Chronic workforce shortages have put nursing staff under unbearable pressure, says union chief Nurses in England took an average of a week off sick last year because of stress, anxiety or depression, NHS figures reveal. The disclosure has prompted concern that the intense strains nurses face in their jobs, including low pay and understaffing, are damaging their mental health and causing many to quit ..read more

Schuyler Laparle says the goal should be to build a culture of work in which the practices that lead to unbearable stress are not tolerated. Plus a letter from Allie Kochert In a recent article (Is it possible to break the cycle of burnout for good?, 17 April), I was struck by the recurring use of a metaphor equating intolerable levels of work stress to an endemic disease. As a cognitive linguist, I think a lot about the ways in which we use metaphors to understand complex social issues, and how the use of certain metaphors can have unforeseen consequences. So each time the term “immunity” app ..read more

GCSE results in key subjects to steadily worsen until 2030, predicts research that blames failure to tackle impact of schools lockdown Children in England could face the worst exam results in decades and a lifetime of lower earnings, according to research that blames failures to tackle the academic and social legacies of school closures during Covid. The study funded by the Nuffield Foundation predicts that national GCSE results in key subjects will steadily worsen until 2030, when it expects fewer than 40% of pupils to get good grades in maths and English ..read more

My mother, Daphne Gilbert, who has died aged 80, was a respected mathematics professor. She defied the expectations foisted on most women of her generation, successfully combining an outstanding career in teaching and research with bringing up four children. Having married at the age of 19 in the early 1960s, Daphne put her work ambitions on hold for many years until her children had become teenagers. Restarting her education, she went on to become a maths lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, later moving to Ireland to be head of pure and applied mathematics at the Dublin Institute of Tech ..read more

Readers respond to a news report and an article by Nadeine Asbali on a prayer ban at Michaela community school in London I was disappointed by the court ruling on Michaela community school’s prayer ban (High court upholds top London school’s ban on prayer rituals, 16 April), and shocked to see the jubilant reaction from several prominent politicians. Children praying in school is not disruptive or threatening, and for Kemi Badenoch to suggest that these pupils are attempting to “impose their views on an entire school community” screams of xenophobia. With this ruling, it’s the other way around ..read more

British mountaineer died trying to reach summit in 1924 with his colleague, Sandy Irvine, whose body has never been found It was an expedition that began with an air of excitement but ended in tragedy: during their attempt to reach the summit of Everest in the summer of 1924, British mountaineer George Mallory and his colleague Sandy Irvine disappeared – their success, or not, still shrouded in mystery. Now 100 years after the fatal climb, digitised copies of many of Mallory’s letters, in particular those exchanged with his wife, Ruth, are to be made public by his alma mater, Magdalene College ..read more

Improving provision for pupils outside mainstream education ought to be a top priority The doubling in the rate of children suspended from school in England since before the pandemic provides alarming evidence of worsening problems with behaviour and lack of in-school support. Persistent disruption was the reason most often cited in figures covering last spring, followed by physical assault against another pupil. The steep rise in suspensions of four- and five-year-olds is a particularly alarming trend, with 10,256 primary-age children suspended for assaulting an adult. Being out of schoo ..read more

No matter how low you sink, your dreams can still come true: one woman’s inspirational story As a woman with decades of business experience, a Cambridge graduate with a fulfilling career running my own company, alongside a joy-filled family life, few would guess from looking at me today how close I came to having a very different story. From the outside, my childhood was idyllic – my family lived in Nigeria until I was 11, before moving to London. I went to Sunday school at church every week and I aspired to be a doctor, just like my cousin. I envisaged having a beautiful house, a fulfilling c ..read more

Students speak out after a pupil lost her legal challenge against a top London school after it brought in a ban to promote social cohesion It was in year nine when Hanzla started praying in the playground during lunchtime at his secondary school in Birmingham, despite restrictions from his teachers. “I’d find anywhere in the playground and get my friends to kind of make a circle around me – those friends were Muslims and non-Muslims – so the teachers would not find out,” he said. “A lot of the time it used to be raining and sometimes even snowing and the weather was cold ..read more

Rising inflation and falling pupil numbers also forcing schools to cut spending on extracurricular activities Primary schools across England are having to shed staff and cancel trips and activities this year as rising inflation and falling pupil numbers cause a rapid deterioration in their finances. A survey of more than 1,000 school leaders and teachers by the National Foundation for Educational Research found that three-quarters said their primary schools were cutting teaching assistant roles, while a third were also cutting teacher numbers ..read more