Education & Training news

• Keegan sorry school RAAC concrete closures came at 'worst time'

  05-09-2023 21:53 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Schools are battling to get surveys and temporary classrooms could take months to build, the BBC is told.
  
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• Children with mild anxiety better off in school, says Chris Whitty

  05-09-2023 18:19 via theguardian.com
  
  Chief medical officer for England says long absences unhelpful, amid concern over attendance post-CovidChildren with mild and moderate anxiety are likely to be better off attending school because long periods of absence can make symptoms worse, the chief medical officer for England has said.Amid mounting concern in government about the crisis in pupil attendance since Covid, Prof Chris Whitty has written to schools to reassure parents that anxiety can be a normal part of growing up and that bein
  
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• People caught in possession of laughing gas could face up to two years in jail under new Home Office plans – as it happened

  05-09-2023 18:18 via theguardian.com
  
  Home Office to introduce new measures as part of plan announced earlier this year to ban nitrous oxide. This live blog is closedKemi Badenoch, the business and trade secretary, was smiling as she left No 10 after cabinet this morning. Perhaps she has been reading the latest ConservativeHome survey of Tory members, which asks them to rate all members of cabinet. Ben Wallace used to regularly come top when he was defence secretary, but he is out of office now, and Badenoch is the clear leader.Rish
  
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• Gillian Keegan tells teachers to ‘get off backsides’ and answer Raac survey

  05-09-2023 16:48 via theguardian.com
  
  NEU calls education secretary’s comments ‘outrageous’, as Keegan links frustration over survey to on-camera outburstThe education secretary, Gillian Keegan, has angered teachers a day after a sweary outburst landed her in trouble, this time claiming headteachers who had not responded to a survey about whether they were affected by crumbling concrete should “get off their backsides”.Her comments in a radio interview came a day after she was forced to apologise after
  
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• Transparency data: Independent schools: warning notices and enforcement letters

  05-09-2023 14:43 via gov.uk
  
  Schools currently failing to meet the independent school standards.
  
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• The hapless Gillian Keegan had one thing right: this is a nation ruled by arse-sitters | Marina Hyde

  05-09-2023 14:35 via theguardian.com
  
  As the education secretary is finding out, to be a Tory minister is to spend the bulk of your time cleaning up your own party’s messesAs you might be dimly aware, the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, had quite a bad day yesterday. Having conducted an interview with ITV News on the crumbling concrete crisis that has forced school closures at the 11th hour before the start of term, Keegan was still miked up when she inquired, apparently rhetorically: “Does anyone ever say: ‘Y
  
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• Turn up in person, get used to rejection and eat more than cornflakes: my advice to university freshers | Devi Sridhar

  05-09-2023 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The odds are stacked against this generation of UK students, but 20 years in education have taught me a few things that might helpIt’s that time of year again: freshers’ week is fast approaching and soon a new generation of students will pack up their duvets and newly purchased kettles to begin a fresh chapter of life. For those who remember their own journey, the nostalgia is difficult to suppress: the fear, the adrenaline, the strange single bed waiting at the end of a motorway. Un
  
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• Crumbling concrete: why the UK is so concerned about schools and public buildings

  05-09-2023 12:44 via theguardian.com
  
  Fears over the safety of reinforced autoclave aerated concrete, or Raac, have closed schools in England and more buildings could followBritish politics has returned from the summer obsessed with one apparently unlikely subject – concrete. So what is reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, or Raac, and why is it suddenly so prominent? Continue reading...
  
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• Correspondence: Letter to school leaders on mild illness and school attendance

  05-09-2023 11:03 via gov.uk
  
  A letter from the Chief Medical Officer and leading health professionals to schools about mild illness, attendance, and information for parents and carers.
  
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• Cost of fixing UK school concrete crisis still not known, minister says

  05-09-2023 10:29 via theguardian.com
  
  Schools minister Nick Gibb rejects claim government had ‘sticking plaster approach’ to maintenanceUK politics live – latest updatesMinisters still do not know how much the concrete crisis will cost to repair, the schools minister has admitted, as he rejected accusations by the head of the UK spending watchdog that the government had adopted a “sticking plaster approach” to essential maintenance.Nick Gibb said he and ministers were unable to come up with a figure bec
  
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• Collapsing schools are the latest sign of a crumbling country – and a lesson in Tory cost-cutting | Gaby Hinsliff

  05-09-2023 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Despite repeated warnings, the can was repeatedly kicked down the road. What other shoddy quick fixes are we yet to discover?September is, for many parents, a bittersweet month. It’s the season of new beginnings and stiff shoes, of 11-year-olds drowning in ridiculously large blazers and of watching bleary-eyed as the tiniest ones toddle away from you into reception class. But this year, there’s perhaps more of an edge than usual to letting them go, thanks to a nagging fear of the roo
  
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• Schools concrete crisis is risk to pupils’ mental health, headteacher warns

  05-09-2023 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Leader of a secondary school in Essex warns upheaval could have similar negative impact to that caused by Covid lockdownsA headteacher whose 830 pupils must learn semi-remotely for at least a term because of the schools concrete crisis has warned that the upheaval could cause a recurrence of the negative mental health impact of Covid lockdowns.James Saunders, the leader of Honywood school in Coggeshall, Essex, fears that year-seven students entering their first term at secondary school could fac
  
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• Why has concrete suddenly become headline news?

  05-09-2023 03:19 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Deep within certain and very particular corners of government, RAAC has been a talking point for years.
  
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• Professor Hakim Adi shortlisted for prestigious Wolfson award

  05-09-2023 01:01 via theguardian.com
  
  The nomination for Adi, the first British person of African heritage to become a professor of history in the UK, is a vindication for the academic who was made redundant a week agoHakim Adi, the first British person of African heritage to become a professor of history in the UK, has been shortlisted for a prestigious history writing prize. This comes after Adi was made redundant by the University of Chichester when it cut a course he founded.Adi has made the shortlist for the Wolfson history pri
  
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