Crib sheet 27.07.10

As education, the practice, takes a hard-earned break, education, the political football, is still being booted around the corridors of powers by increasingly angry feet. Michael Gove's academies rush job won the approval of MPs last night , but it's coming under attack from Estelle Morris , Ed Balls and worried experts on science education , while Cambridge is warning him not to mess with A-levels . On the universities front, the coalition's confusion over graduate taxes and tuition fees has left eveyone baffled. Who knows what they'll get up to when the education professionals – and those pesky students – are out of town. So you'll need to fire up the laptop in your tent in Cornwall, or pop down to an internet cafe on your Greek island, and keep up with all the latest on the education website throughout August. There'll be plenty to keep you amused. Highlights include A-level and GCSE results, our Clearing coverage (Ucas staff are already being trained to cope with distraught teens who can't find places), and The Fresher, our indispensible guide for students starting university. And just before I slink off to the Paris plage, here's a little parting gift. It's a video by a chap named Tom McDonnell, it's called Dr Jones , and it's subtitled: "You want to take the year 8 class where? With whom? To find what?" Report card The job hunters Sarfraz Manzoor spends a year tracking the progress of six new graduates as they try to find a stimulating job in a dispiriting economic environment The school tester An 11-year-old gets the chance to try before she buys On the margins From the bizarre world of Improbable Research comes the news that monkeys use dental floss . Sometimes they are coerced to do so by busybody dentists, sometimes they do so entirely of their own accord – and make their floss out of human hair. You may wish to watch a mother monkey in Thailand demonstrating the human-hair flossing technique to her young 'un. Quote of the week A study by the London School of Economics showed state school pupils do better than those from private school once they get to higher education – even at the best universities. One of the researchers, Richard Murphy, explained: "Private schools are really good at preparing students for A-levels and going through the process, whereas students from state schools may get less coaching. If they've managed to get to the same university with the same high grades and it was that much harder for them to get there, their innate ability is higher than someone from independent school. When they haven't got that support from the private school system, they have to rely on their individual ability." Another reason could be the fact that there are far fewer teachers per pupil in state schools, Murphy added: "In the state sector, there's more independent learning. Students are used to working things out on their own, rather than having a teacher give them individual attention. When they get to university, where the classes are much larger than at school, they're better equipped to cope than those from private schools." Cutswatch Thank you for the tip offs you've given us about cuts in schools, universities and colleges in your area. If you want to make a report to Cutswatch, this is where to go . Here's the latest education story to come out of this project. What you said In response to the news that Cambridge University was unimpressed by Gove's plan to scrap coursework and make the entire A-level dependent on a final exam, Dfic1999wrote: This could get interesting. If there was one university that might have influence over Gove, it would be Cambridge – and its spokesman has come out in favour of the existing system. "Gove's idea that end-of-course examinations encourage 'deep thought' rather than last-minute desperate cramming is based less on academic rigour and more on nostalgia for the 'death or glory' aspect of examinations (think winning the FA Cup final v winning the Premier League). "I predict that Gove will manage to find some pet academics who will endorse his position, and if he can't, he'll just go ahead and do it anyway." Stories of the day Academies bill goes through MPs fall into line , though six Lib Dems back amendment Competition between campuses When universities start fighting for limited resources, the danger is that quality will lose out College funding Rapidly changing policies are making further education twitchy And there's more EducationGuardian.co.uk All today's EducationGuardian stories EducationGuardian on Twitter Online learning and teaching resources from Learn Job vacancies in education Sign up to get Crib sheet as an email To advertise on Crib sheet, contact Cal Roscow on 0203 353 2672 or email [email protected] A bientot Crib sheet will be back in the second week of September. Have a wonderful holiday!