Daily roundup 6 November: Home schooling, sexting, and resignation

Ministers must crack down on home schooling because extremist groups are encouraging parents to pull children out of mainstream education, an Ofsted chief has warned. The Telegraph reports that Matthew Coffey, the chief operating officer at the watchdog, said that a loophole in the law could "feed" illegal schools. Parents are currently under no obligation to inform local authorities that they intend to home-school their children, or to give a reason why.


Police investigations into children sharing sexual images of themselves and others have more than doubled in two years, figures have shown. The BBC reports that forces in England and Wales recorded 6,238 underage "sexting" offences in 2016/17, a rate of 17 a day. Chief constable Simon Bailey, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for child protection, described it as a "worrying upward trend".


Scottish childcare minister Mark McDonald has resigned over allegations about his private life. The Sun reports that the MSP for Aberdeen Donside apologised "unreservedly to anyone I have upset or who might have found my behaviour inappropriate".


About 50 children have been taken into care because their parents travelled to the Islamic State warzone or were stopped on their way to Syria. The Times reports that Mark Rowley, the national lead for counter-terrorism and the Metropolitan Police's assistant commissioner, revealed that the children, mostly girls, have been made the subject of care orders or become wards of court because of concerns that they or their families are at risk of being radicalised.