• The implications of the coalition document for education: parents, teachers and charities encouraged to set up their own schools, although there is little mention of academies; schools will have more freedom but be made 'properly accountable' and individual schools have more control over pupils and pay. State school pupils will sit a wider array of exams and recruitment will target maths and science graduates. Guardian
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• Gaining a school place for a child with learning difficulties is fraught with anxiety, paperwork, costs and differing opinions about best practice. Charlotte Phillips talks to mothers with children within the system. Telegraph
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• 190 exams were interrupted by bad weather this winter which led exam centres to be closed. Ofqual says the exams represented a small proportion of the 1,300 exams taken overall. BBC

• Chair of the 1994 group of 19 research intensive universities has recommended in evidence to the Browne Review that all students should be given minimum expectations of contact times with lecturers, class sizes and feedback. The Higher Education Funding Council could issue a penalty if an institution failed to live up to these. Guardian


• While Oxford is part of the Russell Group of universities who support an increase in tuition fees, its finance chief has outlined a plan whereby graduates who go into 'socially useful' jobs such as social work or teaching could apply to have their fees paid by a fund of donations from alumni. Representatives commented that it was 'very important' that student debt didn't force graduates into high paying jobs. Telegraph


• 900,000 or 15.3% of 16-24 year olds were classed as NEET in the first three months of 2010, a rise of 3.5% on the last quarter of 2009. 195,000 16-18 year olds were classed as NEET, a rise of 10.2% on the previous three months. Telegraph

• Charities called on the government yesterday not to scrap or curb child benefit or tax credits. These are attributed with lifting 100,000 children above the poverty line since 2007, but the overall number living in poverty has only dropped from 2.9 to 2.8 million. The new coalition government is to maintain Blair's goal of ending child poverty by 2020 but has promised a 'new approach'. Guardian
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• The Queen's Speech next week will focus on 'structural reforms to education and welfare that will help the life chances of people' with reduced roles for local education authorities and more private sector employment providers. The foreword of the coalition document calls the agreement a merger of 'Big Society and the big citizen'; there will be a review into Key Stage 2 exams and support for part-time students. Guardian
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• An independent commission is being set up to examine the funding of long-term care which will devise a new system of paying for personalised care services. The coalition had said that finding a new way of meeting the escalating costs of care was one of its main priorities; there are also plans to increase direct payments to carers and extend personal budgets to older people and the disabled. Guardian
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• The coalition's intent to extend anonymity in rape trials to defendants has been met with anger by women's groups. It is likely the ban would be lifted once a suspect was convicted. The identification of defendants was introduced in 1988, following police claims that it inhibited women from reporting rapes, meant police could not put out a call for women attacked by the same individual and impeded public scrutiny. Guardian
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• Sir Terry Leahy, chief Executive of Tesco, has written in the Daily Telegraph today with his concerns about binge drinking and anti-social behaviour. He welcomes the government's promise to act on the below cost selling of alcohol and encourages future discussion on a minimum price. Tesco will train independent retailers to challenge underage customers and look to work more closely with police and health professionals. Telegraph
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• A survey has found that one in five children have never received a handwritten letter and a tenth had never written a letter themselves. Almost half of the seven to 14 year olds had sent or received an email or message on a social networking site in the preceding week alone. 70% of the letters children did write were thank you letters. Guardian


• Researchers have found that parents' migration seems to affect a child's chance of developing autism. Covering 428 children who developed autism over a six year period, children whose parents had migrated from the Caribbean were at a fivefold increased risk, this was also significant for the African group and just present for children whose parents had moved from Asia. Immigration, rather than ethnicity, was the determinant factor. BBC


• The first sextuplets born in England for more than quarter of a century have been delivered at 25 weeks in Oxford, they remain under close watch at the neonatal intensive care unit. Telegraph

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