The downside of having summer-born children
An analysis of Freedom of Information requests revealed that some councils refuse over half of parents' requests for deferred entry, while others approve all.
Campaigners and parents are advocating for greater consistency, arguing that the current system causes stress and can disadvantage children not emotionally or physically ready for school.
The Department for Education 's guidance states it should be "rare" for a request to be refused, as it is "rarely in a child's best interests" to miss a year of education.
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Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Zoo staff face death threats for feeding baboon remains to lions
Staff at a zoo in Germany which culled 12 baboons and fed their carcasses to the lions say they have received death threats. Tiergarten Nuremberg euthanised the healthy Guinea baboons at the end of July due to overcrowding in their enclosure. Some remains were used for research while the rest were fed to the zoo's carnivores. Plans to kill the baboons were first announced last year after the population exceeded 40, and protestors gathered outside the zoo to show their outrage. When the site closed last Tuesday to carry out the cull, several activists were arrested after climbing the fence. The director of the zoo defended the decision, saying efforts to sterilise and rehome some baboons had failed. "We love these animals. We want to save a species. But for the sake of the species, we have to kill individuals otherwise we are not able to keep up a population in a restricted area," Dr Dag Encke told Sky News. 'The staff are suffering' He said police are investigating after he and the staff were sent death threats. "The staff are really suffering, sorting out all these bad words, insults and threats," Dr Encke said. "The normal threat is 'we will kill you, and we'll feed you to the lions'. "But what is really disgusting is when they say that's worse than Dr Mengele from the National Socialists, who was one of the most cruel people in human history. "That is really insulting all the victims of the Second World War and the Nazi regime." Josef Mengele was a Nazi officer who performed deadly experiments on prisoners at the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War. Zoo animals 'treated as commodities' Culling animals and feeding them to predators isn't unheard of in zoos. In 2014, Copenhagen Zoo caused controversy by euthanizing an 18-month-old male giraffe called Marius and feeding his body to the lions. At the time, the zoo said it was due to a duty to avoid inbreeding. Dr Mark Jones, a vet and head of policy at Born Free Foundation, a charity which campaigns for animals to be kept in the wild, denounced the practice and said thousands of healthy animals are being destroyed by zoos each year. "It reflects the fact animals in zoos are often treated as commodities that are disposable or replaceable," he said. Zoo asks for unwanted pets Earlier this week, a zoo in Denmark faced a backlash for asking for unwanted pets to be donated to be used as food for its predators. In a Facebook post, Aalborg Zoo said it could take smaller live animals such as chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs, as well as horses under 147cm. It said the animals would be euthanised by specially trained staff before being fed to carnivores like the European lynx. While some people supported the scheme, saying they had donated animals in the past, others are outraged. "The very idea of a zoo offering to take unwanted pets in order to kill them and feed them to their predators will, I think, horrify most right-minded people," said Dr Jones. Aalborg Zoo has now closed the post to comments and said in a statement: "For many years at Aalborg Zoo, we have fed our carnivores with smaller livestock. "When keeping carnivores, it is necessary to provide them with meat, preferably with fur, bones, etc., to give them as natural a diet as possible. "Therefore, it makes sense to allow animals that need to be euthanised for various reasons to be of use in this way.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Why thousands now face travel misery at popular airport
Flights at Birmingham Airport were suspended for over five hours on Wednesday following an emergency landing by a light aircraft. The incident, involving a Beechcraft B200 Super King Air, occurred due to landing gear problems, leading to the runway's closure from 2:40 PM until shortly before 8 PM. Three people on board the aircraft were assessed by West Midlands Ambulance Service, with one person sustaining minor injuries. The emergency caused significant delays for passengers, both those departing from and arriving at Birmingham, even after the runway reopened. The Air Accidents Investigations Branch (AAIB) has launched an investigation into the incident, with a team of experts dispatched to the scene.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
More teens to get their choice of uni even if they miss their grades, says Ucas
A record number of 18-year-olds are likely to get into their first choice of university this year, the head of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) has said - even if they narrowly miss their Jo Saxton said universities were keen to enrol UK undergraduates because there was more "uncertainty" around international student said they would "quite possibly" accept students who did not meet the conditions of their offer adding that domestic students offered universities "stability" for "financial planning".The prediction comes as thousands of students will open A-level, T-level, Btec and other level-three results next week. Dr Saxton said it was a "really, really good year to be a UK-domiciled 18-year-old that wants to go to one of our world-class universities"."I would anticipate a record number of 18-year-olds will wake up with confirmation, quite possibly even where they are near-misses," she added that universities were "recognising, actually, that a three-year undergraduate student is stability for your teaching and learning, for your university community, for your financial planning".Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, said universities were "certainly competitive" with one another, which meant applicants had "lots of choice". Ucas says universities have made more offers this year, which it says "typically translates into more acceptances". Dr Saxton said she expected there to be "slightly fewer" places in clearing as a result - because if more places are taken up by students who have received offers, there will be fewer places to clearing system lets students search for university courses with available than 22,600 courses had listed vacancies for undergraduate students from England this week, according to a Press Association analysis of 129 were more than 3,600 courses advertised across 17 of the selective Russell Group universities. Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said year 13 students were "well placed" to study where they wanted to."The financial plight of universities makes them very keen to fill their courses and they will be falling over themselves to sign up good potential students," he from England and Wales will pay higher tuition fees for university this year, after the sector called for help with its fees have risen from £9,250 to £9,535 for the 2025-26 academic is the first time they have gone up in England since 2017, and comes after universities said their real-terms value had have become increasingly reliant on higher fees from international students in recent years to make up for frozen domestic fees - but the number of overseas students coming to the UK has May, the regulator in England, the Office for Students, warned that more than four in 10 universities expected to be in a financial deficit by this loans have also gone up this year, which means students can borrow more to help with day-to-day living England, the maximum maintenance loan for students from England who live away from their parents outside London has increased to £10,544 a year, up from £10, said last month that the number of 18-year-olds from the UK applying to university had risen again to 328, because the total number of 18-year-olds in the UK has also grown, those applicants make up a slightly smaller proportion of the total 18-year-old population than last year (41.2%).Students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will receive A-level and other level-three grades next Scotland, the number of pupils achieving an A, B or C grade at National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher rose across the board this Scottish Qualifications Authority also reported a reduction in the attainment gap between candidates from the most and least deprived areas. Sign up for Summer Essential, a weekly newsletter to help parents and families during the holidays.
