Experts from BCS, the professional body for information technology, are calling for all teachers to be trained in how to use artificial intelligence (AI) in schools. They have said it should be a prominent part of teacher training courses across all subjects, following a recent warning from a coalition of headteachers that AI poses a “clear and present danger” to education. By Nicola Woolcock, The Times.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak has vowed that new guidance for schools will “protect” children, after Reclaim Party MP Andrew Bridgen said they are being “indoctrinated” on transgender issues. Speaking yesterday in the House of Commons, Mr Bridgen alleged schools are encouraging children to socially transition – sometimes in a breach of parents’ human rights. By Ben Hatton, The Independent.

Professor Gary Butler, a doctor with a key role in reforming the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids), based at London's Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, has been recorded questioning the need for change during a keynote speech at a conference. When asked about the speech, Professor Butler said he fully supported plans for new services. By Hannah Barnes and Sean Clare, BBC News.

Writing in The Times, author and journalist Robert Verkaik explores the issue of diversity within the legal profession, after the Social Mobility Foundation said last year that social mobility at City law firms has been slipping backwards. Mr Verkaik says that recent figures suggest the upper echelons of the legal profession "remain disproportionately representative of lawyers educated at fee-paying schools", and that efforts to broaden representation of ethnic minority communities among the senior judiciary have had "mixed results".

Research, which forms part of the Covid social mobility and opportunities (Cosmo) study, has revealed pupils whose families turned to food banks during the pandemic fared worse at GCSE than expected, losing half a grade per subject on average. Researchers said pupils’ grades were lower, even after taking into account their previous attainment and some elements of household finances. By Sally Weale, The Guardian.

Using her statutory powers to collect information from councils, Dame Rachel de Souza has found almost 1,500 children in care are missing from school. Commenting on the first collection of such data, the children’s commissioner said the attendance of these children “needs to be at the top of every policymaker’s agenda”. By John Dickens, Schools Week.

A report by Coram and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation says help with childcare costs for working parents, announced in the Budget, is "unfairly targeted" towards higher-income families. According to the charities, the plans in England risk widening the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers. By Vanessa Clarke, BBC News.

Around 1,000 current and former students are seeking to bring a claim against University College London (UCL), accusing it of breaking its “promises” after tuition was moved online and access to libraries and laboratories restricted during the Covid pandemic, with no discount to their tuition fees. By Sally Weale, The Guardian.

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