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Government accused of misleading parents over schools' success

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Former DfE statistician says often-cited boast of progress relies on ‘flawed’ figures

A former statistician at the Department for Education (DfE) has accused the government of misleading parents over school improvement by using a “flawed” figure to claim progress.

Jon Andrews, who worked in the department for 13 years, said the government’s favourite claim that “1.9 million more children are in good or outstanding schools than there were in 2010” misrepresents the level of improvement in school standards.

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If LGBT rooms make gay students feel safe, let’s roll out the rainbow carpet | Brian Moylan

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The University of Sheffield’s LGBT-only housing will give queer students a space to be themselves, not create a ghetto as feared

For teenagers, leaving the family home and moving to college for the first time can be one of the most anxiety-producing events of their young lives. They will be in a new environment not knowing a soul, and will have to figure out, many for the first time, how to feed themselves and do their own laundry. (Just throw it all in the washer on cold, kids, and it will turn out fine.) But there is a particular anxiety for LGBT youth headed off to college, many of whom might still be in the closet. There is the fear of ridicule and alienation from their peers, and of violence against them. To combat this, the University of Sheffield recently announced that in the next academic year it would provide accommodation for LGBT students that would serve as a “safe space for students to be themselves”. It has received 30 applications for the 12 rooms and vows to offer more designated spaces in the future.

This led to an article in the Times saying the university had been “warned about ghettoising LGBT students”. It seems to forget that gay people for decades have chosen to live in “gaybourhoods” in large cities, not simply to be able to live as their authentic selves, but also to ensure their safety. For many LGBT people, a ghetto is exactly what they are looking for. There are some that even want the queer community to have an independent nation.

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Thou art a villain: Ofqual fines exam board for Montague mix-up

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Mistake in 2017 OCR GCSE question on Romeo and Juliet results in record £175,000 fine

The examinations regulator Ofqual has fined one of England’s biggest exam boards a record £175,000 after an error in an English literature GCSE paper last summer left thousands of pupils baffled.

The mistake appeared in a question set by OCR about the character Tybalt from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and confused the two warring families, the Capulets and the Montagues, who are the heart of the drama.

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Should you study something you love or a degree that will get you a job?

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Two students debate whether you should follow your head or your heart when it comes to picking your degree

• Visit our Students and employability hub

Choosing what to study at university is one of the biggest decisions you'll make as a young person. So how do you decide what's right for you? Should you follow your heart and study something you're really passionate about, regardless of where it might lead you, or should you instead opt for a degree with a more secure career route? Here two students argue both sides of the debate.

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Teacher who won $1m will use windfall to get artists into schools

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Andria Zafirakou recruits musicians, art historians and actors to her cause

After winning a $1m global teaching prize, Andria Zafirakou could have paid off her mortgage, bought a Ferrari and put her feet up for the rest of her life.

Instead, the north London teacher has announced she is using the money she won in March with the Varkey Foundation global teacher prize – a kind of Nobel prize for teaching – to set up a campaigning charity to get more artists and arts organisations into Britain’s schools.

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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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The ultimate guide to Cockney rhyming slang

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From 'apples and pears' to 'weep and wail', an A to Z of Cockney rhyming slang and the meanings behind the east end's most famous linguistic export

Many of us know that "brown bread" is Cockney rhyming slang for dead, "china plate" for mate, and "bubble bath" for laugh. But how many know the meaning of the phrases? The historic native wit of this east end community (and its followers from around the world) often has an interesting logic to its phrases. Rather than simply a rhyming association, the slang reflects meaning in the expressions themselves. Here's a guide to the most commonly-used Cockney rhyming slang:

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Harvard sued for alleged discrimination against Asian American applicants

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

Harvard University has a consistent history of rating Asian American applicants lower on personality traits such as likability, according to court documents filed on Friday. The filings formed part of a high-profile lawsuit accusing Harvard of discriminating against Asian Americans.

The lawsuit has been brought by Students for Fair Admissions, an action group affiliated with Edward Blum, a controversial conservative who campaigns against affirmative action.

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Schoolyard penis seen from space

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Two pupils who drew a giant penis on a school lawn using weed killer two years ago can still admire their work from satellite photos now posted on the internet.

Despite the school re-seeding the area, the penis has turned up on satellite image search engines because a photo was taken before the new grass could conceal the appendage.

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Architecture: ‘People from social housing should build cities’

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With 95% of British architects white and 75% male, a new campaign is encouraging diversity in the profession

At 16, Mark Warren says he struggled to spell “architecture”, let alone think he might enter the profession one day. Now aged 30, he’s an architect at a leading London practice.

His passion was inspired by a teacher, Neil Pinder, who taught him design and technology at Graveney school, south-west London. Had it not been for Pinder, Warren is sure he would not be designing buildings for a living.

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A university education is not a product to be checked on gocompare.com

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The universities minister’s vision is morally objectionable but utterly logical in terms of reckless market ideology

Brexit is not the only policy area in which the government doesn’t know what it wants. In February the prime minister herself established a review of the future funding of English higher education led by Philip Augar. The cynical view may have been that this was a panicky party-political reaction to Labour’s, probably exaggerated, appeal among young people because of its pledge to abolish fees. But at least it opened up the possibility common sense might prevail.

But then the universities minister, Sam Gyimah, exposed the radically destructive tendencies of the drive towards a crude market regime. His speech at the Higher Education Policy Institute’s annual conference last month demonstrated just how much the government has become a prisoner of reckless ideology.

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Sheku Kanneh-Mason is a state school success story. He may never have a successor

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Cuts to music A-levels and GCSEs could endanger the supply of teachers and performers and make the subject elitist again

This time last year the young cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason was awaiting his A-level results, unaware that within 12 months he would be a world sensation. The student at Trinity school, a comprehensive in one of the less advantaged parts of Nottingham, achieved his predicted A* for music and is now at the Royal Academy of Music. That’s where he took the personal phone call from Meghan Markle at Kensington Palace inviting him to play at her wedding, after Prince Harry had heard him play at a charity event last summer.

It’s a wonderful success story for state education, but it is one that is, sadly, becoming harder to replicate. Sheku’s school, along with many others across the country, is being forced to make budget cuts – and music is often first in line. In addition, the government’s decision to exclude arts subjects from the Ebacc– the GCSE subjects by which school performance is judged – has made them a lower priority, music teachers say.

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Don’t ban skirts in school. Let everybody wear them | Ellie Mae O’Hagan

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Skirts are not ‘undignified and embarrassing’. Allowing boys to wear them too would break down gender stereotypes

According to the Mirror, 40 British secondary schools have banned skirts as part of a move towards gender-neutral uniforms. The 12-year-old version of me would have rejoiced at such news, having given a talk about women’s rights to my English class in which I lamented the fact that skirts were part of my school uniform (no, I wasn’t one of the popular girls – why do you ask?). Adult me is less sure.

Related: Banning school skirts is a dangerous trend. Here’s what we should do instead

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Pregnant teens and expectant fathers barred from school in Burundi

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Campaigners warn that ban violates human rights and say it is unclear how schools will identify boys for exclusion

Campaigners have condemned a ban that will prevent pregnant teenage girls and young expectant fathers from attending formal schooling in Burundi, warning the country is violating its human rights obligations.

Burundi’s minister of education, Dr Janvière Ndirahisha, announced last week that pregnant teens and young mums, as well as the boys who made them pregnant, no longer had the right to be allowed into public or private schools. In a letter to the country’s provincial education directors, he added that such students could instead attend vocational or professional training.

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South Carolina police object to high-school reading list

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Union says depictions of brutality in The Hate U Give and All American Boys promote distrust of police and ‘we’ve got to put a stop to that’

A police union in South Carolina has challenged the inclusion of Angie Thomas’s multiple award-winning novel about police brutality, The Hate U Give, on a school’s summer reading list, describing it as “almost an indoctrination of distrust of police”.

The intervention from the Fraternal Order of Police Tri-County Lodge #3 came after Wando high school’s ninth-grade class was asked to read one of eight novels over the summer holidays. Two of the titles upset the police union: The Hate U Give, which follows a teenage girl after she witnesses the shooting of her unarmed best friend by a police officer, and Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely’s All American Boys, which sees a teenage boy trying to overcome his distrust of the police after he is wrongly suspected of shoplifting and then beaten by an officer.

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Dear Sir, I'm sorry: letters of apology to former teachers

Focus: ecstasy after-effects that could last a lifetime

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Britain's half-million pill-poppers could face after-effects that last a lifetime. Anthony Browne reports

Staring intently in the dim light, the music rocking his body, James snapped the little white tablet in two. Pressed against the wall, his back sheltering them from the dancing crowds, he took half for himself and gave half to his girlfriend. They swallowed, and the weekend's clubbing started.

'It makes you feel so positive about everyone and everything. You feel so open - you can talk to strangers like they are your closest friends. You feel so sensual, so tactile. I want to touch people's skin, stroke their clothes. And I want to dance, dance, dance,' gushed James. 'It's the best, the most positive experience in my life. It's life-enhancing.'

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10 things teachers want to say to parents, but can't

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The long school year is coming to an end and one primary teacher has a few things to share

• 10 things parents want to say to teachers

1 Your kids are not your mates

Something I'm starting to hear with worrying frequency within the primary school setting is "my daughter's my best friend". Often, this rings alarm bells. Your kids aren't your mates. You're their parent, and your responsibility is to provide them with guidance and boundaries, not to drag them into your own disputes. Your nine-year-old doesn't need to know about your bitter feud with his friend's mother, or which dad you've got the  hots for at the school gate. In the years to come he or she may realise that some of  their own problems (social alienation, in its various forms, being a prime example) might have something to do with exposure to that sort of talk at an early age. Continue at your own risk.

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How to support friends through their mental health struggles

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If someone you know is finding the going tough, here’s what you can do to help them

Bristol University students and representatives have spokenup about the student mental health crisis and the state of provisions at the university. While student activists continue to push for better support, there are things we can do on the ground to support our friends who are struggling.

As Cambridge University Students’ Unions’ welfare and rights officer, a big part of my job is training students not only on mental health and wellbeing, but also on peer support. Alongside services, friends are well placed to help. We know each other better than service providers. We can be easier to open up to, serving as a bridge to getting more formal support.

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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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