ACADEMIES expel twice as many pupils as other State secondary schools. England's academies had an average permanent exclusion rate of 0.47% last year, compared with 0.22% at other schools.

Council leaders are pressing ahead with plans to turn two Birmingham secondary schools into city academies, despite protests from teaching unions.

By LAURA CLARK PRIVATE schools encourage social apartheid, the headmaster of Wellington College has said.

By Richard Garner Education Editor The big guns of education's private sector have thrown their weight behind the Government's academies programme, paving the way for their biggest ever stake in the running of state schools.

By SIMON JOHNSON FALLING standards in Scotland's state education system have prompted r e c o r d n u m b e r s o f parents to send their children to private schools. Figures yesterday showed that 32,065 pupils now attend independent schools, a rise of 649 over the previous year.