There are fears it could get even tougher to recruit teachers after a drop in the number of trainees on courses in England and Wales. The latest figures show a 6.9% drop in acceptances on to teacher training courses for this year. Head teachers’ leaders said the drop in recruits would deepen the teacher recruitment crisis. The Department for Education said there were more teachers than ever before in England’s schools. Read more
Millions of parents were able to pre-register this week for the government’s new childcare offers, with the launch of a new Childcare Choices government website. The introduction of the government’s Tax-Free Childcare scheme will begin on 28 April, for parents of the youngest children. It will be gradually rolled out over 2017 – cutting childcare costs for working families across the UK by up to £2,000 per child per year, or £4,000 for disabled children. Read more
Children with special educational needs and disabilities are being left out of the discussion on how to improve literacy, according to a new report. The report, ‘Through the Looking Glass’, from the Driver Youth Trust, a literacy charity specialising in dyslexia, says the focus on phonics has shut down discussion on alternatives for those children for whom phonics proves ineffective. Read more
Sexual harassment in universities is now at ‘epidemic’ levels. Almost a third of female students surveyed had experienced inappropriate touching or groping, alongside 13% of male students. 25 percent of transgender students asked had experienced sexual abuse, according to NUS figures. So is resistance to consent classes an indicator that schools are failing to educate young men on the dangers of sex? Read more