• The Home Office is funding a scheme run by a Merseyside charity which shows children aged 9-11 stills from the 18 rated video game Grand Theft Auto and violent cartoon The Itchy and Scratchy Show. The children are asked to sort the images into 'good real life', 'bad real life' and 'not real' to stop them become 'desensitised' to violent behaviour. Guardian


• The Guardian speaks to Gordon Brown before the launch of the Labour manifesto today. He pledges to allow 1,000 coasting or failing secondary schools be taken over by new leadership if parents' demand. This will mean an expansion of the 50 existing accredited school providers. Three core education policies are - to continue to invest more per pupil in the future; personal, one-to-one tuition for those who need it and compulsory education to 18. He claims the Tories oppose the former two. Guardian


• Newly announced Labour education policies are an attempt by Brown to match Conservative promised 'parent power'. His plans to federate schools are enhanced by research showing that partnerships work, and save money. However school objections may mean targets to expand academies are more realistic. Unlike the Tories, chains of schools will continue to be run on a not-for-profit basis. Guardian


• A Sutton Trust report finds that 91 of the 100 most socially elite schools in England are comprehensives; schools were likely to be faith schools, with expensive trips and uniform, and sixth form provision. Comparing grammar schools to leading comprehensives, it found that 13.5% of grammar school pupils were eligible for free school meals while the leading comprehensives took 9.2% of this intake. Times


• DCSF statistics show that children who speak English as a first language are now a minority in 1,545 schools - in 1997, it was 866 schools. One in seven primary school pupils and one in ten secondary school pupils do not speak English as their first language. Mail


• St Johns Ambulance today launch a new campaign to encourage more people to learn basic first aid; they estimate that 150,000 die unnecessarily every year from remediable conditions. Guardian


• Ofsted has received criticism after it is announced that nine schools last term were given wrong ratings, which were consequently overturned. Ofsted's new inspection regime has already been met with contention and 80 MPs expressed serious concerns about it to Parliament earlier this month. Telegraph


• Last week's complaints by major teaching unions about the rise of 'pupil power' have materialised as an incoming head mistress steps down as a result of a Facebook campaign against her appointment. Telegraph

• Nearly 200 Labour parliamentary candidates, just under a third of those standing, have signed an NUS petition against an increase in tuition fees - many of them hope to defend seats in university towns against the Lib Dems, who promise to abolish fees. The two main parties have hinted the £3,220 tuition fee will be increased but have not outlined detailed proposals. Times


• In 1999, 70% of British students accepted at UK universities had taken A Levels, the figure is now 49.8%. By making brighter pupils study for alternative or vocational qualifications, many schools are driving education apartheid - the Russell and 1994 group of universities are unlikely to accept English students without A Levels. Times

• Is David Cameron defecting from a catch all Toryism that was set to win him the election? The marriage tax breaks he announced on Saturday are to be relatively token, a move he justified by claiming 'the message is more important than the money'. Increasingly, the Conservative position on marriage, schools, euthanasia and abortion indicate that their opposition to Labour's 'nanny state' has not been formative to their alternative vision. Guardian


• Sally Bercow is contemptuous of the Tory marriage tax break, not only because the low and middle income families targeted will feel little financial benefit. The fact that married couples are eligible regardless of whether they are parents or not, although one of the spouses must not work, indicates that the Tories are less 'family-friendly' than keen to reward a gender biased institution of marriage. Guardian


• New research finds that 22% of Britons do not eat at the table but have food elsewhere; 37% eat at least one meal in front of the TV. Mail

back to top