On Tuesday ParentsOutloud met with the School Chief Adjudicator to discuss the difficult issue of school places. Here is Dr Ian Craig’s response and invitation to say what you think needs to be done so I hope lots of you will respond. All responses will be read by Dr Craig.

Tim Ross
State schools will be asked to merge under a dramatic cost-cutting plan.

Children’s Secretary Ed Balls set out the sweeping measures, including bulk-buying of equipment and sharing headteachers between several schools.
Education groups will run more efficient chains of state schools and schools should merge to form “federations”.
Campaign group Parents Outloud expressed some alarm at the plan, warning that children will be “lost in the mass” of huge primaries and secondaries. It will be interesting to hear parents reaction to this, it is hard to think how the ethos of …

From The Times
Richard Ford, Home Correspondent
A generation of youths who do not know how to treat women are to be targeted in a drive to tackle violence and abuse in teenage relationships, the Government announced today.
The campaign could also involve children as young as 5 being taught about “gender equality” as part of personal, social and health education that, from 2011, is to be a compulsory part of the national curriculum. Rules are also to be produced for how teachers should tackle “sexist, sexual and transphobic” bullying.
A strategy to tackle …