Daily roundup 4 April: Baseline checks, bullying, and shooting death
Neil Puffett
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
Union warns of potential for industrial action over controversial literacy and numeracy checks for four-year-olds; researchers find Muslim parents pulling children out of school due to bullying; and second young person dies following shootings in London, all in the news today.
Teachers are preparing to take industrial action in protest at "immoral" exams for four-year-olds. The Telegraph reports that members of the National Union of Teachers have called for a major campaign against the "damaging" literacy and numeracy checks for children at the start of reception. The union, which has a long-standing opposition to primary school tests, seeks to disrupt voluntary pilots of the tests next year, including the possibility of industrial action.
Middle-class Muslim parents are homeschooling their children because they are targets for bullying, researchers have found. The Telegraph reports that Ofsted has previously raised concerns about a rise in homeschooling in the UK, suggesting that it could be used as a cover for the radicalisation of children. But new research by academics at the University of Portsmouth has suggested that Muslim families are actually pulling their children out of mainstream schools because they are being bullied.
A 16-year-old boy found with bullet wounds within an hour of another fatal shooting in London has died. The BBC reports that the boy was left critically ill after he was shot in the face in Walthamstow on Monday in an attack that also left a boy, 15, with knife wounds. His death follows that of a 17-year-old girl, named locally as Tanesha Melbourne, who was killed in Tottenham.
The National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) has launched its annual nursery survey for 2018. There are three separate surveys for England, Scotland and Wales focusing around vital funding issues for each nation. NDNA said it hopes to get a detailed picture of the sector's challenges. The England and Scotland surveys will close on 16 April and the Wales survey will close on 25 April.
Children and Families Minister Nadhim Zahawi met staff at Leeds City Council to learn about their work driving improvement in children's social services. The Department for Education said Zahawi met with chief executive Tom Riordan on Thursday 29 March to discuss how Leeds, one of the Department for Education's 15 Partners in Practice, works with other councils to help improve children's social care.
