• The head teacher of a school in Harrogate has imposed a ban on skirts among girls under 15 because young girls were 'placing themselves at risk' by raising their hemlines. He commented that the young children were 'wholly unaware of the signals they are giving out' by wearing short skirts. Telegraph


• The 35 Northern contestants to reach the regional final of the Teaching Awards were subjected not just to an awards ceremony. Baroness Shirley Williams chairs the judging panel and was keen to find out the teachers' views on academies before she meets Michael Gove next month to talk over the new government's plans. These finalists were sceptical, emphasising the loyalties of schools to local education authorities and inter-school partnerships. Guardian


• Mike Baker observes Gove 'doing away with the system of checks and balances' by abolishing the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency to bring curriculum development inside the Department for Education. Here, it will be shaped by advice from Gove's handpicked committee of experts and by civil servants, few of whom have ever been teachers - and implemented, by the same department. Guardian


• St Mary's primary in Leith, Edinburgh is capitalising on the freedoms given by the new Scottish curriculum for excellence to allow children to pick their own topics to stimulate learning. More detailed national curricula have limited the themes which schools can use to smuggle maths, science and literacy into children's heads - now they can have the 60s, Egyptians, minibeasts, the Titanic and SpongeBob SquarePants. Guardian


• Schools are being sent a 'study list' of 50 famous people, such as Charlotte Church, comedian Rob Brydon, Gavin and Stacey star Ruth Jones, singer Katherine Jenkins and actor Richard Burton. Welsh students will study the way they speak as part of a new spoken modern language component of English language exams introduced by the examining board OCR Cymru. Telegraph


• A call for the reintroduction of classical education to schools. Whereas the majority of the Lib-Con Cabinet benefited from this, we are close to denying the opportunity to modern Britain. Guardian

• Employers taking on apprentices cannot recoup their wages, and are reimbursed only for the training costs of 16-18 year olds. Essex County Council has decided it cannot wait to see whether the new government will extend more support to businesses who cannot afford this so will pay the salaries of 140 new engineering graduates themselves. It looks to Germany for instruction. Guardian


• More young students than ever joined The Open University (OU) this year. A quarter of graduates are now aged 25 or under, and the rates of 18-21 year olds joining has jumped 17.5%. The trend seems to be for part-time study, which can be combined with work. At Birbeck College, where the majority of courses are part-time, undergraduate applications are up 20%. Telegraph


• Complaints to the students' complaints watchdog, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) jumped 12% between 2008 and 2009, 37% in two years. The 1,007 complaints received is the equivalent to one complaint per 2,000 students. Yet the proportion of complaints upheld has dropped from 23% to 18%. Guardian


• Mark Corney outlines the debates around higher education: how the challenge to spare Treasury funding encompasses turning existing grant expenditure into loans, and the even bigger prize, of turning the £5 billion contribution the Higher Education Funding Council makes to student funding into income contingent loans. Students and universities must lend a hand to the taxpayer amid the fiscal crisis, he argues. Guardian

• Theresa May is to announce that the Vetting and Barring scheme which was designed to protect children from paedophiles will be redesigned along 'common sense' lines. Under the scheme, intended to be introduced next month, nine million people who wanted to work with adults or vulnerable children would have had to register on the database or face a £5,000 fine. It would have affected parents who signed up for school driving rotas for weekly sports events or clubs. Telegraph


• A misconduct hearing has heard how a GP missed a 'unique opportunity' to save Baby Peter's life when he saw him eight days before death. Dr Ikuwekke is appearing before the General Medical Council's panel charged with failing to consider the possibility of child abuse or neglect. The GMC heard that the GP was reckless in failing to carry out further checks or make an urgent referral. Times


• An independent review by Bedford and Central Bedfordshire safeguarding children boards has criticised social workers, police, the UKBA and Serco, who run Yarls Wood, for failing to investigate a case of two five year olds engaging in sexual activity at the detention centre and concerns that an older child may have abused one of them. Arrangements to keep children safe were labelled 'ultimately ineffective'. Guardian


• The new independent budget watchdog has produced a bleak first report. The Office for Budget Responsibility suggests George Osborne is to introduce £34 billion of tax increases and public spending cuts - these would hit every family in Britain by an average of £1,000 a year. It also tempers optimistic forecasts for growth of 3.5% - predicting the economy will expand by only 2.6% next year. Mail


• A government funded report compiled by the charity, Business in the Community, has found that many ethnic minority Britons feel that prestigious jobs in banking, the law, media and politics are closed to them. It spoke of 'blatant racism', often in the workplace. The workplace seen to be the most prejudiced was the police. Guardian


• Pamela Gilles, now principal of Glasgow Caledonian University, has proposed the establishment of Britain's first Grameen bank - the Nobel Prizewinning system of microcredit banking. So successful in Bangladesh and beyond, Gilles hopes to bring it to Glasgow's most deprived areas in order to offer small loans to group (of women) excluded by the mainstream banking system, who want to set up their own businesses. Guardian


• The Guardian goes to Salford to test new findings by YouGov that neighbourliness is on its way out, as twice as many people as thirty years ago say they would 'never' call on their next-door neighbours. Guardian


• The Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists has found that many pregnant women are risking their feet in the name of fashion. A survey found that many mothers-to-be regularly wore Ugg boots, ballet pumps, flip flops and high heels despite these not providing the necessary support during a time when they are particularly prone to ankle and ligament strains. BBC

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