MPs call for student visas action; Failing school inspection ‘boosts results’; Parents ‘have bigger impact on exam results than schools’; First grammar school in 50 years ‘to get go ahead’ ; A new era dawns for the grammar school; NHS ageism ‘harming elderly care’ ; Changing the law on assisted dying is fraught with danger
MPs call for student visas action
Up to 50,000 migrants may have used flaws in the student visa system to come to the UK for work in its first year, the public spending watchdog said. MPs called for the troubled UK Border Agency (UKBA) to “get a grip and fix the way it deals with student visas” after saying the report exposed one of the most shocking examples of poor management leading to abuse.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/uk/mps-call-for-student-visas-action-16136551.html#ixzz1qIkjz34v
Failing school inspection reports ‘boosts results’
BBC – Narrowly failing an Ofsted inspection is more likely to prompt an improvement in results, rather begin to begin a spiral of decline, suggest researchers.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-17513718
Parents ‘have bigger impact on exam results than schools’
Telegraph – Figures show that a child’s family background has a larger bearing on their chances of doing well at the age of 16 or 17 than teachers. The parental effect on test results is around five times more powerful than the influence of pupils’ schooling, it was revealed. The findings – in a study to be presented at the Royal Economic Society’s annual conference this week – come amid continuing concerns over poor parenting
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9165585/Parents-have-bigger-impact-on-exam-results-than-schools.html
First grammar school in 50 years ‘to get go ahead’
Telegraph – Plans for the first new grammar schools in 50 years are set to be approved following official backing from a Conservative-controlled council.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9165520/First-grammar-school-in-50-years-to-get-go-ahead.html
A new era dawns for the grammar school
Telegraph – After 50 years of political persecution, a low-key comeback is under way in the shires.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/secondaryeducation/9167347/A-new-era-dawns-for-the-grammar-school.html
Full details of £11.5m C of E school transformation are unveiled
This is Plymouth – Details of an 18-month £11.5million project to transform All Saints Church of England Academy school in Pennycross have been announced.
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/details-pound-11-5m-school-transformation/story-15634116-detail/story.html
NHS ageism ‘harming elderly care’
BBC – The elderly are being passed around hospitals in England like parcels, often going without treatment because of ageist attitudes, a report suggests.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17515608
Changing the law on assisted dying is fraught with danger
Guardian – My experience as a doctor leads me to oppose making assisted suicide any easier under the law
Assisted dying will be debated in parliament on Tuesday for the first time in a generation. A number of legal cases have seen repeated attempts to change the law on assisted suicide, but it remains a criminal offence for an individual to encourage or aid the suicide of a terminally ill person in England and Wales. However, guidelines were introduced by the director of public prosecutions in 2010 recommending that people helping loved ones to die should not always be prosecuted. The motion to be debated by parliament will seek endorsement of the DPP guidance. Many MPs will use the opportunity to call for a full review of the issues and laws surrounding death and dying.
Before qualifying as an NHS hospital doctor, I was a strong supporter of people with terminal and progressive illnesses being given greater power over when to end their lives. Who was I to stop someone with a terminal illness from ending their life when they had expressed a consistent wish to do so?
But an experience as a junior doctor changed my views. Alice (not her real name) was a woman in her 40s with advanced multiple sclerosis, no longer able to speak, and completely dependent on family and carers for all her activities of daily living. She was regularly admitted to hospital with chest infections, and on this occasion had been admitted with a pneumonia that was not responding to antibiotics. She was clearly in great pain and distress.
ian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/25/assisted-dying-suicide-doctor-oppose?INTCMP=SRCH