The Guardian: 'A community of equals': the private school with no fees, set up by a south London teacher

While most teachers express frustration about the education system in England, with its focus on Sats, GCSEs and league tables, what they don’t usually do is set up their own school instead. But that is exactly what Lucy Stephens did.

Stephens had been a primary teacher for six years but grew disillusioned and left. “I was just shoehorning kids through test papers,” she says. “Everything was so competitive. You’d find the headteacher in your room, looking through your books, checking on you. Behaviour managers can rule by fear, the staff as well as pupils. I’ve seen them scream at kids in front of the whole school, humiliating them.”

Stephens decided to resign and work for The Prince’s Trust charity, helping vulnerable young people. But now she is back teaching – this time in her very own school, where she writes the rules and sets the pace.

The Times: Manners makyth a girl too, says Winchester College head

Since its beginnings in 1382 Winchester College has been guided by the motto “Manners Makyth Man”. But more than 600 years after it was founded by William of Wykeham to teach 70 “poor and needy scholars”, Britain’s oldest public school will open its doors to sixth-form girls.

The Times: Tencent: Tech giant backed by Beijing funded Cambridge research

Cambridge University received a “generous gift” from a Chinese software company with links to the communist regime to fund an engineering fellowship, The Times has learnt.

The Times: Royal Springboard scheme gives private school places to pupils in care

Children from troubled backgrounds will win places at prestigious private schools as part of a government-backed scheme aimed at transforming their life chances.

About £200,000 of public money is being given to a charity that helps match vulnerable children and those in care with top independent schools.

The Guardian: UK cabinet ministers to be given six months' maternity leave on full pay

Move rushed through in time for attorney general Suella Braverman to keep her post after giving birth

The Guardian: Ban on overnight school trips threatens 15,000 UK jobs, ministers warned

Generation of children missing out on life-changing benefits, say parents, schools and industry.

A ban on residential school trips risks an “economic, social and cultural disaster” and the loss of 15,000 UK jobs unless it is lifted by spring, ministers are being warned.

The Guardian: Schools in England told not to use material from anti-capitalist groups

Idea categorised as ‘extreme political stance’ equivalent to endorsing illegal activity.

The government has ordered schools in England not to use resources from organisations which have expressed a desire to end capitalism.

Department for Education (DfE) guidance issued on Thursday for school leaders and teachers involved in setting the relationship, sex and health curriculum categorised anti-capitalism as an “extreme political stance” and equated it with opposition to freedom of speech, antisemitism and endorsement of illegal activity.

The Times: Open Letter - Rethinking Assessment: Mutant exam system is failing our children

In this letter, leading educators demand urgent action as they launch a group aiming to overhaul the testing regime in schools.

We were told this summer that it was a “mutant algorithm” that had caused the anguish of the exam fiasco. Covid may have exposed the failings, but in truth, something more profound is going on, and it has been brewing for years: we have a mutant exam system.

Created with good intentions — “to raise standards” — it has mutated into something that neither measures the right things nor is very reliable, and leaves in its wake a trail of stress and unfairness.

Many of those who are involved in the exams merry-go-round are reaching the same conclusion — it’s not fit for purpose and needs to change.

This week a new group— Rethinking Assessment — is being launched to do something about it.

The Times: Cheated in class? No mortgage for you, Chinese government warns

The Chinese government is threatening to withdraw a postgraduate’s ability to secure a mortgage if they are found to have plagiarised someone else’s work.

In a joint statement, the ministries of education and finance and the National Development and Reform Commission announced they would include academic dishonesty as part of the country’s social credit scheme.

The Times: British universities charter jets to fly in Chinese students

A flight carrying hundreds of students to Belfast from Beijing has become the first of several expected to be chartered by British universities to bring a record number of Chinese people into the country to study.

More than 24,000 Chinese students sought admission to British universities this year, up by 23 per cent, of which 8,570 were accepted, a rise of 14 per cent.

Evening Standard: Could it be time to rent your children's clothes?

My 12 year old recently discovered that you could rent women’s clothes in Selfridges. Not quite sure either of us actually liked any of the clothes on display though.

2020 is the year fashion rental went mainstream. But should childrenswear be next on your list to loan? And is it safe? Chloe Street speaks to My Wardobe Kids' Sadie Mantovani to get the baby gro-down

The Times: Ruth Bader Ginsburg obituary

Whenever Ruth Bader Ginsburg fell ill, liberal America held its breath. To many it was Bader Ginsburg, the 107th justice of the Supreme Court and something of a judicial celebrity, who was the voice of reason in a nation divided on ideological grounds, with her cautious words and constant attempts to build a consensus no matter who was involved.

The Times: 50 great films by women Sex, war, betrayal, crime, romance, bromance: no topic has been off limits for female directors

Having a screenwriter husband, does mean we watch a lot of films. He’s currently looking for a female director for one of his Hollywood film scripts. So in praise of all films by women…

The Times: A Zoom-ful of sugar from virtual babysitters helps kids learn and parents get on

She might be singing nursery rhymes or helping a child to learn the alphabet. While it sounds like an average day for a nanny, there is a difference. Danielle Manton-Kelly is not in the room with the children: she is a Zoomsitter, an online nanny, and she is one of a growing breed.

TES: Why we must scrap GCSEs: 4 ways to form a better system

Sarah Fletcher, the high mistress of St Paul's Girls' School in London and a member of the HMC, offers thoughts on better ways young people can be assessed than out-dated GCSEs.

Everything has changed over the past few months.

We have put students from across the world in the same classrooms, safeguarded new ways of working and shared resources and online platforms.

Most extraordinary of all, teachers have helped in the awarding of grades and we have cancelled all assessments from key stage 1 to key stage 5.

Imagining the unimaginable is something we should do more often! And what better place to start than with the curriculum?

Simon Singh: The Maths Masterclass Tutorials (Year 8 & Year 11)

NB Parents can nominate children. Please see the rules at the bottom of this page.

The Maths Masterclass Tutorials are an intense programme of FREE online Maths tuition designed to stretch and challenge the very best young mathematicians

Following the huge success of our pilot in May, we are now scaling up to a year-long FREE programme. The Maths Masterclass Tutorials programme is delivered by TalentEd in partnership with best-selling author Dr. Simon Singh.

Evening Standard: Prince George and Princess Charlotte's £19k-a-year prep school to take pupils up to 18 after surge in applications

I’ve actually known about this for well over a year. I have friends and students at Thomas’s Kensington. I had also suggested that they could possibly buy the current Royal Academy of Dance building. My daughter started her ballet lessons at RAD, so I know the layout well.

EXCLUSIVE: New building planned as popularity soars following Cambridges choosing school

The £19,000-a-year prep school where Prince George and Princess Charlotte are pupils is to start offering places up to age 18 after a huge surge in applications, the Evening Standard can reveal.

Thomas’s Battersea has bought the home of the Royal Academy of Dance next door and will turn the building into a new independent senior school accepting students from September 2021.

The Telegraph: Girls should be taught that sexism in the workplace is an 'attractive challenge', former top head says

Girls should be taught that sexism in the workplace is an “attractive challenge” rather than developing a “hostile attitude” towards men, the former head of one of the country's top schools has said.

Female students should learn about the challenges of the future in a positive light rather than teachers “throwing a pool of gloom” over it, according to Clarissa Farr, who was High Mistress at St Paul’s Girls’ School from 2006-17.

“Risk-taking only happens when you give students the chance to push ahead”

What happens when you bring together high-school students, teachers, and technology entrepreneurs to experiment with new ideas for learning? Christoph Wittmer talks about shaping the future of education with innovation.

Evening Standard: Episode 5 of Evening Standard's Women Tech Charge podcast with Alice Bentinck of Entrepreneur First

The Evening Standard’s Women Tech Charge podcast is back for series two and Entrepreneur First co-founder Alice Bentinck is this week’s guest.

Hosted by Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon, the CEO of STEMettes.org, Women Tech Charge invites women from all areas of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) to share amusing and insightful insights into their careers and what it’s really like to be part of the 17 per cent of the UK’s tech workforce that identifies as female.

Bentinck had her first taste of entrepreneurship when she was 16 and tried the Young Enterprise programme at school. Her team was given £10 and tasked with coming up with a product.

“It was just the beginning of understanding that business was a thing and that start-ups were a thing and just the rush of having a small team, creating a product and then selling it to people and they will give you money.”

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