A tour of local ‘wins’ shows how the charity Citizens UK is working with residents to build a better, fairer society

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• Communities are our defence against hatred. Now, more than ever, we must invest in hope

Dashing through the snow with Father Chris … It does not get any more seasonal, even if it feels like there might be a final syllable missing. To be honest we are not really dashing, it’s more a leisurely walk-and-talk, around North Shields. And the snow, the remnants of an early Tyneside flurry, is patchy and dirty rather than deep and crisp and even.

Father Chris is real though – Father Chris Hughes, Catholic priest; the diocese is a strategic partner for the local chapter of Citizens UK, one of five charities supported by this year’s Guardian charity appeal, under the theme of “hope”. The appeal supports grassroots voluntary groups that nurture community pride and positive change, providing an antidote to division and hate.

Guardian readers share their views on a proposed shorter working week for educators

As a teacher who already works four days (albeit I don’t get paid for the fifth), I can wholeheartedly say it has transformed my relationship with the job (‘Bring it on!’: growing support in England for four-day week in schools, 9 December). I no longer have the dread of weekends and holidays with insurmountable mountains of work. The move to a four-day teaching week would need to be thought about carefully.

I, for one, would not want to have one full day out of school – this would mean four straight days of teaching. In most schools, a day not teaching would equate to five planning, preparation and assessment periods (PPAs).

Bridget Phillipson says £3bn scheme focussed on local state schools will ‘transform lives’, after rise in parent appeals

The government is to invest £3bn in creating bespoke places within local state schools for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), a crucial part of its efforts to grapple with England’s rising numbers of children facing social and mental health problems.

The plan announced by Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, to create up to 60,000 places within mainstream schools, will be partly funded by the suspension of a group of planned free schools, saving an estimated £600m in the coming years. The remaining £2.4bn will come from departmental spending outlined in November’s budget.

Qualifications watchdog launches consultation amid complaints from pupils about writing fatigue in exams

Students could be sitting some of their GCSEs and A-levels on a laptop by the end of the decade, according to England’s qualifications watchdog.

Amid complaints from pupils of writing fatigue in exams because their hand muscles “are not strong enough”, Ofqual is launching a three-month public consultation about the introduction of onscreen assessments.

More than £10bn was committed to building new schools between 2014-15 and 2023-24, compared with £6.8bn for rebuilding existing schools

Conservative governments spent £325m creating 67 free schools that subsequently failed or disappeared, many through lack of demand, according to data revealed by a freedom of information request.

The figures from the Department for Education (DfE) show that the government committed more than £10bn to building new schools between 2014-15 and 2023-24, compared with £6.8bn for rebuilding existing schools, which critics say left England with a backlog of crumbling and decaying buildings.

Seven brainteasers feature in intelligence agency’s 2025 Christmas card, with covers designed by UK school pupils

A warning from the spies at GCHQ: a robber is on the loose, intent on stealing Christmas presents. Luckily, he won’t find it easy.

The robber’s target, according to the British intelligence and security agency, is a house with a large number of rooms, each of which has a letter, which are linked to each other by coloured doors and arrows. He can’t go through the same-coloured door twice in a row, and can’t move against any arrows. Eventually, the robber is caught by the police. How was he acting?

Report finds children at Mossbourne Victoria Park traumatised by disciplinary measures ‘designed to humiliate’

Staff at a London academy instilled a “climate of fear” among pupils, with a drive for academic success likely to have harmed vulnerable children including those with special needs, according to a damning independent investigation.

The report by Sir Alan Wood, one of the country’s foremost experts in children’s services, found that staff at Mossbourne Victoria Park Academy (MVPA) routinely used measures “designed to humiliate pupils”, frequently shouting at them and isolating them in corridors as part of “a harsh and damaging disciplinary culture”.

Teaching methods | Holly stripped bare | Cricket in state schools | Flat Earth Society physics prize | Impact School of Motoring

As a retired teacher with family and friends who are still in the profession, I must take exception to John Harris’s assertion that our current method of education consists of “standing in front of 30 kids and shouting at them for an hour” (The right’s callous overdiagnosis bandwagon is rolling. Wes Streeting should not be on it, 7 December). At no point in my career would this have been regarded as an acceptable method of teaching any children, regardless of their individual needs or learning styles.
Jane Caley
Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands

• Susie White was lucky to find holly with berries (Country diary, 8 December). The one in my front garden had had the inner berries eaten by wood pigeons some time ago, and now the rest have gone – after a flock of redwings took the ones at the ends of the branches that the fat pigeons couldn’t get to. Not a single flash of scarlet remains.
Copland Smith
Whalley Range, Manchester

Why proposals for a shorter working week are winning over teachers and parents – despite the logistical headaches

“A wonderful idea”, “Bring it on!”, “Yes!”, “Brilliant!”, “Absolutely”. If enthusiasm were all it took to change policy, a four-day week in England’s schools would be all but guaranteed.

A Guardian report this week saying that the 4 Day Week Foundation has urged the government to pilot a four-day working week in schools in England and Wales to boost teacher wellbeing and recruitment attracted hundreds of thousands of readers.