schools

In March this year, Chulmleigh Academy Trust following a consultation decided that Year 6 children from Lapford School and East Worlington School children were to be Educated at Chulmleigh Primary school from September 2013.

Opposition to the proposal:

The vast majority of parents from Lapford, the wider community and the local council are opposed to this decision. Many letters of opposition have been sent and also a petition has been obtained containing 370 signatures from a village that only has 250 houses.

A plea was made to the Academy to think again with regard...

A new education campus with two schools and a host of other community facilities at Cranbrook has been given the thumbs-up – and it should be open within two years.

East Devon District Council has approved a planning application for Devon County Council’s proposal for a secondary school and a second primary school in the new town. The schools are scheduled to open by September 2015.

The agreed application proposes construction of a 420 place primary school and a 1,000 place secondary school in a three-storey building with flexible and changeable space that will adapt as the...

More than 98 per cent of Devon’s five-year-old children have been offered a place at one of their preferred primary schools this year.

94.7 per cent of the families who applied to Devon County Council have been offered their first choice school.

Three per cent have been offered their second choice and 0.45 per cent their third option.

That’s despite an increase in the number of children requiring places across the county.

Altogether, 7,764 children have been offered places compared with 7,601 last year.

Devon’s Head of Education, Sue Clarke, said: “I...

A local leading charity is planning to brighten up 12 of the city’s public spaces by creating a series of beautiful urban wildflower meadows.

Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT) is beginning work this month to add colour to Exeter’s city streets.

‘Plant Your Park’ is part of the ongoing Exeter Wild City initiative – a joint venture between DWT and Exeter City Council to help wildlife and create opportunities for local people to engage with and enjoy the natural world around them.

Plant Your Park’s coordinator is DWT’s Emily Stallworthy. Emily explained: “This is a wonderful...

Last month over 200 school children braved the winter snow and rain to join the South Devon National Trust Rangers for their fortnight of schools activities.

Year 5 and 6 pupils from seven local schools travelled to the National Trust sites at East Soar Farm and Wembury beach, where stream and pond dipping, gorse cutting and scavenger hunts were all on the agenda.

The first week, which was unseasonably cold, was held at East Soar Farm, with Kingsbridge, Loddiswell, Malborough and Stokenham primary schools all attending. Thankfully the team had use of the East Soar Farm...

Teachers in schools across the globe are turning to a new philosophy to help improve the behaviour and well-being of students. Mindfulness, a form of meditation, has been shown to help with a wide range of mental health conditions and improve well-being in adults. However, few trials have evaluated its effectiveness in children.

Professor Willem Kuyken from the Mood Disorders Centre at the University of Exeter is presenting new research findings from a feasibility trial which show how the mindfulness technique is also effective in improving well-being in young people. Speaking at...

The Guardian newspaper reports today (Tuesday 19 March) that the new draft guidelines for the Geography national curriculum for children under 14 years old does not mention ‘debate about climate change’. If this happens, it will be left to teachers to choose whether to teach it, apart from a single mention of the human part in CO2 emissions in the chemistry section. With the pressure of time, or personal opinion, many may not do so.

People and Planet , a student network that campaigns on the environment as well as global poverty and human rights, has launched a campaign to lobby...

Staff and pupils at a Newton Abbot primary are beginning the New Year with a double celebration after education inspectors judged that every aspect of school life was good or better.

St Joseph’s Catholic Primary was judged satisfactory by education inspectors in 2009. But now every aspect of life at the 120-pupil school is good or better. That improvement has come at a time when school inspectors have been getting tougher with their judgements and they say St Joseph’s is set to get even better.

The school is also celebrating a new partnership with St John the Baptist...

Devon’s Humanists have warned schools and parents of the American evangelical group behind the Samaritan’s Purse shoe-box initiative.

Humanist Chair Keith Denby said: “As we near Christmas children have been bringing home shoe-boxes to fill with toys and presents for children in need in Africa and Eastern Europe as part of the initiative 'Operation Christmas Child'."

“On the face of it, the Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child shoebox appeal is a benign initiative simply intending to give gifts to needy children at Christmas time. But how many...