Daily roundup: School uniforms, A-Levels, and court cases
Neil Puffett
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Charity calls for school uniforms to be ditched, the proportion of top A-Level grades is down on last year, and a minister wants more young offenders dealt with in youth courts, all in the news today.
A charity is calling for expensive school uniforms to be dropped in favour of plain clothes and a badge. Family Action says parents are being forced to spend hundreds of pounds kitting out their children for the new school year. The charity’s Big Stitch-Up report found the average annual back-to-school cost, including uniforms, coats, bags and stationery, is now £156 for a child at primary school and £285 for a child at secondary school.
The proportion of A-levels awarded top grades has dropped for the second year in a row. The BBC reports that 26.3 per cent of students were given A or A* grades, down on the 2012 figure of 26.6 per cent. The national breakdown of results for 300,000 students receiving their results today shows the overall pass rate rose slightly to 98.1 per cent.
Justice Secretary Damian Green has called for more young offenders to be dealt with in magistrates’ courts rather than being sent to Crown Court. Green pointed to the fact that 3,200 defendants under 18 years old were committed to the Crown Court for trial in 2012, despite youth courts being specifically set up to deal with children.
According to research by Barclays, young people are unaware of all the options open to them when they leave full-time education. Research gleaned through the the bank’s lifeskills barometer found 55 per cent of young people aged between 14 and 25 would consider applying for an apprenticeship when they leave education but are struggling to keep up with the increasing variety of apprenticeships on offer.
Police have sent warning letters to parents in Birmingham about three young girls playing outside. The Birmingham Mail reports that parents of Ellie-Louise Cox, four, and her seven-year-old sister Isabel received official letters warning about their behaviour from a police community support officer, along with the family of their three-year-old neighbour, Caidence Johnsone. The letters stated that the children could face council anti-social behaviour action after people living in the area complained of “minor damage’’ to trees, the “trampling of plants” and “slightly intimidating behaviour.”