Education and schools work update

Stories from the world of education and schools work:

 
• Girls to receive pregnancy tests at school: Schools criticsed for distributing pregnancy tests and other sexual health services to girls.
 
• Free laptops and broadband to help poor families: Gordon Brown will promise free laptops and broadband access for 270,000 low   income families so they can better follow their children’s progress at   school.
 
• Pupils could study Facebook and Twitter for new English GCSE: Facebook, Twitter and other social networking websites could become part of   the school curriculum under plans for a new English GCSE.
 
• Pupils ‘must have a say on school rules’: Teachers will be forced to ask pupils’ permission before altering the   curriculum and length of the school day under new plans.
 
• Schoolboys ‘learn better if they are allowed to walk around in class’: Schoolboys should be allowed to walk around during lessons to boost their   learning skills, research suggests.
 
• Exams watchdog steps in over Facebook protest: The exams watchdog has stepped into the row over an A-level biology paper which led to thousands of students launching a Facebook protest against the exam board AQA for setting questions they felt were unfair.
 
• To do their homework, children need space at home: If the housing budget is cut, children who live in overcrowded conditions will be the losers – and their school work will suffer, says Peter Mortimore
 
• Excessive internet use linked to depression, research shows: Leeds University study finds people classified as internet addicts are more likely to be depressed than non-addicted users
 
• Violent deaths of children ‘down 40%’: Researchers say child death rate has plummeted in the last 30 years, thanks to ‘improvements in social care systems’