Education & Training news

The Guardian view on the rise in school absences: a crisis made in government | Editorial

24-09-2023 19:30 via theguardian.com

Headteachers need more support if they are to persuade reluctant pupils to come back Pretty much everyone with a stake in schools is worried about the current high rate of absenteeism: politicians, school leaders, academic researchers and many parents. The pattern has been clear for a while. The proportion of pupils classified as persistently absent (missing more than one in 10 lessons) has more than doubled in England since the pandemic. From 10.9% in 2018-19, it rose to 22.3% in 2022-23. Data

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Put away your earplugs … UK children are ditching screeching recorders for mellifluous melodicas

24-09-2023 11:00 via theguardian.com

We’ve all suffered through cacophonous school assemblies. Now the rise of the melodica, as recently adopted by 20 Yorkshire primaries, could turn discord to harmonyA recorder at the mercy of a small child has often been regarded as a form of torture by parents. Now, as schools up and down Britain dust off their music stands, relief from teeth-clenching squeaks and whistles is at hand. The recorder, once the instrument of choice in schools, is being edged further from the classroom by a new

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It isn’t just nursery kids who need a ‘settling in’ period | Eva Wiseman

24-09-2023 09:00 via theguardian.com

Settling children into their new school year makes a lot of sense, but wouldn’t it be nice if adults had the same period of adjustment to every stage in lifeI hope this email finds you well,” I read, and I look around, wondering. This is where it finds me, sneaking a look at my phone while crouched on the fire escape at my son’s new nursery, where I am in day two of his “settling in” period. For those who are not familiar with the way of the nursery, this is the wee

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University ‘courts’ are failing students | Letters

24-09-2023 07:02 via theguardian.com

Colleges are ill-equipped to deal with allegations of assault and worseYour article demonstrates the immense risk that universities or other institutions take in adjudicating on allegations of behaviour meeting a criminal threshold (“Students accused in university rape hearings call in lawyers”, News). Universities have no adequate locus in which to judge criminal matters, nor the skills or necessary legal powers to investigate them. Of course, with the criminal justice system failin

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