Under the plan, it would be parents' responsibility to register their child if they were not attending a state school or registered private school.

Ministers say a register would help councils intervene when standards were poor or if children were at risk.

The education department estimates the number of children being home educated in England has risen to 60,000.

The government is also consulting on proposals that would require local authorities to provide support for home-educating families, such as teaching resources or financial contributions towards exam fees.

At present, there is no mandatory registration system for families who choose to educate their children at home, although some local authorities run voluntary registration schemes.

This means that the number of home-schooled children remains uncertain.

Read more at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-47772863

Girls rush to be vets while boys favour the rat race

Veterinary training has the biggest gender gap of any university subject grouping. The ratio of applications to veterinary science degrees starting this autumn was seven female school leavers to every male, bigger than the imbalance in the teaching profession.

Nursing is more female-dominated as an individual discipline but is classed by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) as falling within subjects allied to medicine, which have three women for every man overall.

The surge in applications is mirrored by acceptance of women on to veterinary courses, according to separate figures, also from Ucas.

The number of men starting pre-clinical veterinary medicine degrees rose by 17 per cent from 210 to 245 between 2009 and this academic year but over the same period the number of female students rose by 53 per cent, from 680 to 1,040.

Experts said that more women were training to become vets as attitudes had changed, more girls took science and maths at school and there was a greater emphasis on so-called soft skills and ethical dilemmas, as well as rigorous training.

They also said that more high-achieving men were being lured into the City because it was more lucrative than becoming a vet. Starting salaries for investment bankers are not that much higher, on average, than for vets but their pay rises much faster.

Entry to veterinary science is highly competitive with school-leavers usually requiring three As at A level and extensive work experience. The degree normally lasts five years and students rack up big debts.

Experienced vets say there is a recruitment and retention crisis in the profession and that entry grades should be lower for those with aptitude.

Read more at: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/81d987a6-53fb-11e9-b872-7488e2315159