At present 90 per cent of secondary pupils do just one or two weeks' work experience. The scheme, which aims to motivate young people who are bored with normal lessons, was attacked by secondary headteachers who yesterday began their annual conference in Newcastle upon Tyne.Mrs Shephard said: "Our aim must be to raise standards by improving young people's awareness of the world of work and motivating them by relating what they do at school to the world."She said the Government was also considering establishing national standards to ensure that all work experience was of high quality. Mrs Shephard has proposed that 14- to 16-year-olds might spend one day a week at work and a second day at a further education college while remaining on the school roll. Among them will be Brigitte Bardot, who said last night she might be forced to emigrate as a result of the practice.. Some 14-year-olds could be given the option of spending only three days a week at school, under plans announced by Gillian Shephard, Secretary of State for Education yesterday.

Sheep will have their throats cut by untrained slaughtermen who have been known to hack through the neck with bread knives.The slaughter is expected to attract large numbers of French protesters. They estimate that around 800 will be slaughtered at one site alone. As many as 5,000 British sheep could be involved in the practice condemned by the RSPCA as unnecessary and inhumane.A member of the undercover team told the Independent that he saw up to 500 sheep with British ear tags being marketed specifically for the festival.To mark the end of Ramadan, families from all over Paris will converge on makeshift sacrificial sites to take part in the slaughter. In previous years, the French have imported British sheep because they are cheap and there is a shortage on French farms.The most recent shipment of British sheep travelled from Dover to Boulogne on 28 March. There were 24 lorries, containing 8,495 sheep, on board the Sea Road. Exporters have to state a declared destination for the animals but those responsible for five of the lorries have so far failed to account for them.

The deadline to satisfy the Ministry of Agriculture expires next week.An RSPCA undercover team of investigators last week identified British sheep in four Muslim sites around Paris. In Britain the law governing religious slaughter is rigorously enforced.Muslim and Jewish abattoirs are permitted to carry out the practice but it is well-monitored and a veterinary surgeon must attend. The law is similar in France, as there are European Union regulations to adhere to, but under pressure from 4 million Muslims the government grants temporary exemptions for specific sites across the country in an attempt to avoid the slaughter in streets and homes. A spokesman explained that it is possible exporters have shipped sheep to France for the Eid-el-Kebir festival.''If they had put down that their sheep were going for ritual slaughter we would have to think very carefully about granting a licence,'' he said.

Two happy people must be her children, John and Caroline, who will receive the bulk of the proceeds And similarly ecstatic, of course, is Sotheby's.. Thousands of British sheep have been secretly ferried to France for a Muslim festival of ritual slaughter tomorrow which contravenes European standards. They have been taken to makeshift sacrificial sites - mainly around Paris - to have their throats slit during celebrations to mark the end of Ramadan. French police are investigating the disappearance of five cargoes of British sheep which have not arrived at their declared destinations.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has discovered that they have been smuggled to sites in France for ritual slaughter tomorrow. The Agriculture Ministry is preparing to take legal action if the exporters involved fail to prove their sheep have arrived at their declared destinations. This was how most who attended rationalised the apparent lunacy of bidders writing cheques for amounts far in excess of the intrinsic value of the items on offer History, certainly. But also sentimentality and nostalgia for a women who is still considered the only queen America has ever had.How else do you explain spending $387,500 for a antique set of golf irons in a tatty leather bag; $34,500 for a used horse saddle; or $211,500 on a three-string necklace of fake pearls. The cynics, with their snide snips about the Jackie's tat, have been silenced.What Jackie would have made of the carnival is anyone's guess.