ISC Daily News Summary

National Director of the Boarding Schools' Association (BSA), Hilary Moriarty, has a letter published in today's Independent Education supplement on the subject of charitable status. The supplement's diary column also refers to Rugby School and how it is raising money online for the Arnold Foundation. Letters in the Guardian debate independent schools, including a letter from Headmaster of Moor Park, Mike Piercy. A comment piece in Country Life magazine analyses the public benefit issue.

Charitable status (Independent Education letters)
Education diary (Independent Education)
Public schools: is the writing on the whiteboard? (Guardian letters)
Don't knock education excellence (Country Life not online)

Winchester College English teacher, Katy Steinmetz, points out the strengths of the IGCSE in an online comment piece.

In defence of the IGCSE (Guardian online only)

Lord Mayor of the City of London and former pupil of Dragon School and St Edward's School, David Lewis, is profiled in the Independent Education supplement.

An education in the life of David Lewis (Independent Education)

An Office for Fair Access (Offa) report says that £96m was given to students in bursaries in 2006/07, but up to 12,000 students failed to claim bursaries they were entitled to receive. This has resulted in universities under-spending by around £19m. The Daily Mail reports that, by 2010, young people aged 16 or over who want to open bank accounts or apply for student loans could be forced to obtain an ID card.

12,000 students miss chance of bursaries worth up to £12m (Guardian)
Universities fail on bursary pledges (Times not online)
Students lose out on financial help (Independent not online)
Student bursaries 'go unclaimed' (BBC News Online)
Students miss out on £19m (Daily Mail)
Students to be 'blackmailed' into getting ID cards (Daily Mail)

Ministers have proposed that school lunchboxes should be monitored and parents should be given strict advice on limiting the amount of time children spend playing on a computer as part of a drive to tackle obesity. There is also further coverage of the government's compulsory cookery lessons plan.

Health checks on pupils' lunches (Daily Mail not online)
Parents told to police their PCs to make children more active (Daily Telegraph not online)
Teaching cookery will help children to understand about food and its origins (Daily Telegraph letters)
Cooking needs time. So does teaching it (Independent)
Add a dash of reality to cooking lessons for microwave generation (Independent letters)
It's easy to put together a healthy school lunch box (Daily Express not online)

Further debate surrounding Conservative leader David Cameron's views on parents who 'pretend' to have Christian beliefs in order to obtain places at faith schools.

Baptised last year - how convenient (Times)
Faking faith for an education (Times letters)
Are you an 'active citizen'? (G2)

A Year 11 pupil discusses depression among teenagers in an Independent comment piece.

When teenagers lose touch with reality (Independent)

A teacher discusses yesterday's reports on comments made by Dr Leonard Sax, who believes that boys and girls should be educated in separate classes.

Yes, schools ARE biased against boys (Daily Mail not online)

Today's Independent Education supplement also includes articles on the potential teachers' strike, Summerhill School and New Year university courses.

A story based on the Three Little Pigs fairy tale has been turned down by a government agency's awards panel because 'the use of pigs raises cultural issues'.

Three Little Pigs 'too offensive' (BBC News Online)
Three Little Pigs 'could offend builders, Muslims' (Daily Telegraph)
Three Little Pigs blown out of awards (Daily Mail)
Schools must ban Three Little Pigs (Daily Express not online)
Little Pig story snub for Muslims (Daily Mirror)