The free entitlement to childcare for all parents in England should be scrapped in favour of a system aimed at disadvantaged children, a report says. The Institute of Economic Affairs study says the right to 15 hours free care a week has distorted the market price. It also argues regulations have made it more costly, with many families on average earnings spending more than a third of their income on childcare. Read more
In an Association of Colleges survey of members, 85 per cent report an increase in students with mental health issues over the past three years Almost 75 per cent of further education colleges referred students with mental health issues to an A&E department in the last academic year, the survey reveals. Read more
The United Kingdom has among the highest rates of family instability in the developed world, a study by an international group of academics has found. 62 per cent of British children born to unmarried parents living together experience family breakdown before they hit their teens. In contrast, only 45 per cent of American children, 15 per cent of Belgian children and six per cent of Spanish children born to cohabiting parents undergo the same seismic shift in their family dynamic by the age of 12. Read more
While few Christians are full-out theistic evolutionists, more and more believers hold to an ancient universe with all the complications that come with it: the interpretation of the word ‘day’ as used in the creation account, the necessity of admitting death before the fall, and the reality that in so many ways the early chapters of Genesis have the appearance of a straightforward telling of history. Read more
Bullying might be less complicated than people think, argues one researcher – but that doesn’t make it easy to stamp out. In the minds of children, especially bullied children, bullying is a simple phenomenon. The strong abuse their power to prey on the weak, and there is nothing much that can be done about this except a stronger exertion of adult power. Read more
Ministers are considering a new ‘national selection test’ to replace the 11-plus, with a ‘selective education team’ led by Nick Timothy established to drive through grammar proposals. Minutes of a meeting between ministers and the Grammar School Heads’ Association also reveal that the government expects new grammar schools to recruit the top 10 per cent of pupils. Read more