The Department for Education (DfE) is to investigate allegations of bad practice by agents recruiting international students to study at British universities, according to The Guardian. The announcement follows recent reports claiming that overseas students are being admitted to universities while subject to lower entry requirements than domestic students. By Sally Weale.

Ben Horan, headmaster of Prior Park College, has a letter published in today's Times in which he urges the government to implement legislation as soon as possible to curtail the rise of vaping among children. Mr Horan says: "It is clear to any teacher that vaping is already endemic among today’s teenagers. The government has been far too slow to react to the obvious ploys of vape companies to trap our young people in a cycle of nicotine addiction."

The NAHT has called on the government to retract its consultation on proposed minimum service levels, and the Strikes Act, “as a matter of urgency” and to “enter meaningful negotiations with education unions”. The union has said it is essential that unions “have the right to instruct our members to withdraw their labour if their workplace is unsafe”, referring to Ofsted. By Matilda Martin, Tes.

Damian Hinds, minister for schools, has admitted the workload of new teacher mentors is “too high” as he revealed a package of measures to improve training. The government is set to publish its review of the initial teacher training core content framework (CCF) and the early career framework (ECF). The pair are to be combined into the new initial teacher training and early career framework (ITTECF). It is hoped this will mean teachers “get a more joined up development journey beyond initial training into the early years of their career”. By Lucas Cumiskey, Schools Week.

A rise in mental health conditions such as ADHD and an increasing willingness to diagnose behavioural issues as disorders are driving a post-pandemic rise in the number of children with disabilities, experts say. The Times reports approximately 1.6 million children are reported as disabled, a figure that has doubled in roughly a decade and risen by more than a third since Covid. By Chris Smyth and Andrew Ellson.

Music colleges and conservatoires are deterring women and girls from playing “masculine instruments” such as trumpets and drums, according to a parliamentary report on sexism in the music industry. Female musicians are found to have faced “endemic” discrimination in the industry which they described as a “boys’ club where sexual harassment and abuse is common”. By Chris Smyth and Andrew Ellson, The Times.

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