The Archbishop of York Youth Trust announced this week that it has further extended its Young Leaders Award with 315 schools having signed up to the Award since its launch. The Archbishop of York said: ‘Young people have the potential to change our society for the better and my Young Leaders Award is helping them to do it. Up and down the North of England these young leaders are using their creativity, passion and energy to transform their communities and be the change they want to see.’ Read more
A group of parents have gone to court to challenge the government’s decision to exclude non-religious world views from the new religious studies GCSE. Under the revised curriculum, which will be taught in schools from next September, pupils will be required to study two faiths in depth. But it does not allow for the in-depth study of a non-religious world view, such as humanism. Read more
What has stayed with Emily Pemberton, who was 15 when she went to Ghana as a young ambassador for the Send My Friend to School campaign in March, is the after-school feminist group at Ninkogo village school in the north of the country. The campaign is now seeking new young British envoys to travel to Kenya as education ambassadors. Read more
Up to four in 10 further education and sixth-form colleges in England could close if the government presses ahead with savings, says Labour. College budgets are not protected and might be vulnerable to cuts in the 2015 Spending Review, says the party. The analysis comes as further education members of the University and College Union strike over pay. Read more
The prime minister claims to have turned around the lives of 99% of the families targeted by a flagship programme of intensive support, but figures from councils tell a different story as critics query the scheme’s expansion. So is the success of the government’s troubled families scheme too good to be true? Read more
Ofsted is warning that pupils are being taught in ‘squalid’ schools that are unregistered and unsupervised. But Sir Michael Wilshaw says the process to close such schools is ‘inadequate’. Where there is such ‘illegal activity’, he says, the ‘full force of the law’ should be brought to bear. Read more