Take part in a national Question Time debate

UK schools are invited to participate in a live national debate, chaired by the BBC’s business editor Robert Peston and hosted by TES as part of the first ever Speakers for Schools Week (14-18 October). The debate will take the format of BBC news programme Question Time, and will be staged at Bishop Challoner Catholic Collegiate School in London, but schools around the country can take part by submitting questions live. Speakers for Schools Week will involve 25 influential leaders in business, the arts, science and technology giving talks in state schools. www.tesconnect.comspeakersforschools

Striking Rio teachers clash with riot police

Teachers in Brazil clashed with riot police this week as strikes escalated into violent skirmishes. The teachers had gathered outside Rio de Janeiro’s City Hall, where a crucial vote was taking place over salary proposals, which teachers believe do not go far enough. The situation escalated after police let off percussion grenades and began firing rubber bullets into the crowd.

Seven in 10 are victims of cyberbullying

Around seven in 10 young people have been victims of cyberbullying, with students twice as likely to be bullied on Facebook than any other social network, a major survey has revealed. International research, involving more than 10,000 young people aged 13-22, showed that nearly four in 10 frequently experience cyberbullying. The study, commissioned by UK anti- bullying charity Ditch the Label, revealed that Facebook, Twitter and Ask.fm were the social networks where bullying most commonly took place. Follow this web link for TES Connect resources on cyberbullying: bit.lycyberadvice

Charter school group sued over alleged $3m fraud

US school officials have filed a lawsuit against a charter school provider over accusations that the group misappropriated millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money. The Washington DC school district has claimed that three former managers from the Options Public Charter School board funnelled at least $3 million (pound;1.9 million) intended for students’ education into their own pockets. The managers are alleged to have created two for-profit companies to deliver services to the charter school at often inflated prices.

Private schools offer only `crumbs off their tables’

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw, has accused private schools in England of offering state-educated students little more than the “crumbs off their tables”. In a stinging attack at the annual meeting of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference of elite private schools, Sir Michael said that too many fee-paying schools do nothing more than offer the loan of a playing field or some coaching for A-level students. In what he called his “Lord Kitchener moment”, he called on school leaders to support their local state schools and dispel the perception that they “do not care about the educational world beyond their cloisters and quads”.