Generate an appropriate single-sentence summary for the given text such that it includes the main topic of the text.

By Sean CoughlanEducation correspondent But this change in exam grades could be the big breakthrough for this undervalued number. Forget top 10s. Forget 10 out of 10. Nine is fine. It's... er... number one. 1. Amps up to 11. If number 1 was the top grade, it would be difficult to go upwards, in the way that the old A grade had an upgrade to A*. There's nowhere to go beyond above a 1. But when in a few years the inevitable clamour comes that the 9 is too easy, it will be simple enough to stick up the top grade to 10. Nigel Tufnel in the classic mock rockumentary Spinal Tap explained the principle when he boasted about why the band's amplifiers went up to 11. Tufnel: "If we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?" Interviewer: "Put it up to 11." Tufnel: "Eleven. Exactly. One louder." Interviewer: "Why don't you just make 10 louder and make 10 the top number and make that a little louder?" Tufnel: "These go to 11." 2. Up to the nines. It's been ingrained that rankings run downwards in status - whether it's the pop charts going down from number one or university degree grades with first class above second and third. But it needn't be this way. Nine has its own idiomatic claims to be top. Dressed to the nines. The whole nine yards. A stitch in time saves nine. Lucky cats have nine lives. A whip with many ends is a "cat-o'-nine tails". Since ancient times, nine seems to have been associated with the horizon, the last point on a numbering system before beginning again. They all imply nine is a high point or lots of something. 3. The inevitable headline. It's only a matter of time before news stories about GCSE results have pictures of brainy, jumping triplets celebrating a string of top grades with the headline "On cloud nine." 4. Nine is a mystical number. Hinduism, the religions of ancient Greece and Egypt and Norse mythology all use nine as a significant and symbolic number. There are associations with completeness and fulfilment. On Christmas Eve, the iconic service from King's College Cambridge is Nine Lessons and Carols. The prayer cycles of "novenas" are over nine days. The pop singer John Lennon has been described as having been obsessed with the number nine. He was born on the ninth, he lived in a house with a number nine and various events in his life were associated with the number. 5. Bingo lingo. In the banter of bingo callers, number nine is "doctor's orders". There are competing theories about the origins, including that Number 9 was the name of a laxative pill given by army and navy doctors during World War Two. 6. A group of nine is called an ennead. And in geometry, an enneagon or nonagon is a nine-sided shape. Or how about that "noon" is originally from the Latin for the ninth hour? Think such uplifting thoughts, and when you hear "Nine to one", don't think about Fifteen to One or even worse, 3-2-1 and Dusty Bin. 7.Nine circles of hell. Teenagers getting their results, facing the long, tortuous struggle towards a grade 9, might feel empathy with those sinners in Dante's Inferno who face nine circles of pain and torment. 8. "How is 9 on top?" Every phrase has to begin somewhere. It will be heard muttered in homes across England, as parents try to make out whether they should be offering congratulations or commiserations. "It says 9. But 9 out of what?" 9. Nine-day wonder? Not really. The switch to using numerical grades for GCSEs is going to spread to other subjects over the next few years. And if you're looking for irony, the phrase "nine-day wonder" has been around for at least 400 years and probably much longer.
The new GCSE system in England is going to be graded from 9 to 1. But is 9 a counter-intuitive top score? Nine is the nearly-man and woman of numbers - almost, but not quite 10.

Which? said the findings - based on a survey and diaries kept by the elderly - showed a system in need of reform. The investigation found cases of missed visits, food left out of reach, medication not given and people left in soiled beds. BBC News website readers have shared their experiences of the home care system. John, Suffolk I am full time sole carer for my wife who has advanced MS. When we had to call in carers it was useless. She received home care when I was admitted to hospital. The carers made twice daily visits for 20 minutes. She was left sitting and sleeping on a sofa for three days and nights because they refused to transfer her to her wheelchair. This meant no washing, no toileting and if it hadn't been for neighbours no food. On the third day a male carer arrived who was ex-merchant navy and he finally lifted her off the sofa and helped her dress. When I was there with the carers they told me to sit and relax. But then constantly came asking me to lift my wife because they refused to lift her. They were useless so I finally told them to leave. I have had to cancel carers on other occasions because they barely could speak English and didn't seem to have a clue as how to do their job. These events occurred BEFORE the so-called economic crisis and have been endemic in the system for many years. Needless to say I'm not impressed. We haven't complained about any of the carers we've had as we believe it will only lead to us receiving worse treatment by the staff in the future. We know of people who have complained and have received worse care in response. I'm an ex-nurse and I currently do voluntary work at the local hospice. The volunteers' care and compassion in the hospice puts the home care provision to shame. If it can be done properly in a volunteer hospice it can be done properly in home care. Alan Mackinnon, Hull I am 72-years-old and have serious chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). I need care to clean my home, shop and also to bathe. The quality of care from registered agencies has left much to be desired and I have been forced to arrange my own care and fund it myself as a result. I have had quite a bit of contact with care companies and carers and it is my opinion that care companies offer very little training and do not supervise their staff. They pay as little as they can get away with and work their staff like slaves - it's unsurprising that this leads to abuses, if only due to the workers' frustration with their working conditions. I have also heard from various carers that they don't get paid for travelling time so they are always having to rush off. The people running the companies just want to make as much money as possible. Now I pay a friend privately to help me clean the flat and I pay a local chap to bring me one meal per day. I'm worried about the future as I get older and more disabled. The system needs a shake-up now. Fiona Pimm, Bristol I have worked in home care for 14 years and I can assure you that not all home care companies are like this. I now work for a small home care company and we do our utmost to make sure the times allocated to those who need care is spent with them. We do not have carers travelling from one side of town to the other - where possible we are kept in one area so we have as much time as possible with the client. Carers are spot checked on a regular basis and we have a close working relationship with family members. We have a very experienced and fully trained team of staff who are very caring and put 100% into their job role. I believe these problems that you and others are highlighting are a result of big companies taking on care packages whether or not they have the capacity to deal with them, but they do it anyway because they are only interested in making money. As a result visits are over lapped, carers are forced to travel from one side of town to the other, there are unreliable staff who constantly go off sick due to being overworked, and it's the client who suffers as a result. There are companies out there who you can really trust but finding them is a problem. There should be a proper recommendation programme in place to help people do this. Jan McCarthy, Sunderland I am a full-time carer for my mum, who has lived with me for two years. We also have a carer who comes in three times a week. She is lovely, we have no problems with her. But these carers have to rush from job to job and are given no travelling time. Our carer could be scheduled for an 08:15 visit to us for 45 minutes and then given a job at 9 at another person's house. This person may live a 15-minute walk away. The carer has to decide whether she should leave our visit or turn up late for the next person. The majority of carers seem to be paid the minimum wage and it is seen as an unskilled job, similar to being a cleaner. There is no real financial encouragement for family members to care for elderly relatives either. As a parent you are given child tax credit, but someone like myself, who has given up full-time employment to look after my parent, is given £55 a week to do so. If my mother was in care it would cost the government at least £450 per week. Cutting out these private companies and taking care back to the councils would halve the care bill in one fell swoop. Instead of allowing companies to profit from elderly care, allow better restriction and checking of quality of care given.
The consumer group Which? has described the standards of care provided for older people in their homes in the UK as "shocking and disgraceful".

By Joseph LeeBBC News Julie found out you could buy large knives on the internet when she witnessed her son brandishing one and slashing the furniture at home. In the past couple of months, she says she has had to call the police twice to their home, most recently as she was barricaded in the bathroom while her son - a young adult - tried to break down the door with a knife. Now the family are living in lockdown together, struggling with isolation, a loss of their support network and a claustrophobic atmosphere that Julie describes as a "tinderbox". She says she believes her son when he told police that he never meant to hurt her, that he just wanted her to know how angry he was. But incidents of intimidation happen two or three times a week, she says. Liam suffered trauma as a child and has learning difficulties which affect memory, emotional regulation and social skills. The family manage his aggressive outbursts with the help of a list of friends and supporters who come round at a moment's notice to help defuse tensions. But these coping techniques are threatened by the social distancing rules. Her husband has to work outside the home, so Julie says if she cannot call on these supporters, "I am very much on my own". It's not known precisely how many parents live with violence from their children. Figures compiled by the BBC last year suggest the number of incidents recorded by police doubled to 14,133 between 2015 and 2018 - but many may go unreported. 'Like living with nitroglycerine' Helen Bonnick, a former social worker and campaigner on the issue, says that international evidence suggests about one in 10 parents may experience some violence from their children, although severe incidents are more rare. Some aggressive children have problems dealing with their emotions, she says, but others are "much more manipulative and controlling, in a way that feels more like adult violence". Lockdown raises the stakes for these families, reinforcing their isolation and underlining the message to parents from violent children "that they can't go out, that they're stuck in here with them, that they can do what they want and no one will know," says Ms Bonnick. "Parents who have experienced intimate partner violence and then child-to-parent violence will often say this feels worse - because it's your own flesh and blood," she says. Neil, who lives in the east of England, says the aggression from his son, Ben, was just "cute" aged four and became worrying when he was eight. Now he is living with a teenager and "suddenly it's quite dangerous" - with Ben increasingly reaching for knives or bottles. Ben is autistic and has moderate learning difficulties as well as ADHD. The disruption to his routine caused by the coronavirus outbreak has sent his stress levels soaring and made angry outbursts more likely, his father says. "He's that much closer to boiling over constantly. It really doesn't take much for him to turn around and explode. It's like living with a bucket of nitroglycerine sometimes," says Neil. A key coping strategy before the lockdown was taking Ben for long drives, which he found calming. Now even that has become loaded with anxiety, as they fear being stopped by the police for making an unnecessary journey. "Life was hard already and Covid is making it harder," Neil says. Peter Jakob, a clinical psychologist who helps people facing this issue, says the isolation and shame that parents already feel is a major challenge in tackling violence from their children. But he says it can still be addressed, even in lockdown. Dr Jakob encourages parents to have a network of supporters who can launch what he calls a "campaign of concern" - where after an incident, a number of people contact the child using messaging or video-chatting apps like WhatsApp or FaceTime. "Most children don't want others in the community to know that they act in violent, aggressive or otherwise destructive ways," he says. If they can no longer "silence their parents" from telling others about their behaviour, they often feel forced to change, he says. 'Being visible is important' But Suzanne Jacob, chief executive of domestic abuse charity Safelives, says that parents in these circumstances need understanding from the authorities as well as from their communities. She says in some cases children have used police enforcement of the lockdown against their parents, knowing the adults will be blamed if they flout the law. "So while parents are already feeling blamed and inadequate and guilty, this situation is reiterating how little support is available to them and how much people will misunderstand the situation they're in," she says. Ms Jacob says she wants to see more acknowledgement from government that home isn't a safe place for some people, whether that's victims of abusive partners or parents with violent children. "Just acknowledging it is helpful to people. Survivors often say being acknowledged, being visible is really important - it validates that fact that this is a thing that goes on," she says. "Those messages would help people feel like they're not going mad." * Names of family members and some identifying details have been changed to protect their identities. For more information on organisations that can help if you are experiencing domestic abuse, visit BBC Action Line. Helen Bonnick's own website is holesinthewall.co.uk

For some parents, being at home with their children means facing threats, abuse and violent outbursts. How can they cope in the isolation of lockdown?

