ISC Daily News Summary

The Guardian has today printed a correction, admitting that its 'Under Scrutiny' article, printed in the Education Guardian on 18th December 2007 about proposals to transfer responsibility for the registration and regulation of independent schools to Ofsted, contained some errors.

Corrections and clarifications (Guardian)
Under scrutiny (Education Guardian, 18th December 2007)

Managing Director of the Edexcel exam board, Jerry Jarvis, has told MPs on the children, schools and families select committee that the new A* grade at A-level will inevitably go to independent schools and the best state schools. The committee was also told that A-levels may have lost some of their academic rigour.

Private schools 'will dominate new A-level grade' (Guardian)
A-levels 'fail to prepare bright students for degree courses' (Daily Telegraph)
A-levels are easier, say exam Chiefs (Daily Mail)

The Education Guardian reports on the battle for good school places in East Renfrewshire, which has been judged Scotland's best educational authority. According to the piece, the percentage of children going to independent schools in this area has fallen from 11% to 1.5% in a decade. ISC is referred to.

Where state schools are so good, few go private (Education Guardian)
Adopt ideas of 'pushy' middle classes if you want decent schools (Daily Express not online)

Further comment and analysis of the Charity Commission's public benefit guidance - published last week - in today's Guardian.

Only class war on public schools can rid us of this unhinged ruling class (Guardian)
The public good (Education Guardian)

The Daily Telegraph's Spy column reports that Fettes College is looking to raise £20million for a new Teaching Village, providing new classrooms for music, art, drama, modern languages and maths. The school's Elisabeth Anderson is quoted.

Old school ties (Daily Telegraph)

'Despite the fact that IGCSEs are widely regarded as more rigorous and challenging, they are not included by the DCSF when tables are constructed. Consequently, the tables are now even more unhelpful and woefully misleading than they have been to date.' Simon Davies, Headmaster, Eastbourne College.

Down with league tables! (Education Guardian letters)

The DCSF has announced that cookery lessons are to be compulsory in England's secondary schools for children aged 11 to 14. Pupils will learn to cook for an hour a week for one term and poorer pupils' ingredients will be subsidised.

Cookery classes to be compulsory (BBC News Online)
Obese teenagers to be taught how to cook (Daily Telegraph)

A survey by the Audit Commission indicates that almost a third of councils in England make more money from services such as parking, recreation, school meals and school buses than council tax.

Council charges 'raise £10.8bn' (BBC News Online)
Extra charges by councils to be encouraged, minister says (Guardian)
Families face 'stealth charges' of £1,000 a year (Daily Mail)

Ministers have re-issued an appeal for university vice-chancellors to help battle the 'serious' threat of violent extremism on some campuses. In revised guidance on the issue, academics are being urged to inform the police of any extremist behaviour by students or visiting speakers that they suspect may lead to terrorism.

Universities join battle against terror as guidelines are agreed (Times)
Extremists who prey on impressionable minds (Times)
New guidance on universities to reject separatism and ban those who preach violence (Guardian)
Muslim women 'turning to extremism' (Guardian)
Extremists turn attention to Muslim women (Daily Telegraph)
Extremists 'grooming' female students (Daily Mail)
Hate preachers can now speak in universities (Daily Express not online)
Tackle extremism, academics urged (BBC News Online)

The government is planning to fund an additional 60,000 places for first time students in England by 2011. The annual grant letter to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) also urges closer links between universities and industry.

Funding for 60,000 more students (BBC News Online)
Recruit more first-time students, universities told (Guardian)
Boost for universities (Times)

A City investment banker may face jail after posing as a university undergraduate in order to help a student cheat his way through his final-year economics exams.

City banker, 34, sat exams for student, 22 (Guardian)
City banker faces prison for taking student's place in final-year exams (Times)
City banker posed as student in economics exam (Daily Telegraph)

A Chartered Society of Physiotherapy poll reveals that more than half of this year's physiotherapy graduates are still seeking an NHS job six months after graduating.

'Few jobs' for physio graduates (BBC News Online)
Half of physio graduates fail to find a job (Daily Telegraph not online)

The Herald reports on the pay raises that have been awarded to university principals in Scotland. The Scotsman reports that the government plans to put Scottish history back into the school curriculum.

Anger at university principals' £142,000 pay rise (Herald)
Pledge to reclaim Scottish history for our children (Scotsman)
History has a future as well as a past (Scotsman)

A feature in Times2 investigates whether parents' growing fears about the safety of their children is justified.

Generation angst (Times2)

Key to good schools lies with parents (Independent letters)

A documentary on Eton College pupil Alex Stobbs, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, is previewed in the Daily Mail.

Cutting Edge: A Boy Called Alex (Channel 4)
The child prodigy kept alive by his passion for music (Daily Mail)

Today's Education Guardian also includes articles on how schools can tackle violence, maths 'tsar' Celia Hoyles and small schools.

Saturday's Daily Telegraph review supplement included a list of 100 children's books to help them develop a love of literature.

100 books every child should read (Daily Telegraph)