National news
Modern Mary Poppins: inside the elite's nanny college – photo essay
Friday 23rd October 2020The Dutch photographer Guia Besana spent time with students at the world’s oldest childcare training institution, still favoured by the international elite...
Support grows for Marcus Rashford's free school meals campaign
Friday 23rd October 2020Politicians and celebrities of all stripes come out in support of plan rejected by government Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageCelebrities and politicians have come out in support of Marcus Rashford’s campaign to end child hunger in England, a day after the government voted against extending free school meals to disadvantaged children during the holidays...
'I couldn't hold my baby': how Covid hit the families of very ill children
Thursday 22nd October 2020Parents and professionals have been devastated by the impact of the pandemic on some of the UK’s most vulnerable patientsKelly Stoor gave birth to her daughter, Kaia, 14 weeks early...
'It’s time to catch up’: how ideological sex education fails Texas students
Thursday 22nd October 2020Republican-controlled state board of education reinforces curriculum that flies in the face of a 21st-century reality and proves dangerous for kidsThe morning after Lauryn had hung out with friends, she awoke feeling physically dirty, like she needed a shower...
Conservative MP quits government job over free school meals
Thursday 22nd October 2020Caroline Ansell has resigned after voting for a Labour plan to offer free school meals in the holidays...
Covid-19: Services for special needs children 'went to zero overnight'
Thursday 22nd October 2020The education committee is told some children harmed themselves and injured their parents...
Covid-19: Extra £10m to help students through pandemic in Wales
Thursday 22nd October 2020The money will support increased student mental health services and student hardship funds...
'My mental health had never been worse': loneliness of the UK's isolating students
Thursday 22nd October 2020Amid Covid restrictions and online teaching, some students are deferring, dropping out or thinking of doing soCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageWhen Maria arrived at university for her first year in September she knew the student experience would be unusual – but not that she would be mostly alone...
Tory MP quits as aide after backing Labour's free school meals vote
Thursday 22nd October 2020Eastbourne MP Caroline Ansell says she believes vouchers are needed during pandemicA Conservative MP who defied her party to support Labour’s vote for free school meals during school holidays has resigned from her government post...
Covid: Students may have to isolate for Christmas at home
Thursday 22nd October 2020An extra £10m will be spent on student mental health services and hardship funds...
LGBT students attacked in university Zoom meeting
Thursday 22nd October 2020Durham University online welcome meeting for LGBT students is "hijacked" by "homophobic slurs"...
Lockdown made life worse for two in five children, NHS report says
Thursday 22nd October 2020Their biggest anxieties were about missing school and family and friends contracting Covid-19...
One in six children aged 5-16 in England 'likely to have a mental disorder'
Thursday 22nd October 2020Survey published by NHS Digital shows increase of almost half since 2017Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe probable rates of mental disorders among children and young people has increased by almost half since 2017, England’s official survey into child mental health has found, with Covid and lockdown identified as aggravating factors...
Boris Johnson should backtrack on free school meals. But the damage is done | Gaby Hinsliff
Thursday 22nd October 2020Marcus Rashford’s campaign is popular. The Tories don’t realise that, in a pandemic, kindness is a strength not a weaknessWhen Marcus Rashford was a boy, he would sometimes hear his exhausted mother crying herself to sleep...
Lineker and Farage back Rashford's free school meals campaign
Thursday 22nd October 2020Politicians and celebrities of all stripes come out in support of plan rejected by government Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageCelebrities and politicians from across the spectrum, including Gary Lineker and Nigel Farage, have come out in support of Marcus Rashford’s campaign to end child hunger in England, a day after the government voted against extending free school meals to disadvantaged children during the holidays...
Support grows for Marcus Rashford's free school meals campaign
Thursday 22nd October 2020Politicians and celebrities of all stripes come out in support of plan rejected by government Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageCelebrities and politicians from across the spectrum have come out in support of Marcus Rashford’s campaign to end child hunger in England, a day after the government voted against extending free school meals to disadvantaged children during the holidays...
Ofqual board minutes reveal tensions with DfE ahead of exam results fiasco
Thursday 22nd October 2020Regulator aware A-level and GCSE grade assessment unreliable before results dayCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageEngland’s exam regulator Ofqual was riven by uncertainty and in-fighting with the Department for Education before this year’s A-level and GCSE results, with the government publishing new policies in the middle of an Ofqual board meeting that had been called to discuss them...
Feed 900,000 Covid hotspot children at half term, says Labour
Wednesday 21st October 2020Labour calls for free school meals scheme to be extended until Easter amid second wave of virus...
Rallies and rent strikes: how students and staff are uniting against Covid chaos
Wednesday 21st October 2020Lecturers and undergrads are united in their anger – and they’re mobilising online to protest and hold universities to accountIn August, A-level students joined forces to voice their anger on social media at the algorithm that failed to give them fair grades, helping force a government U-turn in favour of teacher-estimated results...
Rashford says child hunger worsening as MPs set to vote
Wednesday 21st October 2020Marcus Rashford says his eyes are on the Commons as it prepares to vote on extending food support...
Figures lay bare toll of pandemic on UK children's mental health
Wednesday 21st October 2020Investigation finds rises in school safeguarding reports, eating disorder treatment and sleeping pill prescriptionsParents struggle to get help for mentally ill children during pandemicThe children’s commissioner for England and leading psychiatrists have raised the alarm about young people’s mental health during the pandemic, as figures suggest a sharp rise in reports of sleep problems, eating disorders and self-harm...
Parents and teachers: share your experiences with free school meals during the coronavirus pandemic
Wednesday 21st October 2020We’d like to hear from parents and school staff in the UK about the surge in free school meals applications during the coronavirus pandemicAn estimated 1 million pupils have signed up for free school meals in the UK for the first time during the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced many families to cope with a significant drop in their income...
Tory MPs attack celebrity free school meal campaigners
Wednesday 21st October 2020MPs voted against a proposal to extend free school meals over the school holidays until Easter 2021...
Marcus Rashford in 'despair' as MPs reject free school meal plan
Wednesday 21st October 2020Footballer and campaigner expresses disappointment as plea for free meals to be extended is voted downMarcus Rashford, the England and Manchester United striker, vented his “despair” on Wednesday night as Labour’s plea for free school meals to be extended over the holidays to stop children going hungry fell on closed ears in government...
Pressure mounts on No 10 to extend free school meals holiday scheme
Tuesday 20th October 2020Labour writes to backbench Tory MPs as Marcus Rashford’s petition nears 300,000 signaturesPressure is mounting on Downing Street to support families entitled to free school meals throughout the holidays in England, with Labour writing to every backbench Conservative MP to press home the issue...
'Race is never far from the surface': Lesley Lokko on quitting New York
Tuesday 20th October 2020The Scottish-Ghanaian architect resigned as dean at the Spitzer school after less than a year citing ‘a lack of respect and empathy for black women’When the Scottish-Ghanaian architect Lesley Lokko was appointed to head the architecture school at the City college of New York last year, her arrival was hailed as bringing “renewed energy and an exciting new vision” to the school...
How can schools educate isolating children if families can't afford wifi? | Laura McInerney
Tuesday 20th October 2020Legally obliging schools to provide remote learning does not help pupils who have no laptop, broadband or phone credit From Thursday it becomes illegal for any school to let isolating children sit at home without work to do...
'Scarred for life': Sage experts warn of impact of Covid policies on the young
Tuesday 20th October 2020Government accused of failing to protect generation Z from harm caused by pandemic responseGeneration Z and the Covid pandemic: ‘I have pressed pause on my life’Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageChildren and young people are at risk of becoming a “lost generation” because of the UK government’s pandemic policies, members of Sage have warned...
Pupils sent home in half of England's secondary schools
Tuesday 20th October 2020Attendance figures show 46% of secondary schools had pupils isolating because of Covid outbreaks...
Coronavirus: 400,000 children in England off school in one week
Tuesday 20th October 2020Lost learning could create unfairness in 2021 exam grades, schools minister saysCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageMore than 400,000 children in England were off school last week for coronavirus-related reasons, as the government admitted that “unevenness” in lost learning could affect 2021 exam results...
Larissa Wakefield obituary
Tuesday 20th October 2020My wife, Larissa Wakefield, who has died aged 61, after being diagnosed earlier this year with a brain tumour, was a naturalist, scientist and potter...
Teaching white privilege is a fact breaks the law, minister says
Tuesday 20th October 2020Kemi Badenoch tells Commons debate on Black History Month that schools must offer opposing viewsSchools which teach pupils that “white privilege” is a fact rather than a contested viewpoint are breaking the law, the women and equalities minister has said...
Teaching white privilege as uncontested fact is illegal, minister says
Tuesday 20th October 2020Kemi Badenoch tells Commons debate on Black History Month that schools must offer opposing viewsSchools which teach pupils that “white privilege” is an uncontested fact are breaking the law, the women and equalities minister has said...
Revealed: chaining, beatings and torture inside Sudan's Islamic schools
Monday 19th October 2020Two-year BBC News Arabic investigation uncovers horrific conditions, with boys as young as five facing violence and sexual abuseAn April evening in the suburbs of Khartoum...
Charities fear impact of masks on deaf children in UK schools
Monday 19th October 2020Concern that pupils who rely on lip reading may suffer academically without supportCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageOne in four deaf children are being taught by staff wearing face masks in UK schools, leaving many unable to understand their teachers, according to a survey...
Schools in N. Ireland shut for two weeks
Monday 19th October 2020The move is part of a bid to stem the spread of coronavirus and will be reviewed on 2 November...
Students from northern England facing 'toxic attitude' at Durham University
Monday 19th October 2020Exclusive: university vows to look into report detailing numerous claims of bullyingStudents from northern England are being ridiculed over their accents and backgrounds at one of the country’s leading universities, and even forced out, according to a report compiled by a Durham student...
Bristol students to withhold rent over university's 'lack of support'
Monday 19th October 2020Hundreds pledge to strike in protest at the lack of in-person teaching and help for those self-isolatingHundreds of mainly first-year students in Bristol are poised to stage a rent strike in protest at the university’s treatment of people forced to self-isolate in halls and degree courses taught almost entirely online...
The Guardian view on Samuel Paty: don't let the death cult win | Editorial
Monday 19th October 2020President Emmanuel Macron’s plan for education to combat extremism should be strengthened by the horrifying killing of a teacher It is difficult to convey the sheer horror of the decapitation last Friday of a French secondary school teacher, Samuel Paty, in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine near Paris...
Scrapping in-work training fund will harm economic recovery, warn trade unions
Sunday 18th October 2020TUC says union learning fund helps provide education to 200,000 workers a yearScrapping a “vital” work-based education fund would harm Britain’s post-coronavirus recovery, according to a coalition of trade unions and employers urging the government to reverse cuts to its support for the union learning fund (ULF)...
School meals: Labour backs Marcus Rashford campaign
Saturday 17th October 2020The shadow education secretary says "now is the time to act" as Labour threatens to force a vote by MPs...
America's Black colleges take measured approach in bid to weather Covid crisis
Saturday 17th October 2020HBCUs have seen relatively smooth fall semesters, which school leaders say is testament to student cooperation and a strong sense of community Despite optimism from college administrators and elected officials, the reopening of American campuses over the last few months has been rough as they seek to adjust to the coronavirus pandemic...
UK universities accused of keeping students at all costs until after fee deadline
Saturday 17th October 2020Claims some institutions persisting with face-to-face classes to delay drop-outs and retain tuition feesMany universities are hesitating to move to online teaching to quell Covid because they are desperate to keep disenchanted students until the Christmas holidays, when a key deadline for fee rebates runs out, experts say...
Almost half of Johnson's 'education catch-up' fund remains unallocated
Friday 16th October 2020Investigation reveals just a few hundred schools expressed interest in signing up to national tutoring programmeThe £350m “massive catch-up operation” pledged by Boris Johnson to help pupils affected by the coronavirus lockdown has run into difficulties, with 40% of its funding so far unallocated...
The fear now gripping universities: will students come back in January? | Gaby Hinsliff
Friday 16th October 2020Bringing millions of young people on to campuses was always a risk...
Gordon Brown backs Marcus Rashford's school meals plea
Friday 16th October 2020Ex-PM urges Boris Johnson to help the poorest children during the half-term and Christmas breaks...
Covid: Boris Johnson appears confused over single parent rules
Friday 16th October 2020Boris Johnson initially suggests parents living apart from their children may face restrictions...
Rashford: Hungry children still worrying about next meal
Thursday 15th October 2020Marcus Rashford calls for urgent action on child hunger, saying food poverty is never the child's fault...
Marcus Rashford vows to keep up free meals fight after No 10 refusal
Thursday 15th October 2020PM’s spokesman indicates government will not back calls for free meals in school holidaysMarcus Rashford has vowed not to give in after Downing Street rejected his call for poorer schoolchildren to be provided with free meals during holidays...
November GSCE exams in England 'could pose public health risk'
Thursday 15th October 2020College leaders have written to the education minister about issues around Covid pandemicCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageCollege leaders in England have warned that large numbers of students retaking maths and English GCSEs next month could pose a public health risk, as coronavirus infection rates continue to rise in many parts of the country...
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