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Inside Education

Research has shown that parents using face-to-face buggies are twice as likely to be talking to their baby

How best to walk your baby

Most parents would think a daily walk through their neighbourhood, pushing their child along in a buggy would be a healthy thing to do.

Helping hands: How to rescue failing schools

Failing schools in the capital have been turned around by an imaginative programme that puts high-flying young graduates into the classroom. Now it's being rolled out across England.

Education Quandary: 'Why are we excluding so many under-fives from school? It is ridiculous. Are their carers and nursery workers no good?'
Mark Davies: Disaffected school children would be better off at work
Leading Article: Skills and knowledge
Brave new world: Traditional classrooms, lessons - and even homework - have been expelled

From bad to verse: South London students are fighting violent crime with their own performing arts scheme

Fear of gun and knife crime stalks communities in our inner cities. Although official statistics show that it is still relatively rare, with knives used in 6 per cent of violent crimes and firearms in just 1 per cent, the headlines talk of a barrage of youth-on-youth knife and firearm attacks amid an increasingly violent and lawless street culture. For those communities devastated by these senseless slayings, it doesn't matter what the headlines and statistics say: they need action to counter the downward spiral of fear and hopelessness that begets only more violence and vengeance on our streets.

Diary of a Fresher: 'I've an eclectic bunch of friends – and all my lecturers are dotty'

After a tumultuous start, life here is beginning to settle down. The frantic jockeying for position in the first few weeks is over, and it's no longer acceptable to introduce yourself to random people or shamelessly ask for names. Socially, the beginning of the year was a slow burn for me – I ended up meeting one potentially good friend a day, until I was able to enter the dining hall on my own and always find someone I wanted to sit with. By then the time for meeting new people had suddenly and mysteriously drawn to a close. Everyone is now pretty much stuck with whatever friends they've made, and I'm left with several moderately good mates and countless acquaintances whose names I can't quite remember. Such is life. The first weeks of university would be a fascinating social experiment if I weren't in the middle of it.