Tag Archives: education

Laws: Half of children in poverty not getting free school meals

By Stephen Tall | Tue 16th December 2008 - 7:56 pm

The Guardian has the story, courtesy of Lib Dem research published by the party’s children and schools’ spokesman David Laws:

A million children living below the poverty line do not receive free school meals as a result of flaws in the funding system, figures released in parliament show. Half of pupils from families in poverty are not getting a free lunch because the income threshold to qualify is set lower than the current level used to define poverty. It means that a family of two adults and two children struggling to get by on £18,000 a year has to pay

…

Posted in News | Also tagged david laws | 6 Comments

David Laws on the latest GCSE results

By Mark Pack | Mon 1st December 2008 - 10:30 am

From The Guardian:

Fewer than half of teenagers left school with five good GCSEs including English and maths this summer, official figures revealed yesterday.

Some 47% of 16-year-olds across England achieved the basic target grades. The government said it was a 0.9 percentage point improvement on last year – and an 11.6-point increase since 1997 – but opposition MPs criticised the lack of progress in closing the achievement gap between rich and poor…

The GCSE results showed record rises in London, where 49.8% of pupils hit the target, beating the national average. The government claimed it as a success for the London

…

Posted in News | Also tagged david laws | 1 Comment

Pupil ‘bonuses’ “totally unjust”, says Laws

By Stephen Tall | Tue 4th November 2008 - 2:23 pm

David Laws, the Lib Dems’ shadow secretary of state for schools, has criticised the policy of paying poorer students for, among other things, attending class. The Telegraph reports:

In some cases, students are paid £250 each in taxpayers’ money for attending every class over the course of a year. Middle-class students with the same academic record are ineligible for the payments.

The cash is paid on top of a basic £30-a-week grant handed out to all students from deprived backgrounds to remain in education up to 18 – instead of getting a job. … bonuses worth a record £100.5m were

…

Posted in News | Also tagged david laws | 10 Comments

One in four trainee teachers struggles with simple spelling

By Mark Pack | Wed 22nd October 2008 - 9:45 am

So says The Sun today:

More than 11,000 starting at schools this year flunked a basic test.

The shocking statistic was revealed after a whopping 20,000 last year were found to be duffers in arithmetic.

Student teachers take the tests online but can do so as many times as they want — until they finally pass.

The number who botched their spellings at the first try was 16 per cent higher than seven years ago — sparking claims that standards have been lowered.

Lib Dem schools spokesman David Laws said: “Spelling is a key

…

Posted in News | Also tagged david laws | 13 Comments