Lib Dems this week set out plans to block micro-interventions by ministers by establishing an independent educational standards authority. The proposed independent body would be made up of a board of education and subject-specific experts who would design the curriculum and set exam standards in each subject, keeping the politics out of the classroom. Read more
The London Oratory school, which educated the sons of former prime minister Tony Blair and current deputy PM Nick Clegg, has won a partial victory in a long-running legal battle over its admissions procedures. The high court has overturned a series of rulings from last year, which claimed the high-achieving school used socially selective admissions procedures to discriminate against children from less well-off families. Read more
Four in 10 children are put off sport by over-competitive parents telling them they are too fat or lazy to run and making them cry in front of team-mates. Parents telling children they are ‘too heavy’ or that they have made a ‘pathetic mistake’ are also factors contributing to children not wanting to play sports, according to a new survey. One of the 1,002 children polled reported witnessing a dad telling a boy on the opposition team he was ‘rubbish’, while a mother was seen ‘shouting abuse at a referee’. Read more
Small changes such as the banning of street language and introducing free breakfast before school, have helped to transform the image of the City Academy Hackney, which opened in 2009 on the site of failing school Homerton House. Principal Mark Emmerson says the school’s ‘phenomenal’ progress over the last six years follows the introduction of a ‘marginal gains’ strategy, inspired by the GB Cycling team’s success. Read more
Children, it seems, are not the only source of noise in school. A farm at a school for children with learning difficulties is trying to find a new home for a cockerel that starts crowing at 3am. A neighbour complained the racket – which sets donkeys braying – means he gets ‘but a few hours sleep’. Now it seems that two-year-old cockerel, Billy will have to leave Mowbray School in Bedale, North Yorks, where he was born and bred. Read more
A mother has won a landmark ruling to start her summer-born daughter’s education one year later than usual, after holding her back from school for 12 months because she believed she was too young. Rosie Dutton, from Staffordshire, decided to exercise her right to delay four-year-old Olivia’s school life, amid fears her August-born daughter would struggle as the youngest in the class. Read more
Every primary school in Britain is to receive a souvenir copy of Magna Carta and a guide explaining the links between the historic document and such modern freedoms as the end of apartheid, legalisation of same-sex marriage and the Scottish referendum. The guide, billed as ‘a young person’s guide to 800 years in the fight for freedom’, is written in the style of a tabloid newspaper in order to make the history lesson easily accessible. Read more
In the run up to the election, The Guardian has been giving readers the chance to grill the schools spokespeople. This week, in the last of the series, it is the turn of Nicky Morgan. Read her answers to some key questions. Read more