Thousands of Bibles could be removed from university accommodation after they were branded ‘inappropriate’ in a multicultural environment. A proposal to have all Bibles withdrawn from university-owned bedrooms will be put forward by the university’s Students’ Union council at a meeting later this month. Read more
Writing in New Statesman, Gloria de Piero, Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities, explains why the Labour party would make LGBT education part of a compulsory Sex and Relationships Education curriculum, removing parental rights to view materials used and opt their child out of SRE lessons. Read more
John Goldup, the former deputy chief inspector and national director of social care appeared before the Commons and Local Government Committee this week. In discussing Ofsted’s role in the Rotherham abuse scandal, he accepted that Ofsted lacked the necessary focus to target the abuse because they had limited understanding of the problem. Read more
This follows Ofsted’s admission last month to the same Committee that rating the council adequate whilst failing to spot the extent of the abuse was ‘not good enough’. Read more
From April this year, disadvantaged three- and four-year-olds in early years settings in England will benefit from extra funding in the form of the early years pupil premium. The funding builds on the pupil premium, introduced in schools in 2011. What challenges will it present for nurseries? Read more
Martin Stott, head of the Old Hall School in Wellington, Shropshire, has held a ‘digital detox’ week to try to wean children and their parents off digital devices. He believes many youngsters are growing up unable to read people’s body language or facial expressions because their eyes never their leave mobile devices. Read more
Meanwhile, schoolchildren who would rather be playing computer games than studying history will now be able to devise their own ways of combining the two. A new research project, conducted by academics across Europe, will allow pupils to design computer games to play during lesson time. It aims ‘to locate the real alignment between how games work and what we might be teaching in the curriculum’. Read more
Sure Start centres to help children in deprived areas would be expanded again under a Labour government, shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt says. He said the party, which launched Sure Start in 1998, would create 50,000 new places and the centres would be run by charities or childcare companies. Read more
Nicky Morgan and Nick Clegg this week explained how another £6billion will be spent on schools in England. The cash is the second phase of a schools building programme which was first set out by Michael Gove in March 2012 to spend £10 billion on 260 schools. There are concerns, however, that the programme is failing to deliver. Read more