By Graeme Paton, Education Editor
6:10AM GMT 01 Mar 2012
Public confidence in GCSEs and A-levels has been “undermined” by grade inflation as schools are encouraged to play the system to boost results, the former head of one of Britain’s biggest exam boards has admitted.
Employers and universities are increasingly unable to “discriminate the very best from the average and the poor” because too many teenagers leave school with A grades, it was claimed.
Jerry Jarvis, managing director of Edexcel for four years, said top marks had grown year-on-year because of bite-sized modules, exam …

EDUCATION Secretary Michael Gove today unveils a plan to bring a dramatic improvement to classroom discipline by introducing military-style cadet forces to every secondary school.

Ministers warn a wide range of steps are needed to combat ‘transphobic bullying’, which is defined as
the taunting of children who express ‘gender variant behaviours’.

Richard Garner Independent
Monday 28 November 2011
A  complete shutdown of every state primary and secondary school in several areas of the UK
is expected on Wednesday.  Two authorities – Blaenau Gwent and Newport in Wales have indicated every school
will close.  A survey of local authorities by The Independent revealed support for the strike appeared harder in the country’s industrial
heartlands. Only two schools in North Tyneside have been confirmed as open and just five in South Tyneside. In Durham, 168 out of 277
primary schools will definitely close. By contrast, only 44 of the …

I started my work as a parents champion during the 1980′s teachers strike when asking a question on David Jacobs any Questions programme discussing the damaged caused to children’s learning.

After the biggest teaching union voted in favour of industrial action, thousands of members will join two million public sector workers in a mass walkout on November 30.

By Richard Garner, Education Editor
Friday, 14 October 2011
Parents’ groups alarmed at Gove proposal to give A-level pupils a national ranking
Pupils face being given a national ranking from first to up to nearly 90,000th in A-level exams to help universities select the brightest candidates from thousands of top-grade passes.The move was floated by the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, as one of a series of radical measures to revamp A-levels, but parents’ leaders said they were “alarmed” by the proposal and warned it would lead to increasing numbers of appeals against exam …

The parents of privately educated children are likely to sue universities if their offspring are rejected for degree places under new plans …

Five years ago, your newspaper published a letter signed by more than 100 experts, arguing that children’s well-being and mental health…

Holidays are cancelled and second homes sold to pay fees at institutions with uncertain futures
By Richard Garner, Education Editor
Sunday, 18 September 2011
The recession is making almost a third of private school parents rethink plans to pay for education, according to a major survey published today. A poll of just over 2,000 parents reveals that 29 per cent are either scrapping plans to send children to private schools or reducing the amount of money they will spend. Such an exodus would have a devastating effect on the private sector, prompting school …