News Archive
Local news archive
Private school to close after 106 years
Friday 23rd January 2026The school in the Cotswolds will close this summer due to falling pupil numbers...
100-year-old Rendcomb College announces closure at the end of the school year
Friday 23rd January 2026It says it is no longer financially viableRead full story...
'Patients cleaned in corridors as staff struggle'
Thursday 22nd January 2026A critical care nurse says he worries corridor care is becoming "normalised" in the NHS...
'Drug-user turns life around' and 'school standoff'
Saturday 17th January 2026A round-up of stories from local newspapers and the BBC from the past week in the West of England...
Snow closes Gloucestershire schools with more disruption on the way
Friday 9th January 2026A new weather warning has just been activatedRead full story...
School closures and travel disruption as storm hits
Friday 9th January 2026Wintry weather is causing travel disruption across Gloucestershire, Bristol and Wiltshire...
Cheltenham sign Nurse and Bickerstaff
Thursday 8th January 2026Cheltenham Town sign left-back George Nurse while striker Jake Bickerstaff also agrees a permanent deal with the League Two club...
Young woman admits causing death of taxi driver and school teacher in Cotswolds crash
Tuesday 6th January 2026The crash also left three others seriously hurtRead full story...
Primary school shuts after electrical fault causes heating loss
Tuesday 6th January 2026It's not known when the school will reopenRead full story...
Gloucestershire school partly closes as 'the building is not safe'
Tuesday 6th January 2026'Severe' flooding has caused damageRead full story...
West traditions we have to look forward to in 2026
Friday 2nd January 2026A round-up of the yearly events in Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire that define where we live...
Record crowd for New Year's Day Cheltenham meeting
Thursday 1st January 2026Cheltenham Racecourse welcomes more than 44,000 spectators as its New Year's Day fixture sells out for the first time...
Film to highlight changing face of the Cotswolds
Monday 29th December 2025Farmers of all ages and walks of life feature in the film, which will be shown in local schools...
Volunteers boost children's enjoyment of reading
Friday 26th December 2025Charity Read With Me says schools report improvements in ability and engagement...
Father found son “bloodied and lifeless” at school car park
Tuesday 23rd December 2025A 17-year-old girl has been sentenced after her friend climbed onto the bonnet of a car she was driving in Brecon High School car park before he fell, hit his head and suffered life-changing injuriesRead full story...
'Aggressive' driver mounts pavement and nearly hits students after overtaking cars and school bus
Friday 19th December 2025He had been aggressively beeping his hornRead full story...
Hundreds arrested for drink and drug driving in run up to Christmas
Wednesday 17th December 2025More than 200 people have been arrested across Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Bristol...
'Organ pipes removed' and 'More SEND school places'
Tuesday 16th December 2025A look at what stories are trending across the West of England on 16 DecemberRead full story...
'Bullying' councillor banned from meetings
Saturday 13th December 2025A meeting heard how there were 496 pages of evidence in relation to the three serious complaints...
Grit-asaurus Rex among new names for gritters
Friday 12th December 2025A fleet of gritters have been given names including Taylor Drift and Grit Britain by school pupils...
Pitch decision means leisure scheme is 'on course'
Thursday 11th December 2025The £9m plan to create a gym and soft play centre could be completed in 2026, say councillors...
GCHQ releases Christmas puzzles designed by schoolchildren and spies
Wednesday 10th December 2025'We've designed the puzzles so that no one will find them all easy...
Two Gloucestershire school top list in The Sunday Times Parent Power 2026 guide
Friday 5th December 2025County schools named as best in the South WestRead full story...
Two Gloucestershire schools top list in The Sunday Times Parent Power 2026 guide
Friday 5th December 2025County schools named as best in the South WestRead full story...
Dujardin's Olympic gold-winning horse Valegro dies
Monday 1st December 2025Charlotte Dujardin pays tribute to her three-time Olympic gold medal-winning horse Valegro, who has been put down...
National news archive
Parents criticise trust at heart of school strike
Friday 23rd January 2026Parents are concerned about where the Arthur Terry Learning Partnership Is spending its money...
‘There are kids not going to school’: fear of ICE is keeping children from classes in Connecticut
Friday 23rd January 2026In New Haven, where one in six residents is foreign born, children’s education suffers as they are afraid to step out“They took her, they took her, they took her...
Student loans: ‘My debt rose £20,000 to £77,000 even though I’m paying’
Friday 23rd January 2026Millions of graduates are trapped by ballooning debts, as their repayments are dwarfed by the interest addedHelen Lambert borrowed £57,000 to go to university and began repaying her student loan in 2021 after starting work as an NHS nurse...
The Guardian view on toddlers and screens: more reasons to be fearful of big tech | Editorial
Thursday 22nd January 2026Growing concerns about the impact of smartphones on the youngest children must be addressedThe first UK government guidance on young children’s use of tablets, smartphones and other screens, expected in April, cannot come soon enough...
I went back to school for a day – and discovered some very unsettling facts about learning | Adrian Chiles
Thursday 22nd January 2026I thought my articles and radio shows made an impact on people...
How screen time affects toddlers: ‘We’re losing a big part of being human’
Thursday 22nd January 2026In the UK, 98% of two-year-olds watch screens on a typical day, on average for more than two hours – and almost 40% of three- to five-year-olds use social media...
One in four children in England start school without being toilet trained, say teachers
Thursday 22nd January 2026Survey finds rising numbers of reception pupils struggling with basic life skills such as eating independentlyAbout one in four children who started reception in 2025 were not toilet trained, a survey of teachers has found, prompting warnings that growing numbers of pupils are struggling with basic life skills...
‘It’s about making reading as natural as breathing’: Malorie Blackman backs the National Year of Reading
Thursday 22nd January 2026The Noughts & Crosses author is among the starry ambassadors for the campaign – one of the initiatives aimed at addressing the reading crisisLast night, the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, announced a £27...
Schools to reopen after odour cleared
Wednesday 21st January 2026City of Wolverhampton Council says work was done on the school's heating and air handling systems...
‘Crunch time’ on rising costs of Send provision in England, says thinktank
Wednesday 21st January 2026IFS says system failing to deliver for those who need it and ministers face stark choices with white paper imminentThe government is facing “crunch time” over the rising costs and failures of special needs education for children in England, according to a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies...
Teachers' strike extended by nine days
Wednesday 21st January 2026Staff at 20 West Midlands schools are currently on the picket lines in a dispute over job cut plans...
UK ministers scrap foreign students target in shift to overseas hubs strategy
Tuesday 20th January 2026Government replaces recruitment goal with plan to increase ‘education exports’ to £40bn a year by 2030Ministers are scrapping target numbers for international students in the UK and will instead focus on encouraging universities to open hubs abroad, as part of a plan to bring British education to people “on their own doorsteps”...
UK consulting on bringing in social media ban for under 16s
Tuesday 20th January 2026The government said it expected schools to be "phone-free by default" as a result of the announcement...
‘Just not monetizable’: humanities programs face existential crisis at US universities
Tuesday 20th January 2026Fears over the future of humanities spread amid layoffs and restructurings at scores of public and private universitiesLast month, students at Montclair State University in New Jersey held a mock funeral outside the university’s college of humanities and social sciences building...
At nine, I disappeared into home schooling. No one came looking
Monday 19th January 2026Mom insisted I needed a ‘free-form education’ outside public school...
Robert Jenrick boasts that Reform is for the workers, but it’s a class war trap – and Labour shouldn’t fall for it | Polly Toynbee
Monday 19th January 2026Though Labour’s voters are more likely to be the educated middle-classes, its focus must be fighting inequality...
Teachers on supply list for years or leaving country due to job shortages
Monday 19th January 2026Scottish government figures shows that most newly qualified teachers in Scotland are no longer getting permanent jobs, especially in primary schools...
Police investigate reports of 'explicit' AI images at County Armagh school
Sunday 18th January 2026The principal told a Sunday newspaper that as soon as the school became aware of the issue it had referred the matter to the authorities...
Hundreds of children placed at risk in unregistered homes for months, MPs warn
Friday 16th January 2026A government report says 800 children were placed in illegal settings for an average of six months last year...
I didn't give up, I let go. How I came to terms with not having children
Friday 16th January 2026After a decade of trying for a baby, Caroline and her husband decided they needed to build a different future...
BP accused of ‘insidious’ influence on UK education through Science Museum links
Friday 16th January 2026Campaigners claim firm has bought sway over the teaching of science, technology, engineering and maths Campaigners have accused BP of having an insidious influence over the teaching of science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) in the UK through its relationship with the Science Museum...
Ofsted holds snap inspection of Bristol school criticised for cancelling MP’s visit
Thursday 15th January 2026Visit by Damien Egan, Labour Friends of Israel vice-chair, was called off after opposition from pro-Palestine groupOfsted has launched a snap inspection of Bristol Brunel academy, the secondary school criticised for cancelling a visit by a local MP who is vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel...
Ofsted does snap inspection of Bristol school criticised for cancelling MP’s visit
Thursday 15th January 2026Visit by Damien Egan, Labour Friends of Israel vice-chair, was called off after opposition from pro-Palestine group and unionOfsted has launched a snap inspection of Bristol Brunel academy, the secondary school criticised for cancelling a visit by a local MP who is vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel...
Ofsted inspects school over MP visit postponement
Thursday 15th January 2026Ofsted is concerned a school "may have been intimidated into cancelling a visit" from a Bristol MP...
Ofsted launches inspection of school criticised for cancelling MP visit
Thursday 15th January 2026Damien Egan, vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel, denied entry after opposition from pro-Palestine group and unionOfsted has launched a snap inspection of Bristol Brunel academy, the secondary school criticised for cancelling a visit by a local MP who is vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel...
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