David Cameron: Parents Of Truants Face Benefit Cuts

Parents of children who regularly truant face having their benefits cut, David Cameron has warned, as he opened the first wave of the Government’s free schools.











In a keynote speech on Friday, the Prime Minister said the government's social policy review, set up in the wake of the recent riots, was considering the proposal.

Addressing the Norwich Free School, Norfolk, he outlined Coalition plans to ensure teaching was based on “excellence”.

Controversial reforms were needed to “bring back the values of a good education” because failure to do so would be “fatal to prosperity”.

Mr Cameron said more discipline and rigour were needed.

In his speech, Mr Cameron signalled a return to “elitism” in schools in an attempt to mend Britain’s “broken society” and secure the economic future.

He said discipline needed to be restored in schools, with teachers and heads being given the tools to do this but “restoring discipline is also about what parents do”.

“We need parents to have a real stake in the discipline of their children, to face real consequences if their children continually misbehave,” he said.

"That's why I have asked our social policy review to look into whether we should cut the benefits of those parents whose children constantly play truant.

"Yes, this would be a tough measure – but we urgently need to restore order and respect in the classroom and I don't want ideas like this to be off the table."

In his speech, Mr Cameron also championed the opening of the first free schools, state-funded institutions run by parents, charities and faith groups, independent of local council control. Some 24 have opened this month.

The Prime Minister attacked the “prizes for all” culture in which competitiveness was frowned upon and winners are shunned.

The comments marked the latest in a series of attempts to focus on education in response to the riots that shocked London and other English cities last month.

They follow the announcement by Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, of back-to-basics discipline in state schools.

He plans to give teachers more freedom to search pupils suspected of carrying banned items and to let them use reasonable force in removing the most disruptive children from the classroom.

Mr Cameron sought to move the debate on to standards, saying that a rigorous focus on the basics is needed to give young people “the character to live a good life, to be good citizens”.

The Prime Minister added: “For the future of our economy, and our society, we need a first-class education for every child. Of course, everyone’s agreed on that.

“The trouble is that for years we’ve been bogged down in a great debate about how we get there. Standards or structures? Learning by rote or by play? Elitism or all winning prizes?”

"Every year that passes without proper reform, is another year that tens of thousands of teenagers leave school without the qualifications they really need."

He added: "The most important value we're bringing back to the classroom is a commitment to rigour. Rigorous subjects, tested in a rigorous way.

"However well students perform in their exams, we cannot deny the reality of the past few years. The numbers of people taking core academic subjects - they went down.

"The voices from business concerned about the usefulness of some of our exams - they grew louder.

"We are determined to stop this slide - and already we're making an impact."

Mr Cameron made clear that he was in favour of elitism and not prizes for all.

He added: “These debates are over – because it’s clear what works. Discipline works. Rigour works. Freedom for schools works. Having high expectations works.

“Now we’ve got to get on with it – and we don’t have any time to lose.”

Free schools have provoked fury among teaching unions who claim they smack of elitism and represent an attempt to dismantle the state education system.

But Mr Cameron insisted free schools will “have the power to change lives”.

He also sought to link improvements in education to mending “our broken society.”

“We’ve got to be ambitious if we want to compete in the world,” he said.

“When China is going through an educational renaissance, when India is churning out science graduates, any complacency now would be fatal.

“And we’ve got to be ambitious, too, if we want to mend our broken society. Because education doesn’t just give people the tools to make a good living – it gives them the character to live a good life, to be good citizens.”

He added: "A free school is born of a real passion for education – a belief in its power to change lives.

"It's a passion and a belief this coalition shares. We want to want to create an education system based on real excellence, with a complete intolerance of failure."

The comments come days after Nick Clegg said that parents must take more responsibility. The Deputy Prime Minister insisted that teachers should be left to educate, and not be expected to act as “surrogate mothers and fathers”.

Two-Thirds Of Schools Ignore Legal Requirement To Provide Daily Act Of Worship

Most schools ignore the legal requirement to hold a daily act of worship for their pupils, a new study has found.

Almost two-thirds of parents told a survey that their children do not attend a daily act of collective worship at school.

And a majority of people thinks that the law on daily worship on schools should be no longer be enforced.















Assembly: But two-thirds of schooldchildren do not attend a daily act of worship.

A Church of England spokesman pointed out that the BBC Local Radio poll did not differentiate between primary and secondary schools, and argued that most primary schools do have collective worship or a daily period of reflection.

'The law states that all maintained schools must provide a daily act of collective worship, with the exception of those withdrawn by their parents,' he said.


















Praying: The Church of England says that collective worship promotes pupils' 'spiritual, moral, social and cultural development'.

'The Church of England strongly supports this - although it is not its job to enforce it - as it provides an important chance for the school to focus on promoting the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of its pupils.

'Collective worship is when pupils of all faiths and none come together to reflect - it should not be confused with corporate worship when everyone is of the same belief.'

However, 60 per cent of the public do not support enforcing the law which prescribes a daily act of worship in all state schools, with older people more favourable towards the law than the young.

A small majority (51 per cent) of those aged 65 or over believe it should be enforced, but only 29 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds agree.

Following the release of these findings, National Secular Society executive Keith Porteous Wood called for the law on collective daily worship to be repealed, saying it infringed pupils' human rights.

'As the BBC survey confirms, the law requiring daily collective worship is being widely flouted, and because the law should not be brought into disrepute in this way, it should be repealed,' he said.

'England is the only country in the western world to enforce participation in daily worship in community schools.

'To do so goes beyond the legitimate function of the state and is an abuse of children’s human rights, especially those who are old enough to make decisions for themselves.'

The survey was carried out by telephone in July and interviewed over 1,700 adults, including 500 parents with children at school in England.

The Reformist Case For Clegg

One ally of the deputy Prime Minister suggested to me yesterday that the press was missing the most significant aspect of Clegg’s speech on education: Clegg acknowledging that free schools would now be a permanent part of the educational landscape. This ally argued that this was a big deal given that a year ago Lib Dem conference had voted to boycott these schools.









The Lib Dem leader is considerably more liberal than his party. This means that he sometimes needs, so the argument goes, to sweeten the reformist pill with some Lib Dem rhetoric. Hence the emphasis on free schools being fair schools in yesterday’s speech.

But this internal Lib Dem party management is frustrating for Conservative ministers. They complain that it often leads to concessions which undermine the effectiveness of a whole policy.

A Formula For The Break-Up Of Britain

When the Barnett formula was devised in 1978, it was meant to share annual Government spending equitably between the countries of the United Kingdom according to their populations.


















Unjust: Joel - now Baron - Barnett has advocated scrapping the funding formula he devised for Scotland

In the intervening decades, it has become nothing less than a grossly unfair tax on the English to subsidise lavish public services in Scotland.

This is because the formula has not changed, though the population of England has risen sharply over those 33 years, while that of Scotland has remained static.

The result is that the Scottish subsidy has grown to such an extent that even Lord Barnett, the former Labour cabinet minister who invented the formula, thinks it is unjust and should be scrapped.

New figures which we reveal today show that public spending is now £1,624 per person higher in Scotland than in England, up 15 per cent in just a year.

This equates to the average English family being forced to pay more than £400 a year to fund Scottish services, and that the figure is sure to go on rising.

The scale of the handout allows the Scots to enjoy benefits the English can only dream of – free prescriptions, residential elderly care, university tuition, primary school meals, hospital parking, and most recently cancer drugs.

The injustice is palpable and, unless rectified, it presents a real danger to the integrity of the Union.













Danger to the integrity of the Union: Scottish National Party leader and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond wants full independence.

Recent opinion polls show fewer than a third of Scots in favour of independence. But in England, a clear majority believe it is time for them to go it alone.

If the Barnett formula is not reformed, resentment south of the border can only grow and it may soon be the English, not the Scots who demand the break-up of the United Kingdom.

Is it too cynical to suggest that is precisely what Scottish Nationalist leader Alex Salmond wants?

Harsh but fair

Even the leader of Britain’s prison governors has now joined the shrill chorus of liberal protest over tough punishments meted out to those involved in this month’s riots.

In an extraordinary and intemperate attack, Eoin McLennan-Murray accuses magistrates of indulging in a ‘sentencing frenzy’, likening them to ‘sharks when there’s blood in the water’.

He said guidelines were being flouted and defendants unfairly treated.












Flashpoint: Riots across London and other cities of England in earlier this month were among the worst scenes of civil disobedience in recent history.

There is no doubt that magistrates and judges have taken a robust approach. Of more than 1,400 people brought before the courts in connection with the mayhem, around 70 per cent have either been given jail terms or remanded in custody awaiting sentence — far more than is usual.

But what did Mr McLennan-Murray expect magistrates to do? Put them back on the streets to wreak more havoc?

Offences included aggravated burglary, robbery, violent disorder, assault, arson and even murder.

In their own right these are all serious crimes, but against a backdrop of indiscriminate looting, destruction and anarchy they constitute a serious danger to the fabric of society.

So, understandably, the courts came down hard on perpetrators, in many cases handing out exemplary sentences.

If punishments are deemed too harsh, there is a perfectly sound appeal court system to moderate them.

And precisely what does sentencing policy have to do with a prison governor anyway? His role is surely to contain, and where possible rehabilitate offenders, not determine how long they should serve.

Perhaps Mr McLennan-Murray should just get on with his own job and let magistrates get on with theirs.

Ministers 'Must Not Undermine' GCSE Results

Labour shadow minister Andy Burnham has warned the government off "undermining" the achievements of young people receiving GCSE results by focusing only on the English Baccalaureate.












The English Baccalaureate has not been universally welcomed by schools.

Whilst the shadow education secretary said that today's GCSE results "reflect well" on young people, teachers and schools, he also warned that the government risks "restricting" students with the EBac.

The EBac system places emphasis on traditional core subjects such as maths, English, science, a modern language and either history or geography by measuring how many students receive A-C grades in these topics.

Mr Burnham said: "These results show young people are making sensible choices to prepare them for the modern world, with big increases in the sciences, religious studies and economics.

"Ministers should listen to the education select committee and introduce more flexibility and choice into the English Baccalaureate.

"Otherwise, they risk restricting student choice and penalising young people whose strengths and interest lies in the arts, music, ICT, engineering, business and economics."

Trends for subjects selected at GCSE level were released today and showed a slight decline in modern foreign languages, history and geography, despite the fact that these are all specified EBac subjects.

Nick Gibb, schools minister, said: "While it is encouraging to see the rising uptake in maths and single sciences, it is worrying that once again there are falling numbers studying languages.

"Through the English Baccalaureate, we want to make sure all pupils have the chance to study the core academic subjects which universities and employers demand."

Today's results also showed a growing disparity between the results of boys and girls.

The number of boys achieving top grades was 19.8%, compared to 26.5% of girls. Last year the gap was six per cent, but this year it is up to 6.7%.

Jim Sinclair, director of the Joint Council for Qualifications, said that the growing divide in the performances of girls and boys was a "worrying trend".

In an improvement on last year though 69.8% of all GCSE entries were awarded at least a C, which is the 23rd straight increase on the total.

Almost one in four GCSE papers gained an A or A* grade, which is also an increase on last year.

Despite this Chris Keates, general secretary of NASUWT teaching union, criticised the "betrayal" of young people by the government.

She said: "In just over 12 months, this government has stripped away many of the opportunities available.

"Apprenticeships have been slashed, financial support axed through the abolition of the education maintenance allowance, youth unemployment has soared and university places cut.

"The coalition has ripped up the social contract between the state and young people."

Pensions Row Could Bring First Teachers' Strike Since The 80s

Teachers in Scotland's schools could be set to strike for the first time since the 1980s in protest against changes to their pensions.
The country's largest teaching union, the EIS, is expected to begin balloting members in the coming weeks over strike action in response to reforms to public sector pensions.







Scottish Government spokesman: "We believe the UK government must reconsider".

Union leaders claim the changes will see teachers forced to contribute more to their pensions and work longer before they retire.

Changes to the way pensions are calculated will also see teachers receiving less, according to the EIS.

Calls for a strike ballot have come from the union's influential strategy sub-committee.

Should a ballot be approved by the union's executive, teachers at all local authority nursery, primary, secondary and special schools would be asked to vote on possible strike action, which is expected to take the form of an initial one-day walkout.

If it went ahead it would be the first time since 1986 that a national teachers' strike has taken place in Scotland.

Ronnie Smith, general secretary of the EIS, said: "At the recent EIS annual general meeting, Scottish teachers sent a clear message that their patience with attacks on their standard of living is exhausted.

"At a time of imposed pay freezes on public sector pay, coupled with soaring prices for food, fuel, clothing and transport, teachers are not prepared to accept further erosion in their living standards. For hard-pressed teachers, the prospect of paying more of their salary into a pension scheme with the promise of working longer and getting far less at the end just might be the straw that breaks the camel's back."

Eileen Prior, executive director of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council (SPTC), told teachers not to expect any sympathy.

She said: "Parents are going to be very concerned about the prospect of strike action. I suspect the response is going to be one where there's not a huge amount of sympathy for teachers.

"There's a feeling that everyone is being squeezed. The reaction I'm getting from parents is they feel that teachers are getting a pretty good deal."

The EIS said the recommendation for a strike ballot from its strategy sub-committee was a "warning" to ministers not to ignore its members.

While pension reform is a matter reserved for the UK government, any changes north of the Border would require the support of the Scottish Government.

However, finance secretary John Swinney has voiced criticism of Westminster's approach to public sector pension reform.

Labour's shadow education secretary Ken Macintosh said: "The SNP government has a very serious obligation to parents and pupils to ensure we do not return to the type industrial action which Scotland's schools saw in the 1980s.

"It is absolutely critical that changes are negotiated properly, and it would be completely wrong for ministers to try and trade pension rights for salary cuts."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Public sector pensions must be affordable and sustainable but we do not believe the UK government's proposals represent the correct course of action.

"We believe that the UK government must reconsider its proposals before seeking to impose significant changes on public service staff at this time.

"The Scottish Government has embarked upon a series of meetings with other public sector employers and unions as to how we address this significant issue."

According to the EIS, indications from England and Wales show pension contributions may rise by 0.6 per cent of pay for those earning less than £26,000 and up to 2 per cent for those earning between £40,000 and £75,000.

Parents Paying £77,000 'Premium' For Homes Near Top State Schools

Parents are paying ‘premiums’ of on average £77,000 to buy homes near leading state schools, research out today suggests.
















Pricey: Catchment area of the Henrietta Barnett school (pictured) has homes with an average price of £655,429.

Property prices within sought-after catchment areas are 35 per cent higher than in the rest of the UK, with an average asking price of £298,378.

The most expensive catchment area of a state school in Britain’s top ten surrounds all-girls grammar Henrietta Barnett, in Barnet, north-west London, where the average house price is £655,429.

The premiums have soared from an average of £20,000 in just four years.

And rent in the catchment areas of the top 50 state schools – at an average of £944 a month – is 7.8 per cent higher than in the rest of the country. For the catchment areas of six of them, rental prices are as high as £1,500 a month.

But the premiums are still cheaper than most private school fees, which can top £30,000 a year.

The research is likely to reignite the bitter row over school ‘selection by mortgage’ rather than ability.

The phenomenon has prompted some councils to adopt controversial lotteries – effectively picking names from a hat – to give children from poorer homes an equal chance of getting a place at a top school.











The research, from property website PrimeLocation.com, is based on average asking prices in July this year and GCSE results taken from 2010.

It shows a handful of the top schools are in areas with typical house prices more than twice the national average of £221,110.

These include St Olave’s and St Saviour’s Grammar in Orpington, Kent, ranked second in the UK, where house prices average £592,471. Notably, house prices in the area around the top-rated Bishop Wordsworth’s Grammar, in Salisbury, are just below the average for leading schools at £286,112.

Nigel Lewis, property analyst at PrimeLocation.com, says: ‘For many years now the challenges of the catchment area-based lottery for state schools have vexed millions of parents across the UK – and our research highlights how much it can cost to get your child into the ideal school.’

n The first 24 ‘free schools’ are to receive £130million between them from the Government to cover their start-up costs this year.

Among those getting state backing is the Maharishi School, in Ormskirk, Lancashire, where children as young as four will be given meditation classes.

First 'Free Schools' To Open Next Month

The 24 state-funded schools set up by teachers, charities, education experts and parents will not follow national curriculum.












Michael Gove, the education secretary, says too many children are 'failed by fundamental flaws in the education system'.

Twenty-four "free schools" are to open next month, the government has announced.

The schools – state-funded and set up by teachers, charities, education experts and parents – are spread throughout the country but mainly concentrated in deprived areas with poor records of academic achievement.

They have the same legal status as academies and do not have to follow the national curriculum, giving them more freedom than local authority schools.

The Department for Education has confirmed that funding for all 24 schools has been signed and agreed.

Under the coalition's plans, the schools will also be able to prioritise the most disadvantaged children in their school admissions arrangements.

Education secretary Michael Gove said: "The most important thing for any parent is to be able to send their child to a good local school, with high standards and strong discipline.

"That is why we are opening free schools across the country. I am delighted to announce that the first 24 will open this year.

"Too many children are being failed by fundamental flaws in our education system. The weakest schools are concentrated in our poorest towns and cities, and we are plummeting down the international education league tables.

"In spite of years of investment, the situation is worsening. Children from disadvantaged homes are still falling behind. A change of approach is vital.

"By freeing up teachers and trusting local communities to decide what is best, our reforms will help to raise standards for children in all schools."

The 24 schools will open at different times during September – 17 are primary schools, five secondary and two are all-age schools.

They will open between 10 to 15 months after submitting their initial plans to the DfE. In the first application window, 323 groups applied to open free schools.

When selling the idea, the government referred to the similar American charter schools, saying that in New York they closed the gap separating inner-city students from those in the wealthiest suburbs by 86% in maths and 66% in English.

Schools Failing To Produce Good GCSE Result Should Close

Those two imposters triumph and disaster will be making their presence felt in 750,000 homes today as the GCSE results come through.


















Lucy Gallagher opens her GCSE exam results in Nottingham.

Amidst the cheers and the tears for the individuals emerge the statistics for the pundits to grab hold of. The news that 23.2 per cent of papers were gradedA* or A – which is 0.6 per cent more than last year - will be met with scepticism. Few will be convinced that it means standards are higher.

Most will believe that it is more likely that the exams have become easier. There will be the familiar concerns about 'grade inflation' and 'dumbing down'.

But the grade inflation is being choked off as the Education Secretary Michael Gove demand s greater rigour. In fact grades are expected to come down in future years as credibility is restored to the system. Gove is also concerned to reverse the decline in history teaching - a subject that only 30 per cent of pupils sat for GCSE.

A greater challenge is that the 'gender gap' has widened. The boys are falling further behind the girls. 26.5 per cent - were awarded an A or A* this summer - compared with 19.8 per cent of boys exams.

This is something schools will want to address. Are boys more distracted by a collapse in classroom discipline than girls? Are there enough real experiments with things that go bang in science lessons? Should we recruit more male teachers?

Does the falling standard of school discipline disproportionately impact on the academic attainment of boys? Would fostering more sports competitions between schools engender greater school pride and particularly encourage boys to be more engaged?

Are boys disadvantaged by the switch to nice, neat feminine coursework rather than testosterone charged exams? Are young boys, in particular, put off reading by their teachers using bland, sanitised PC story books?

But I hope the greatest attention of all from the GCSE stats will go on the schools producing the worst results. They undergo regime change should be closed down entirely and new schools opened on their sites.













Four pupils react after opening their GCSE exam results at West Bridgeford School, Nottingham today.

Their are huge numbers of groups around the country seeking to open Free Schools. But hostile Labour councils are seeking to thwart their efforts to expand parental choice. Even some Tory councils are unhappy about the prospects of the Council-run schools being exposed to competition. So the planning system is used to make it hard for them to convert a site for a school building. Yet if a failing school is closed down then a ready made site for a new school becomes available.

For years Leftists in the educational establishment have refused to acknowledge that such a thing as a bad school exists. If parents don't want to send their child to a particular school they are accused of prejudice or ignorance. If a school gets bad exam results then excuses are repeatedly made and the answer put forward that more money should be sprayed at it. Never that the head should be held to account.

That is not the approach favoured by Michael Gove. He has decided that heads and governing bodies of schools where fewer than 35 per cent of pupils achieve reach C grade in five GCSEs, including English and maths, should be taken over by new management and become academies.

He plans to raise the threshold to 40 per cent next year and by 2015 to 50 per cent. Some have criticised this approach for saying that the schools will focus on cramming those heading for a D to get a C - and thus neglect the brighter pupils. If these critics are sincere they should back an additional challenge for these schools - that a minimum of, say, 15% of pupils should get A* or A. The reality is that the bad schools are overwhelming failing pupils of all abilities.

The indulgence of Leftists for sink schools which parents struggle to avoid is a scandal. For all their talk of equality nothing does more to keep the poor poor.

The GCSE results are judgement day for the pupils. Those who are disappointed should not despair. Some who fail at school go on to succeed in later life.

But on the other hand poor school results do reduce their chances of success. The odds are stacked against them. They have consequences. Poor results should also have consequences for their schools.