Cribsheet brings all you educationists cheery news on a gloomy grey post-half-term Monday - turns out education is good for your blood pressure, especially if you're a woman.
Researchers from Brown University looked at 30 years of data from 3,890 people and divided them into three groups: low education (12 years or less), middle education (13 to 16 years) and high education (17 years or more).
Women with low education had a blood pressure 3.26 mmHg higher than those with a high level of education. In men, the difference was 2.26 mmHg.
So get back out there and save lives, people.
Education news from the Guardian and Observer
• Reviled as a sellout by student activists and forced to cut short his NUS presidency, Aaron Porter tells Decca Aitkenhead he's not about to disappear any time soon.
"I hope that in 10 years' time I'm doing something that is making a sufficient impact in a positive way that means that people will carry on knowing who I am. But my motivation is not to be known, but known for doing good. I don't think I'm the kind of person to sort of drift off into obscurity."
This morning, Porter is having an "enjoyable morning back at my secondary school giving an assembly to the lower sixth on options beyond school", according to his tweet.
• A snapshot survey conducted by the Guardian of 12 local authorities in England found that 15.8% of children – or about one in six – will be refused a place at their first-choice secondary school. Schools that were heavily oversubscribed in previous years are even more so this year, Jessica Shepherd reports.
Nick Gibb, the schools minister, says it's a "sad fact" that there aren't enough good schools - the government is trying to improve behaviour, end bullying and restore authority in classrooms to give parents "more genuine choice" and reduce the anxiety of finding a secondary school place.
The Telegraph believes that the "appalling disparity" between the best and worst state schools has never been worse:
"It is especially difficult to tackle because bad teachers and bad schools are protected by their allies in the teaching unions and local government."
• Documents revealed to the Guardian show the government has withdrawn millions of pounds earmarked for research and evaluation of education policies since it came to power. An evaluation of academy schools, set up under Labour, is one of several research projects to have been scrapped sparking renewed criticism that the coalition is abandoning evidence-based policymaking.
• Are state schools failing our children - as Katharine Birbalsingh claims? Fiona Millar, David Lammy, Toby Young and others have their say. Oh, and if you want to read more of her musings, they're right here. And if you want to know what Ofsted said ("good with outstanding features") about one of the schools at which she has taught, read Francis Gilbert on the Local Schools Network.
Education news from around the web
• Youngsters need the rigour of a military-style education because they have "no self-discipline or sense of purpose", the Mail was thrilled to report Michael Gove as saying, as he announced that £1.5m will be spent to draft battle-hardened troops into "boot camps" for unruly pupils. A hundred soldiers, sailors and air crew will be retrained as mentors for pupils excluded from school or on the brink of exclusion.
Panorama is showing a documentary tonight about US soldiers brought into a school in Virginia to instil discipline.
• The Telegraph is sprinkling a speech by Philip Cottam, chairman of the Society of Headmasters and Headmistresses of Independent Schools, around its education stories today. He is particularly put out by the idea of universities accepting lower grades from state school applicants:
"Trying to force universities to repair, let alone make up for, the problems of 18 years of upbringing and education is certainly not the answer.
"It is approaching the issue from the wrong end and is like asking an aeronautical engineer to improve the design of an aircraft after the plane has already crashed."
• Will doing a master's get you a job? The University Blog looks at whether doing another degree is worth the effort. We say, go for it, it's good for your blood pressure.
• @UCLOccupation tweets:
"We're holding a mass meeting at 1pm today in our excellent occupation of the Old Refectory #solidarity #demo2011"
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• This article has been amended to remove the suggestion that Katharine Birbalsingh has based her comments about state education on any particular school.
