Premiership champions Manchester United are to invest in a secondary school as part

Premiership champions Manchester United are to invest in a secondary school as part of the Government's specialist schools programme, it was revealed yesterday. The football club is to provide pounds 100,000 in sponsorship for Ashton on Mersey School in Trafford. Similar changes would be made for maths and science the following year."There will be much better training of markers and supervisors, a lot more compulsory checking of supervisors' work and more checks before the scripts are released to schools," she said.This year, problems were detected in May after pupils sat the tests, and a sample of 10,000 papers were held back and checked. The vast majority will have had their marks revised upwards.The number of mistakes made by maths and science markers were much smaller.

In maths, there were 1,200 complaints and just six mark changes, while in science there were 4,200 complaints and 30 mark changes.A spokeswoman for the authority said last night that marking procedures for Key Stage Three English tests would be tightened up from next year. Now officials have conceded that markers must be given more training. Fran Abrams looks at a problem which has infuriated head teachers. New rules are being drawn up on how pupils' English papers should be marked, after a total of 150,000 complaints in just three years.In 1995, the first year after exam boards were given responsibility for marking the tests, there were almost 72,000 complaints, almost 20,000 of which turned out to be valid. Last year there were just 25,000 complaints, and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority thought matters were improving.But this year, another 42,000 papers had to be remarked and 12,000 pupils - two per cent of the total - were told their results were wrong. Although a Europhile, he firmly opposes calls for a pan-European film and video classification system and is aware of the fundamental challenges the communications revolution is throwing up for film censors world-wide.Having founded an electronic publishing company he has a lot of hands on experience in this area and plans to bring it to his new role.. Almost 12,000 pupils were given the wrong grades in this year's English tests for 14-year-olds, new figures have revealed.

For this he needed a strong candidate who would open up the affairs of the BBFC and bring the rest of the board into line.Andreas Whittam Smith, the founding editor of The Independent, was finally chosen as the man for the job. The appointment is theoretically the gift of the Home Secretary but he normally accepts the board's nomination.He wanted a less Establishment figure and saw the opportunity to push through a reorganisation of the system. The difficulties faced by those who are entrusted with the nation's viewing are legion and their decisions have often caused outrage in the past. Concern about the secretive way the board reached its decisions reached its height earlier this year when the "sex and wrecks" film Crash was given an 18 certificate without cuts. This increased pressure on the Government to make the board more accountable in its dealings. Lord Birkett, a former film director and one of the board's two vice- presidents, was the original choice for president - following the resignation of Lord Harewood - but Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, intervened after discovering the guidelines covering the classification of sex videos had been unilaterally relaxed by the BBFC's director James Ferman.Mr Straw wrote to the board condemning their decision and wanting to know why the two vice-presidents had not informed him.When the time came to replace Lord Harewood, Mr Straw used his power of veto. Having founded an electronic publishing company called Notting Hill Media with his eldest son Ben, he has a lot of hands-on experience in this area and plans to bring it to bear in his new role.In Andreas Whittam Smith's own words, he "won't be asleep at the switch".. This film was later banned by some local authorities.Councils still retain that prerogative and will continue to exercise it.

"I want the board to be very in touch with local authorities," says Mr Whittam Smith.He is certainly more relaxed about elected councils in this country having some say about what films get screened in their neighbourhoods than he is about Brussels bureaucrats taking over this task.Although a Europhile, he firmly opposes calls for a pan European film and video classification system."I see this as a perfect example of an area in which the principle of subsidiarity should favour regulation by individual countries rather than EU institutions," he says.Britain's new film censor is certainly aware of the fundamental challenges the communications revolution is throwing up for film censors worldwide. His first crucial decision as president of the BBFC - a post he takes up on 1 January - will be to appoint a new director to replace the man who has effectively controlled film censorship in this country for the past two decades - American-born James Ferman. Mr Ferman, 67, sparked a major controversy this year when he approved the highly controversial sadomasochistic film Crash. Film buffs will observe that this is a fairly varied choice, but the trio have all one thing in common: none depended on extreme violence for impact.. Can Britain's new film censor make a real difference in what appears on Britain's screens, big and small? The Home Secretary obviously has high hopes that Andreas Whittam Smith can do something to stem the mounting tide of video violence. There is no evidence that sex on screen has the same harmful effect." He is referring to sex between consenting adults; of course, paedophilia is different, which is why he and his fellow board members will have to think long and hard before deciding what to do with the new version of Lolita, due for classification in this country in April."I don't know what we'll do about that one, but obviously the problem of paedophilia is at the front of many people's minds," said Mr Whittam Smith, who plans to watch the earlier adaptation of Nabokov's controversial novel before passing judgement on the latest version, starring Jeremy Irons.Whatever decision they reach it shouldn't be too long before we are told the reasons behind it.In a dramatic shift from away from its traditional policy, the BBFC will start to offer up a public explanation for its most controversial decisions.The man who championed freedom of information in his time at the helm of this newspaper is strongly in favour of such glasnost: "Obviously, we can't throw every decision open for debate as we go along, or nothing would ever get classified, but we should, retrospectively leave a trail behind us, because we have quite an influence on what people in this country get to see."He has seen three films in the past month - LA Confidential, One-Night Stand and The Full Monty - which he describes as "completely representative" of his general taste in films.