Sarah Todd visits a school at which children get nearer to the countryside thanks to a new activity called the farm club. Here, children get up close and personal with livestock.

Liz Lightfoot answers your education questions.

The news that an American-owned company is to take over the running of a comprehensive school in north London is surprising. It is thought to be the first case of its kind in education history. It is surprising not only because it is a private sector company taking over the running of a state school for the first time, but also because Salisbury school in Enfield is not failing. It was taken out of special measures in 2003 and is now judged satisfactory. What will the three-person team parachuted in by Edison Schools be able to do that the previous managers couldn’t?

The Policy Exchange think tank dropped something of a bombshell last week when it published research apparently showing that headteachers have no discernible effect on school performance. It had commissioned the highly respected Curriculum, Evaluation and Management Centre at the University of Durham to quantify “the leadership effect” - and was taken aback to be told there does not appear to be one.

Hilary’s advice

Tom Lloyd Jones is missing his daily ration of toast. A day pupil at Wells Cathedral boarding school, he is used to tucking into a couple of slices every morning during break. It’s a tradition relished by every one of the 480 fee-paying pupils. But Tom has swapped his privileged school life for a two-week stay in a 1,300-strong state school in Wembley, west London - and it doesn’t do toast at break times.

Liz Lightfoot answers your education questions.

Want to learn and speak a foreign language properly? Go and study abroad, says Francesca Nelson.

Cracks are beginning to emerge in the agreement between the Government and teachers’ leaders to reduce teachers’ workload, according to the conferences of both the National Union of Teachers and the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers. As it is so rare for these unions to agree on anything these days, we feel their complaints must have something in them. Both conferences heard horror stories about how untrained cover supervisors - or classroom assistants, as they were called before the agreement - had been left in charge of classes (permitted by the agreement) and given a teaching timetable as well (not permitted).

Hilary’s advice

“East is East and West is West,” wrote Kipling, “and never the twain shall meet.” With the war on terror and in Iraq it’s a reckoning that has never seemed truer. Muslim and secular intellectuals from Hampstead to the Hindu Kush proclaim that Western and Muslim culture are irreconcilable. The Arab street rails against American and British imperialism and The Sun raves against the mad mullahs of the Middle East.

Summer is nearly upon us. While sixth-formers fret about exams and university places, the parents of younger children are distracted by an equally demanding topic: whether they will get their offspring into the school of their choice.

What our national curriculum should contain has always been a hotly debated topic. No more so than in English literature, where the problem of which authors, books and plays pupils should study has always caught the imagination.

Hilary’s advice

Karl is in Year 10. He is a lanky and broad shouldered and, like many boys of his age, looks as if he has grown so suddenly that he doesn’t quite know what to do with his body. One of the things he has been doing is terrorising other boys - particularly the quiet, pallid Jerry whom, over the past year, he has subjected to a regime of pushing, shoving, insults and intimidation.

The Government deserves some credit for its drive to improve language teaching in primary schools. It is certainly right to support Lord Dearing’s recommendation that foreign languages should be a compulsory part of the curriculum from the age of seven. However, some worrying evidence emerged at last week’s Association of Teachers and Lecturers conference that new primary teachers may not be adequately trained for the job.

Why are we asking this question now?

Ukuleles are easy to use and, crucially, easy on the ear, says Charlotte Phillips.

For years, schools and those who work in them have been asking for more money. Now, the Government is spending an estimated £5bn on the academies programme, yet it has caused resentment and bitterness everywhere.

The fifth-graders in a New Jersey middle school sit up straight and pay attention. They know their multiplication tables. They can do long division instantly. They’re smart in other ways, too: “The more focused you are, the more you learn,” says one, wisely.

The announcement by the Government that it intends to put more pressure on schools that are coasting has not met with universal support from the teaching profession. Teachers’ leaders argue that there is enough accountability within the system already without the new measure. From now on, councils are required to give warning notices to schools thought to be in danger of failure, and, possibly, to sack governing bodies and replace them with boards made up of more experienced educationalists. Alternatively, they could team the school up with a successful neighbouring school or business partner.