This week's UK news: 10 May 2016
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10 May 2016


New Mayor for London

Boris Johnson has been London's Mayor for the last eight years, and is well-known for his untidy blond hair and his willingness to get news headlines. This week there was an election to find a new Mayor for London, and the winner is London-born Sadiq Khan.

Mr Khan is the first Muslim Mayor of a capital city in the European Union and he comes from a very ordinary background. He is one of eight children, and his dad was a bus driver and his mum a dressmaker. 

 

The small boat with a silly name

The London election is not the only vote in the UK in recent weeks. We also got the chance to vote for the name of a specialist research ship. The biggest number of votes - more than 100,000 were for the joke name Boaty McBoatface.

However, the government has decided not to accept this name for a ship costing GBP 200m. Instead, the boat will be given the name which came fourth in the poll and be called after Sir David Attenborough. Sir David is a well-known and much-loved TV presenter of nature programmes, and it was his 90th birthday at the weekend.

The ship will have a tiny submarine on board, operated with remote controls. This will be called Boaty McBoatface.

 

Leicester City celebrate winning the Premier League

It was Leicester's big day on Saturday, when they could celebrate winning the Premier League at their home stadium and then play their final game. 

They had a fantastic party on the pitch, with Italian opera singer Andrea Bocelli singing Nessun Dorma in a team shirt, plenty of fireworks and flags, and the trophy. And they also beat Everton 3-1, with striker Jamie Vardy scoring two of the goals (and just missing another). We will all see a lot more of Leicester next season, as they have qualified for the European Champions League.

 

School tests in the news

There have been a lot of stories in the news about the tests English schoolchildren take at the ages of 7 and 11. The tests have changed a lot this year and are more difficult.

First of all one of the tests for seven year-olds was cancelled because it accidentally appeared on a website with sample papers. Then the education minister was asked a question for 11 year-olds on the news - and got it wrong. And this week, another test paper for 11-year-olds was accidentally put on to a website where it shouldn't have been. The education minister has had to make a statement in Parliament about this, but it has been decided that the test will go ahead.

 

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