Christopher Middleton visits a particularly enterprising school.

New Prime Minister Gordon Brown struck the right tone on education policies in his acceptance speech to the Labour Party conference in Manchester and in his Mansion House speech to industrialists last Thursday. He spoke of his “passion” for education and desire to create a “world-class education service”. We have heard that before from his predecessor but it is welcome to hear that education will remain a top priority under a Brown government. More tellingly, he spoke of his desire to see countries devoting “not just 5, 6, 7 or 8″ per cent of their gross domestic product to education but 10 per cent.

It is not just politicians who are prone to spin. The highly respected Joseph Rowntree Foundation recently put out a press release and report saying that most of the pupils leaving school without any GCSEs were White British boys. The media ran with it and it dominated the phone-ins. My neighbours - and probably everyone else - are now convinced that white boys are the dunces of education.

Hilary’s advice

The term “support work” is such a woolly one. It screams “this is not a real job!” and is redolent of earnest men in polo necks observing quietly while someone has a paddy. Behaviour support work is even worse. Surely controlling behaviour is a teacher’s job anyway?

Alice Keddie is only 10 but her future as a sportswoman is mapped out already. It takes her a moment to answer the question about what her main ambition is in life. “I’d like to win Wimbledon,” she says.

Postgraduate study is booming, but choose your course carefully says Liz Lightfoot.

Last year, by his own admission, Yusuf Dost was a naughty boy. He would disrupt lessons and shout abuse at teachers ? earning himself a period of exclusion and a reputation as a volatile trouble-maker.

Hilary’s advice

Schools don’t need perfect games facilities to achieve success, as Sonia Purnell discovers.

Liz Lightfoot answers your education queries.

Stephanie Calman on Letting Men Get On With Things.

The olive branch offered this week to supporters of the International GCSE (iGCSE) ? used by many leading independent schools as an alternative to GCSE because it is devised along traditional O-level lines ? creates a worrying dilemma.

It is understandable that academics are concerned about being compromised by the war on terror (see page 7). Any research programme called “New Security Challenges: Radicalisation and Violence” suggests that researchers are wading into controversial ? and possibly dangerous ? territory. Anthropologists interested in finding out how, for example, different groups of Iraqi Muslims are being radicalised by the Iraq war would do well to be careful of taking government money. But the Economic and Social Research Council has done everything it can to reassure researchers that the research it is commissioning is genuine and will be published. It is difficult to see what more it can do.

The traditional way of getting children to sit still and be quiet requires nothing more than instructing them to cross their legs and put their fingers on their lips. However, as this is 2007 rather than 1977, you can see why some schools are using rather different methods of behaviour management. One new approach is offering schools a more creative alternative and is producing results for all children , ranging from four-year-olds to 12-year-olds.

Hilary’s advice

Victoria Garlinge sniffs out how mums can avoid causing a stink on school trips.

Peter Inson discovers the secrets of success in a 21st-century boarding school.

The school packed lunch can be a nutritional and social minefield, says Katie Tait.

The compromise the Conservative Party reached last week over grammar schools muddies the waters rather than clears them. Faced with growing opposition to his decision not to countenance any new grammar schools and to concentrate instead on increasing the number of privately sponsored academies, the Conservative leader David Cameron let it be known that he would allow new grammar schools to be built in exceptional circumstances.

Imagine something that’s free, has no negative side-effects, is great for team-building, and does wonders for self-esteem, concentration, morale and behaviour. Then imagine the effect if every schoolchild were to get a daily dose of it.

Hilary’s advice