Press Release
Date: 26 July 2010
First Schools Group to Offer Nationally Accredited Gifted & Talented Courses in England
The Dorchester Area Schools Partnership (DASP) is breaking new ground in the provision for Gifted and Talented students.
The partnership, led by the Thomas Hardye School and Sunninghill Prep School, have been working together with the National Association for Gifted Children to offer fully accredited Gifted and Talented courses, which is a national first. The courses begin next week at 10.00am on Monday 26th July.
The DASP pupils have been offered the courses to give them …

Mark Prigg, Tim Ross and Laura Lambert London Evening Standard
14.07.10
London’s first “fortress nursery” is to open within weeks amid rising fears about the safety of children.
Asquith Day Nursery in West Dulwich is installing an £80,000 security system, previously only seen in secure facilities, to ease parents’ fears after a spate of shootings and stabbings in Lambeth.Surrounding the school is a wooden fence more than six feet high and leaves no possibility of peering into the outdoor areas or windows.
In order to collect their children, parents have their fingerprints scanned at …

Tim Ross, Education Correspondent London Evening Standard 13.07.10
Parents are undermining the drive to cut obesity by sending children to school with junk food as packed lunches, the healthy eating czar said today. Chocolates, crisps and sugary fizzy drinks have been banned from school canteens but still feature in lunch boxes, according to School Food Trust chairman Rob Rees. Mr Rees, the leading chef in charge of the government quango, suggested tightening the rules on what parents should be allowed to give their children to take into school. The …

By Richard Garner, Education Editor
Monday, 5 July 2010
Heads and senior school managers must “gird their loins” and rid their classrooms of incompetent teachers, the new chairman of the House of Commons select committee on education says today.In his first interview since taking office, Graham Stuart acknowledged that heads would need more training to carry out the task of sacking bad teachers. He was speaking as a BBC Panorama investigation to be broadcast tonight reveals that only 18 teachers have been struck off because of incompetence in the past four decades.This …

By Sarah Harris mail
3rd July 2010
Teachers have used ‘Big Brother’ tactics to spy on children’s lunchboxes, it has been revealed. They secretly photographed pupils’ packed lunches over six months and analysed the contents. Staff awarded marks to the food and then showed their findings to outraged parents, offering them advice on how to improve nutrition. St Paul’s primary school in Gloucester checked pupils’ packed lunches for nutritional valueEducation bosses have now put a stop to the scheme in Gloucestershire after discovering the extent of the surveillance. Nineteen primary schools …

By Ruki Sayid 1/07/2010 Mirror
Delighted parents celebrated a major victory yesterday in their battle with killjoy schools over taking photos on sports day.
A privacy watchdog warned headteachers that they are in no position to stop mums and dads from using cameras. The Information Commissioner’s Office said schools “can’t hide behind data protection myths” to impose the ban.
Deputy commissioner David Smith said: “A photo of your child at a school production or winning the 100m preserves precious memories.
“Photos for personal use, such as family albums, are not covered by the Data …

Laura Clark Mail
Inspection: Schools should monitor pupils’ packed lunches, officials say. (Posed by model) Schools should pry into every child’s lunchbox and snoop on what they eat in the canteen, inspectors have declared. Warning that too few schools are complying with the Government’s Jamie Oliver-inspired food rules, officials urged them to ensure pupils follow advice on a good diet. In a report out today, the schools inspectorate said many schools have ‘packed lunch policies’ and keep detailed records of children’s purchases from the school canteen. And it urged heads …

On the 21st March 2010, Margaret Morrissey from ParentsOutloud was on the The Politics Show South about Bob Howitt from Action4Kids and Cllr John Hartley from Reading Borough Council.
Please click on the video below to see this show.

On the 5th Nov 2009, Margaret Morrissey from ParentsOutloud was on the PM show with Ed Balls (Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families) and Eddie Mair on BBC Radio 4.
Please click on the video below to hear this part of the show.