State boarding school boom: surge in pupils living away from home

Number of places on offer rises by more than 25% – an increase driven by family breakdown and pressure on working parents State boarding schools are witnessing a surge in popularity, with the number of places rising by a quarter over the past decade – an increase driven in part by family breakdown, which has [...]

School league tables show 107 secondaries are failing

Schools failing to reach minimum standards face being closed and re-opened as academies More than 100 secondary schools in England face being closed and re-opened as academies for failing government targets, official data reveals. League tables of more than 3,300 secondaries published by the Department for Education on Thursday show that 107 schools are failing [...]

Thomas Telford school tops GCSE league tables

Headteacher puts Shropshire school’s success down to its three-hour lessons and extended day Thomas Telford school in Shropshire is the country’s top comprehensive for GCSE results, according to this year’s school league tables. Some 98% of the school’s pupils who sat GCSEs last summer gained five or more at grades A* to C, including English [...]

Nigel Leat school ‘failed on every level’ to prevent his sexual abuse of pupils

Serious case review finds Hillside school grossly negligent in failing to stop Nigel Leat’s sexual abuse of pupils over 14 years A school “failed on every level” to prevent a teacher from sexually abusing pupils in his classroom despite concerns about his behaviour being raised for 14 years, a serious case review has concluded. Nigel [...]

USDA sets guidelines for more fruit and vegetables in school lunches

US school children, accustomed to a diet of pizza and hot dogs, will find healthier food on their trays under new government rules The new US Department of Agriculture (USDA) rules aim to boost the nutritional quality of the federally funded meals consumed by roughly 32 million US school children. The rules represent the first [...]

Katharine Birbalsingh criticised over ‘wasteful’ free school project

Tories’ favourite teacher slammed over her proposed secondary school with a ‘private ethos’ in south London Katharine Birbalsingh, the teacher described as a Tory darling for her attacks on state education standards, is at the centre of a dispute over her plans to open a free secondary school with a “private ethos” in an area [...]

Michael Gove orders inspection of school in academy row

Ofsted instructed to carry out inspection of Downhills primary, where the governors are resisting academy status Michael Gove has instructed Ofsted to carry out an inspection of a primary school where the governors are resisting academy status. Lawyers representing the governing body of Downhills primary in Tottenham, north London, have accused the education secretary of [...]

The British boarding school remains a bastion of cruelty | George Monbiot

While condemning global injustices against children, we fail to examine the ethics of removing seven-year-olds from their families Texas is a largely Christian state that appears to believe in neither forgiveness nor redemption. Last week the Guardian revealed the extent to which it has criminalised its children. Police now patrol the schools, arresting and charging [...]

Catholic monks faced child abuse investigation, school admits

Downside School apologises to parents over revelations resulting from police examination of school records Seven Roman Catholic monks with links to a top public school have faced police investigation over child sex and pornography offences, the school admitted today. In a letter to the parents of the 1,500 pupils at Downside School in Somerset, Dom [...]

Jenn Ashworth: Why I refused to go to school

‘Who wants to be locked into a room with 30 people dressed just like them, to be startled by a bell every 35 minutes, to queue for lunch for 40 minutes and be made to stand outside in the cold twice a day?’ Jenn Ashworth most definitely did not… We were watching Family Fortunes. I [...]

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