Cribsheet of the week 25.01.11

There's something very special in the Education Guardian supplement this week. Ten years ago, we ran a competition, The School I'd Like, offering pupils a chance to set the agenda for their dream school. More than 15,000 responded, making the resulting Children's Manifesto one of the largest informal surveys of children's attitudes to schooling ever conducted in this country. Now Dea Birkett finds out if they got what they wanted , and ponders whether young people are listened to more today than they were at the turn of the millennium. Tim Brighouse was one of the judges, and is a strong advocate of schools listening to their pupils: "Some schools have the appearance of a school council, but it's only symbolic. Then there are a few schools that have really pushed student voice." In 2011, we're asking pupils to help Education Guardian draw up a new Children's Manifesto. Students can email their ideas to school.i'[email protected] giving their name, age, year, school and phone number. Some of those who send in proposals will be asked to join a selection panel to draw up the final document, which will then be presented to decision-makers. So it really is a great opportunity for students to get their voices heard. You can see the original manifesto and all the winning ideas from 10 years ago on this page . Report card Hundreds more teenagers will have to achieve the elite A* grade at A-level this year to stand a chance of winning a place at a top university. Jessica Shepherd has details of the requirements of the most prestigious universities. It's been reported that David Willetts would like students to have their A-level results before applying to university. But governments have been trying to pull that off for years, with little success. Warwick Mansell evaluates the chances of PQA (that's post-qualification admissions) this time round. More education news from the Guardian • Why is the best primary school in Scotland having to fight to survive? Kirsty Scott finds out. • Eighteen Jewish and Muslim students , at 10 universities, have been appointed "campus ambassadors" to bring young people from the two faiths together. Rebecca Usden, a Cambridge politics student, is one of them: "If you look at the two religions, they look quite similar in many ways and have a lot of common ground. There are definitely ways to counter conflict by looking at these similarities." • How does class affect student behaviour? Rich and poor students have very different experiences of university life. Researchers launch a project in Bristol to track the progress of 80 first-years . • How do you turn a further education college round ? Colin Hindmarch tells Janet Murray his five top tips. • "Moving knowledge around." That's the key to the success of the Manchester City Challenge , an inter-schools project that has raised GCSE results by 11%. Guardian views Estelle Morris Michael Gove shouldn't inflict his school days on other people's children. Traditional isn't always better than experimental. Peter Preston Vice-chancellors have received huge pay rises and there's simply no justification for it On the margins Have you read Brain on Head in Brain? Head headed Brain once you know. But Brain thought Head a bit too brainy. Yes, you've guessed it, it's those Improbable Researchers playing the giddy goat once again. What you said In response to Kirsty Scott's story about a remote but excellent primary school facing closure , clamdip came up with a cunning plan: "Sounds like a lovely dream location for underachieving students from London to go to sort themselves out. Maybe the island men could build some dormitories and you could refashion the school as an eco-educational facility. Imagine the good that a week of studying the local flora and fauna, kayaking, fishing, tidepooling, roasting marshmallows over a campfire would do for city kids. If the school could serve a dual purpose, simultaneously teach tweens and teens, you could save the school for the little ones. It shouldn't cost too much. The school already has a good reputation. Islanders should do what it takes to save their gem of a school." Education news from around the web • The BBC reports that councils in England are claiming they are losing millions of pounds to allow the government to pay for schools to convert to academy status . Chairman of the Local Government Association, Baroness Margaret Eaton, said: "We have made it clear that school choice is something that councils support. But it cannot be fair for local taxpayers to subsidise the roll-out of the academies programme." • The Evening Standard reports that students are to demonstrate at university open days in the next stage of their protests against plans to triple tuition fees. Mark Bergfeld of the Education Activist Network said: "Universities will be announcing how much they will charge in fees in the coming weeks. We are planning to target open days and occupy buildings. We will hold good-natured demos on campuses." • Employers believe a rise in university tuition fees will result in a less diverse pool of graduates , the THE reports. • The Mail is thrilled to announce "Now college students can study for 'GCSE' in being a trolley dolly". Its story tells us that topics to be explored at Manchester Enterprise Academy's cabin crew course range from how to keep nails clean and short to finding shade and water in the event of a crash landing in a desert. Insight into journalism seminars for teachers A unique opportunity for teachers to spend a day at the Guardian, find out how a national news media organisation works and get ideas and resources that can be used in the classroom. News 11 March Learn about the 24 news cycle; meet news reporters, feature writers, picture and sub editors; understand the role newspaper advertising; go on a tour of the editorial floors and take part in a workshop creating you own news front page which will be evaluated by an editor. Multimedia 31 March Writing for a news website, web editing, blogging, the use of social media, video production; podcasting. Places are limited and likely to book up quickly, so book soon. Competition Children aged between seven and 14 can now enter the Young Human Rights reporter of the year competition , run by learnnewsdesk, the Guardian's online news service for schools, and Amnesty International. A winner and two runners-up in the primary and secondary school categories will win a trip to Amnesty International and the Guardian headquarters in London as well as an MP3 recorder. The closing date for entries is 14 February. 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