New free schools and those converting to academy status must keep school uniform and sport kit costs down to ease the financial burden on parents, the Local Government Association has warned. With more than half of secondary schools in England having converted or in the process of becoming academies, the association believes there is a risk that parents will foot the cost of new uniforms as schools “rebrand”.
A survey of 1,000 parents has found that 86 per cent have not heard of or know little about legal highs. The survey conducted by YouGov, on behalf of drug education charity Frank, revealed three quarters of parents have never spoken to their children about legal highs and seven in ten respondents were unaware that children can buy legal highs over the internet.
Liverpool Council and the city’s community college have launched a grant for students to fill gaps in funding left by the scrapping of education maintenance allowance. In wake of concern that young people from less affluent backgrounds will be unable to afford further education, the council and college have developed a £1m bursary scheme to support around 1,500 teenagers. Students will receive £20 a week if they are 16 or 17, study for at least 15 hours a week and come from a family that receives financial support.
Child obesity has risen over the past 15 years, according to statistics from The Health and Social Care Information Centre and The National Child Measurement Programme. In 2010, 17 per cent of boys and 15 per cent of girls aged two to 15 were classed as obese, an increase from 11 per cent and 12 per cent respectively since 1995. In 2010/11, around one in ten pupils in reception class aged four to five were classified as obese compared to around a fifth of pupils in Year 6.
Around two fifths of household in Scotland have access to some form of play area in their neighbourhood, according to the Scottish Household Survey. The annual report also found that most householders feel comfortable with children aged nine or 10 playing without supervision in designated play areas and that generally, those in rural areas are more likely than those in urban areas to say children would be very safe or fairly safe when walking or cycling to play areas on their own.
