Law Stuff

Headteachers admit illegally excluding pupils

holly — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:40:45 +0000

Headteachers have admitted illegally excluding pupils from school, including one “extreme” case in which children in their final GCSE year were sent home at Christmas and told not to return until their exams.

The government should conduct research to identify the full extent of unlawful exclusions, and recommend measures to prevent a “small proportion” of schools continuing to act in this way, the report says.

Click here to read the full article.

Tuition fee concerns deter students

holly — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:26:58 +0000

A report by the Independent Task Force on student finance information concluded that many prospective students have misplaced fears over how tuition fees are paid – a situation it described as a “national scandal”. Researchers polled nearly 2,000 young people, 59 per cent of whom said they had little or no understanding of the system, which will see tuition fees rise to up to £9,000 a year from next September. The findings come on the day of a central London march by around 10,000 protesters angry about the new system.

Click here to read the full story.

Do more than listen. Act – Consultation response to the Family Justice Review undertaken for the Family Justice Council

holly — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 08:03:16 +0000

This report reflects the views and perspectives of 35 children and young people between the ages of 3 and 17 with recent experience of either public or private law processes. Children with experience of private law processes are those whose parents have been through separation or divorce. We sought to talk with children and young people who had experience of disputes in this context: particularly concerning contact. Children with experience of public law had experience of care proceedings, as a result of protection concerns, and had either been removed from their parent/s and placed in care or had been placed with extended family members. In some instances extended family members had obtained parental responsibility through Family Proceedings.

Runaways getting younger, says the Children’s Society

holly — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:14:27 +0000

Children are running away from home at a younger age, putting themselves at risk, a children’s charity says.

The Children’s Society says it is increasingly helping pre-teens who have run away at its centres around the UK.

It says 100,000 children run away from home or care every year and many sleep rough, abuse drink or drugs and face sexual exploitation.

Click here to read the full story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14079670

Family Justice Review Seeks Input from Children and Young People

holly — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 08:18:00 +0000

The Family Justice Review is an on-going examination of the family court system as a whole which is aimed at developing a set of recommendations to address problems within the system such as delays in court proceedings, lack of clarity as to how the system works, and failure to hear and take into the consideration the wishes and feelings of children and young people. In March 2011, the Review published its interim report which it is seeking consultation responses to. The Review is committed to including the views of children and young people in its work, and in May 2011 the Young People’s Guide to the Family Justice Review was released. The Guide is aimed at assisting young people in understanding the Interim Report, and is accompanied by a questionnaire which will enable children and young people to put their views forward to the Family Justice Review panel.

Have you been through the family court system? Would you like to share your views on your experience with the Review panel?

Click here for the Young People’s Guide to the Family Justice Review and here for the questionnaire.

The deadline for responses is 23 June and the Review will make its final recommendations in autumn.

AS-level maths error: students set impossible question

holly — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 09:47:58 +0000

An “unfortunate error” meant maths students were set a question that was impossible to answer in an AS-level exam.

Just under 6,800 teenagers took the paper – set by the OCR exam body – last Thursday.

OCR has apologised, saying it will make sure candidates are not disadvantaged by the mistake.

But some students writing on social networking sites have been calling for the test to be re-run.

The error was in an exam paper taken in 335 schools and other exam centres in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Read the full story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13627415

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‘Legal highs’ outstrip attempts at regulation

holly — Thu, 12 May 2011 08:55:49 +0000

New “legal highs” are being made widely available online and in specialised shops at an unprecedented pace, outstripping attempts to control them, the European Union’s drugs agency has warned.

In a report published jointly with the law enforcement agency Europol, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) says in 2010 the two agencies officially noted 41 new psychoactive substances, many of them imitating the effects of ecstasy. Fourteen of them were first identified in Britain.

Read the full story in the Guardian or tell us what you think on our Facebook page

Half of schools see budget cuts, survey suggests

holly — Wed, 11 May 2011 09:14:14 +0000

More than half the schools in England are facing cuts to their budgets, a survey of heads and deputies suggests.

The poll, of 1,177 school and college leaders, also suggests nearly nine out of 10 are seeing reduced support from local authorities.

Read the full story on BBC News or tell us what you think on our Facebook page

Richest students to pay for extra places at Britain’s best universities

holly — Tue, 10 May 2011 08:46:51 +0000

Teenagers from the wealthiest families would be able to pay for extra places at the most competitive universities under government proposals that could allow institutions to charge some British students the same high fees as overseas undergraduates.

Candidates who take up the extra places would not be eligible for publicly funded loans to pay tuition fees or living costs, limiting this option to all but the most privileged households who could pay fees up front.

Read the full story in today’s Guardian or tell us what you think on our Facebook page

Jobcentre staff ’sent guidelines on how to deal with claimants’ suicide threats’

holly — Mon, 09 May 2011 08:45:13 +0000

Staff working for jobcentres and other Department for Work and Pensions contractors have been given guidelines on how to deal with suicide threats from claimants as the squeeze on benefits takes hold.

A document sent to jobcentre staff in April details what it calls a “new policy for all DWP businesses to help them manage suicide and self-harm declarations from customers”.

Read the full story in the Guardian or tell us what you think on our Facebook page