41 h. ago SNP accused of “guillotining” college sector as grim financial outlook laid bare

College budgets have faced swingeing real term cuts as the SNP is accused of overseeing the managed decline of the sector

Politics

41 h. ago Mobile phones should be banned in school classrooms, says SNP Education Secretary

Jenny Gilruth said the Scottish Government trusts headteachers to take the action they deem necessary

Events

55 h. ago Labour seeks mobile phones ban in schools as ministers accused of ‘passing buck’

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said head teachers ‘are already empowered’ to bring in a ban if they see fit.

Politics

3 d. ago 'Muddled mess': SNP education secretary won't say if males can still use girls' school toilets

Jenny Gilruth was asked repeatedly whether biological males can use the girls’ toilets in schools but refused to answer the question

Politics

3 d. ago Mom stuns school board meeting as she STRIPS to protest transgender students using girls' locker rooms

Beth Bourne, the chair of Moms for Liberty in Yolo County, stripped at the Davis Joint Unified School Board meeting on September 18.

Events

5 d. ago Win a copy of Say You’ll Be There By Nina Millns in this week’s Fabulous book competition

WHEN Arianna, Tess, Candace and Dana dress up as the same Spice Girl for their school’s Red Nose Day in 1997, a friendship is born. Fast-forward to 2017, and they’re no longer in touch – until Candace contacts the others to say Dana is missing and she needs their help. This powerful story of survival...

Politics

8 d. ago Mother of tragic teenage girl killed in truck collision after struggles at £50,000

'Hardworking' teenager Georgia Scarff had been struggling to cope at £50,000-a-year Royal Hospital School in Holbrook, Suffolk, when she died, the hearing has been told.

Events

8 d. ago Teenage girl, 17, dies from electric shock while walking to school in the rain

Nathaly Rodrigues do Nascimento, 17, was walking to school in Bonfinopolis, Brazil, when she stepped into a road during heavy rain - just as a power line broke and electrocuted her in the street

Events

9 d. ago The Librarians review – the heroic women battling against book bans and censorship

Kim A Snyder’s documentary highlights the defenders of young readers’ rights to see their lives in print facing rightwing attacksThere is real and genuine fear about young people’s use of pornography; usually, that conversation is about exposure to porn online, not in libraries. But this excellent culture wars documentary tells the story of book-banning in red states such as Florida and Texas, where religious rightwingers are crusading to protect children from “obscene” books. Usually that means titles about LGBTQ+ issues or race, and books about girls getting their period aren’t safe either. In Tennessee, a school board banned Maus, the graphic novel memoir of the Holocaust by Art Spiegelman, for mouse nudity. The utter nonsense of it would be funny if it wasn’t so disturbing.The most recent purge began in 2021 with a list of 850 books circulated by Texas state representative Matt Krause (over 60% were books with LGBTQ+ themes). Rightwing Florida governor Ron DeSantis piled in, fol...

Events

1 week ago Jack McConnell’s charity which sends impoverished girls to school in Malawi raises £35,000 with kilt walk

The programme helps 200 girls in the east African country with scholarships to attend secondary school.

Economics

1 week ago Sick teacher who 'subtly groomed' pupil, 15, and suggested 'move to Dubai' is jailed

Amir Makda, 32, would meet the girl after school, take her for rides in his car and sent her sexual messages over the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, where he first contacted her

Events

1 week ago Scotland’s young people cannot afford a third decade of SNP – Bridget Phillipson

The UK Education Secretary was speaking during a campaign trip to Scotland on Sunday.

Politics

1 week ago 'Nothing to show' for 20 years of independence focus, insists new Scottish secretary Douglas Alexander

Veteran Labour figure warns education and housing have gone ‘backwards’ under SNP

Politics

1 week ago 'My husband killed a classroom of schoolgirls but I've forgiven him for key reason'

Marie Monville's husband Charlie Roberts shot dead five girls and injured five more in a school massacre - but she says she has forgiven him for his horrific act

Events

2 w. ago As boys shift to the right, we are seeing the rise of the ‘new chill girl’ | Naomi Beinart

Even in comparatively liberal spaces, such as my high school, girls who wince at locker room talk risk exclusionSince Donald Trump returned to office, I have noticed a phenomenon at my high school that I call the “new chill girl”. A group of kids is talking casually about something. Seemingly out of the blue, one of the boys makes an off-handed joke. Maybe it’s racist or sexist or homophobic, but whatever the poison, they inject it and the group dynamic shifts ever so slightly. As a general rule, the boys continue as usual while the girls – who tend to be more politically progressive – face a choice: they can speak up, which usually results in them getting the reputation as annoying and unable to take a joke, or they can let it pass and be regarded as a chill girl who isn’t angry or woke. Since November 2024, the latter reaction has become far more common.This kind of fearful silence is becoming more common outside of high schools, too. In December of 2024, Disney removed a transgen...

Politics

2 w. ago The Traitors Circle by Jonathan Freedland review – a propulsive story of German resistance

A thriller-like account of the influential men and women who opposed Hitler and paid a terrible priceOn 10 September 1943, a loose group of well-connected friends met in a small apartment in the Charlottenberg area of Berlin. The host was Elisabeth von Thadden and the nominal reason for the get-together was her younger sister’s 50th birthday. Really, though, this was a cover story for nine influential people meeting to discuss what should happen now that it was clear that Hitler was losing the war.Otto Kiep, a former diplomat, talked hopefully about how Mussolini’s recent toppling meant that Italy was ready to make peace with the allies, while political hostess Hanna Solf gleefully anticipated the moment when Hitler fell: “We’ll put him against a wall.” Meanwhile, Von Thadden herself, a devout Protestant and former headteacher of an elite girls’ school, warned of the humanitarian crisis that would follow the end of hostilities. For those who gathered on that late summer’s day f...

Politics

2 w. ago Conflict, aid cuts and equality backlash causing ‘stagnation and regression’ of women’s rights – UN

Report calls on governments to commit to renewed action at general assembly in New York, saying ‘a different path is still possible’Hard-won progress on women’s access to healthcare, rights and employment is being put at risk from global conflict, cuts to aid spending, and a backlash against gender equality, according to a UN equality watchdog.A woman’s chance of dying in pregnancy or childbirth is more than a third lower than it was 25 years ago, UN Women said in its annual report, while girls are more likely to complete school than ever before. It also found that rates of intimate partner violence were 2.5 times lower in countries that had introduced comprehensive measures on violence. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Man in court charged with 'rape of teen girl' next to Scots school

Police previously said the sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl in Kirkcaldy woodland was reported on Thursday afternoon.

Events

2 w. ago ‘One jab will do the job’: Pakistan begins rollout of HPV vaccine to millions of girls

Despite vaccination hesitancy, the end may be in sight for cervical cancer, which kills 64% of women with the diseaseThe questions come fast and furious: “Why only girls?”, “will it affect her periods?”, “can it cause infertility?”, “is it halal?” Inside the airy sports hall of Khatoon-e-Pakistan government girls’ school, the pupils in their crisp blue and white uniforms whisper among themselves, as their parents listen attentively to the health officials taking the session.While there are some fathers in the chairs laid out for the occasion, the majority are mothers. The groundwork is under way ahead of Pakistan’s first nationwide rollout of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination campaign. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Nuns on the run! Three sisters are sprung from hated old people's home to return to convent they lived in for six decades before being evicted

Sisters Bernadette, 88, Regina, 86, and Rita, 82, had all taught at the convent and girls' school for more than six decades.

Society