The government is considering limiting the ability of secular groups to challenge the entry policies of faith schools, according to a participant at a recent Department for Education meeting. A number of Jewish and other state-aided religious schools have been forced to amend their admissions rules over the past year after complaints to the Office of Schools Adjudicator made by groups such as the British Humanist Association. Read more
For former Spice Girls, launching designer clothing ranges and children’s books are almost mandatory subsequent career moves. But Geri Halliwell, having done both, is now considering a more radical step – opening her own free school, specialising in the arts and business. Read more
In 2016, parents of three and four-year-olds were due to receive 30 hours of free childcare from the government. However, last week the government announced that the plan was being investigated. The House of Lords has ruled that a full funding analysis must go ahead to ensure that 30 hours free childcare is able to launch. Read more
The Obama administration has called for cuts in standardized tests for school pupils and acknowledged its own contribution to the problem of over-testing. President Obama urged schools to cap standardized testing at 2% of classroom time. He also took responsibility for the federal government’s creation of a culture in which testing had become the ‘be-all and end-all’ in pre-college education. Read more
For 10 years Clare McGregor worked as an executive life coach to senior executives. Five years ago, McGregor made a turnaround in her own life, and decided to focus part of her time on working with prisoners at Styal women’s prison. ‘People near rock bottom’, she says, ‘lack belief in their power to change anything at all’. Read more
A formal complaint has been lodged with the Advertising Standards Authority over the government’s new teacher recruitment advertisement, which claims that teachers can earn ‘up to £65,000’ a year. An executive member of the NUT teaching union has submitted a complaint to the ASA as he believes the advert, which focuses on potential earnings, is ‘deliberately misleading’. Read more