What the papers say

Journalist Keith Baker takes a look at what is making the headlines in Monday's morning papers.

It's back to school - or even the start of school - for thousands of children.

The Belfast Telegraph has pictures of some unusual first-timers.

The McHenry triplets from Ballycastle - Charlie, Frank and Christie - who will be off to Saint McNissi's College in Carnlough for the first time.

The four-year-old Loughran twins from Cabra who are starting primary one on Monday morning.

Their mother tells the paper she will feel a bit lonely without them.

New term

As for what the children will find when they get there, the News Letter says "pupils and teachers start today amid uncertainty over key planks of education policy, including the future of selection".

It lists some of the other problems - confusion over the scrapping of the education boards, hundreds of planned school closures, as well as a new curriculum and other initiatives.

The paper says "Education Minister Catriona Ruane faces some tough examinations in the months ahead".

The Mirror and the Belfast Telegraph give their main headlines to a pipe bomb attack on a house in west Belfast, noting that a seven-year-old boy with cerebral palsy was injured.

"They don't care who gets hurt," says the Telegraph headline.

The Mirror says "the thugs who left the bomb should be taken out of society for a long time".

It says "there is no room for them in the future of a peaceful Northern Ireland".

The Irish News reports that a court case linked to the first fatal shooting by the PSNI four years ago could lead to details of a security force surveillance operation being revealed.

Neil McConville was fatally wounded when police opened fire on a car outside Lisburn. With him in the vehicle was David Somers.

He faces charges of possessing a shotgun but he tells the Irish News "he thinks the charges will be dropped in order to prevent information about the operation being made public".

General election

Much speculation in the cross channel papers about a general election.

The Daily Telegraph has an interview with Gordon Brown in which he tells Conservative voters that he "intends to be a prime minister who includes them in his government and acts on their behalf".

The paper thinks "this is a clear sign that he is preparing for an election next month".

Several papers report on the resignation of the Conservative Party deputy treasurer who has apparently accused David Cameron of "lurching to the right".

Melanie Phillips in the Mail says moving to the right isn't the problem, it's the "lurch" bit.

Florence Nightingale

But another columnist, Bruce Anderson writing in the Independent, says Mr Cameron doesn't do lurches.

He says he is "sticking to a plan worked out in 2004 in which he sought to rebrand the party before moving on to grittier issues".

A bit of history in the Guardian which digs up some new information about Florence Nightingale, shedding new light on the lady with the lamp.

We all know the legend about all the care she gave to wounded soldiers in the Crimean War.

But new letters have appeared written by her greatest enemy - the Army's chief medical officer at the time - who denounced her as a "publicity-seeking meddler and said the press were wrong to credit her with all the good work being done by his department".