Daily roundup 31 January: Folic acid, teacher retention, and Paddington Bear

Folic acid should be added to flour to prevent babies being born with defects, academics have said. The Metro reports that researchers found that setting a daily limit for intake of folic acid may have contributed to children being born with birth defects. It is feared that about 3,000 cases of babies born with the conditions anencephaly and spina bifida in the UK in the last 20 years could have been prevented if folic acid had been added to flour.


The Department for Education has been criticised by MPs for "failing to get a grip" on teacher retention in England. The BBC reports that an inquiry by the public accounts committee found the DfE does not have a coherent plan to tackle teacher retention and development. It said the issue is particularly critical in England's secondary schools, with the number of teachers falling by 10,800 (five per cent) between 2010 and 2016, from 219,000 to 208,200.


Children as young as nine were shown pornography during a film screening at a primary school. The BBC reports that pupils at Croft Academy in Walsall were watching Paddington Bear when the images appeared on screen. The film was understood to have been streamed online, with the school blaming the issue on a problem with the academy's web filtering systems.


A South Yorkshire child sex abuse survivor has taken her campaign to get stricter checks on taxi drivers to parliament. The Sheffield Star reports that Sammy Woodhouse, who was groomed as a teenager by abuse gang ringleader Arshid Hussain, has called for every taxi in the country to be fitted with CCTV. She travelled to London yesterday with members of the Suzy Lamplugh Trust which has published a report claiming that taxi drivers with multiple convictions have been granted licences in some parts of the country.


A 14-year-old girl has been arrested after splashing chemicals into a classmate's face during a science lesson. The Northern Echo reports that the pupil was arrested after an argument at school resulted in a hazardous mix of iodine, chlorine and bromine being splashed into a boy's face.