Sir Jim Rose's revamp of the primary school curriculum, launched in early May, was the perfect opportunity to give schools more flexibility over what they teach. Instead, what we have is jumbled collection of ideas that will have little impact on the numbers of children who leave primary school without even the most basic skills.

The Department of Education has published an updated handbook which sets out the specification and design standards for new primary schools. Speaking about the new handbook Education Minister Caitríona Ruane said: "As Minister my priority is to ensure all our children have access to the best education available. It is therefore vital that we provide the highest quality school buildings to meet the current and future needs of teachers and pupils."

Every young person who wants to study or to take up training will have their place guaranteed by the Government, thanks to a £655 million funding announcement in last month's Budget. This additional money will help tackle youth unemployment and ensure continued investment in skills through the downturn.

London's boroughs need £740 million to guarantee every five year-old a school place over the next five years, London Councils has warned. Three quarters of London's boroughs are either having to provide unsatisfactory temporary classrooms or increasing class sizes to cope with demand, or acknowledge that a lack of capacity and insufficient funding for expansion means they will be facing problems within 2-3 years.

The University and College Union (UCU) today (Thursday) accused university vice-chancellors of hypocrisy over staff pay and student fees as it was revealed that, following huge pay rises, they now earn, on average, almost as much as the prime minister. The union said calls from vice-chancellors for higher student fees and restraints in staff pay looked distasteful next to their own exorbitant increases.

Diplomas are reaching the crucial ‘tipping point' as new figures show that over 97 percent of local authorities will be offering the new qualifications by September 2010, Schools Minister Jim Knight said.

Pressure on top international business schools to identify quality candidates among rapidly growing numbers of MBA applicants has created extra demand for MBA recruitment events with a focus on pre-selection. Leading business schools including HEC, Duke, IE, Ashridge, Manchester and Warwick will attend an invite-only QS TopMBA Connect event in London next month. Organized by QS, this extra London date for the prestigious QS TopMBA Connect Tour is responding to the need to identify leading MBA candidates for the last few spaces of the 2009 intake.

New research shows that headteachers can save time and money to reinvest in children's education if they delegate responsibility for the school's administration and finance to a qualified, high-level School Business Manager.

Healthy & Safety Executive (HSE) has called on Directors to demonstrate personal commitment and spend more time outside the boardroom to show they really care about health and safety.

In line with the current trend towards light and airy interior decor, Victor's popular general purpose Crown, Consort and Count ranges of hot cupboards are now available in sleek Stainless Steel and a Light Golden Oak or Beech wood effect plastic coated steel finish.

Inspired by a rich variety of visual media, ranging from exotic fruit trees and reclaimed timber to modern architectural surfaces and engineered metals, the new Expona Design collection of luxury vinyl tiles from Polyflor is, says the company, a unique and unrivalled combination of exceptionally creative design and strong visual appeal.

The SelfCooking Center from Rational is ideal for catering in educational establishments as it is designed to save energy, cut running costs and have minimal impact on the environment. Its control mechanisms monitor and optimise the cooking process, using only as much power as is needed to cook the food, saving 60% of energy compared to traditional cooking equipment.

Office Depot, a leading provider of office products and services, exhibited its new school-specific product range at the Education Show, as well as hosting an environment and sustainability seminar titled ‘Ten Tips to Grow a Green School'.

As sports facilities across the UK are being upgraded as part of the government's BSF/PPP Scheme, Junckers have developed a specialist maintenance programme to work in conjunction with this initiative, called JunckerCare.

Sutton Coldfield and Matthew Boulton Colleges have appointed Carillion IT Services as their new IT managed service provider. The ICT outsourcing contract will see Carillion IT Services, which alongside Carillion plc is working to deliver educational transformation through the government's Building Schools for the Future programme, uniting both colleges' existing IT systems to create one new single IT infrastructure to support their 1600 staff and more than 22,000 students.

Délifrance UK Ltd is expanding its range of speciality breads to maximise the current growth of seeded and wholemeal bread sales which has seen a 6%uplift.

Knauf AMF Ceilings were specified extensively within the new campus building for Westminster Kingsway College.  For the library and main teaching areas, 5900m2 of AMF's Fine Stratos ceiling tiles were installed. These lightly textured, sanded tiles offer a clean, crisp appearance for a contemporary ceiling finish.

Heckmondwike FB has created a dedicated website www.carpetsforeducation.co.uk which provides advice on selecting the right carpet for an educational environment, plus information on installing the carpet, with ‘how to' guides and case studies of recent educational projects - in fact everything a local authority, school or college needs to choose the best carpet to suit their requirements.

There is a modern way to deliver UK university qualifications that will take up the shortfall in higher education places this September. Yet many careers advisors, FE students and parents still remain unaware such valuable alternatives to on-campus study exist.

Is it 13th time unlucky for brothers Julius, Alexander and Benjamin as the wicked witch Griselda sends them to ‘The Kingdom of the Deep' and follows after them to eat them for her lunch?

Saville Audio Visual is celebrating a strategic partnership with new neighbour - Manor CE School in York. With Saville sponsorship, the school has won prestigious status as a Specialist College of Performing Arts and moved into a new purpose-built site opposite the Saville head office.

Cannock Gates, the UK's largest gate manufacturer, has launched a nationwide schools competition to award one primary school with a new school entrance worth up to £2,000.

Eight new classrooms arrived out of the blue at Rochester Grammar School in Kent, after modular units from Integra Buildings clad in CEP's sky-blue Bauclad panels were constructed off-site and delivered fully finished, providing a fast  fix to the school's shortage of teaching space.

The new 'rinse water saving' option, originally developed last year by Winterhalter for its MTR series of rack warewashers, has now been extended to its MTF large-scale flight-type systems as well. The option offers cash-strapped education-sector caterers huge savings in water, energy and consumables. 

Bad behaviour in schools came under the spotlight again last month, as the teaching conferences got underway, and the final instalment of Sir Alan Steer's government-commissioned study into school discipline was published. Although many factors were cited as contributing to children's poor conduct, from celebrities' sex lives to TVs in bedrooms, it was parents who came in for most criticism.

In the next decade, the government expects schools to contribute far more in the battle against climate change. Schools will not only have to operate in a more sustainable way, they will have to incorporate these practices into the structure of the curriculum in order to educate future generations.

Today more than ever recycling, and in particular the recycling of aluminium cans, makes sound environmental and economic good sense. Aluminium cans, unlike many other forms of soft drinks packaging, can be melted down and endlessly reused with absolutely no loss of quality, in what is known as 'closed loop' recycling.  The term ‘infinitely recyclable' was certainly an expression that caught the attention at SUSO when they were selecting their packaging.

Hager has produced an energy saving guide. It identifies major areas of electrical co sumption and outlines some energy saving solutions.

Liquid Plastics, pioneer of liquid roof waterproofing technology, has supplied a range of roofing solutions for Winston Way School in Ilford, including four green roofs and an innovative Cold Fusion Bonded Built-up roofing system.

Three new schools delivered by Apollo Education for the London Borough of Lambeth show that high environmental standards can be achieved without costing the earth. Despite a limited budget, all three - Michael Tippett, Park Campus and Elmcourt - managed to secure ‘Very Good' Ratings when measured using the industry's standard building energy-efficiency model.

NEC Display Solutions is proud to present to the market its NEC MultiSync® EA221WMe, representing the new benchmark in environmentally sustainable displays utilising highly efficient panel technology requiring only two backlight tubes but without any compromise to picture quality. This ground-breaking widescreen LCD demonstrates a greater than 30 percent energy saving as compared with more conventional monitors. Outstanding environmental credentials are underlined by its EPEAT^TM environmental certification. The unique NEC Carbon Footprint Counter provides an up-to-date overview of the LCD display's CO2 savings. With its substantially low TCO (total cost of ownership) the NEC MultiSync® EA221WMe is particularly suited for deployment within environmentally-conscious SMB and corporate business sectors.

Students at Silicon Valley's San José City College and Evergreen Valley College need no longer visit the computer lab, library or local coffee shop to plug in their laptop computers since a new high-performance wireless network from Meru Networks has turned every indoor space on campus into a "wireless hot zone" for Internet access.

Texthelp Systems Ltd, the worldwide leaders of literacy software solutions continues to address the needs of Apple Mac users with literacy difficulties and dyslexia.  Read&Write 3 GOLD FOR MAC is the latest assistive software product from Texthelp, designed to support Apple MAC Users of all ages and abilities who need help with their reading and writing. The software takes the form of a flexible toolbar that integrates with MS Word 2008 and the Safari browser.

With a proven history in the Education sector, Navaho Technologies Ltd works with clients to improve the impact and efficiency of campus communications through the use of Navaho's media presentation system, MediaCAT.

In an era where digital technology is evolving at an astonishing rate, the capacity to generate and disseminate knowledge is causing a shift in how education is delivered, both inside and outside the classroom. Bridgeman Education - www.bridgemaneducation.com - is heading up a £1.9 million government funded research project called SILVER (Semantic Interactive Learning Visualisation Environment Research) - www.silvereducation.org - that is exploring new and innovative ways to deliver visualised learning.

More than 150 school business managers (SBMs) across nine regions (regional breakdown at end of release) have been awarded either the Certificate of School Business Management (CSBM) or the more advanced Diploma of School Business Management (DSBM) by the National College for School Leadership (NCSL).

That figure represents an impressive six per cent increase compared to 2008, and feedback from visitors and exhibitors alike confirmed that the Show was a huge success.

Visitors to the Education Show 2009 enjoyed experiencing a great range of Nursery and Primary equipment from the TTS Group this year! Guests were able to bang and play a host of music materials from MES, including the Animal Boogie Song sack, shortlisted for an ERA award. The specialist Nursery resources from Early Steps, offered resources and equipment to cater every aspect of the EYFS. Dedicated resources for Special Needs, presented from Special Direct, including their new writing slopes, scissor skills and Spellbound books, to name a few.

Adroit-e is an innovative, quantitative market research company. Adopting respected industry techniques it uses with major brands, Adroit-e has developed a unique approach to research in schools. Having established sound practice through a proof of concept study, Adroit-e is now working with 20 schools in Hertfordshire, in 2 contrasting extended schools' consortia, to provide reliable data and sound information about perceptions and attitudes of pupils, parents and teachers.

Why don't you pop your brain and stretch your imagination! BrainPOP UK is a new website for schools which contains hundreds of animated explanations and interactive quizzes for Key Stages 2 and 3.