Daily roundup 8 September: Grammar schools, online grooming and uniform

Expanding the current grammar school system would be a disaster, former Labour cabinet minister Alan Milburn has said. The Guardian reports that Milburn said ending the ban on building new grammar schools would risk creating an "us and them divide" within the education system.


Online groomers rarely pose as children and can succeed in persuading a child to meet in less than half an hour, according to researchers from the Online Grooming Communication project. The Guardian reports that the researchers behind the project hope their findings will enable the development of better software to detect online groomers.


Following police intervention when 60 pupils were sent home from school for infringing uniform rules, the school's head teacher has claimed he will not back down, and was standing up for bullied children by enforcing a strict uniform policy. The Telegraph reports that Mathew Tate said the school has been underperforming and that enforcing uniform rules was part of a drive to raise standards.


Concern for pupils' mental health has risen by 13 per cent among school leaders over the past year, according to data from educational support service The Key. It found that 80 per cent of head teachers and other school leaders surveyed are worried about their pupils' mental health compared with 67 per cent last year.


A succession of "serious and inadequate" responses by prison staff contributed to Liam Lambert's death, an inquest has concluded. Liam was found hanging in his cell in March last year while serving a 16-week prison sentence in Glen Parva young offender institute. The inquest concluded there were inadequate steps taken to protect Liam from bullying, as well as inadequate risk assessments, and a delayed response in calling an ambulance and assisting paramedics.


Children's services bosses in Dorset say "significant changes" have taken place three months after a critical Ofsted review. The Dorset Echo reports that social workers and managers have received more training after the council received 18 recommendations of improvement from the inspectorate.


Half of the children in the care of Croydon Council are suffering from "complex" mental health problems that have not been identified, so they are not receiving the support they need, a report has found. The Croydon Advertiser reports that the report recommends that the mental health team should collaborate with partner agencies to increase detection of disorders and prompt referrals.