‘Do NOT use skin colour as a proxy for disadvantage’: Tory Equalities Minister says ‘white privilege’ should not be taught in schools after growing up in Nigeria showed her ‘the more ethnicity is emphasised, the weaker national identity becomes’ Kemi Badenoch says the term ‘white privilege’ is ‘unnecessarily antagonistic’ Minister says it should not be … Read more
Calls to BAN terms like ‘top set’ and ‘bottom set’ in schools because they ‘dent pupils’ self-esteem’ Teachers should use their names instead of numbers or obvious labels for ability Calling a child ‘low ability’ means they will have low expectations of themselves Schools use setting or streaming as a way of narrowing the range … Read more
Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman tells schools not to give pupils extended summer break with up to 100 days holiday, warning they will be ill-prepared for exams Ms Spielman said she is keen for schools to explain how they use summer term GCSEs and A-levels are cancelled this year in favour of teacher assessments But schools … Read more
RSPCA slams schools for egg-hatching projects as teachers don’t think about what happens to the chicks when they get bigger Charity said schools and nurseries are too noisy for chicks to be brought up in and they are often not looked after properly out of school hours Dave Allen, of the RSPCA, said: ‘It’s often … Read more
Three in five schools plan to rely on tests when deciding GCSE and A-level grades – even though official exams are cancelled A survey by the school leaders’ union ASCL found seven per cent of schools will base assessments entirely on exam-style papers Fifty three per cent said they would give greater weight to exam-style … Read more
The contribution of black people to British history and culture should be taught in all subjects at school, a teaching union’s conference has been told. The NASUWT’s annual conference heard that the national curriculum is ‘lacking’ and some teachers have taken it into their own hands to ‘decolonise their classrooms’. A motion passed at the … Read more
Professor Adam Finn, from Bristol University, said the decision hinged on whether children would be benefitted by the vaccine British children may only be asked to get Covid vaccines if the spread of the virus threatens to shut schools once again, a Government vaccine adviser said today. Professor Adam Finn, who sits on the advisory … Read more
A small percentage of coronavirus infections are acquired during the school day, a new study suggests. Researchers conducted several simulations and found fewer than five percent of COVID-19-related illnesses among students and teachers occurred at school and that most cases were contracted within the community. The team, from Public Health Ontario, in Canada, says its … Read more
The founder of a website flooded with pupils’ allegations of sexual harassment has said the scandal should not focus on ‘naming and shaming’ specific schools. Soma Sara instead railed against an endemic rape culture that permeates ‘every school, every university, at home and in society’. Almost 10,000 people have anonymously posted experiences of misogyny and … Read more
A major Whitehall investigation involving police chiefs, Government officials and Ofsted has been launched into the handling of the emerging ‘rape culture’ scandal among pupils at Britain’s elite schools. Officials from the Home Office and Department for Education (DfE) are leading a cross-Government response with senior police officers, who are being urged to take claims … Read more