The Independent (UK)

Home education could be at risk in some areas. Karen Luckhurst says that parents like her are actually giving their children a head start. My seven-year-old son is sitting on the lawn twirling a daisy and staring into the distance. He's been there an hour, and I'm trying not to interfere – because in our house, this is education.

Do you have an Oxbridge mind? Students hoping for a place at Oxford and Cambridge universities are being asked a series of bizarre questions as academics attempt to choose between students achieving almost uniformly high scores at A-level.

The days of children reading traditional books are numbered, claims the man spearheading a campaign to improve literacy in schools. Publishers must adapt titles to the demands of modern young readers who spend more time on the internet if they are to succeed in persuading the next generation to read, says Jonathan Douglas, the director of the National Literacy Trust.

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The shadow Schools Secretary has said history lessons should make pupils proud of our past. Is he right?

Visits would raise primary school pupils' aspirations

Experiment to make disruptive pupils confront victims is hailed a success
A radical plan to confront disruptive pupils with their victims has cut exclusion levels in some of the country's toughest schools by as much as half. The "restorative justice" scheme is being trialled in 20 failing schools and a number of academies in Bristol and Sefton, Merseyside, and could soon be extended nationwide.

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==Michael Gove, the Conservatives' schools spokesman, spelt out his blueprint for education at his party's annual conference – announcing that his party would adopt the Swedish model of allowing parents' groups, charities and companies to set up their own "free" which they could then run themselves.

Chancellor of university rejects government plan to attract more state pupils. Oxford University should not be treated by the Government as "a social security office" to widen participation in higher education among disadvantaged pupils from state schools, its chancellor said yesterday. Oxford had "no chance" of increasing state school admissions to meet targets so long as the gap in exam performance existed, Lord Patten of Barnes told the annual meeting of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC).

Boys will perform better in education if they have a male teacher in their primary school, according to research published today.

Multimillion-pound campaign fails to end female domination of classroom

Teaching is becoming an increasingly female-dominated profession with men making up fewer than one in four new recruits, official figures revealed yesterday.

Every primary school pupil in England could receive free school meals under a scheme set to form a central plank of Labour's election manifesto.

Britain's teachers should go back to taking risks in the classroom to inspire a love of learning among their pupils, the leader of the country's preparatory schools will say today.

A ground-breaking agreement to allow state school pupils to join cadet forces in some of Britain's most elite private schools is to be announced this month.

A ground-breaking agreement to allow state school pupils to join cadet forces in some of Britain's most elite private schools is to be announced this month.

In a survey by ACS International Schools, university admissions' tutors said while A-levels should not be phased out, the IB was the "best preparation for university". In another fillip for students undertaking these studies, audit and consulting company Deloitte, which takes on more than 1,400 graduates and undergraduates in the UK each year, says the points system used by the IB makes it easier to differentiate between candidates.