ISC Daily News Summary

The Daily Telegraph reports on plans drawn up the Fabian Society which suggest that parents should have to pay VAT on school fees.

Private school fees 'should carry VAT' (Daily Telegraph)

Guardian

A letter in the Guardian from the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) on ContactPoint, responding to last week's letter coordinated and signed by ISC and published in the Guardian. Today's letter argues that there is a need for ContactPoint. ISC will respond to once again stress the risks that the database could present.

Database will help protect children (Guardian letters)

BBC News Online, all national newspapers

The government's Children's Plan receives extensive coverage and analysis in all of today's papers. Launched by Children's Secretary Ed Balls yesterday, the 10-year plan pledges to make Britain the 'best place in the world to grow up'.

Ed Balls launches plan for children (DCSF)
‘No ball games' culture dropped in favour of playing outdoors (Times)
Two years old is far too late to start education (Times)
Fitter, happier and better educated: the hope for 2020 (Guardian)
School must start at seven (Guardian)
Weak teachers to be struck off in drive to improve children's lives (Independent)
Balls toys with the House (Independent)
Why do we allow our children to be abused by the market and the media? (Independent)
‘No ball games' culture is out in £1bn play plan (Daily Telegraph)
It takes a family to raise a child - not the state (Daily Telegraph)
Clampdown on poor teachers (Financial Times)
School, the new mum and dad (Daily Mail)
Allow us to get on with the job plead teachers (Daily Express not online)
Play-as-you-learn (Sun)
Golden, Balls? (Sun)
The swings can only get better (Daily Mirror)
Fair game for our children (Daily Mirror)
Play and learning children's plan (BBC News Online)

School inspections in England could take place with no notice under plans being drawn up by Ofsted. The chief inspector of England's schools, Christine Gilbert, has said she is 'looking at the practicalities' of such a scheme.

'No notice' school checks plan (BBC News Online)

Times

Times columnist John Morrison discusses proposals to launch a GCSE-equivalent qualification in English, which pupils could achieve without having to study any literature.

Pass an exam without reading a book - who are you bluffing? (Times)

John Wheatley College in Glasgow is profiled in the Education & Learning section of the Scotsman. Despite the college's excellent work for its deprived community, it is likely to lose its charitable status due to its ultimate responsibility to government.

Don't let this beacon of regeneration fall foul of charity laws (Scotsman not online)

Figures from the Scottish government reveal that increasing numbers of pupils are going straight into jobs after leaving school, rather than going to university.

Increase in pupils choosing jobs over university (Scotsman)

Radical changes have been urged by Sir Adrian Webb, former vice-chancellor of the University of Glamorgan, in the way post-14 education is delivered in Wales in order to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs).

Post-14 education shake-up call (BBC News Online)

A report by the charity New Philanthropy Capital suggests that children who could benefit most from out of school clubs are least likely to have access to them, with young people on free school meals being less likely to participate in after school activities than those from more affluent homes.

Poor 'shut out by school clubs' (BBC News Online)

BBC News Online

Internet search engine Google has launched a website with resources and news for teachers which, it claims, will support lessons in history, geography and citizenship. The free online materials show how to adapt Google Maps and Google Earth for classroom use.

Google: UK schools (Google)
Google enters UK schools market (BBC News Online)

Times, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Independent, Daily Express

A study by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex shows that having children does not increase life satisfaction in men and only makes women happier once the children are at school.

Working mums 'are happier than those at home' (Times)
The birth of the blues (Daily Mail not online)
Children 'don't make us happy' (Daily Telegraph not online)
Children reduce men's happiness (Independent not online)
Parents in the doldrums (Daily Express not online)

The higher education system of Poland is analysed in a Financial Times special report supplement.

Schools: Standing by for shake-out in higher education (Financial Times)

Alexis Lemaire, who has been described as a human calculator or 'mathlete', has broken his own mental arithmetic world record by working out the 13th root of a random 200-digit number in 70.2 seconds.

The human calculator gets back to his roots (Guardian)
And the answer is...2,407,899,893,032,210 (Daily Telegraph not online)
Alexis: Human calculator (Sun)
Mental calculation record broken (BBC News Online)