Education News
Middle classes 'priced out of independent education'
Published: 09 October 2006
Middle-class professionals can no longer afford to send their children to independent schools because their salaries have failed to keep up with dramatic rises in school fees, according to new research.
Primal Scream therapy helps children learn tables
Published: 09 October 2006
No one could deny that life at Hurst Lodge, an independent school in the heart of the Berkshire countryside, is poles apart from the world inhabited by bands like Primal Scream and Napalm Death.
Schools add Arabic and Mandarin to curriculum
Published: 07 October 2006
State schools in predominantly white areas are putting Arabic lessons on the curriculum for the first time as students show increasing interest in understanding the Middle East.
School aid for mental health problems 'inadequate'
Published: 06 October 2006
Children with mental health problems do not get enough help in schools, according to a report published today.
Creative role models inspire pupils
Published: 30 September 2006
A scheme that brings creative writers, artists and environmental designers into schools has had a major impact in improving struggling pupils' standards in the three Rs, say inspectors.
Anger over 200% rise in number of infant class sizes
Published: 29 September 2006
A row broke out last night as official figures showed the number of infant school aged children in classes of over 30 had more than trebled in the past five years.
'Teach pupils to challenge authority'
Published: 28 September 2006
Pupils should be encouraged to challenge authority in new-style citizenship lessons, school inspectors will say today.
Pupils can choose from 30 languages in online GCSEs
Published: 26 September 2006
Schools will be able to offer their pupils GCSEs in up to 30 languages under an initiative taken up by 50 schools. Pupils will be able to learn a language even if no one else in the school wants to study it and there is no one to teach them.
Independent schools may sign up for new exam in A-level revolt
Published: 23 September 2006
More than 100 of the country's best independent schools threaten to rebel against A-levels by signing up to a new, tougher exam which will cut coursework.
How discarded wallet gave Kenyan boy a ticket out of the slums and into a British university
Published: 23 September 2006
It all started when a cardboard wallet bearing Manchester University's name and crest was tossed into one of the dustbins in the middle-class neighbourhood which borders Matharé, Nairobi's oldest slum district.
Testing blamed for rise in primary school truancy
Published: 22 September 2006
Truancy rates have soared to a record level, government figures show. A total of 1,399,197 pupils, one in five of all state school children, skipped lessons last year a rise of 433,797 in 10 years.
Advisers censured over timing of results
Published: 22 September 2006
Special advisers to the Education Secretary, Alan Johnson, were censured yesterday for putting pressure on senior civil servants to publish poor national curriculum test results on the same day as GCSEs.
Boys-only education 'leads to divorce'
Published: 22 September 2006
Men who went to single-sex schools are more likely to be divorced by their early forties, according to research published yesterday.
Johnson 'buried primary test results'
Published: 19 September 2006
The Labour leadership contender Alan Johnson was at the centre of a row over spin yesterday in the wake of this year's poor primary school test results.
'Grim' financial future for graduates
Published: 18 September 2006
Graduates in their twenties and early thirties face a grim struggle over the next decade to make ends meet, a report warns today.
Church schools accused of back-door selection
Published: 18 September 2006
Church schools are taking in far fewer pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds than other schools and more than their share of bright pupils, according to the most detailed research published on admissions.
RSC wants schoolchildren to be forced to attend theatre
Published: 16 September 2006
Every child should see at least one compulsory Shakespeare performance during their school life as part of an attempt to stop youngsters being bored by the Bard's plays.
Ministers 'rethink' decision on compulsory languages
Published: 14 September 2006
The Government has ordered a review of its controversial decision to scrap compulsory language lessons for 14- to 16-year-olds.
School tests show decline in standard of English
Published: 14 September 2006
Standards in English among 14-year-olds at secondary school have fallen, test results for 600,000 pupils published yesterday show.
Fewer 14-year-olds make the grade in English
Published: 13 September 2006
Fewer 14-year-olds reached the standards expected of their age group in English this year, national test results showed today.
Britain slipping down world league table of university attendance
Published: 13 September 2006
Britain is fast slipping down a world league table showing the percentage of young people opting to go to university.
Children will sit basic skills test from age 12
Published: 11 September 2006
Bright children could pass a new government test in functional skills - aimed at proving their worth to employers - as soon as they start secondary school, it emerged today.
Special Report: State And Religion
Published: 10 September 2006
Bilingual school is a lesson in the entente cordiale
Published: 09 September 2006
"Au revoir, à lundi," one four-year-old tells her new friend in the playground, as the opening week at Britain's first bilingual state school draws to an end.
New language qualifications help put 10,000 students on 'ladder of learning'
Published: 09 September 2006
Ten thousand students - including children as young as eight - have taken innovative new courses which aim to reverse the decline in language learning.
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