THE ministerial decision to standardise school holidays is impacting on the “settling in” period for first-year students at post-primary schools, it was claimed yesterday.

DOCTORS are prescribing teenagers as young as 14 sleeping pills to cope with exam stress, according to the chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children.

This eye-catching teen magazine cover line would strike terror in the heart of any mother who found it among her daughter’s school books.

PARENTS have called on the Government to reverse a policy that means repeat Leaving Certificate students pay more than twice the fee charged to first-time candidates.

STUDENTS have rejected calls for parents to check pictures on their children’s mobile phones but accept all phones should be banned from the classroom.

GARDAÍ could have difficulties tracking the person responsible for circulating pornographic images of a schoolgirl by camera phone, because ready-to-go phones are untraceable.

GARDAÍ have launched an investigation into the circulation of a pornographic image of a schoolgirl by hundreds of secondary school students using camera phones in Cork, Limerick and Kerry.

A PARENTS’ group has accused the Department of Education and Science of “slowly squeezing the life out of voluntary Catholic schools” by not providing more funding for the sector.

A NEW radio station has provoked shock waves over the airwaves through a new sexual health campaign which involves distributing 30,000 condoms in night clubs.

PARENTS have expressed concern over schools passing on information about students to banks or other financial institutions.

PARENTS have called for a review of the Leaving Certificate marking system, because of wide differences between results at higher level and ordinary level.

SECONDARY school principals and their deputies will receive €2,500 each for keeping schools open during the year-long supervision crisis caused by the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland pay dispute.

A PARENTS’ group wants a cap on the number of Irish language students bean an tís can accept in their homes.

FAMILIES will have to re-mortgage their homes if third-level fees are reintroduced, the Consumers’ Association of Ireland has warned.

TÁNAISTE Mary Harney last night reiterated her opposition to the reintroduction of college fees, saying the measure was not part of the Government’s Programme for Government.

PARENTS will be better able to plan after-school care and holidays after a standardised school holiday timetable was agreed yesterday.

EDUCATION Minister Noel Dempsey met with teacher unions yesterday in an attempt to diffuse their fury over his plans to standardise school holidays. Mr Dempsey wants all schools to take the same holidays and mid-term breaks from next September.

A PARENTS group is to take a court challenge against the Education Act, because they claim it does not support their role as the main educators of children.

MORE than one million Irish viewers couldn’t take their eyes of this scene last week when Coronation Street serial killer Richard Hillman threatened to make his wife Gail Tilsley the next victim.

FREE Catholic education could become a thing of the past if trusts replacing religious orders who pull out of hundreds of secondary schools are not run properly.

SECONDARY school parents’ groups want the Government to give them more independence to air their views on issues affecting students after a split in their umbrella organisation.

BUDDING freshers were out of bed early yesterday morning waiting for a second round college offer, and 304 early birds had accepted their course on-line by lunchtime yesterday.

BUDDING freshers were out of bed early yesterday morning waiting for a second round college offer, and 304 early birds had accepted their course on-line by lunchtime yesterday.

PARENTS and students have called for an immediate resolution to the supervision row which could throw the start of the school year into disarray.