Daily roundup: Wilshaw on Gove's exam plans, parents priced out of day trips and school funding bid rejected

Ofsted's chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw has come out against Education Secretary Michael Gove’s plans to make less able students sit separate exams, the Financial Times reports. In an interview with the newspaper, Wilshaw said the exam system must stretch all pupils, but believes this can be done within the existing system.

Summer day trips are increasingly out of reach for many families, with parents expecting to pay an average of £80, a report by Family Action has found. The study found that 54 per cent of mothers are planning on cutting back on trips, prompting the charity to call for fairer pricing on excursions.  

A bid for extra money for schools in the lowest-funded local authorities has been turned down by Education Secretary Michael Gove, the BBC reports. The f40 group of schools gets up to £600 less in basic grant per pupil than the local council average and had wanted £99m to share between them until a new national funding formula is introduced in 2015.

The next leader of the TUC Frances O’Grady has called for childcare to become a pillar of the welfare state in order to prevent thousands of parents being locked out of work, The Times reports. O’Grady, who takes over from Brendan Barber in January, said a “state-led revolution” was the only way to provide “well-qualified, well-supported and decently paid” childminders.