National Curriculum overhaul: pupils to study more Shakespeare

Shakespeare will be placed at the heart of a rigorous new National Curriculum designed to enable English schoolchildren to keep pace with those in the world’s top-performing countries, it was announced today.

James McAvoy and Claire Foy in the West End production of Macbeth

All pupils will be required to learn at least two of the Bard’s plays in full between the age of 11 and 14 – up from one at the moment – as part of a wide-ranging plan to drive up education standards.

The move follows criticism of the existing curriculum amid claims pupils can leave school without studying anything more than bite-sized extracts of Shakespeare’s most famous plays such as Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Othello and Romeo and Juliet.

Curriculum reforms criticised as a 'memory test'

A group representing teachers and lecturers has said new proposals to revamp the National Curriculum, which will include five-year-olds learning fractions, is not what children need.

The proposals are intended to ensure that children are given a proper grounding in the basics at a young age

David Cameron is set to unveil reforms to primary and secondary education today, which will have more focus on children learning the basics in maths at a young age and see children solving practical computer problems.

But Dr Mary Bousted, General Secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said the reforms have not been properly thought out.

Michael Gove: new curriculum will allow my children to compete with the very best

Michael Gove has said that he hopes his reforms to the national curriculum could allow his own children to in future compete with better-educated foreign students.

Education Secretary Michael Gove

Under the new plans, five-year-olds will have to learn fractions and traditional science subjects will be brought back into the classroom.

Mr Gove, the Education Secretary, said the curriculum changes "can't come quickly enough" because countries across the world are “doing better than our own”.

Britain needs builders as well as graduates, the Duke of York says

Britain needs builders as well as graduates, the Duke of York has said as he calls for greater respect for vocational skills.

The Duke of York is to introduce an award for those studying for technical qualifications

Prince Andrew has praised the education of the “whole person” as he called for young people who gain a technical education - in order to take on jobs such as machinists or technicians - to be given more credit.

He will today visit a technical school in Walsall, West Midlands, where he will launch the Duke of York Award for technical education.

Painkiller sales surge as competitive parents push limits at sports day

Sales of treatments for sprains and muscle injuries has surged as competitive parents are increasingly getting hurt taking part in school sports day races, it is claimed.

The mothers' race is one of the most fiercely competitive school sports day events

Injuries are soaring among ultra competitive parents as they feel the pain after battling to be first at the winning tape in their children's school sports day, according to a new report yesterday.

High Street stores are reporting a surge in sales of pain relief products as mums and dads sustain sprains and falls as they try to turn back the clock and show they are still winners on the athletics field.

Universities to target mothers in student recruitment push

Universities are to market themselves directly to students' mothers following a surge in the number of pushy parents intervening in the higher education admissions process.

Students are increasingly relying on parents to help them get into university, it is claimed.

Institutions will advertise courses on the parenting website Mumsnet for the first time amid claims that mothers and fathers are going to extra lengths to make sure sons and daughters win places at leading universities.

Admissions tutors have told how many parents are now accompanying children on university open days, writing their application form and even fighting appeals on their behalf if they are rejected.

Michael Gove: quality of religious education has dropped

A fresh drive to raise standards of religious education will be launched after Michael Gove admitted the subject had “suffered” as a result of Government reforms.

Michael Gove said religious education had suffered as a result of Government reforms.

The Education Secretary suggested a new strategy was needed to improve the quality of lessons amid fears over a decline in the number of children studying RE to a high standard.

Major faith groups including the Church of England and Roman Catholic Church will be involved in the project to “improve the quality and celebrate great religious education teaching”, he said.

One-in-five graduates from worst universities left jobless

A fifth of students are unemployed after leaving Britain’s worst-performing universities amid a continuing shortage of graduate jobs, new figures show.

Data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency showed that employment rates differed significantly depending on students' university.

Graduates’ chances of securing work differ significantly depending on their choice of university and degree course, it emerged.

Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency showed that students at some institutions were around 10 times more likely to be left unemployed than those at other mainstream universities.

Jim Causley, Cyprus Well, album review

Folk singer Jim Causley's album Cyprus Well is a lovely musical tribute to Charles Causley, one of England's finest poets

Poet Charles Causley at home in Launceston in October 1981

When Charles Causley turned 65, such was the regard for him that a group of leading poets – including Seamus Heaney, Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes and DM Thomas – contributed to a tribute book of verse. "He was a marvellously resourceful, original poet," said Hughes.

It will be 10 years in November since Causley died, at the age of 86. But he is not forgotten. Singer and pianist Jim Causley, a distant relative whose kin hail from the poet's original family village of Trusham in the Teign Valley, has recorded a lovely folk album, setting 12 of Causley's poems to music.

Pupils to sit 'Tech Levels' in drive to boost vocational skills

Teenagers will be encouraged to study new “Tech Levels” at school and college as part of a Government drive to eradicate Mickey Mouse qualifications, it was announced today.

New Tech-Level qualifications will be introduced to drive up standards of practical education.

Top-quality practical courses will be banded together under the title for the first time after being formally endorsed by companies and trade organizations, it emerged.

Ministers said Tech Levels would be the only qualifications to count in league tables for 16- to 19-year-olds to stop teachers pushing pupils onto substandard courses to boost their positions in official rankings.