Daily roundup 7 December: Legal challenge, Grenfell Tower, and child obesity

The government is facing a legal challenge in the High Court over its decision to collect data on school pupils' nationality and country of birth. The Independent reports that since last September, guardians and carers in England have been asked to state whether their children are foreign nationals as part of the school census. Campaign group Against Borders for Children, which is bringing forward the case, argues that the new policy is unlawful because parents were not told the data would be shared with the Home Office, and represents a violation of the rights of children and their families to a private life.


Four out of five families made homeless by the Grenfell Tower fire are still looking for homes almost six months after the disaster, and almost half face Christmas in hotel rooms, according to Grenfell United, the support group made up of families who survived the fire. The Guardian reports that out of the 208 households that needed rehousing after the fire, 118 will still be in emergency accommodation or with friends over the holiday period, including 29 families with children.


There is a "stark" increase between the ages of seven and 11 in the proportion of children in the UK who are overweight or obese, new data suggests. The BBC reports that researchers from the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) at the UCL Institute of Education analysed information on nearly 12,000 of the children taking part in the Millennium Cohort Study, who were born in 2000 and 2001. They found that 25 per cent were overweight or obese at age seven, rising to 35 per cent at 11.


Nearly £1m could be cut from the money spent helping vulnerable children in Leicestershire get to and from schools and nurseries. The Leicester Mercury reports that Leicestershire County Council is planning to reduce the level of discount available to children and young people from low-income families for transport to nursery and post-16 education to save cash.