• A national school sports competition is to be created to coincide with the Olympics. The government will set up a league for primary and secondary schools - it will begin in 2011 with finals coinciding with the London games in 2012. Fewer than one in five pupils take part in regular competition between schools. Times


• The names of the 1,700 schools who have asked the government about becoming academies have been published, after ministers came under pressure from unions and anti-academy campaigners requesting the information under Freedom of Information laws. Some 870 of the schools which have expressed an interest are rated 'outstanding' so would get automatic ratification. Guardian


• Zenna Atkins, chair of Ofsted, has resigned. This fuels speculation that ministers are planning far reaching changes to the organisation - her decision comes in the wake of recent press reports that Michael Gove is keen to see the departure of Ofsted's Chief Inspector from her role. Guardian


• David Miliband has spoken out against the exam 'obstacle course' which children face from age 14-19. He said his biggest political frustration was Tony Blair's refusal to embrace radical reform which would have seen GCSEs and A-Levels replaced with a new academic and vocational framework. Guardian


• The recession seems to have stimulated women to apply to become maths and science teachers. Female applications for maths teacher training have risen by 35% in the past year and science teacher training by 41%. More than half of applications for maths and science teacher training were from people wanting to change career. Times


• Cambridge University is proposing to run a state primary school in conjunction with its Institute of Education. It hopes to garner consent for the 630 place school by 2011 and complete the first staged of development by 2013. Telegraph


• The Department of Education in Northern Ireland is to consider raising the school starting age to six in line with mainland Europe. A report called Early Years: Zero to Six has been published for consultation. BBC


• Headmistress of the high-achieving independent North London Collegiate school has said that in state schools, a traditional curriculum is losing out to simpler history and geography curricula designed to appeal to bored pupils and as 'vehicles' for a political agenda, covering subjects such as citizenship, sustainability and climate change. She said that more than a quarter of teenagers fail to study English literature at GCSE and the number is rising. Telegraph


• Boris Johnson argues that our world cup thrashing can be traced to the ban on competitive school sports. Telegraph

• The government is searching for a policy to underpin its new 'special relationship' with Delhi and British diplomats are looking into plans to allow foreign universities to establish campuses in the country. Current legislation would not allow universities to repatriate profits to the UK. Times


• Ed Miliband has expressed his support of a graduate tax rather than a hike in tuition fees for undergraduates. He wrote in the Guardian that raising fees to the expected £7,000 a year would be a move designed to plug the gaps caused by university budget cuts rather than improve funding, and that education must be linked to a student's ability to pay in the future rather than their parents ability to pay now. Guardian


• Miliband's article


• The head of BT has branded the British education a 'disgrace' - he spoke of binning nearly a quarter of all applications for a new apprenticeship scheme because candidates seemed 'completely illiterate'. He also attacked the obsession with pushing ever more school leavers to go to university. Telegraph


• Budget cuts over the coming years may cause legal clinics to close. These are substantial providers of legal services to those who would otherwise have severely limited or no access to justice. Dean of the school of law at Birkbeck University expresses her fears that centres will close or have to seek private donors, compromising the not-for-profit ideology so important for protecting the rights of vulnerable communities. Guardian

• Family Court staff union Napo has told the Audit Office that the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) was lurching from 'crisis to crisis', a 'bureaucratic nightmare offering a poor service' due to 'huge amounts of time and energy taken up with Ofsted and quality improvement inspections'. BBC


• A Demos report challenges the idea that being in care leads to under-achievement, it finds that children taken into care do better the longer they spend away from their natural parents. Young children gain from quicker decisions, coherent planning and one or two long-term placements, usually with foster carers and stay in care until they are at least 18. Times


• There were 380 successful sperm donors in 2008 while around 40,000 couples attempt IVF each year and many require donor sperm. Donor numbers are low - in 2004 they lost their anonymity - any children born of sperm donation can trace the donor when they reach 18; there is no payment for donation. The writer counts himself in. Times


• An article in Mother & Baby magazine, which is aimed at new mothers, has described breastfeeding as 'creepy', drawing criticism from a wide range of sources. Breastfeeding is seen as the optimum way to nourish a baby during the first six months. BBC


• Scientists say they are close to creating a blood test which would be able to predict the date of a woman's menopause to within four months when she is as young as 20. The test would be most useful for the small proportion of women who undergo an early menopause - 5-10% have theirs aged below 45 and 1% below 40. Guardian

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