Encounters with great art can be absorbing, unsettling and even painful. How has this been tamed into mere ‘reading for pleasure’?
It is the UK’s National Year of Reading. Specifically, this government-led scheme is about “reading for pleasure” and “the joy of reading”. This is not a matter of whimsy. Research has linked reading for pleasure in childhood to a host of positive...
Parents opposing plans told they can home school their children if they object to sending them to state schools
The court of appeal has rejected the latest challenge to the addition of VAT to private school fees, telling parents they have the option to home school their children if they object to sending them to state schools.
The appeal was launched by families and leaders of four independent...
As the dust settles on the government’s landmark changes to children’s special educational needs and disabilities provision, what will their impact really be on young people, their families and schools? John Harris and Kiran Stacey look at what we know so far. And, a growing backlash from graduates over student loan payments, led by the influential consumer champion Martin Lewis, is causing...
Met urges pupils not to get involved and asks platforms to ban accounts promoting ‘fights’ with images of weapons
Pupils as young as 11 are being encouraged to join in school fights in posts on TikTok and Snapchat, prompting police to urge children not to get involved.
The Metropolitan police have asked social media platforms to ban accounts promoting “school wars”, while headteachers have...
It doesn’t fit neatly on a Treasury spreadsheet, but there is huge value in disabled and non-disabled pupils learning together
When I was 11, a woman at the hospital asked me what school I was starting in September. I still remember her surprise when I told her I would be going to the local girls grammar, as the hoist pulled my wet limbs out of the physio pool. I was a child but already...
Government looks at options such as increasing loan repayment thresholds amid growing pressure
Ministers are examining ways to ease the burden of student loans after weeks of pressure over a policy pulling more people into repayments, the Guardian understands.
The Treasury and the Department for Education are reviewing different options to offer relief to graduates with Plan 2 student loans,...
A compelling and fitfully harrowing child’s-eye account of a mother’s unravelling
Stefan Merrill Block was nine when his mother pulled him out of school. It was the early 1990s and the family had recently moved from Indianapolis to Plano, Texas, where Block’s father had started a new job. While Block and his older brother, Aaron, had been wrenched away from their schoolmates, their mother had...
Lawsuit is latest action by Trump administration against a university and escalation of president’s feud with California
The justice department sued the University of California, Los Angeles on Tuesday, alleging the university created a hostile work environment for Jewish and Israeli faculty and staff after protests against the war on Gaza broke out across campus.
Education leaders and MPs say government needs to be careful about mental health impact on leaders and teachers in already overstretched sector
Teachers and schools face “a huge ask” implementing the government’s special needs proposals affecting hundreds of thousands of children, according to education leaders and MPs who otherwise gave the plans a cautious welcome.
Unite Group cuts rents at some universities and raises cash by selling London site to joint venture for £186m
Business live – latest updates
A drop in the number of international students coming to the UK has hit the student housing provider Unite Group, which lowered its profit outlook for the third time in four months as weaker demand prompted it to cut rents in some cities.
What is behind the growing anger over plan 2 student loans and what could reforms mean for graduates?
Pressure is building on the government to reform the student loans system, with politicians and campaigners piling in, and a minister conceding there are “problems” with the current set-up.
Yesterday the consumer champion Martin Lewis – who last month locked horns with Rachel Reeves –...
