News from Barnardos: The Fair Education Alliance is a new coalition for change in education comprising 25 of the UK's leading organisations. Its aim is to work towards ending the persistent achievement gap between young people from our poorest communities and their wealthier peers.

Committed to this common goal, the Alliance will both work collectively to find long term solutions to address educational inequality, as well as annually monitor the progress made to narrow the gap.

There are five Fair Education Impact Goals created after consultation with over 1,700 teachers and leading experts, charities, businesses and teachers, the goals follow the educational journey of a child:

1. Narrow the gap in literacy and numeracy at primary school
2. Narrow the gap in GCSE attainment at secondary school
3. Ensure young people develop key strengths, including resilience and wellbeing, to support high aspirations
4. Narrow the gap in the proportion of young people taking part in further education or employment-based training after finishing their GCSEs
5. Narrow the gap in university graduation, including from the 25% most selective universities, by 8%

More here http://www.barnardos.org.uk/news/25_organisations_Launch_Landmark_Bid_to_End_Education_Inequality_/latest-news.htm?ref=97565&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Barnardo%27s&utm_campaign=4432011_Copy+of+Enews+July+2014&dm_i=1K6H,2MZRF,F7WU8N,9N1VP,1 

A generous $150,000 donation from RSAM will support a Rettsyndrome.org approved grant to Dr. Michela Fagiolini's project at the Boston Children's Hospital: 'Assessing NMDA receptor (NMDAr) modulators to ameliorate cortical regression in Rett syndrome'

Rajat Shah, Rettsyndrome.org Chairman of the Board, commented,

Rett Syndrome Association of Massachusetts has been a strong partner of Rettsyndrome.org for many years now. We are grateful and honored to grow our partnership in this significant way and take our collaboration to the next level. It will allow us to be more effective in reaching our common goal, developing treatments for our children, faster.

Information here - http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-08/irsf-rsa080614.php

Join Together for Short Lives at their UK practitioners conference:

Living Matters for Dying Children - delivering care, quality and compassion for children with life-limiting conditions

- in Birmingham (UK) on 14 & 15 April 2015, where we will lead the sector to deliver lasting change for babies, children and young people with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions, and their families.

Over 2 days we will:

• explore new and pioneering approaches to delivering care and support to babies, children and young people and consider how we can extend our reach to more families in need
• consider what we need to put in place to support a sustainable workforce to be able to deliver the best care today and in the future
• address the growing needs of young people making the transition from children's to adult services
• investigate the changing end of life care landscape and the necessary tools and resources to ensure all children are able to have a "good" death
• showcase the latest approaches to delivering social care and clinical care to babies, children and young people
• examine safeguarding and child protection matters

Find out more at: http://www.togetherforshortlives.org.uk/professionals/events/4572_living_matters_for_dying_children