Re-educated by Lucy Kellaway review – straight to the top of the class

This former Financial Times columnist’s account of why, aged 57, she began a new life as a teacher in an inner London comprehensive is brutally honest, fascinating and moving

Cambridge college bans swimming at literary skinny-dipping spot

Petition signed by 8,000 after King’s College takes ‘reluctant’ step on River Cam at Grantchester Meadows

Black Teacher by Beryl Gilroy review – bigotry in the classroom

First published in 1976, this memoir by one of Britain’s first black headteachers is a vital story of survival doused in fury, humour and love

The Guardian view on English language and literature: more, please

Editorial: We must take care not to devalue a subject that helps us build a more rounded and healthier body politic

Novelists issue plea to save English degrees as demand slumps

Authors blame government ‘prejudice’ against humanities, as loss of applicants hits university courses

Edward de Bono obituary

Author, doctor and inventor of the term lateral thinking who wrote more than 60 books on his original and unorthodox theories

Oxford University Press to end centuries of tradition by closing its printing arm

Falling sales blamed as 20 jobs axed in final chapter for history of printing in the city, which stretches back to the earliest days of book publishing

The Guardian view on the art of lexicography: ancient Greek lives on

Editorial: Old languages are far from dead – and knowledge of their subtleties advances by the day

English dictionary of ancient Greek ‘spares no blushes’ with fresh look at crudity

Words Victorian-era Greek lexicon translated as ‘to wench’ or ‘do one’s need’ have been given much earthier new readings at Cambridge for modern students of classics

Katy Rudd: the high-flying director who can’t resist a risk

In the last of our series profiling rising theatre talents, the director of The Ocean at the End of the Lane shares her excitement at the return of live performance

Mary Beard to fund classics students from under-represented groups

Academic and broadcaster will give £80,000 to support two students at Cambridge as parting retirement gift

Iona McGregor obituary

Other lives: Author and teacher who was a pioneering gay rights activist in the 1970s

Salman Rushdie and Bernardine Evaristo on shortlist for more diverse UK exam texts

OCR board asks teachers to vote on books to make A-level and GCSE English courses more inclusive

Children read more challenging books in lockdowns, data reveals

Report on reading habits of more than one million children also finds they read longer books, particularly during school closures

Children’s laureates campaign for £100m a year to fix primary school libraries

Current laureate Cressida Cowell leads demands to ringfence funds to renew ‘deteriorating’ facilities that fail to appeal to students