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Conservative manifesto launch: Private schools will be forced to sponsor state sector or lose charitable status

At least 100 of the country’s leading independent schools will be forced to sponsor a state school or risk losing their charitable status, under the Conservatives' education proposals.

The Tory manifesto states that private schools must sponsor an academy or set up a free school, as part of plans to create the "world’s great meritocracy".

In a move that will be seen as a warning that private schools will not be able to ignore the demand, the Tories said that they are “keeping open the option of changing the tax status of independent schools if progress is not made”.

Under Conservative Party plans, failing schools will be banned from accepting any more pupils. The plans, which will affect more than one in ten schools in the country, will bar councils from creating new places at schools that have been rated "inadequate" or "requires improvement" by Ofsted, the regulator. 

Each local council is legally obliged to find a school for each child, but the move would stop councils allocating children to underperforming schools. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/18/conservative-manifesto-launch-failing-schools-banned-expanding/

See also: How private schools are risking their charitable status

Students given the power to tackle behaviour among themselves

At one school, students have been given the power to tackle behaviour among themselves using a system of restorative justice, deputy headteacher Sussex Marlene Fleming at Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham, West explains

The aim is a very simple one: to resolve conflict between individuals at school without needing to resort to sanctions or punishment.

In practice, restorative justice involves students taking responsibility for their actions, understanding the repercussions of those actions on other people and taking steps to put things right. This could be through talking to the “victim” about what has happened and taking some action to make amends. It involves a different approach to issues that happen in school – one that gives pupils ownership of their behaviour. It requires time, which can be in scant supply in schools. In short, it can be tricky.

But we think we’re beginning to make restorative justice work for certain behaviour issues in our boarding houses at Christ’s Hospital School; we’re also hopeful that we can transfer this success to more general classroom issues. What we have found is that, when used well, restorative justice is much more powerful than imposing a punishment and changes the way one thinks about relationships with others.

https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/passing-down-judgment

See also: Barnaby Lennon said boys need rules, structure and discipline in their lives