• Michael Gove has written to all 20,000 state school headteachers this morning to invite them to become academies, free of local authority control. Such a change would improve standards, cut bureaucracy and raise aspirations, he suggests. Their freedoms will be comparable to the grant maintained schools, which Blair reigned in in 1997. Times
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• Adam Walker, the former teacher who used a school laptop to make online comments which described Britain as a 'dumping ground for the filth of the third world', has been cleared of racial intolerance. He resigned as a teacher in 2007. Guardian
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• The new Education and Children's Bill set out yesterday is to include a major review of the curriculum to set out the subject content children should learn at each stage of education. The slimmer curriculum would prescribe subject content but give greater freedom to teachers about how to teach it. Labour's last review removed key figures from history to instil a 'skills-based' approach. Telegraph


• Editor of the Jewish Chronicle, Stephen Pollard, supports the 'free schools' reforms but says Gove must be aware opposition to them within the educational establishment is 'deep-seated, ruthless and near universal'. He advises him to 'stand strong and defeat' the establishment. Telegraph


• North Yorkshire county council has been found not guilty of breaching health and safety laws after a 14 year old boy died while potholing on a school trip. The group had got into difficulties when water levels in the cave they were in rose dramatically. Guardian


• 85.5% of pupils age 7-16 have a mobile phone, while only 72.6% have their own books at home. Reading is closely linked to educational attainment: 80% of children with better than expected reading skills have their own books, compared to just 58% who were below the level expected of their age group. Telegraph


• Jim Al-Khalili, presenter on Genius of Britain, endorses the quality of science on mainstream tv; he argues we should discard any notion that 'mainstream is the enemy of rigour, or that primetime equals dumbing down'. Guardian

• The government today forced out the two most senior managers at the Student Loans Company, after a review expressed 'serious concerns' about its ability to improve the chaotic system in time for the new academic year. A National Audit Office report found only 46% of applications last autumn were processed by the beginning of term. Guardian


• Donations of money to British universities have jumped from £430 to £511million for the first time as alumni responded to campus fundraising campaigns and council schemes to match or part-match donations. The value of new donations pledged over a number of years dropped by 20% as benefactors were reluctant to commit themselves to future gifts. Times


• There will be £200m of cuts to the university budget on top of the £449m already announced. The Budget of the previous government had promised an extra 20,000 places but there will be 10,000 less places - only the extra 10,000 places, as promised by the Conservatives. £150m more will fund 50,000 apprenticeship places and £50m extra for Further Education colleges. BBC

• The average age at which a woman in the UK bears a child has risen to 29.4, the highest ever. The number of women who are over 40 when they give birth also stood at the highest on record - 26,976 - 3.8% of the total 706,248 live births. 46.2% births were to women who were not married and 24.7% were to women who had been born abroad. Guardian
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• The Office for National Statistics has found that those in rural areas can expect to live longer than their peers in the city. Men living in the country can expect to live to 78, two years longer than those in the city; women will reach 82, a year and a half longer than their urban peers. Four fifths of Britons live in urban areas. Guardian
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• The counsel for the General Social Care Council (GSCC) conduct committee has suggested that the two social workers found guilty of misconduct over omissions in their dealings with Baby Peter will not be struck off- the council deems the 16 month suspension they have already undergone as 'proportionate and sufficient'. Guardian
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• Researchers have found strong links between the working habits of a mother and the likelihood of their child being obese. A child in the 1990s had a 48% greater risk of being obese if his/her mother worked rather than was a housewife. Mail
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• As the coalition government announced plans to end the detention of children for immigration purposes, Wells Botomani, from Malawi and now 14, relives his experience at Yarls Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire. Guardian
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• A Teletext survey suggested one in five parents lie about taking their children on holidays during school terms to avoid being fined. Just over half of the 1,000 questioned were prepared to take their children away during term to take advantage of cheaper prices. Telegraph


• A son sued his mother at the High Court yesterday over her alleged failure to protect him from his father's beatings. Times

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