#163;30 fine for AWOL exam kids

The Sun

- Parents face being fined #163;30 if their kids don’t turn up at school to sit exams. The rule, being implemented in Edinburgh, is part of a crackdown to curb “unexplained absences”. It was revealed in a letter to parents of the city’s James Gillespie High - which said they would be fined if “no good reason” was given.

Family launch action against fatal bus crash driver

The Herald

- The family of a 17-year-old schoolgirl killed after her school bus crashed in a snowstorm and plunged into a river have launched legal action against the driver.

Natasha Paton, a student at Lanark Grammar, died after the bus driven by Raymond Munro crashed in March 2010 near Biggar, Lanarkshire. Last week, a sheriff ruled that Munro’s driving was to blame for the accident.

Jobsworths tell mums to scrap safety sign

Daily Record

- Parents who put up road safety signs near a village school in Perthshire have been told by council officials to pull them down - because they don’t fit national regulations. The mums and dads clubbed together to buy the two signs, which read “Slow down! School ahead” as they were worried about traffic near Murthly Primary.

School sin-bins face the axe in council cuts, warn teachers

The Herald

- School sin-bins where disruptive pupils can be taken to calm down are under threat from council cutbacks, teachers have warned. A paper on local authority funding cuts by the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) teaching union also claims that a raft of other measures to control behaviour could be hit.

Nursery reforms could cut childcare costs by 28 per cent, DfE calculates

The Guardian

- The cost of childcare could be cut by as much as 28 per cent if the Westminster government were to go ahead with stalled plans to raise the ratios of children to staff in nurseries. Government plans have currently stalled because of a disagreement within the coalition between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives.