Labour plans thousands of nursery places in English primary schools

Party has asked former Ofsted head Sir David Bell to find new ways to increase levels of childcare

Labour is considering creating thousands of nursery places inside existing primary schools in England and has tasked the former Ofsted head Sir David Bell with finding new ways to increase levels of childcare.

In the latest evolution of Labour’s policy in an area that still has a widespread shortage of spaces, plus a lack of affordability and staffing, Bell will advise on potential ways to tackle this, with detailed policies set out nearer the election.

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What does the trans guidance for England’s schools say?

How to make sense of some of the key passages from long-delayed guidance

The UK government finally published its long-delayed guidance for England’s schools on youth transition. The document promises a clear set of principles for teachers and staff as they wrestle with the needs of children who are questioning their gender identity. According to the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, the guidance “puts the best interests of all children first”.

But while the guidance has been broadly welcomed by those who believe that it is too easy for young people to “socially transition” at school, there are others who disagree vehemently. They see the government’s approach as informed by an underlying hostility to trans people, and scepticism about whether they even exist. And although the guidance does not include an outright ban on allowing social transition (said to have been under consideration until it was found to be unlawful), it clearly creates new barriers for teenagers who want to talk to teachers about their gender without fear of being outed at home.

In recent years, we have seen a significant increase in the number of children questioning the way they feel about being a boy or a girl … This has been linked to gender identity ideology, the belief that a person can have a ‘gender’ that is different to their biological sex.

We have not used the term transgender to describe children. Under UK law children cannot obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate and therefore cannot change their legal sex.

As part of testing whether this is a sustained request, schools and colleges should seek to understand societal or other factors that may have influenced the child, for example:

Has the child been influenced by peers or social media?

Parents should not be excluded from decisions taken by a school or college relating to requests for a child to ‘socially transition’.

Schools and colleges should engage parents as a matter of priority, and encourage the child to speak to their parents, other than in the exceptionally rare circumstances where involving parents would constitute a significant risk of harm to the child.

[Schools] may conclude that the impact on the school and college community is such that it may not be possible to agree to support a request [for a change in how a pupil is treated at school].

Schools and colleges should only agree to a change of pronouns if they are confident that the benefit to the individual child outweighs the impact on the school community. It is expected that there will be very few occasions in which a school or college will be able to agree to a change of pronouns.

This is non-statutory guidance from the Department for Education. Its focus is to provide practical advice, which we expect schools and colleges to follow.

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Classes in character do little to narrow gap in pupil outcomes, says study

Focusing on poorer children’s social and emotional learning barely helps their results catch up with those of better-off peers

Teaching character, grit and resilience in schools is valuable to children but is unlikely to play a major part in eradicating the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their wealthier peers, according to research.

In recent years, policymakers in England and elsewhere in the world have focused on social and emotional learning, and the importance of developing character, determination and self-belief as a way of improving learning, particularly among children from lower income backgrounds.

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Monsanto ordered to pay $857m to ex-students of Seattle school for toxic leaks

Parent volunteers and students claimed polychlorinated biphenyls leaked from the firm’s light fixtures made them sick

A jury in Washington state on Monday ordered Bayer’s Monsanto to pay $857m to former students and parent volunteers of a school north-east of Seattle who claimed that chemicals known as PCBs made by the company leaked from light fixtures and made them sick, according to an attorney for the plaintiffs.

The jury found the company liable for selling polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) used in the Sky Valley Education Center in Monroe, Washington. The verdict included $73m in compensatory damages, and $784m in punitive damages, according to Henry Jones, an attorney at the law firm Friedman Rubin, who represents the plaintiffs.

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Primary schools in England close, merge and shrink as pupil numbers fall

London boroughs among hardest hit due to falling birth rate and family struggles with Covid and rising costs

Primary schools are being closed, merged and shrunk as councils across England respond to falling numbers of pupils due to the falling birth rate as well as family upheaval triggered by rising costs, Brexit and Covid.

London boroughs are among the hardest hit, with thousands of school places being lost, but the closures and cuts extend to other cities and areas as they adjust to fewer children being born or moving into their catchment areas.

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Peers call for urgent overhaul of secondary education in England

Lords report says there is too much learning by rote and many key Tory changes should be reversed

A major parliamentary report has called for an urgent overhaul of secondary education in England that would reverse many of the Conservatives’ key education changes of the past decade.

The House of Lords report says the education system for 11- to 16-year-olds is too focused on academic learning and written exams, resulting in too much learning by rote and not enough opportunity for pupils to pursue creative and technical subjects.

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Ofsted chief ‘should quit now’, says Ruth Perry’s sister as briefing memo is revealed

Family of headteacher who killed herself calls on Amanda Spielman to resign over inadequate response to coroner’s verdict

Ruth Perry’s family has called on Ofsted’s chief inspector to resign immediately after it was revealed its lead inspectors will spend just 90 minutes on a briefing to address concerns raised by the headteacher’s suicide.

Julia Waters, Perry’s sister, said the “shocking” response showed that Amanda Spielman had “lost the plot” as chief inspector and should resign now ahead of her term finishing at the end of the year.

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Ofsted inspection contributed to headteacher’s suicide, coroner rules

Inquest examined watchdog’s role in Ruth Perry’s decline after Reading primary school’s rating was downgraded

A headteacher killed herself this year after an Ofsted inspection of her school downgraded it from “outstanding” to “inadequate”, a coroner has concluded.

Heidi Connor, the Reading coroner, found Perry’s suicide was “contributed to by an Ofsted inspection carried out between 15 and 16 November 2022” and that “during and after this inspection Ruth’s mental health deteriorated significantly” before her suicide on 8 January 2023.

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Taliban causing ‘irreversible damage’ to whole education system in Afghanistan

Human Rights Watch warns bar on women means unqualified men now teach boys, fewer subjects are taught and beatings are routine

The Taliban is causing “irreversible damage” to Afghanistan’s education system through the reintroduction of corporal punishment, curriculum changes and the use of unqualified teachers to replace women, most of whom have been barred from schools, Human Rights Watch has warned.

After taking power in 2021, the Taliban banned girls from secondary schools. A new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW), published on Wednesday, warns that boys’ education has also suffered under the Taliban, although this has gone largely unreported.

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UK scores expected to fall in Pisa education study

UK’s maths scores predicted to drop after a jump last time, with a less severe decline in English

UK scores in tests that compare educational attainment among 15-year-olds around the world are likely to fall when they are published this week, after the disruption that Covid caused to learning.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will publish the results of its latest programme for international student assessment (Pisa) on Tuesday, a year later than expected due to the pandemic.

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Iowa rights groups sue over law banning LGBTQ+ books and discussion in school

Suit by several families and organizations seek to have law declared as violation of students’ and teachers’ free speech

Several families are suing to stop Iowa’s new law that bans books from school libraries, forbids teachers from raising LGBTQ+ issues and forces educators in some cases to out the gender identity of students to their parents.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa and Lambda announced the federal lawsuit on Tuesday, saying the law passed earlier this year by the Republican-led legislature and enacted this fall “seeks to silence LGBTQ+ students, erase any recognition of LGBTQ+ people from public schools, and bans books with sexual or LGBTQ+ content”.

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UK school pupils ‘using AI to create indecent imagery of other children’

Protection groups call for urgent action to help pupils understand risks of making images that legally constitute child sexual abuse

Children in British schools are using artificial intelligence (AI) to make indecent images of other children, a group of experts on child abuse and technology has warned.

They said that a number of schools were reporting for the first time that pupils were using AI-generating technology to create images of children that legally constituted child sexual abuse material.

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Hong Kong to restructure primary education to make it more ‘patriotic’

New curriculum from 2025 part of push to create sense of national identity among schoolchildren

Hong Kong is to introduce “patriotic” education in all primary schools by 2025, in the government’s latest push to “systematically cultivate” a sense of national identity among schoolchildren

Under the new framework, primary school pupils are expected to learn about national security and will also be taught about the opium war and Japan’s invasion of China, two key events in Beijing’s narrative of a “century of humiliation”, which it pushes as a reason for nationalism.

Students will also learn about significant Chinese historical figures and national achievements under the leadership of the Chinese Community party.

“The enrichment aims to keep pace with the times and systematically cultivate students’ sense of belonging to our country, national sentiments and sense of national identity from an early age for the implementation of patriotic education,” an official document reads.

The education bureau said the changes were made in line with national-level legislation that called for strengthening patriotic education in China. Mainland China maintains separate governing and economic system in Hong Kong but has gradually increased its control.

On Thursday, the education bureau announced the existing general studies curriculum in primary schools would be replaced with a new humanities curriculum by 2025. While the curriculum would contain general studies elements, such as health, citizenship and community, it would emphasise patriotic education, with new modules on national identity, national history and national security.

Paul Lee Kin-wan, an education official overseeing curriculum development, said that patriotic values existed in the previous curriculum, and students should know about China’s achievements. “It wouldn’t be right if students know nothing about their country after six years of education,” Lee said.

Students are expected to spend 93 hours – about 7% of their time in primary school – on the new curriculum.

Most of the suggested learning material came from government departments, including a short video about the legislative process of Hong Kong’s national security law, with no mention of the mass protest movement that preceded its enactment.

One veteran educator, who wished not to be named, said the curriculum seemed to emphasise national education over other components. “At that age, it is important to nurture good lifestyle and habits and students’ curiosity about their surroundings,” the educator said, adding that modules on students’ relationships with their family, friends and neighbours took up far less space.

While the curriculum highlights China’s achievements, the educator said the government should make it clearer whether more sensitive topics, such as China’s societal issues, could be discussed in class. “China has historical problems and existing ones. We need to face up to them for the country to progress.”

For more than a decade, the Hong Kong government had been trying to incorporate national and patriotic education into school curriculums. In 2012, a plan to introduce moral and national education in primary and secondary schools provoked mass class boycotts and protests, leading to it being temporary shelved.

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School leaders in England feel lockdown ‘broke spell’ of bond with parents

Education experts agree with Ofsted chief that many parents now disregard rules previously taken for granted

Lockdown “broke the spell” that bound parents and schools together, according to school leaders and experts who have endorsed the Ofsted chief’s view that many parents now disregard rules on behaviour and attendance they once took for granted.

Delivering her last annual report as chief inspector of schools in England, Amanda Spielman said: “The social contract between parents and schools has been fractured by lockdowns and closures.” And she warned: “That social contract took years to build and consolidate and it will take time to restore.”

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Soaring special needs school transport costs ‘unsustainable’, say councils

Local authorities fear service cuts or even bankruptcy as costs jump from £400m to £700m in five years

Soaring costs of school transport for children with special educational needs is causing councils in England to warn of service cuts and potential insolvency, according to local authority leaders.

The County Council Network (CCN), which represents mainly rural local authorities in England, says its 37 members are spending more than £700m a year on school transport for 85,000 children with special education needs and disabilities (Send), compared with less than £400m five years ago.

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‘Nobody cared’: Victim’s ‘betrayal’ over revelations at Victoria’s school child sexual abuse inquiry

Victim-survivor shocked by education department’s admission it moved accused paedophile teachers to other state schools

When the dark history of Victoria’s education department was laid bare this week in public hearings, Glen Fearnett sat metres away from bureaucrats as they divulged the state’s failings to protect children.

Fearnett is a victim-survivor of abuse and has been central in pushing for a formal apology for the abuse he and other victim-survivors suffered at Beaumaris primary school, in Melbourne’s south-east.

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NSW Catholic school sparks four-day week debate with ‘learn from home’ Mondays for senior students

Opportunity to learn from home will ‘set students up for success’, principal of Chevalier College says

Parents at a regional Catholic college in New South Wales are welcoming a proposed change to the school week that would mean seniors spend Mondays at home.

Chevalier College, based in the southern highlands, has announced a proposal that would see students in years 10 to 12 learn and work from home on Mondays, a move the principal says would “set students up for success”.

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‘Desensitised’: calls for better education after research suggests Victorian boys less likely to stop harassment

Study of students finds marked drop from Year 7 to Year 9 in proportion of those willing to intervene

Chanel Contos, a sexual consent education advocate, says teenagers may be getting so desensitised to porn that it’s affecting their reaction to sexual harassment, with research suggesting male students become less likely to intervene when a female classmate is targeted as they reach Year 9.

The study of Victorian school students by Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (Anrows), released on Wednesday, found that 20.2% of Year 7 boys intended to intervene when sexual harassment was taking place. However, just 12.8% of those in Year 9 shared that attitude.

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Sweden’s schools minister declares free school ‘system failure’

Exclusive: Lotta Edholm aims to limit the profit-making ability of friskolor in her plans for education reform

Sweden has declared a “system failure” in the country’s free schools, pledging the biggest shake-up in 30 years and calling into question a model in which profit-making companies run state education.

Sweden’s friskolor – privately run schools funded by public money – have attracted international acclaim, including from Britain, with the former education secretary Michael Gove using them as a model for hundreds of new British free schools opened under David Cameron’s government.

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Justin Trudeau condemns shots fired at two Jewish schools in Montreal

Canadian prime minister says ‘attacking each other is not who we are’ after clashes between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian groups

Justin Trudeau has condemned recent violence in Canada after shots were fired at two Jewish schools in Montreal and clashes broke out between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian students at a university in the city.

Police on Thursday said they were investigating overnight shootings at two Jewish schools in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood after staff reported finding bullet holes in the front doors of the schools.

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