An extra-curricular project that schools were told they had to promote in assemblies is in financial disarray yet will still be given a budget of £420 million a year by 2020. However, the plans to force schools to promote the National Citizen Service (NCS) for 16 and 17- year-olds have been abandoned. Read more
Schoolchildren in England will be offered lessons in cyber security in a bid to find the experts of the future to defend the UK from attacks. It is hoped 5,700 pupils aged 14 and over will spend up to four hours a week on the subject in a five-year pilot. Classroom and online teaching, ‘real-world challenges’ and work experience will be made available from September. Read more
Naked pictures are traded ‘like football stickers’ in playgrounds, women’s groups have warned, as the Mumsnet editor and the Girl Guides call for sex and relationship education (SRE) to be made compulsory in schools. The chair of the association of police and crime commissioners and a cross-party group of MPs are among those urging the Government to bring forward legislation and stop ‘burying heads in the sand’ about issues such as sexting. Read more
Hundreds of MPs woke up on Tuesday to Valentine’s Day cards from LGBT students demanding compulsory sex and relationships education in schools. These ‘secret admirers’ are asking politicians including Jeremy Corbyn, Justine Greening and Iain Duncan Smith to back an amendment that would see all teens receive ‘age-appropriate’, religiously diverse and LGBT-inclusive lessons. Read more
Secondary school teacher Daniel Gray has always kept his sexuality to himself at work. But to mark LGBT History Month, the 32-year-old from Brighton made the nerve-wracking decision to come out to more than 1,000 students. A Christian colleague put up a sign in their classroom showing support. Read more