UKEdNews 18 January 2017 from @UKEdNewsDesk

Daily news briefing from the UKEdNewsdesk, initially published on the UKEdChat App.

Scroll down to read the headlines and extracts.

Friends ‘key to fewer school dropouts’

Schools should encourage pupils with poor grades to mix with stronger students if they want to keep them in education, suggests a study.

‘Research schools’ for social mobility zones

Education Secretary Justine Greening is to announce six more “opportunity areas” with their own research schools.

Private school children are tougher than their state educated peers, study finds

New research commissioned by the Independent Schools Council (ISC) found that pupils at fee-paying schools are more controlled, committed and confident than those who went to state schools.

Knowsley planning return of A-levels after shut down

The last school in the borough to teach A-levels, Halewood Academy, announced last year that it could no longer afford to offer the qualifications.

It prompted complaints from parents in a borough that already had among the UK’s lowest rates of university entry.

Cuts, cuts, cuts. Headteachers tell of school system ‘that could implode’

A report by the National Audit Office has said schools face cuts of 8% in real terms by 2019-20. While the government said school funding would be ringfenced, headteachers are facing a mountain of increased costs.