ISC Daily News Summary

Sunday Times

Headmaster of Brighton College, Richard Cairns, is quoted in the Sunday Times review supplement as part of a feature on three of the school's sixth-formers, who have been given full scholarships.

A brighter life for the new Pygmalions (Sunday Times)

Sunday Telegraph

The Sunday Telegraph includes a feature on the Royal Ballet School in which teacher David Peden is quoted.

Called to the barre (Sunday Telegraph)

Sunday Times magazine, Daily Mail

A selection of photographs on life at Eton from a new book by photographer Ian Macdonald. Ian spent a year at Eton to capture the images for the book, which costs £30 plus £6 postage and packaging. E-mail irmacdonald@supanet.com for further information. In the Daily Mail, journalist Sarah Sands shares her fond memories of her time at boarding school in the run up to the release of the new 'St Trinian's' film.

Boarding cool (Sunday Times magazine)
Eton in pictures (Sunday Times magazine)
Confessions of a St Trinian's tearaway (Daily Mail)

Times, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, Independent, Guardian, Observer, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Sun, Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, BBC News Online

Extensive coverage of the government's 10-year Children's Plan, which will set new policies for all aspects of children's lives. Launching the plan tomorrow, Schools Secretary Ed Balls is expected to announce: an overhaul of national curriculum tests and league tables; all primary school children will learn a foreign language; parents will be encouraged to take a more active role in their children's education; free nursery care for children as young as two; and five hours of cultural learning and activity for pupils every week. Mr Balls is also expected to launch an inquiry into the commercialisation of childhood, coinciding with the publication of a National Union of Teachers (NUT) study, which says that the increasing commercial exploitation of children is fuelling a rise in bullying, obesity and depression among Britain's youngsters.

Tailored testing for pupils at primaries (Times)
Shake-up in primaries to do away with exam culture (Daily Telegraph)
Bullying and illness 'caused by exploiting children' (Daily Telegraph)
Society has left children at the mercy of the marketing men (Daily Telegraph)
The elderly are being set free - but children are being shackled (Daily Telegraph)
Parents targeted to boost children's education (Daily Telegraph not online)
Heads lash out at the 'tyranny of testing' (Sunday Telegraph)
Probe into effect of TV ads on children (Sunday Telegraph)
School testing regime relaxed (Independent)
The dangers of over-reach (Independent)
It will take more than tests to get children to read (Independent)
Tests overhaul will give children second chance (Guardian)
Government bid to reshape childhood (Guardian)
Pupils to get five hours of art lessons a week (Observer)
SATs at 11 are to be scrapped in blitz on curriculum 'clutter' (Daily Mail)
Standards in our schools rising? No, it's all Balls! (Daily Mail)
Balls will offer free nursery places for children aged two (Daily Mail not online)
Sats axed in school shake-up (Daily Express)
Every kid will learn new lingo (Sun)
Sats enough (Daily Mirror)
10/10 for effort, Ed (Daily Mirror)
Parents told to help teach kids (Sunday Mirror)
Primary curriculum to be reviewed (BBC News Online)

Observer, Daily Telegraph, Guardian

The General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), Mick Brookes, says Britain's schools are facing a crisis as the 'baby boomer' generation of head teachers approaches retirement with a shortage of replacements. The Guardian reports on a study by the Royal Society, which suggests that the government does not know the true scale of the shortage of science teachers in UK schools.

Schools crisis as head teachers quit (Observer)
Fears over shortage of head teachers (Daily Telegraph not online)
Science teaching course drop-out rates 'high' (Guardian)

Daily Mail

The Daily Mail reports that the government has dropped a plan to make it easier for parents to force grammar schools to abandon selection.

Great grammar U-turn (Daily Mail)

BBC News Online

BBC News Online reports that ministers in Scotland are being urged to undertake a radical shake-up of Scottish education. A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), due to be published tomorrow, is to call for testing of more pupils, the abolition of Standard Grades and the launch of a new broad-ranging leavers certificate. The Daily Mail reports that part-time students living in Scotland are to receive grants of £500.

Call for major education shake-up (BBC News Online)
English to fund £500 grants for Scottish students (Daily Mail)

Daily Telegraph, Observer, Sunday Times, Daily Mail, News of the World, People

In a book to be published next month, author and academic Carol Platt Liebau says that teenage girls would rather be attractive than clever. Schools Secretary Ed Balls has hailed Margaret Thatcher and the Spice Girls as inspiring role models for young girls.

Modern girls putting beauty before brains (Daily Telegraph)
Alice's experiments in wonder land (Daily Telegraph)
Today's girls prefer to look sexy rather than be clever (Observer)
Feeding our girls a lifetime of angst (Sunday Times)
Maggie and the Spice Girls are such an inspiration, says Balls (Daily Mail)
A load of Balls (News of the World not online)
Labour...girls should grow up like Maggie (People)

BBC News Online

Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe is hoping to increase the number of schools offering boxing to pupils if a pilot scheme in Sheffield proves to be successful.

Minister backs boxing in schools  (BBC News Online)

Mail on Sunday

A pilot scheme aiming to promote financial education in schools is profiled in the Mail on Sunday's Financial Mail supplement.

Listen class...money talks (Mail on Sunday not online)

 

Real education

Times

'A public debate is needed on the nature of real education and its effective implementation through school teaching.'

Real education (Times letters)

 

Apprenticeships and numeracy

Daily Telegraph

Modern apprenticeship (Daily Telegraph letters)
Death of numeracy (Daily Telegraph letters)

Observer, Evening Standard

A primary school in Rochdale has banned children from giving Christmas cards to their friends, telling pupils they should send one card to their entire class instead.

School bans Christmas cards in class (Observer)
Children's panto axed to make time for exam work (Evening Standard)

Times

Nine of the gargoyles that sit atop the Bodleian Library at Oxford University are to be replaced with more attractive versions as part of a competition to celebrate Oxford's millennium.

The newer, kinder face of Oxford's gargoyles (Time)