Unconscious children rushed to hospital but are now stable, weeks before new CO detector law goes into effect in Allentown
A malfunctioning heater sent a dangerously high level of carbon monoxide into a Pennsylvania daycare center early Tuesday, sickening dozens of children – some of whom were unconscious as they were rushed to the hospital – and several adults.
More than 30 people were hospitalized. All were listed in stable condition.
Continue reading...Headteachers fear impact on children of unfilled vacancies as support staff say rising bills force them to leave jobs in education
Headteachers across the country say they cannot fill vital teaching assistant vacancies and that support staff are taking second jobs in supermarkets to survive because their wages are “just a joke”.
Schools are reporting that increasing numbers of teaching assistants are leaving because they will not be able to pay for high energy bills and afford food this winter. And with job ads often attracting no applications at all, heads fear they will be impossible to replace. They warn this will have a serious impact on children in the classroom, especially those with special educational needs, and will make it increasingly hard for teachers to focus on teaching.
Continue reading...Figures show there is one counsellor for every 650 students, despite inquiry recommending ratio of 1:500
A dire shortage of school counsellors means New South Wales students are going without disability assessments and early interventions as staff scramble to triage the most serious cases, including suicide risks, sexual assaults and teen pregnancies.
Department of Education figures obtained by Guardian Australia reveal there was one counsellor for every 650 students across the state in August, not accounting for staff on uncovered leave – meaning the reality was far worse.
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Continue reading...Floods, militia raids and hunger mean a third of children are not in school at all, while the rest have too few teachers, aid groups warn
Nearly every school-age child in Sudan is missing out on education, either completely or facing serious disruption, aid organisations have warned.
Schools in some states reopened this week after delays due to severe flooding but millions of children are still unable to go, leaving the country facing a “generational catastrophe”.
Continue reading...Headteachers say more children are using vapes, forcing them to take action to tackle the problem
The government’s school behaviour adviser has called on headteachers to crack down on vaping among pupils, calling it “a huge health hazard” and an “enormous distraction”, amid reports that more children are using the devices, including some of primary age.
Tom Bennett said vaping was now as big an issue in schools as cigarettes once were, with children becoming “addicted to the practice and the chemicals involved”.
Continue reading...Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson to announce plan to fund breakfast clubs in every primary school
Labour will rebuild a new childcare system to ease the pressure on parents from the “end of parental leave right through to the end of primary school”, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said, starting with a pledge on free breakfast clubs.
Phillipson will announce on Wednesday that fully funded breakfast clubs for every primary school in England would be funded by the revenues raised by restoring the top rate of income tax to 45p, if Labour were elected.
Continue reading...Some parent bodies helping with core costs, raising fears of growing gap between rich and poor areas
Days into the new academic year, headteachers have raised the alarm about a looming funding crisis in schools, with some parents urged to make donations and parent-teacher associations on standby to plug funding gaps for classroom essentials.
As energy bills and wage costs rise, school leaders say money from PTA fundraising efforts will be needed to cover core costs rather than “nice to have” extras. In affluent areas where PTAs are able to raise huge sums, it could even be used to save jobs and help pay bills.
Continue reading...Staff at Future Academies claim they are being overworked and children have been left demoralised
Teachers at an academy chain founded by the former Conservative schools minister John Nash and his wife are preparing to go on strike, claiming the trust is “blighting the life chances of the children”.
The curriculum used by Future Academies, developed by Caroline Nash, a stockbroker, is said in a letter to governors of one the chain’s schools to be among the most narrow in the country.
Continue reading...Enoch Burke, who had also refused to refer to pupil as ‘they’, spent 11 days in prison
A school teacher in Ireland who refused to call a transgender pupil by the pronoun “they” has spent 11 days in prison for ignoring a court order to stay away from the school.
Enoch Burke failed to obtain a court injunction on Wednesday that would have paved his release and return to school, leaving him in Mountjoy prison in Dublin.
Continue reading...Despite their costs going ‘through the roof’, education leaders fear they will be a low priority for the next occupant of No 10
Education leaders in England fear one thing: that schools, colleges and universities will be hammered by the cost of living crisis but will not be enough of a priority to get the help they need from government. And they see little hope from a change in leadership at No 10.
“Our costs are going through the roof, our staff badly need pay rises and are going to strike, our students are suffering, but our income is stuck,” said one vice-chancellor, echoing their peers in schools and colleges around the country.
Continue reading...Exclusive: warnings of damage to children’s education for years to come without major intervention
• ‘It’s heartbreaking’: England’s school leaders on budget shortfalls
Leading Conservatives including two former Tory education secretaries have urged the incoming prime minister to address rising cost pressures on schools as a matter of urgency, as head teachers struggle to pay soaring energy and wage bills.
With the start of the new academic year just days away, many schools in England are already overwhelmed by energy price rises in excess of 200% – with worse to come – plus the additional cost of unfunded pay rises and mounting inflation.
Continue reading...Ex-chancellor admits being furious about school closures, adding trade-offs of lockdowns were not properly considered by experts
Rishi Sunak has claimed that it was a mistake to “empower scientists” during the coronavirus pandemic and that his opposition to closing schools was met with silence during one meeting.
The Conservative leadership candidate believes one of the major errors was allowing the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) to have so much influence on decision making such as closing nurseries, schools and colleges in March 2020.
Continue reading...Tory leadership candidates called on to commit to fixing growing regional disparities in education
This year’s GCSE results for England and Wales are expected to confirm a widening north-south education gap, prompting a prediction that the government will miss one of its key levelling-up targets if it continues to hold back pupils in the north of England.
A coalition of school leaders, charities and the Northern Powerhouse Partnership has written to the Conservative leadership candidates urging them to commit to fixing growing regional disparities in education.
Continue reading...Association of School and College Leaders predicts grades will be uneven across England and Wales due to Covid disruption
GCSE results will be uneven across the country due to the varying impact of the pandemic, according to the headteachers union, which described the government’s Covid recovery programme as “lacklustre and chaotic”.
The number of top grades at A-level fell sharply this year and a similar decline is anticipated for GCSE grades as the government seeks to reverse the grade inflation caused by teacher-assessment during the pandemic.
Continue reading...Expert says exam results will likely mirror A-levels and remain above what they were in 2019
More pupils will fail their GCSEs this year and top grades are expected to fall as results return to pre-pandemic levels, an education expert has predicted.
There could be 230,000 fewer top grades in the UK compared with 2021, but 230,000 more than 2019, according to Prof Alan Smithers, director of the centre for education and employment research at the University of Buckingham.
Continue reading...At security debriefings, Aimen Dean and his family fell in love with the Highlands. Three years later, they feel rejected
Aimen Dean remembers the moment he and his wife, Saadia, decided to make their home in Scotland. They had toured the Highlands and were standing on the battlements of Edinburgh Castle, looking out over the city’s skyline.
Dean already knew Scotland: as one of the UK’s key spies, operating in the highest levels of al-Qaida, he had visited the country in secret six times before, to be debriefed by MI6 officers at safe houses deep in the Highlands or, on one occasion, a hotel on the island of Iona.
Continue reading...Inquiry opens into St George’s after Aimen Dean claims it singled out his daughter over fears he was a security risk
One of the UK’s leading private schools is under investigation after being accused of discrimination against the daughter of one of the west’s most important spies, a former al-Qaida bomb-maker credited with saving thousands of lives.
Aimen Dean, who spied for British intelligence inside the terrorist network for eight years, has made a formal complaint against St George’s School in Edinburgh, claiming it singled out his five-year-old daughter because other parents feared he was a security risk.
Continue reading...Jesús Murillo held on charges of forced disappearance, torture and obstruction of justice in notorious Guerrero case
Mexico’s former attorney general has been arrested in relation to the disappearance of 43 students in 2014, the most prominent individual held so far in the notorious case that has haunted the country ever since.
Jesús Murillo was arrested at his home in Mexico City home on Friday on charges of forced disappearance, torture and obstruction of justice in the abduction and disappearance of the student-teachers in the south-western state of Guerrero, now seen as a “state-sponsored crime”.
Continue reading...Strong competition for places means many of those who dropped grades in their A-levels are missing out on preferred institutions
More than 53,510 UK-based students were scrambling for places on university courses on Friday, the day after receiving lower grades in their A-level results, with many missing out on their offers in the most competitive year for university places in a decade.
This year’s number of applicants marked as “free to be placed in clearing” on the Ucas website is the highest in more than a decade, and compares with 39,230 at the same point last year. Some of these students missed their grades while others declined their offers, and some may decide not to go to university.
By Friday, 6,640 UK school-leavers had found places through clearing, a 33% increase on last year. A third more students – 23,640 – accepted their insurance choices after missing the grades for their top choice.
University admissions directors reported unprecedented levels of demand in clearing, with phone lines busier than ever, including from students with top grades.
MPs from Les Républicains party had submitted bill to ‘combat fraud’ on back-to-school grants to low-income households
Rightwing opposition MPs in France have been accused of stigmatising poorer people by suggesting low-income families are fraudulently using an allowance for school supplies.
The government spokesperson Olivier Véran said claims some families spent the money on televisions and alcohol were “discrimination” and “an old chestnut”. He rejected suggestions parents should be given basic supplies or vouchers for specific shops to reduce the possibility of fraud.
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