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| Institute for the Study of Civil Society |
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19 July
- Complaints about teachers have risen 800% last year: the number of Initial Conduct Referrals (ICRS) rose to 151 in the year to April, following just 16 in the previous 12 months. Last year's increase was put down to the publicity surrounding child protection in the wake of Baby Peter's death. The General Teaching Council, which Michael Gove has pledged to shut down, has a record number of cases waiting to be heard.
Telegraph
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Michael Gove has hit back at claims that the academies legislation is being rushed through parliament, due to the unusual step of skipping the 'committee stage'. This is a move Labour claims is normally reserved for anti-terror legislation and constitutional matters and one criticised by Graham Stuart, the Conservative chairman of the education select committee. Gove retorted that there was 'ample time' for scrutiny of the bill and there had been 'extensive debate' over the previous five years.
BBC
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A government advisor has told the Times that only 50 schools were sufficiently advanced in their applications to become academies in time for the start of the academic year. This is far fewer than Gove had hoped; a survey in the TES had suggesting that 500 schools could become academies by September had been highlighted by his advisors.
Times
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Two education departments are pooling resources to shave 20% of their budgets. Westminster, and Hammersmith and Fulham councils are combining education departments to form a 'super-department' which, from April, will run admissions and support for pupils with special needs and behavioural problems. They are discussing whether to merge child protection departments.
Guardian
- A report by the Centre for Policy Studies has claimed that primary school teachers are breeding illiteracy among children by letting them speak 'street' in the classroom as integral to a 'child-led' approach. It states that only at secondary school, do they discover that the argot is not acceptable in their written work. It also argues that 'unlike most immigrant parentswhite working-class parents often seem to be indifferent to their children's education'.
Guardian
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Boris Johnson sets out the case for synthetic phonics amid a situation where over a third of 11 year olds in London are not able to properly read and write and 20% still have serious problems when they leave secondary school. 'It is surely time for the government to organise a competition, a shoot-out' between synthetic phonics and the 'whole word recognition' method to reconcile the split in educationalists.
Telegraph
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Teachers, councilors, pupils and six major unions will today stage a protest at Westminster to urge ministers to reconsider the cancelled Building Schools for the Future programme, which halted 735 school projects.
BBC
- Simon Heffer objects to Vince Cable's proposals for a graduate tax. He argues that the Government must abandon Labour's utilitarian approach to tertiary education and restore responsibility for it to the Department for Education; that we must get away from the notion that university degrees of high standing are there by right for the masses, and emphasises that state funds should also, only, maintain those universities of high academic rigour.
Telegraph
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Mike Baker analyses the proposals for a graduate tax. A lower subsidy for the taxpayer than currently and in the incidence of higher fees; graduates in effect subsidising each other; the delay in cash flow to the Treasury; money would have to be passing from the Government to the educational institutions - institutions which Cable has now announced may be allowed to go bankrupt.
BBC
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Analysis by the University and College Union has suggested that if 25% savings are translated into job cuts, 33,844 jobs could be lost in colleges and class sizes may increase by a third. The Association of Colleges did not accept the 'overly bleak' predictions about job losses, a policy manager added that cutting staff was not the only way of finding savings.
BBC
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Jemima Lewis argues that it's the job not university that counts; it's nepotism, charm, ambition and luck which have the impact on getting the jobs rather than whether, or where, one gets a degree.
Telegraph
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Cameron is to set out his plan to realise his 'big society' vision. As part of his plan to roll back the public sector, he will announce how four pioneer areas of the country will be invited to submit applications to the Big Society Bank to help set up volunteer schemes to improve communities; to allow residents to commission recycling, communication and transport services, buy out local assets and extend the hours of local attractions.
Telegraph
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Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman has suggested that wearing the burka could be seen as a feminist statement. Immigration Secretary Damian Green has said there will be no burka ban in Britain but the comments of Spelman - the second most senior woman in Cabinet - are likely to arouse anger in backbench Tory MPs, some of whom have called for the banning of the burka outside the home.
Telegraph
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A Civitas study argues that new hate crime legislation is restricting freedom of speech. It states that 'some police forces and the CPS seem to be interpreting statutes in favour of ethnic and religious minorities and in a spirit hostile to members of the majority population.' It raises suspicions about impartiality within the CPS.
Times
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Researchers have found a 42% increased risk of childhood cancer in children born after fertility treatment. They were 87% more likely to have received a diagnosis of cancer by the age of three than the general population.
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