• Scottish head teachers are calling for the education system to be restructured to mean education is taken out of the remit of Scotland's 32 local authorities and delivered by 12 area boards. Each board would run 35-50 schools and report to the national government. Current Education Secretary Michael Russell has said he had no plans to introduce the free schools model, which the Conservative party support, but was keen to listen to other suggestions. Times


• Michael Russell is facing criticism over an announced list of planned meetings to allow parents and teachers to voice concerns about the introduction of the controversial Curriculum for Excellence. Scottish Labour has accused Russell of only planning the visits in 'target SNP seats'. Times


• The exams regulator, Ofqual, has criticised the examination of British humour in a key stage 2 test, claiming that it discriminates against the one in seven pupils for whom English is a second language. Pupils were required to answer a question about what was funny in the case of a boy who had left home to live in a tree house in his garden. Teaching unions are calling for the tests to be abolished. Telegraph


• Moving to secondary school - for both the parents and the eleven year old - is daunting enough. For children in 36 areas, selective schools mean they have the 11-plus to contend with. The Guardian meets 5 children and their parents who have taken the test and are about to take the leap. Guardian


• A visit to Grasmere, the village that William Wordsworth called his 'little nook of mountain ground', finds the local primary school performing Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Deemed 'difficult' but not 'too difficult' by teachers of the years 1-6 pupils, all of whom saw the play and received help from the Royal Shakespeare Company's schools outreach work before putting on their own - only slightly abridged - work in the original language. Guardian


• Exams are over for the Guardian's four University Challenge students, as they prepare to enjoy a summer of freedom before moving to university in September. Guardian

• Professor Geoffrey Alderman lauds the slow moves towards better policing standards in universities, as the HEFCE mandates the Quality Assurance Agency for HE to define 'standards' and 'threshold standards' as part of its work this year. Institutional audits will interrogate whether these standards are being met and be published in simple English. He hopes we will then publicly identify a failing institution and the marketplace will do the rest. Guardian

• Ofsted has said that councils focus too much on 'at risk' youths at the expense of providing for the majority of young people. It said that councils are legally obliged to provide 'positive activities' for young people in their area, especially on Friday and Saturday nights, but it had found that they failed to provide such 'opportunities to develop personal, vocational and social skills', such as sports and music clubs. Telegraph


• Nearly a third of women earn more than their partners and a further 19% earn the same amount. 40% of women said the career of whichever partner had the highest income would take precedence and in one in ten families, a house husband stays at home to look after the children and do the chores. Mail


• Rory Stewart discovers the 'big society' already thriving in his Cumbrian constituency and endorses the Government's plans to tear down the bureaucracy standing in its path. With energetic consultation, accountable projects and informed solutions, he argues that this is no grand ideological project but may save services and liberate communities' imagination and pride. Times

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