• Schools and nurseries are registering nearly 20% more under-fives with special needs than two years ago and overall a fifth of children under 16 are classed as having special educational needs at school, almost double the proportion 20 years ago. The figures follow a warning from a senior government advisor that schools have a 'perverse incentive' to register children in order to look better in league tables. Mail


• An academic at the Institute of Education has found that even in Sweden free schools increased segregation, as middle class parents take their children out of community schools to attend new free schools. They improved pupils' results at age 15 or 16, but by the equivalent of A Level there was no difference between the two types of schools. Maintaining free schools was costly as local authorities paid for surplus places and planning had become complex. Guardian


• A school first aider is facing the sack after a pupil died from an asthma attack. The failure to call an ambulance was found to have 'significantly contributed' to the death of Sam Linton, 11 as the court ruled there had been neglect on an 'individual and systemic level'. Five members of staff had been suspended, one is to be dismissed. Times

• Sixty universities and colleges are named by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) are to pay £15,669,500 for accepting 4,235 more full-time undergraduates and postgraduate teachers than their quotas. Of the 22 universities on the list, at least two are believed to be in severe financial difficulty. Times


• Forty per cent of universities and colleges will receive less government funding than last year, a further forty per cent will see their grant rise below the level of inflation and just one in five will be given an increase in funding above the level of inflation. None of the leading Russell Group universities will receive a rise above inflation; the university to gain the most is the University of Worcester. Telegraph


• Faith and Fashion uses the fixation on Muslim women's dress as a starting point for exploring how high fashion could reflect British Muslim sensibilities and its fundamental concept of modesty. 20 Muslim schoolgirls are hard at work at the London School of Fashion designing and creating such outfits. Guardian

• The Government is to launch a £50 million national citizen service scheme to galvanise a disaffected generation. Hundreds of thousands of 16 year olds will be sent on a three week summer course - seven days of outdoor challenges; seven days of study at a university campus and the final week at home helping local residents. Cameron's initial favour for a compulsory scheme has been scaled back to a voluntary programme after advice from youth organisations. Times


• A senior UK economist has commented that the budget represents 'the tightest squeeze' on families since the mid-1970s. By 2015, Vicky Redwood estimated that the £40 billion of tax rises and spending cuts would have eroded the average household income by 8%, or £3,000 of £36,000. The toughest year will be the coming one, with jobs cut, the public sector pay freeze and VAT increases. Telegraph


• Theresa May is to publish a consultation paper setting out an overhaul of the licensing regime to include a ban on shops selling alcohol at below cost price and a levy on pubs and clubs to contribute to the additional costs of policing. It would enable councils to introduce a ban on drinking after midnight in entire streets or towns - a move some at Whitehall have dubbed 'the death knell for 24-hour drinking'. Telegraph


• Hundreds of IVF embryos from British couples have been given away without their knowledge or explicit consent. A Spanish clinic runs an 'embryo adoption scheme' where spare embryos are donated to other women if the couple who created them do not know what they want to do with them or fail to respond to clinic correspondence. Unlike British law, Spain does not allow the resulting children to trace their biological parents; as a result perhaps, in Britain embryo donation is rare. Telegraph


• Nick Clegg yesterday told the House of Commons that as part of the government's plan to end child detention it would shut the Bedfordshire detention centre Yarls Wood. The Home Office later clarified that it was only the family wing of the 405-bed facility that would be shut; earlier this year the Children's Commissioner reported that the 1,000 children held a year faced extremely distressing arrest and transportation procedures and were held for prolonged periods. Guardian


• The Scouts will today launch an entrepreneur badge. The badge will be awarded for activities including a presentation of business ideas to a Dragons Den-style panel and fundraising. Four scouts from Lichfield who set up a mobile barbecue business will be among the first to receive the entrepreneurship badge today. Guardian

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