Schools

• Access to secular schools ‘restricted’, report reveals

  Almost a third of families in England live in areas where most or all of the local primary schools are faith-based, new research has revealed.

  

• Children in care to receive scholarships to independent schools

  The Government yesterday launched a new scheme to help children in care receive mentoring and scholarships from independent schools.

  

• Vulnerable children at risk due to school support staff cuts, union warns

  A quarter of school support staff go home worried every day having spoken to pupils about the issues that trouble them, according to their union.

  

• Union calls for action to prevent violence against school support staff

  The union for school support staff has called on councils and schools to sign a charter of demands to help prevent violence against support staff in schools.

  

• Nearly 500 underperforming schools ‘betrayal of children’s futures.’

  The chief inspector of Ofsted has warned that the existence of nearly 500 ‘stuck’ schools is ‘nothing short of a scandal.’

  

• International education spending: a statistical minefield

  Mark Whitehead investigates the Government's 'seemingly casual' approach to data when it comes to education spending.

  

• Whitehall accused of using ‘distorted information’ on education spending

  Head teachers have attacked the way the Government has used statistics to defend its spending on education as 'shocking and disturbing'.

  

• Schools to suffer ‘real terms cuts’, council chiefs warn

  The latest spending plans show schools will suffer real terms cuts in funding, local government leaders have warned.

  

• Labour pledges to scrap new academies

  Councils would be given control of academies and have new powers to build more schools if Labour were elected, the party conference heard yesterday.

  

• Cash-strapped schools relying on donations from affluent parents

  Government budget cuts are forcing many schools to rely more heavily on financial contributions from parents, a charity focusing on social mobility finds.