Multiples – The special relationship
Tracy Coryton reports on the problems faced by parents of twins and triplets when trying to keep their children together in school.

Primary reviews compared
Diane Hofkins compares the findings of the Rose Review of the primary curriculum with those of the Cambridge Review and questions whether the Government will take notice of the latter’s more radical recommendations.

A rose by any other name is still ... a government document
Professor Colin Richards explains why the interim report of Jim Rose’s Independent Review of the Primary Curriculum is neither independent nor fundamental.

Daytrip to hell
Demitri Coryton reports on his trip to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp as part of the Holocaust Memorial Trust’s scheme to give sixth form students from the UK a chance to experience the camps first-hand.

Media Watch
Criticism of former polytechnics, a ministerial reshuffle in Scotland, and the town of Crediton hits the headlines.

Whatever happened to Building Colleges for the Future?
Ian Nash writes about the problems that have beset the multi-billion pound building scheme.

Schools are poor preparation for lifelong learning
Ian Nash reports on the findings from research commissioned by the Independent Inquiry into the Future of Lifelong Learning.

Children First
Susan Young on the work of children’s services authorities and the directors that lead them, and on the work of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS).

The dawn of a new era
Our Wales Editor, Professor Ken Reid, on Dr Willam Maxwell’s first entirely independent annual report as HM Chief Inspector for Wales, in which he concludes that concludes that overall standards in schools are good or better than in previous years.

The future of national testing
Warwick Mansell argues that the case for abolishing Key Stage 2 testing is actually part of a much larger concern about the problem of statistics-driven schooling and teaching to the test.

Heads and school improvement partners: Walking the tightrope
Jamie Clarke, Head of Sponne School in Northamptonshire, investigates the success of the School Improvement Partner scheme, looking in particular at the relationship between SIP and headteacher.

“Today we have the naming of parts...”
Our Children’s Services Editor Chris Waterman casts a critical eye over what may be the last education Bill before a general election.

Higher Ground
John Izbicki reports from around Britain’s universities.

Higher education surviving the credit crunch
John O’Leary speculates on the effect the current economic downturn could have on the demand for HE places and the next public spending settlement.

Letter from Scotia
Our Scotland Editor, John Dobie, reports on the Scottish Government’s budget and the Scottish Local Government Concordat.

General Section

Opinion
John izbicki reports on the continuing problem of illiteracy in Britain, and people’s unwillingness to admit to it.

Events
We report on the annual general meeting of the Anti-Academies Alliance and the annual conference for data professionals working in children’s services.

Conference round-up

Reference Section

Reports Digest

Document Digest

Document Review
We review Widening Participation in Higher Education from the Public Accounts Committee.

People

Byzantium
The Royal Academy of Arts’ Byzantium exhibition.

Research Section

Research Notes
Our research editor, Michael Marshall, writes about the arguments surrounding the effectiveness of Reading Recovery programmes and whether they represent good value for money.

Partnerships for ... inspiration
We report on research from Professor Alan Smithers and Dr Pamela Robinson of Buckingham University, who claim that the success of the specialist schools programme is based on an illusion, brought about merely because poorer performing schools are not granted specialist status.

Research Digest

Parliament Section

Parliament debates skills and children
Our Parliamentary editor, Nick Kent, reports on skills, further education and child protection debates in the House of Commons, and the Good Childhood inquiry report in the House of Lords.

Further education in Wales
We report on a debate on cuts to the further education budget in the Welsh Assembly.

The future of rural schools
We report on the Welsh Assembly’s Rural Development Sub-committee’s publications of a report on its inquiry into the reorganisation of schools in rural Wales.

Scottish national qualifications
Arabella Hargreaves, editor of EPM Scotland, reports on an Executive debate on national qualifications in the Scottish Parliament.

Early years framework
We report on an Executive debate on the Early Years Framework, during which concerns were raised about the lack of a statutory responsibility on local authorities
to provide play facilities.

Parliamentary Questions
Answers to written parliamentary questions on the takeup of free school meals in primary and secondary schools in the House of Commons, support for children with autism and the importance of health visitors in the Scottish Parliament, and fire safety regulations and the free laptops pilot in the Welsh Assembly.

Phoenix
Keith Brown, the Every Child Matters Education Fund, the Royal Academy and St. Martin’s College.