley, but at the age of eight Howard took over the running of the house.

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Thousands of teachers caught cheating to improve exam results

February 11, 2018, 8:57 am

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Staff at institutions offering OCR exams from 2012-16 committed about 2,300 malpractice offences

Thousands of teachers have been caught cheating to try to improve their pupils’ test results, figures from one of the country’s leading exam boards show.

Nearly 2,300 malpractice offences were committed by staff in educational institutions offering OCR exams between 2012 and 2016, according to data obtained through a freedom of information request by the Sunday Times.

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Harvard rescinds admissions offers over offensive memes on Facebook – report

June 5, 2017, 2:58 pm

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At least 10 students admitted to college have lost their chance to matriculate after posts in private group joked about race, child abuse and sexual assault

At least 10 students lost their chance to attend Harvard College after posting “obscene memes” to a private Facebook chat, the main Harvard student newspaper reported.

The memes included jokes about pedophilia, child abuse, sexual assault, and the Holocaust. One message referred to a Mexican youth being hanged as “piñata time”.

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Only one in five free schools set up by parents, shows report

May 30, 2018, 4:01 pm

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Free schools increasingly opened by trusts as ‘way to meet rising pupil numbers’

Just one in five of the Conservatives’ flagship free schools have been set up by parents, despite promises of a parent-led approach to education, a report has found.

When the policy was launched in 2010 by then education secretary Michael Gove, he said it would allow parents to set up state schools shaped by their own preferences, introducing choice and innovation into the education system.

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T-levels will not be quickly forgotten | Letter from Anne Milton MP, apprenticeships and skills minister

June 15, 2018, 8:49 am

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Apprenticeships and skills minister Anne Milton responds to Fiona Millar’s piece on the new qualifications

In Fiona Millar’s opinion piece on the new T-levels, I find myself in agreement with her. The divide between academic and technical education does need bridging. For far too long technical education has been sidelined; initiatives taken by successive governments, as she sets out, had their heart in the right place but ultimately failed to create technical routes that are the equal of A-levels and provision in our world-class universities.

But Ms Millar’s pessimism around T-levels will prove misplaced (‘T-levels are the latest in a series of quickly forgotten vocational qualifications that come and go’, 12 June). To improve technical education for every child, we need to truly shake up the system. In designing the new system we have looked carefully at previous reforms, along with Lord Sainsbury’s review of what works well in the best international systems, so we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past. T-levels are the biggest reform of technical education for over 70 years. So what makes them different? We have put employers and business in the driving seat; they are at the heart of the design of T-levels – working with us to develop course content, provide industry placements and ultimately employ the skilled workforce that T-levels will produce.

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Schools minister Nick Gibb refuses to answer 'what is 8 x 9?' on TV

February 14, 2018, 9:30 am

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Hosts of Good Morning Britain quiz minister overseeing new numeracy tests for children

The minister responsible for new times table tests for primary pupils in England has refused on television to answer a multiplication question.

Nick Gibb was asked by the Good Morning Britain presenter Jeremy Kyle: “What is eight times nine?”

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Tenth of school staff suffer in ‘epidemic of abuse’ by pupils

June 2, 2018, 8:05 am

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GMB union calls for zero tolerance of harassment of classroom assistants and other support staff

More than one in 10 teaching support staff say they have experienced sexually inappropriate behaviour from pupils, according to a leading union. The finding has triggered calls for schools to adopt “zero tolerance” to a problem that, the GMB says, can leave its members mentally scarred.

A survey by the union, which this week holds its 101st annual congress, said 11% of classroom-based staff had encountered such behaviour.

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Let universities alert parents about students' struggles, says father

June 14, 2018, 10:00 pm

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James Murray, whose son killed himself, calls for opt-out system on sharing mental health concerns

The father of a student who killed himself is calling for the relaxation of data protection rules that currently deter universities from alerting parents that their child has serious mental health problems.

Last month Ben Murray, 19, who was studying English, became the third Bristol University student to die in the space of three weeks. Ten Bristol students have died since October 2016.

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Once children were birched at school. Now they are taught maths | Simon Jenkins

June 14, 2018, 10:00 pm

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Modern education’s obsession with rankings blights the lives of intelligent pupils – never more so than at exam time

I used to long to be a child again. Not any more. British children seem under perpetual assault from the three horsemen of the apocalypse: obesity, social media and the manic gods of examination. Of these the most needless, and clearly dangerous, is the exam. The signs of stress are blatant. One in 10 schoolchildren now has a “clinically diagnosable mental illness”. Rates of teenage self-harm have risen dramatically in the last decade. Student suicide rates are soaring.

I have never seen the point of exams. If children cannot recall what they were taught two months ago, they will not remember it for life, probably because it was never worth remembering. An exam is like a Dickensian birching. It asserts power, and hurts.

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Is competition driving innovation or damaging scientific research? | Anonymous academic

June 14, 2018, 11:30 pm

≫ Next: Suggesting grammar schools ‘teach’ secondaries is a cynical insult | Melissa Benn

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When a colleague with shaky data raced a competitor to be first to publish, I saw how the perverse incentives in research work

There’s an oft-repeated phrase in the scientific world that “competition drives innovation”. This can definitely sometimes be true, but in my experience the reality most of the time is that competition can be hugely wasteful and damaging to research.

Take our lab, where we work in several high-profile areas. We’re aware that we have several major competitors around the world. We want to be first, we need to be first and we must keep it secret. Doing this can make or break a career, or decide a grant application outcome. It can even shape the future direction of the field.

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Suggesting grammar schools ‘teach’ secondaries is a cynical insult | Melissa Benn

June 15, 2018, 2:00 am

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Nick Gibb’s multi-academy trusts proposal is a desperate bid to defend the flawed selective school system

Another week, another official boost to England’s increasingly embattled selective schools. The latest salvo comes from schools minister Nick Gibb, who has weighed into the growing controversy about grammar schools by suggesting that they should form multi-academy trusts with non-selective schools, to develop the right “ethos” and help to “raise standards”.

It’s hard to know where to start with this latest piece of illogicality, so let’s briefly go back to basics – a favoured government theme, after all. We know that grammar schools select the highest achieving children aged 11 and the fact that most of their pupils come out with good GCSEs is less due to some mysterious “ethos” or exceptional commitment to “high standards” than to a highly favourable intake, working in highly favourable circumstances, including a more highly qualified and stable teaching force.

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Flagship free school had 'predatory pupils' roaming grounds

June 15, 2018, 6:04 am

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Discovery school in Newcastle to shut after Ofsted report said it was at ‘rock bottom’

Standards at a flagship free school have hit “rock bottom” with a group of “predatory pupils” roaming the institution and making others feel unsafe, a report has revealed.

Teachers, students and parents were told last week, before the education watchdog released its report, that the Discovery school in Newcastle would close for good at the end of the academic year.

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Harvard sued for alleged discrimination against Asian American applicants

June 15, 2018, 9:42 am

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Group claims admissions process weighed against Asian Americans while university filed brief denying discrimination

An Asian American group suing Harvard University says it has evidence of discrimination in the school’s admissions process.

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Glasgow School of Art's ashes turned into artworks to fund rebuild

February 1, 2017, 10:42 am

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Artists including Grayson Perry and Anish Kapoor create pieces using debris from Mackintosh building gutted by fire in 2014

Some of the biggest names in art, from Grayson Perry to Anish Kapoor and Antony Gormley, have created artworks from the ashes of Glasgow School of Art to help raise funds for the building’s restoration.

The school was gutted by a fire in May 2014, and as part of an appeal towards resurrecting the historic Mackintosh building, artists were sent the charred remains and asked to craft them into a work of art.

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University guide 2018: league table for medicine

May 15, 2017, 11:00 pm

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The study of pre-clinical medicine and clinical medicine to maintain health, diagnose and treat disease in order to become a doctor

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Graduation – a guide for parents

June 30, 2015, 1:49 am

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From sorting out practical arrangements to avoiding faux pas, follow our guide to graduation day

“At my first graduation I got my boyfriend and best friend to pretend to be my parents,” says doctorate student Lindsay Jordan. “My friend dressed up like Jackie Onassis. It was pretty funny, but I’d rather my real parents had been there.”

Jordan’s parents didn’t attend either her undergraduate or master’s graduation ceremonies, as “they hate travelling and formal occasions”. While they may not be for everyone, graduation ceremonies are a chance for parents to celebrate their child’s achievements – and mark the end of university life. But they can also be expensive, stressful and the cause of family arguments. Here’s how to make your student child’s graduation day a happy one.

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