Phone Masts, Elections, LGBT teaching and Expansion into China

Media

These stories are pulled from external media sources and do not reflect the views of Education Roundtables.

Publicly owned buildings like schools and hospitals could be used to install mobile phone masts to improve signal for rural users, culture secretary Nicky Morgan has said.

Engineering & Technology

Speaking at a parliamentary debate on proposals for a Shared Rural Network, she said her department was working with the Cabinet Office on the plans and “having conversations to make sure that local authority infrastructure such as hospitals and schools can also be used to increase and improve connectivity in these communities”.

The new network plan revealed last week is designed to increase 4G coverage to 95 per cent of the UK. It will see the UK’s four main mobile network providers sharing masts and equipment in rural areas to combat “4G not-spots” with help from £500m in investment from the Government.

This could open debates on radiation from masts and the effect on children but will also be welcome news from rural areas where mobile network coverage is spotty at best.

With an election now confirmed for December 12th 2019, Education will no doubt be a key battleground.

Election 2019: Tories hope to cash in on school funding

TES

With a general election now likely to take place before Christmas, Tes looks at Conservative plans for winning votes on the schools front. There are also links to the policies from Labour and the Liberal Democrats, although there is a suggestion that Conservatives are buying teachers votes with promises of big increases in salaries.

The debate regarding the teaching of LGBT equality in schools continues with Eastern Eye reporting

Parents group Our Children Our Faith Our Right (OCOFOR) took to Parliament Square on Saturday 26 to ask for the right to withdraw their children from teachings they consider unsuitable.

Eastern Eye

Protests have taken place outside a number of schools in Birmingham, with little sign of abating. A difficult, if not impossible situation for headteachers to manage.

Finally, Cumbria Crack reports:

A UNIQUE educational partnership between West Cumbria and China has been strengthened with the opening of two new schools.

Cumbria Crack

According to the Headmaster of St Bees School, the school is leading the way in merging the best elements of Western education with the foremost elements of an Eastern education. He claims that “Results are simply phenomenal, and merely a year after reopening, students at St Bees are already performing over two years ahead of their peers.”