Category Archives: Education

Met police agree six-figure payout to man hit by baton at protest

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Exclusive: Alfie Meadows underwent brain surgery after being struck by officer at tuition fees demonstration

The Metropolitan police have apologised and agreed to pay a six-figure settlement to a man who needed emergency brain surgery after being hit by an officer’s baton during the 2010 university tuition fees protests.

Alfie Meadows, then a 20-year-old philosophy student at Middlesex University, sustained a brain injury after he was struck on the head during demonstrations against the tripling of tuition fees. He needed more than 100 staples in his head and was left with a large scar.

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US scientists who used scissors to kill lab rats must be fired, activists say

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Tulane university researchers accused of ‘serious’ violations that breached international protocol over animal deaths

An animal rights group is demanding the firing of researchers at a Louisiana university who killed laboratory rats with scissors and a blunt blade – and used out-of-date anesthetics for pain relief.

The episodes are detailed in separate, self-reported notices of violation to the federal Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (Olaw), which were sent by Tulane University in New Orleans and obtained by the Stop Animal Exploitation Now advocacy group.

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Revealed: covert deal to cut help for pupils in England with special needs

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Government contract aims to reduce the number of specialist care plans by a fifth

The government has quietly signed a contract targeting 20% cuts to the number of new education plans for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) to bring down costs, the Observer can reveal.

Then junior education minister Claire Coutinho – recently promoted to the cabinet as energy secretary– subsequently told MPs that no targets were in place.

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G20-bound Rishi Sunak defends ‘correct’ Raac school closures

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Prime minister says example set by schools will not necessarily have to be followed by other public buildings

Rishi Sunak has defended his government’s decision to shut down schools because of problems with crumbling concrete, as he aims to use this weekend’s G20 summit in New Delhi to draw a line under another bruising week in office.

The prime minister told reporters on the trip to India that his education secretary, Gillian Keegan, had done the right thing in ordering 147 schools to shut buildings made with aerated concrete, after officials became concerned about structural defects. On Friday evening the Scottish government said 16 of 32 local authorities have identified Raac in their schools.

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PMQs: Rishi Sunak denies cutting budgets for school repairs as list of concrete-risk schools revealed

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Keir Starmer likens the Tories to ‘cowboy builders’ as the PM insists the government acted decisively in response to the problem

The DfE list shows pupils at 24 schools across England will receive some remote learning because of the concrete crisis, with four schools switching to fully remote learning, PA Media reports.

And the list shows 19 schools where the start of term has had to be delayed as a result of collapse-prone concrete.

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Raac crisis: pupils at 24 schools in England forced to study remotely

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Newly published government list identifies 147 schools as having potentially dangerous concrete

Twenty-four schools across England will receive some remote learning because of the concrete crisis, according to a newly published government list of schools identified as having a type of potentially dangerous concrete

They include four where lessons have been taking place on a fully remote basis since the weekend, along with 20 where there is a mix of face-to-face and remote learning.

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Leicester school told by DfE to close building finds it has no Raac

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Willowbrook Mead primary will now shut for a day to move furniture back after scramble to create new spaces

A school that scrambled to set up temporary classrooms after the Department for Education (DfE) ordered closures because of Raac has received a government apology after it turned out it did not have the crumbly concrete after all.

The government has published a list of 145 schools with Raac, nine fewer than it announced last Thursday, suggesting that last week’s order to close buildings was overcautious in several cases.

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Schools concrete crisis is risk to pupils’ mental health, headteacher warns

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Leader of a secondary school in Essex warns upheaval could have similar negative impact to that caused by Covid lockdowns

A headteacher whose 830 pupils must learn semi-remotely for at least a term because of the schools concrete crisis has warned that the upheaval could cause a recurrence of the negative mental health impact of Covid lockdowns.

James Saunders, the leader of Honywood school in Coggeshall, Essex, fears that year-seven students entering their first term at secondary school could face future struggles after the Department for Education last week ordered the closure of 22 classrooms as part of a nationwide safety alert.

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Rishi Sunak says it is ‘completely and utterly wrong’ to blame him for school concrete crisis – UK politics live

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PM dismissed claims that he failed to properly fund school rebuilding plans when he was chancellor

Lisa Nandy has been made shadow cabinet minister for international development. She was shadow levelling up secretary.

Lisa Nandy MP @LisaNandy has been appointed Shadow Cabinet Minister for International Development.

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Sunak refused to fully fund repairs of England’s crumbling schools, says ex-official

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PM shown evidence of ‘critical risk to life’ when chancellor, says former top civil servant at Department for Education

Rishi Sunak refused to properly fund a school rebuilding programme when he was chancellor, despite officials presenting evidence that there was “a critical risk to life” from crumbling concrete panels, the Department for Education’s former head civil servant has said.

After the department told Sunak’s Treasury that there was a need to rebuild 300 to 400 schools a year in England, he gave funding for only 100, which was then halved to 50, said Jonathan Slater, the permanent secretary of the department from 2016 to 2020.

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Labour plans to compel publication of list of schools affected by Raac

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Party to use parliamentary mechanism to force reveal of English schools affected by concrete safety crisis

Labour plans to force a vote to compel the government to reveal the full list of schools affected by the Raac building safety crisis.

It comes amid growing demands for transparency over the extent of the impact of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) in public buildings.

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Ministers were ‘dangerously complacent’ on school safety, whistleblower reveals

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Senior civil servant says ‘many alerts’ crossed education secretary’s desk, but UK government was more concerned with saving money

A senior civil service whistleblower has told the Observer that Tory ministers and their political advisers were “dangerously complacent” about crumbling school buildings constructed with aerated concrete, and that they were more concerned with saving money than improving safety.

The source, who worked in the private office of Nadhim Zahawi, the then education secretary, saw regular alerts crossing his desk. He said ministers and special advisers were “trying to get away with spending as little as they could” and hoping to “make do” rather than treating the problem with the urgency it required.

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England’s concrete crisis could extend to hospitals and courts, experts say

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Labour demands urgent audit of government’s handling of longstanding concerns about Raac

England’s growing buildings crisis could expand beyond schools to other public buildings such as hospitals and courts, experts have said.

More than 100 schools were forced to partially or fully close this week after a dramatic escalation of the government’s approach towards crumbling concrete.

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Biden student-debt plan hailed as ‘big step forward’ for millions of borrowers

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Advocates say proposals that cut debt to zero for some borrowers and reduce monthly interest payments are good news

Joe Biden’s new student-loan plan is an important and large step forward on student debt forgiveness in the US even after a previous debt reduction program was controversially struck down by the supreme court, advocates say.

When the justices ruled against Biden’s plan to forgive up to $20,000 in federal student loans per borrower in June, 40 million debt-burdened Americans were left with questions – especially as monthly payments would resume in October after being paused for over three years because of the Covid pandemic.

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‘An absolute nightmare’: teachers and parents shocked by concrete closures in England’s schools

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From Essex to Cumbria, many are dismayed by timing of the government’s action on aerated concrete in buildings

On Thursday, the emails that have left headteachers reeling started to arrive. A ruling from ministers in the Department for Education said their schools, built using potentially dangerous concrete, would need to close or partially close.

Within hours, parents and children had been informed. Many were left angry and confused by the timing of the announcement, just before the start of a new school year. Schools across England were left with days to improvise temporary classrooms from marquees or empty office buildings, or arrange to share space with unaffected schools. The majority of schools will open as usual but for tens of thousands of pupils the new academic year will start like no other.

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New school safety warning prompted by beam collapse at building considered safe – UK politics live

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Schools minister Nick Gibb said the collapse happened at a school previously thought to have been at no risk from aerated concrete

We want to speak to school leaders and staff at affected schools or colleges in England. Does your building contain aerated concrete? What are you planning to do?

What communications have you received? How will this affect you?

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More English schools could close due to crumbling concrete, minister warns

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Nick Gibb says buildings continue to be surveyed for risk of collapse after over 100 were told to shut

The schools minister has warned more schools in England could face closure after more than 100 were told to shut just days before term starts for thousands of pupils.

The government has refused to publicly reveal the 104 education facilities that have been told to shut buildings due to the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), a material at risk of collapse.

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English schools told to close buildings made with crumble-risk concrete

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A week before start of term, DfE says buildings should be taken out of use regardless of assessed risk

More than 100 schools are facing the immediate closure of buildings constructed from potentially dangerous aerated concrete panels, plunging the beginning of term into chaos for thousands of pupils.

The government has found that 156 schools in England have reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) materials but only 52 have put mitigations in place against risks including collapse, it admitted on Thursday. Engineers have warned the material is at risk of cracking and spalling and of “shear failure”.

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Thousands of pupils may have to start term online as over 100 schools affected by crumble-risk concrete

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DfE guidance sent days before start of term means students and teachers at dozens of schools in England will need to be moved off site

Thousands of pupils in England may have to begin the autumn term taking lessons remotely after the government ordered more than 100 schools to immediately shut buildings made with aerated concrete until safety work is undertaken.

The guidance from the Department for Education was sent to 156 schools and colleges just days before the start of the new school year.

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UK universities offer three-day-week to let students find part-time work

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Compact teaching timetables will allow cash-strapped undergraduates to dovetail jobs with studies

Universities are reducing the number of days students are required to be on campus to enable them to work part-time as they struggle to survive the cost of living crisis.

Compact teaching timetables, where lectures and seminars are scheduled over two or three days rather than dotted throughout the week, are being introduced by a number of institutions. The move makes it easier for the growing number of undergraduates who have to take on part-time jobs to make ends meet. More than half of students now work alongside their studies, up from 45% in 2022 and 34% in 2021.

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