• A teacher who attacked a pupil was yesterday cleared of attempted murder and causing grevious bodily harm with intent. Harvey admits grevious bodily harm without intent but was told by the judge that he would not face a custodial sentence. Guardian


• Following the Harvey case, where pupils had hoped to catch his misconduct on film, the NASUWT union's general secretary called for a tightening of the rules around mobile phone use in schools. She questioned whether the government's 'guidance' should be made more formal. BBC


• The director of assessment and research at Cambridge University's exam board yesterday accused the Labour government of arbitrary and 'faddish' changes to the examinations system. Such an assertion is unusual from a leading examiner. Guardian


• An Oxfordshire head teacher is to call on the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) today to ballot their members over whether to collectively refuse entry to Ofsted inspectors. He will tell the union conference that Ofsted damages pupils' education by judging the success of schools on such narrow criteria and must be independent of government. Guardian


• Teachers in Scotland could strike for the first time in twenty years over cuts to education budgets - Scotland's largest teaching union will vote on whether to ballot its members over strike action at its annual conference in June. A government spokesperson commented that education funding to Scotland had increased despite cuts to the Westminster block grant. Times


• A jobless single mother who is teaching her four year old at home after he was suspended five times from school following the suicide of his father, accuses the school system of treating him as a 'problem child' not a 'child with problems'. Mail


• More than half of primary school teachers have seen at least one pupil start school with no experience of being told stories at home; teachers commented that the stories children did know often seemed to come from Disney cartoons. Research unequivocally shows that children who read on a regular basis before starting school are more likely to succeed. Guardian


• Figures for stress-related absence are not collected by the Department for Children, Schools and Families. They published an advice leaflet in 2008 but have largely left local authorities and schools themselves to deal with the problem. How can what is thought to be a pervasive problem be better addressed? Times


• The group One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and the East African Community (EAC) have formed a partnership which will aim to deliver 30 million of the $200 laptops to the region by 2015. It is appealing to Barack Obama for US assistance. BBC

• Clegg flags in a heated exchange with a student about work placements for young people. Telegraph


• What are the implications of the announced closure of Middlesex's progressive and high-achieving philosophy department? Guardian

• An evangelical Christian who was sacked from his job at Relate, the relationship counselling organisation, for refusing in principle to offer sex therapy to homosexuals has unsuccessfully challenged his dismissal. The judge also dismissed suggestions from the former Archbishop of Canterbury, who had suggested changes to judicial procedure in such cases. Telegraph


• People in the UK have a higher risk of early death than those in many other wealthy countries: the rate of early deaths (before age 60) for women remains similar to Slovenia and Albania's. Experts blamed the UK's large inequality gap. BBC


• An IFS report finds that 19 out of 20 couples are worse off financially if they live together, for 10% this can be as much as £200 a week. It finds that the Tories would cut the penalty by 0.2%, Labour increase it by 0.4% and the Lib Dems increase it by 3.1%. Mail


• Reporting from an election hustings which focused on minority voters yesterday, Joseph Harker observes Harriet Harman fall flat; George Osborne's promises of internships, changes to stop and search and scrapping the DNA database for innocents meet with general approval and Vince Cable gain the warmest response. Guardian


• Has public health paternalism gone too far to eliminate the pleasures of a working class existence? This is the topic of a report by the Democracy Institute released this week. Guardian


• The plight of the unemployed and their impoverished circumstances has barely registered as an election issue - recent reports explore the difficulties of life below the poverty line. Guardian

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