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300 schools picked out in GCSE 'off-rolling' investigation

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Ofsted examines allegations that some schools get rid of students who might do badly

The schools regulator Ofsted has identified 300 schools with high levels of so-called off-rolling, where pupils disappear from the school register just before GCSEs.

It has found that more than 19,000 pupils who were in year 10 in 2016 vanished from the school roll by the start of year 11, the year when pupils sit their GCSEs.

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Jewish school in UK criticised for redacting 'bare wrists' from books

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Ofsted rates Yesodey Hatorah inadequate for censoring texts including Sherlock Holmes

A state-funded Jewish faith school has been classed as inadequate after Ofsted inspectors found teachers and school governors heavily censoring books and pictures, deleting references to reproduction and child protection helpline contact details.

The inspection of Yesodey Hatorah senior girls’ school, a voluntary-aided school catering to the Orthodox Chasidic Jewish community in north London, revealed that the “vast majority of texts” in the school library had been censored or redacted, while inspectors were told by staff that the school would not allow pupils to visit the Tate Modern.

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Spanish exam entries on track to surpass French in English schools

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Spanish on the rise, French in decline and German ‘in danger of extinction’

Spanish is expected to overtake French as the main foreign language studied in classrooms in England in the next few years, and experts say German could face extinction from school timetables.

A report by the British Council says that although the study of languages continues to decline, Spanish is bucking the trend, with entries up in both GCSEs and A-levels.

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Graduation – a guide for parents

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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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Schools allow premium-priced yo-yo show, but for many parents it's a no-no

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About 350 schools allowing NED Show to provide 'motivational assemblies' in exchange for allowing sale of yo-yos inside school

About 350 primary schools across Britain have allowed a troupe of yo-yo performers from an American company to give "motivational assemblies" this academic year, agreeing also to sell premium-priced yo-yos inside the school gate for a week afterwards.

The NED Show tour, arranged by All For KIDS Inc, a firm based near Seattle, has divided opinion among British parents, many of whom have found themselves pestered to buy yo-yos for between £6 and £12 after their children have seen the toys showcased during school hours.

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Parents: not happy about something at school? Here’s how to complain

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Your daughter’s homework isn’t being marked. Your son’s been put in detention for no real reason. What’s the best course of action? A teacher writes …

One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was from a friend in the restaurant business. If I were planning to complain about any part of my meal or service, he said, I should wait until I had eaten all I was going to eat that night. He illustrated this warning with examples of what can happen to food prepared for awkward customers, and so I’ve followed this advice ever since. It’s a good principle: don’t complain to people on whom you’re relying – unless there’s no way they can wipe your steak on their bum or drop a bogey in your soup.

As with restaurants, so with schools. The difference with schools is that you’re likely to be stuck with them for a lot longer than one meal. So think carefully before putting on your Mr Angry face and marching into the school for a spot of ranting.

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How to write better essays: 'nobody does introductions properly'

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Is Wikipedia really a no-go? Should you bother with the whole reading list? And how do you make a convincing argument? We ask the experts

As the government begins its crackdown on essay mill websites, it’s easy to see just how much pressure students are under to get top grades for their coursework these days. But writing a high-scoring paper doesn’t need to be complicated. We spoke to experts to get some simple techniques that will raise your writing game.

Tim Squirrell is a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, and is teaching for the first time this year. When he was asked to deliver sessions on the art of essay-writing, he decided to publish a comprehensive (and brilliant) blog on the topic, offering wisdom gleaned from turning out two or three essays a week for his own undergraduate degree.

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Teenage boys wear skirts to school to protest against 'no shorts' policy

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Dozens of pupils at Isca academy in Exeter stage uniform protest after school insists they wear trousers despite heatwave

Some had borrowed from girlfriends, others from sisters. A few had gone the extra mile and shaved their legs. When the Isca academy in Devon opened on Thursday morning, an estimated 30 boys arrived for lessons, heads held high, in fetching tartan-patterned skirts. The hottest June days since 1976 had led to a bare-legged revolution at the secondary school in Exeter.

As the temperature soared past 30C earlier this week, the teenage boys had asked their teachers if they could swap their long trousers for shorts. They were told no – shorts weren’t permitted under the school’s uniform policy.

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Student debt: how the government's Hecs changes will affect you

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On 1 July the threshold falls by more than $10,000, so if you earn at least $45,000 you’ll start repaying your loan

From Sunday, thousands of students and graduates across the country will have to start paying off their debts earlier than expected.

In the coming financial year, which starts on 1 July, anybody earning $45,000 or more a year will have to start paying off their student debts, which for most domestic and undergraduate students is known as the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (Hecs).

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The media industry is changing fast, but universities aren't keeping up | Lisette Johnston

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It can take years to get a module approved – so how are universities supposed to offer cutting edge creative courses?

For more than 10 years, I was fortunate enough to work in two camps, bridging academia and the creative industries. I lived what felt like parallel lives: by day I sent journalists to cover the attempted coup in Turkey, by night I’d teach camerawork and mark essays on gatekeeping theory.

At the time I was working at the BBC and felt my role as an editor helped inform my teaching. Now some of my former students and mentees have successful media careers of their own. One is an editor on BBC Breakfast, another the chair of a global non-profit and another a successful social media manager for a luxury brand. Yet speaking to them, much of what got them there wasn’t the content of their lessons.

Related: 2VCs on ... are university degree models stuck in the past?

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Life outside lectures: how to make your university club great

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How do you get people to sign up and show up? Here’s your guide to being president of a student society

So you’ve been elected president of your student society– congratulations. But what next?

The first thing you need is backup. You don’t want to take all the work on yourself, so meet with your committee and keep this going throughout the year. No need to sacrifice your degree; delegate the work to your team.

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Adopted children 'barely surviving' in high-pressure schools

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Adoption UK says pupils are falling behind in their studies and struggling emotionally

Adopted children who have suffered traumatic early experiences are “barely surviving” in the current high-pressure school environment and need greater support if they are to have an equal chance of success, a charity has said.

They are falling behind in their studies because they are struggling to cope emotionally with the demands of the current education system which “prizes exam results at the expense of wellbeing”, according to a report from Adoption UK.

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Student mental health must be top priority – universities minister

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Sam Gyimah says issue requires serious leadership from vice-chancellors

The government has issued an ultimatum to vice-chancellors on student mental health, warning them it is not good enough to suggest that university is about academic education and nothing else.

With as many as one in four students seeking help from counselling services at some institutions, the universities minister, Sam Gyimah, is calling on vice-chancellors to prioritise student mental health and take a personal lead on the issue.

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Teach primary school pupils about finance, say City firms

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New initiative set up to test benefits of educating children about money management

Leading City institutions are urging the government to include financial education in the primary school curriculum after a pilot scheme found it helped young people learn to delay gratification and enjoy the benefits of saving.

Twenty of the UK’s leading savings and investment firms have set up a financial education initiative called KickStart Money to test the effectiveness of teaching primary school children about money management.

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Glasgow School of Art: sprinklers had not been fitted after first fire


A story about Harry Kane and Russian history is inspiring schoolkids to read

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Children’s author Tom Palmer has teamed up with the National Literacy Trust to write a story that captures reluctant readers

By Richard Foster, author of The Agony and the Ecstasy

Amid the avalanche of words written for football fans during the World Cup, perhaps the most unusual and original will be those created by children’s author Tom Palmer. Unlike the reporters and pundits who are documenting events in Russia, Palmer has a very particular mission. Throughout the tournament he is posting daily entries of a story called Defenders: Russia, a tale that mixes fact and fiction and is aimed at a group of young people who are classed as “reluctant readers”.

“There is often a strong correlation between reluctant readers and those interested in sporting events like the World Cup,” Palmer says. “The idea is to draw in readers who might otherwise think that all stories are set 300 years ago and in places they have never been to and will never go to either.”

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Never mind the Brexiteurs: why it’s time to learn French | Phil Daoust

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Soon more English students will study Spanish than the tongue of Molière and MC Solaar. We lazy Britons think it’s easier

Putain de bordel de merde. Ces rosbifs sont cons comme des bites. Pardon my French, but we must make the most of the obscenities while we can. English children are increasingly unwilling to learn the language of Molière and MC Solaar, according to the British Council, which reports that within a few years Spanish will overtake it as the most-studied foreign language. At A-level, takeup has already fallen to 8,300, from 21,300 in 1997, while Spanish has climbed to 7,600.

Laziness seems to have a lot to do with it. As Vicky Gough, a schools adviser at the British Council, put it, “There is a perception of Spanish being easier to pick up than other languages, which may account in part for its popularity.” Which, one might say, confirms another perception: that the kids of today want everything handed to them on a plate, from chauffeur service to and from school, to first-class university degrees. When I was a boy, we had to walk to Dotheboys Hall in all weathers because it was “character-forming”, and even clever kids were happy with a 2ii.

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Large part of Glasgow School of Art to be urgently dismantled

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Council says significant part of south facade will have to go after being deemed unsafe

A significant part of the Glasgow School of Art building will need to be urgently dismantled because it is dangerously unstable, increasing doubts about its survival.

Safety experts said a large part of the south facade of the fire-ravaged Charles Rennie Mackintosh building would need to be taken down as a matter of urgency after surveys found its walls had moved significantly.

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Student loans: use of RPI costs graduates up to £16,000

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House of Commons analysis leads Labour to accuse Tories of ‘rigging’ interest rates

Graduates with student loans in England are saddled with up to £16,000 more debt because of the government’s use of an unreliable inflation measure to set interest rates, according to research from the House of Commons library.

The analysis, provided to Labour’s shadow Treasury team, shows that the use of the retail prices index (RPI), a measure criticised by the Bank of England and the Office for National Statistics, adds the most interest to the debt of the lowest-paid graduates.

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Spending more on boys' sports teams breaks law, schools told

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Guidance for English schools hailed as move that could transform women’s sport

The government has warned English schools that they are breaking the law if they spend more on boys’ sports teams than they do on girls’, in groundbreaking guidance supporters say could have a transformative impact on women’s sport.

While schools were told they could have single-sex sports teams, they were advised that any discrimination in treatment – such as allocating more funds to a boys’ football team than a girls’ – would be unlawful.

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