Education news

Oldham's classrooms have quietly become testing grounds for ideas that rarely reach the evening news. In one Royton primary, children now start the day with a free hot meal because staff noticed that hunger, not laziness, was keeping some pupils away. Attendance at St Agnes has already risen since the breakfast pilot began in May, and the council is watching to see if the same simple fix can work across the borough.

When long illness keeps pupils at home, a small robot takes their seat instead. At an unnamed Oldham school, the machine streams lessons back to a bedroom tablet so the child can answer questions and move its head to follow friends. Teachers say the gadget has kept isolated pupils from dropping out entirely, and families report that the sight of a classroom on screen is often the first thing their child looks forward to after weeks in hospital.

For children with special needs, the changes are more bricks-and-mortar. Council cash has paid for extra quiet rooms, sensory gardens and staff trained to spot the moment a lesson becomes overwhelming. One teaching assistant told reporters simply, 'It's so beautiful to see' a boy who once hid under a table now leading a science talk.

Results days brought the usual bouquets for twins and future doctors, but behind the photographs is a sharper story. Oldham is one of only nine areas chosen to trial the national ELSEC language programme, and early data from local primaries suggest the youngest pupils have doubled their vocabulary scores in a year. If the gains hold, the scheme will roll out nationwide with Oldham cited as the proof it can work in post-industrial towns.

A £3 million rescue package was needed to keep Blue Coat School open after ceilings began to fall in, and seven other secondaries still share the same crumbling concrete. Meanwhile, 250 residents have just finished drawing maps of speeding cars outside gates for the council's latest safety audit; the second School Street closure goes live this term. Whether robots, breakfasts or traffic cones, the lesson is the same: every small fix is paid for somewhere else.