• Knife programmes for young people are to be cut, despite research showing that they have been successful. Three charities funded by the Home Office were told they have to find funding elsewhere after the first year, none of them have yet found another source of funds to continue their work. Guardian
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• One of the first state schools to take on a private partner has been taken into council control after being deemed inadequate by inspectors. The school is within Michael Gove's constituency. Critics have responded by saying instead of looking to Sweden, he should look closer to home to see whether moving schools out of local authority oversight works. Guardian
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• All three main parties will ask teachers to administer the year 6 SATS exams on Monday, if they are elected on Thursday. Unions say over half of headteachers are planning to boycott the tests. Guardian
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• Many councils have sent letters to head teachers saying that a boycott of next week's SATS exams would be considered as a breach of contract. This could lead to disciplinary action or one day's pay being docked. Guardian
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• The General secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers has announced that the union and other teaching associations are in discussion with the local government ombudsman about issuing fines to parents who make fictitious claims against teachers. Guardian
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• Schools in a Merseyside borough renowned for high rates of teenage pregnancy are to segregate children by sex for sex education classes. This will allow schools to target lessons more closely to relevant issues and hopes pupils will be more comfortable discussing the issues. Mail
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• The decline of dissection in schools and higher education is so severe that pharmaceutical companies are recruiting hardly any British students for their research units. Dissections were once a pillar of school science but are increasingly replaced by plastic replicas or onscreen animations. Times
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• Scotland's controversial Curriculum for Excellence is to be rewritten in simpler terms after teachers complained it was too vague and woolly. This is another bid to reduce opposition from teachers and ease its introduction this August. Times
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• The leader of the National Association of Head teachers has criticised education's 'quick fix' and blame culture. He criticises moves to sack teachers following a bad year, saying the government should offer support rather than sanctions if schools struggle. BBC


• The former director at London's Institute of Education sets out the ten issues that any new government should address. These include using local authorities to improve education, realising teachers are the solution not the problem and limiting the national curriculum to core subjects only. Guardian


• Discipline in schools gets bad press but rarely do attempts to recruit teachers mention these challenges. How then can tougher schools attract teachers when one in ten say they wouldn't work in a school which needs to be turned around? Guardian


• The Times reports on the families selling their properties to put children through private education which is increasingly costing around £30, 000 a year. Times

• A source close to the Browne Review of higher education has told the Sunday Times it will favour raising fees by as much as £1,000 a year from 2013. There would be a free market in fees and some course fees would rise until fees were almost five times higher than current rates. Guardian


• The Lib Dems propose to allow colleges to admit full time students from age 14, whereas current laws only allow 14-16 year olds to study part time at college. The Association of Colleges supports this move, which would allow students to specialise in vocations earlier and illustrate its success in practice. Guardian
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• Cumbria university is £30m in debt after only three years of existence. Voluntary redundancies among staff has affected the morale of many studying at the university. Guardian


• Professor Steve Smith of Universities UK discusses the issues the parties are not talking about: higher education and its costs to students; research priorities and policy toward the growing internationalisation of UK universities. Guardian

• A study has found that children's popularity at school is directly proportional to their size and that overweight children as young as five are shunned by peers. The trend was stronger among boys. Times
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• The deputy head of the Council of Europe, the organisation which creates greater unity across Europe, has claimed that banning smacking in the UK would improve parenting skills, leading 'to the evolution of a more respectful society'. Telegraph
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• Figures from January to March 2010 show that people are watching an average of four hours and 18 minutes of TV every day, this includes around 48 advertisements. The increase of 22 minutes on last year is attributed to the financial pressures of the recession. BBC
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