Tuesday 6 May 2003

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex
Dobson.

Hunt for paedophiles over missing Daniel

Convicted sex offenders in and around Great Yarmouth, Norfolk,
are being questioned by the police about the disappearance of
seven-year-old Daniel Entwistle.
He disappeared on Saturday evening after telling his parents that
he was going out to play.
A bicycle believed to be his was found abandoned by a tidal river
close to his home.

Source:- The Times Tuesday 6 May  page 5

‘Exclude pupils if parents behave badly’

Children could be excluded from school because of  their
parents’ behaviour if new measures called for by headteachers are
implemented by the government.
In his address to the annual conference of the National Association
of Head Teachers, general secretary David Hart said that
headteachers were reporting increasing levels of parents assaulting
or verbally abusing staff and even fighting with each other in the
playground.

Source:- Daily Telegraph Tuesday 6 May page 6

Childcare grows into £2.15bn business

Figures released today show a five-fold growth in nurseries for
the under-fives in the past 10 years.
Over 400,000 children attended day care nurseries on the average
weekday last year costing their parents an average of £120 a
week, according to a report by health and community service
analysts Laing and Buisson.
The research also showed that the market was worth £2.15
billion last year, more than five times as much as at the beginning
of the 1990s.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 6 May page 10

Scottish newspapers

Probation officer in prison attack

A female probation officer was allegedly sexually assaulted
after she was dragged into a cell by a prisoner while she was on a
prison visit, it emerged yesterday.
The woman was subjected to a 10-minute ordeal at the hands of the
inmate at Swansea prison in south Wales after she was pulled from
the landing of a jail block during an official visit.
A Swansea CID spokesperson said the incident was being investigated
and the 39-year-old remand prisoner had been arrested.

Source:- The Scotsman  Tuesday 6 May page 4

Hospice launched

Initial work on a new children’s hospice to be run by the
Children’s Hospice Association Scotland in Dunbartonshire has
begun.
Contractors are preparing the foundations of Robin’s House,
which will give comfort to sick children and their families.
Planners at the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority
initially objected to the application to build the facility saying
they had concerns about the site as it fell into an area earmarked
for development.
It prompted a storm of protest which was so great the authority
eventually voted 7-3 in favour of the development.

Source:- Daily Record  Tuesday 6 May page 17

Lawyers in girl bullies case blames inclusion
policies

Education authorities were criticised  for failing to tackle
troublesome pupils yesterday by a lawyer, who is acting for a
schoolgirl taking  legal action to stop school bullies harassing
her.
Last week 17-year-old Jenny Soutar obtained an interim interdict
against four girls at Blairgowrie High School after being subjected
to an eight-month bullying campaign.
The non-molestation order also prevents the girls, who cannot be
named for legal reasons, from inciting other pupils to abuse,
threaten or use violence against Soutar.
Her lawyer Mike Tavendale said school authorities had been unable
to stop the bullying and claimed the Scottish executive’s
policy of reducing the number of pupils excluded from school had
compounded the problem.

Source:- The Herald  Tuesday 6 May

Welsh newspapers

State of school buses a national scandal

At its annual conference in York yesterday, the National
Association of Head Teachers highlighted the scandal of the way
children travel to school on inadequately regulated school
transport.
The association is calling on the government to tighten up the law
surrounding school transport and says that all buses should be
single rather than double-decker, fitted with safe seat belts and
that pupils should be adequately monitored.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 6 May page 1

When it’s all too much to bear..

The Samaritans are dealing with an upsurge of calls in Wales as
a result of the war in Iraq.
The organisation has launched an awareness campaign following new
research that shows that nearly two thirds of British people have
been upset by the strife in the Middle- East.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 6 May page 8