Daily roundup 20 April: School funding, Snapchat, and plastic cups

MPs are to probe the state of school and college funding to consider whether a longer-term vision needs to be taken of education funding in England. The education select committee said that while the spending review process will determine the overall level of public funding for schools and colleges, its new inquiry will examine whether a longer-term plan is needed for investment in education and what resources are required to ensure schools and colleges get the support they need.


Four men jailed for child grooming and treating "teenage girls like trophies" have been banned from using Snapchat. The BBC reports that Taiyab Hussain, 19, Mohammed Hizar Rizwan, 18, Shaheem Ratyal, 19, and Sohail Raja Ali, 19, all from Burton upon Trent, pleaded guilty to various child grooming offences in February. They were each banned from the social media app for eight years at their sentencing at Stafford Crown Court.


A school has sparked controversy on social media after charging children for a drink of water. The Daily Mail reports that parents were angered after Onslow St Audrey's School in Hatfield charged children 5p per plastic cup of tap water on the hottest April day for 70 years.


More than 80,000 people, including the Bishop of Durham and 32 MPs, have signed an open letter calling on Home Secretary Amber Rudd to intervene in the case of a Vietnamese-born young man facing expulsion from the UK. The Church Times reports that the letter to Rudd was handed in on Tuesday as an immigration tribunal resumed its hearing of an appeal against a Home Office move to return the young man to Vietnam. The 20-year-old was trafficked as an orphan, aged 10, into Britain, and worked as a slave in a series of cannabis farms. After six years he was rescued during a police raid.


Youth offending team workers in Wiltshire have won recognition for the way their care for young people with special needs who are going through the criminal justice system. The Swindon Advertiser reports that the county has been awarded the Achievement for All Quality Mark by the Department for Education after a two-year process of improvements and continual assessment.