Artist installs new work at his former college in Oadby, as number of arts students in England plummets

The artist David Shrigley has said Stem subjects should be expanded to prioritise the arts, adding that children’s creativity is being stymied by the narrow focus on maths and the sciences.

The Turner prize-nominated artist says “Stem” – which stands for science, technology, engineering...

Co-op/Demos report details how people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are far less likely to earn good incomes

A lack of social mobility is costing the UK £19bn a year, a report produced by the cross-party thinktank Demos and the Co-op has found.

The Social Mobility Commission, which advises the government, defines social mobility as “the link between a person’s occupation or income...

Steep fall in attendance after Covid could become ‘generational’ if not urgently tackled, school leaders say

Schools are turning to innovative techniques to entice children back into the classroom, as school leaders warn that high levels of absence will become “generational” unless urgently tackled.

Therapy dogs, prize vouchers, wellness sessions, taxi rides and shepherd’s huts are being put...

Private schools are expected to begin paying 20% duty but EU diplomats want international institutions to be exempt

Imposing VAT on international schools in the UK could lead to hundreds of pupils leaving, European diplomats have said, as they called for the institutions to retain the exemption from the 20% duty that private schools are expected to lose.

The German and French ambassadors to the...

An agro-technical boarding school is the subject of this striking documentary, which offers vignettes of growing pains and childlike wonder

Eduardo Crespo’s sensitive documentary follows a cohort of boys at an Argentina agro-technical boarding school called Las Delicias (The Delights), and makes magic out of the mundane. On the surface, the students’ day-to-day rituals in the countryside...

The perils of opinion polls

Today’s puzzle is about voters who are embarrassed to tell pollsters what they really think.

In elections past, right wing parties like the Conservatives have often done better than opinion polls predict. One explanation is that ‘shy Tory’ voters lie to pollsters because they are embarrassed to admit their preferences in public. With the US polls neck and neck,...

The strike over council pay involves Unison members in the constituency area of First Minister John Swinney.

Mum Rachel shares her experience of adopting her daughter at a time when adoption rates are falling.

A lack of awareness of selective mutism is making diagnosis life worse for families living with it.

North-east the worst-affected region, recording 40% drop in acceptances on to pre-registration courses, union finds

The number of people studying to become nurses has fallen substantially across England, with some areas recording a 40% drop in successful applications, according to analysis by the largest nursing union.

The latest regional data from Ucas, the university admissions service, shows...

Trade body for France’s travel industry reportedly writes to UK home secretary over concerns for programme’s future

A scheme designed to boost the numbers of French children able to travel to Britain for school trips is reportedly in peril as a result of an overhaul of entry requirements in the UK.

New rules for French school trips were introduced in December last year after a meeting between...

UCL’s Grade I-listed building being turned into a mixed-use space under redevelopment proposals

Academics are outraged that University College London (UCL) has failed to put its Art Museum and significant art collection at the heart of its bicentennial redevelopment plans.

David Bindman, UCL’s emeritus professor of the history of art, voiced concern that the museum in the South Cloisters –...

The chancellor says the government will ensure that 50 schools in England are rebuilt every year.

Instead of receiving early help, pupils and parents face a vicious cycle of trying to get treatment

There’s a proliferation of acronyms assigned to children whose needs the state is struggling to meet. SEN (children with special educational needs), Neets (young people not in education, employment or training), LACs (looked after children in the care system).

Sometimes it feels as though these...

While a photography student at Yale, Modica visited her old school and found the captivating subject she’d been looking for: teens whose big hair, eyeliner and rolled-up skirts still radiate personality decades later

In the afterword to her new book Catholic Girl, which documents teenagers at Catholic girls’ schools in New York and New Haven in the mid-1980s, the photographer Andrea Modica...

Waits of more than a year for hearings into councils’ failure to meet growing needs of Send children

Parents are having to wait more than a year for tribunal hearings into ­inadequate provision for children with special educational needs after new cases surged by more than 50% in a year.

The National Audit Office last week highlighted the worsening ­crisis in the special educational needs and...

Research and development is an investment, not a cost, and if the UK is to maintain its world-leading position it must commit to long-term funding

The research sector has been a consistent, if sometimes undervalued, UK success story, with countless examples of breakthroughs that have transformed our understanding of the world and the way we live in it, and contributed significantly to our...

Figures for 2024 show 46 private schools have closed with 77 opening, despite reports claiming VAT threat has toppled some schools

More than 80 private schools closed every year in England on average over the last decade, official data has shown, with no apparent increase in the trend since Labour announced it was imposing VAT on fees.

A number of media reports have highlighted the closure of...

Updated accountability measures aim to get school leavers to look at wider range of institutions and vocational options

The government will no longer measure schools in England on how many of their students go to Russell Group or Oxbridge universities, in an effort to encourage school leavers towards a wider range of universities and vocational options.

The Department for Education’s updated...