News round up: Schools ‘replacing parents’ as moral guides

By Mithran Samuel on March 10, 2008 in Asylum and refugees, Child safeguarding, Children, Youth justice

Schools ‘replacing parents’ as moral guides

Schools are having to provide moral guidance to pupils which should be given by their parents at home, according to a senior headteachers’ leader.
Pupils lack realistic aspirations, are too heavily influenced by what they see as the “easy” lives of celebrities, and some have lost the art of conversation because they rarely sit down for a meal with their parents, John Dunford, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told its annual conference in Brighton yesterday.

Top schools ‘hide special needs help to save ranking’

Leading independent schools are hiding their special needs provision to avoid being swamped and protect their league table ratings, according to an influential guide.

1.5 children will have DNA taken next year

The number of children placed on the DNA database after being arrested is far higher than official figures suggest, it emerged yesterday.

Around 1.5million ten to 18-year-olds will have had their genetic profiles stored by this time next year, bolstering claims that the Government is moving towards a DNA database of all adults “by stealth”.

Darling plans greenest budget

Ministers have decided not to abandon their pledge to halve child poverty by 2010-11 in the budget, but they are braced for criticism from campaigners who will say the pledge cannot be met without radical action in the next 12 months.

£15,000 for asylum seeker illegally detained in the UK

The case of an asylum seeker who was raped and tortured in her native Cameroon could have far-reaching legal implications for others making the same claims whose applications for asylum have been refused.

Under existing guidelines, she should have been referred to the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture (MF) to see whether there was evidence to support her claims. This did not happen and instead she was seen only by a nurse. Her application was rejected, as was her appeal, and she was due to be deported in January last year.

However, following a judicial review of her case, she was released from detention and will now receive damages estimated at £15,000 for unlawful detention because of the length of time she was held without having the correct examination.

Le Monnier sisters recall Jersey home abuse

Two sisters who were sexually abused at the Jersey care home at the centre of one of the country’s worst care scandals were never allowed to speak to each other while there, they said yesterday.

Read more on this story in The Daily Telegraph today