We're previewing tomorrow's education bill, which will include measures to protect teachers who face allegations from pupils.
Jeevan Vasagar, the Guardian's education editor, says:
"Teachers are expected to be granted anonymity until they are charged, while investigations will be speeded up, and schools will be given guidance that teachers should not be automatically suspended where there are no risks to children.
Employers asked to give references will not be required to pass on allegations that are proven to be false."
And while on the subject of Jeevan, watch out for his debut at the chalkface. We'll be posting a video later of him teaching 10- and 11-year-olds at a primary school in west London.
Cribsheet: the listening email
Thanks to all of you who emailed and tweeted to say how often you'd like to receive Cribsheet as an email. It was a treat to "meet" readers from all walks of educational life, working in the UK, Australia, the US and Poland.
A few readers have reservations about Cribsheet arriving more frequently, not because they don't like it, but because their inboxes are already overflowing. The vast majority of those who wrote in, however, said they find Cribsheet useful and would happily embrace its appearance as often as possible, preferably daily. So apologies to those who feel inundated – please don't unsubscribe, just read us when you can.
We'll start the daily email tomorrow, to coincide with all our coverage of the bill.
Education news from the Guardian
• Novelist Colm Tóibín is set to take over from Martin Amis as professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester. But Tóibín, currently teaching at Princeton, will be earning "less" than the controversial £80,000 salary of his predecessor, according to a spokesperson for the university.
• Is the A* at A-level dead in the water? Or is the A** just around the corner? Pass Notes has its say.
• Michael Billington reviews a new play about free schools, Little Platoons, which he says "wittily exposes the confusion that surrounds the subject of how we best educate our children". Written by Steve Waters, the first dramatist comprehensively to tackle global warming with The Contingency Plan, it's part of a series of plays on education at the Bush theatre. Billington, who gives it four stars, says:
"As Waters's play makes clear, education is a subject where bourgeois individualism is constantly at war with social need."
• Please encourage the young people you know to contribute to our Children's Manifesto. We'd like to hear about their vision of a perfect school and get them involved in drawing up a document to be presented to education decision-makers.
Education news from around the web
• A school in Staffordshire has been criticised for using on-site security cameras to film evidence of its pupils smoking, the BBC reports. Landau Forte academy in Tamworth says the footage is used to fine pupils £10 for breaking school rules, but CCTV advisory group Camerawatch says the practice is potentially unfair.
• The Telegraph bemoans a decline of in the number of pupils attending girls-only schools. Rowan Pelling writes:
"When I was 11, I waved goodbye to co-education and, armed only with a lacrosse stick, sank blissfully into the oestrogen-plumped world of Walthamstow Hall, an all-girls' school in Sevenoaks. These were the days of A-line skirts, knee socks and vast, regulation knickers that entombed your nether regions. In this safe, bluestocking atmosphere, we struggled through the worst indignities of puberty, free from the jibes of equally pimply boys."
• The Mail claims: "Thousands of 'special needs' pupils are just badly taught." It quotes an Ofsted report saying that in some schools, a "culture of excuses" means that pupils making slow progress are automatically classed as having special needs.
A Tory MP has removed a blog posting heaping scorn on plans to include information about homosexuality in school lessons.
Insight into journalism seminars for teachers
A unique opportunity for teachers to spend a day at the Guardian, find out how a national news media organisation works and get ideas and resources that can be used in the classroom.
News 11 March Learn about the 24 news cycle; meet news reporters, feature writers, picture and sub editors; understand the role newspaper advertising; go on a tour of the editorial floors and take part in a workshop creating you own news front page which will be evaluated by an editor.
Multimedia 31 March Writing for a news website, web editing, blogging, the use of social media, video production; podcasting.
Places are limited and likely to fill up quickly, so book soon.
Competition
Children aged between seven and 14 can now enter the Young Human Rights reporter of the year competition, run by learnnewsdesk, the Guardian's online news service for schools, and Amnesty International. A winner and two runners-up in the primary and secondary school categories will win a trip to Amnesty International and the Guardian headquarters in London as well as an MP3 recorder. The closing date for entries is 14 February.
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Online learning and teaching resources from Learn
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