Hashed off

A 15-year-old girl was forced to move school after she fed hash cakes to school staff.

Two teaching assistants at Wortley High School in Leeds were taken to hospital with dizziness and headaches after being given the cannabis cakes. The girl was suspended from the school and has since been placed somewhere else in Leeds.

A Leeds City Council spokesperson said: "The school works hard to educate its pupils about the dangers and implications of drug abuse and will not tolerate any behaviour of this kind."

Staff were described as being 'shocked and stunned' and told to avoid food offered to them by pupils.

No official complaints were given to police.

CCTV spies in Wirral school toilets

Parents on the Wirral have slammed a school which installed CCTV in toilets. 

A pupil given detention for 'defacing school property' revealed that he had covered the lense of a CCTV camera.

Hilbre High installed the cameras - which show sinks and not inside cubicles - after pupils suggested the idea.

The pupil's mother said: "They said bullying happens in toilets but there must be other ways to deal with it. There's been no consultation or a letter asking about our feelings about it."

A spokesperson for Hilbre High said that no pupils have complained about the installation. 

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers have launched an enquiry into the use of CCTV cameras in schools and a report including best practice is expected later this year. 

Training trip to Costa Del Sol costa too much

A teacher training trip to Marbella has been cancelled after criticism from parents and the media.

Endensor Technology College, Stoke On Trent, planned to take 80 teachers on a four day training jaunt but have withdrawn their plans after parents, Stoke City Council and the media slammed their £18,000 trip. The school was expected to be closed on Thursday and Friday while the teachers discussed the new curriculum and academy plans in Spain.

Before the plans were quashed, Andy Sales, of Fenton, said: "Parents are having to take time off work or are paying for extra childcare while the staff are enjoying the sun at the school's expense. Why isn't this money being spent on our kids?".

On Wednesday, headteacher, Richard Mercer, said that the trip had been "the best value for money" when considering other UK and international locations.

Mark Meredith, Stoke-On-Trent's mayor, who was glad the trip had been called off, said: "We did think it was an absolutely barmy idea."

Text war on waggers

Schools are texting the parents of absent pupils hourly in an attempt to get truants back to school.

Manchester's secondary schools have the second-worst level of truanting in Britain. Five schools have now adopted the automated text system which was piloted at Queen Elizabeth School in Rochdale where attendance rates were boosted by 8%.

Parents are repeatedly contacted by phone, text or email until 8pm or until their child's absence is accounted for.

Manchester City Council said it is too early to assess how effective the Truancy Call system has been.

Wigan priest sentenced to six years

A Catholic priest has been jailed for six years after being convicted of sexual abuse today.

William Green, aged 67, of Apsull Green, Wigan pleaded guilty to 27 sexual assaults. The assaults took place when he served as a P.E teacher at St.Bede's College, Alexandra Park, Manchester from 1973 to 1991 and also at St Margaret Mary's in New Moston in the 1960s.

The investigation was launched in 2007 after Greater Manchester Police were contacted by a victim of Green's who had been abused during the 1970s.

Greater Manchester Police said: "Thanks to the courage of the victims who were prepared to come forward after years of living with the knowledge they had been abused, we have been able to bring Green to justice."

Expert to investigate radiation links

An investigation will take place at the University of Manchester after staff deaths have been linked to radiation poisoning.

The Medical Research Council is sending Prof David Coggon to carry out an independent review of the health risks at the Rutherford Building. Experiments with radon and polonium were done by Nobel prize-winner, Ernest Rutherford, in the 1900s.

The University do not think the building is linked to the deaths of former staff: "We believe the evidence presented does not support a connection between the deaths of staff and exposure to radioactive contamination."

Five deaths are believed to be linked to radiation from the Rutherford Building.

Welcome to newsmistress.

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Helen