ISC Daily News Summary
18 February 2008
In a hurry? Click on a link to go straight to a story.
Independent sector
High-flyers land in the Ivy League
Sunday Times
The Sunday Times reports that more and more bright pupils are opting for top American universities, not Oxford and Cambridge. Vicky Tuck, President of GSA and Principal at The Cheltenham Ladies' College, and Graham Lacey, deputy head at Sevenoaks School, are quoted.
More top English students opt for American universities (Sunday Times)
Independent sector
Pat Langham, former GSA President, on yesterday's BBC1 'The Big Questions'
BBC1 The Big Questions
Pat Langham was one of the 'front row' contributors to BBC1's The Big Questions on Sunday morning (17 Feb) discussing the impact of celebrity on today's youth.
Independent sector
Independent pupils are told to remove blazers for a safer walk home
Times, Evening Standard
Pupils at Highgate School in North London have been advised to remove their ties and blazers before going home to avoid being mugged. The advice comes after incidents in which pupils on their way home have been singled out by other children wanting their mobile phones, music players and wallets. Adam Pettitt, headmaster of the school, said that pupils were at their most vulnerable when they were in small groups and were so caught up in talking to each other that they failed to see trouble coming.
Independent pupils are told to remove blazers for a safer walk home (Times)
Muggings force private pupils to hide uniforms (Evening Standard not online)
General education
Pass mark in piloted school tests changed
Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Express
Widespread coverage of the news that the Government has changed the pass mark in the tests planned for 11 and 14-year-olds to ensure that more pupils pass. The tests, being piloted, could ultimately replace the current national curriculum tests, known as SATs, in England. They are designed to test pupils at a particular predicted level of attainment - whereas in the existing regime all pupils sit the same test to determine what level they have achieved.
Pass mark in piloted school tests changed (Times)
Ministers: school exam standards 'not falling' (Daily Telegraph)
New tests lower pass mark (Daily Express not online)
General education
‘Half could miss out on chosen school' in cities
As many as half of children in some areas are expected to miss out on their first choice secondary school this year. Problems will be worst in large cities such as London and Birmingham, as well as counties with grammar schools. Some of the most popular schools have 10 pupils competing for every place.
Rise expected in pupils denied school choice (Daily Telegraph)
General education
Under-5s curriculum
Most national newspapers (two links included below)
A compulsory curriculum for under-fives will seriously damage their long-term development, claims an academic. Steve Biddulph, a psychologist and author on parenting, says the "nappy curriculum" imposed on all state and private nurseries from September will backfire as children are forced into academic work too early. In a speech today, he will say it is "like ripping open a rose bud to get it to bloom". Under the Government's Early Years Foundation Stage Framework, which will apply to about 25,000 nurseries plus registered childminders, children will be expected to meet up to 500 targets between birth and primary school.
Under-fives curriculum 'will harm children' (Daily Telegraph)
New under-5s national curriculum may ‘make children go backwards' (Times)
General education
Row over oral exams
All national newspapers (all links below)
Plans to scrap oral tests in language studies sparked a new row over dumbing down of educational standards. In a forthcoming report, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority is likely to accept recommendations from a review of language teaching, which said short oral exams should be replaced by assessment by teachers over a longer period. The stress of the oral exam may be a factor in putting youngsters off studying languages, the review by Lord Dearing said. But former chief inspector of schools Chris Woodhead branded the proposal "stupid".
Education row over oral examinations (Daily Telegraph)
Pupils 'pass' language exam without speaking (Sunday Telegraph)
Oral tests look set to be dropped as ‘too stressful' (Independent on Sunday not online)
Oral tests to be dropped from language exams (Guardian not online)
‘Stressful' oral tests to face axe (Daily Mirror)
Kids to get GCSE French..without speaking French (Sun not online)
Why teenagers can say au revoir to the French oral (Daily Mail not online)
No more oral tests in GCSE (Daily Express)
Crime
Southampton hands out knife detectors to every school
Independent on Sunday, Daily Express, Daily Mail, Times, Guardian
Parents will be told that they must allow their children to be searched at any time within school premises if they want to get them into the schools of their choice, under new plans to rid Britain's classrooms of the scourge of knives. The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, will put the battle against illegal weapons at the top of her agenda when she unveils her Tackling Violence Action Plan today.
Body search plan to fight knife crime in schools (Independent on Sunday)
City hands out knife detectors to every school (Daily Express not online)
Knife detectors are handed out to every school in one city (Daily Mail not online)
You won't stop violent children now, minister (Times)
City's schools to get weapon detectors (Guardian not online)
Special Educational Needs (SEN)
Dyslexia
Times
A Times columnist writes: "The headline "Affluent are learning to exploit exam benefits for dyslexic pupils" had particular resonance for me this week. I'm the mother of two dyslexic sons and I am making a programme on dyslexia for the new series of
Am I Normal, which returns to Radio 4 next month. New figures show a 43 per cent increase in the number of GCSE and A-level papers where pupils were given special help during exams; for example, an adult reading out the questions or writing down the answers. One might applaud this, were it not for the fact that in some schools - mainly independent - 29 per cent get extra exam help, compared with 6 per cent in other schools with a similar pupil profile. The actual incidence of dyslexia (from mild to severe) is between 5-10 per cent."
Dyslexia: spelling it out (Times)
International
Sarkozy insists pupils must learn names of Nazi child victims
Times
France's wartime cooperation with the Nazi Holocaust has become the latest front in President Sarkozy's struggle to impose his ideas on an increasingly recalcitrant nation. The President has stirred up a hornet's nest with an instruction that every ten-year-old pupil should know the identity of one of the 11,000 Jewish children who were deported from France to their deaths at Nazi hands.
French pupils to learn the names of Nazi child victims (Times)
Faith
Child let off school for pagan festival
Sunday Telegraph
A primary school allowed a mother to take her child out of lessons to attend a summer festival because the family say they are pagans. Newington Green Primary, in the north London borough of Islington, gave permission for the three-day absence last June after the mother of the six-year-old argued that the child should be allowed to attend the celebrations because of her faith. Paganism, which is based on the belief that there is divinity within all living things, is not generally recognised as an official religion. The family visited the solstice festival that is held each year in Avebury, Wiltshire, near Stonehenge.
Child let off school for pagan festival (Sunday Telegraph)
Parenting
Idle parenting
Health
Pupils could be paid to eat healthy food
Daily Telegraph
Children who eat healthy food at school and take regular exercise could receive taxpayer-funded financial bonuses into their state savings accounts, suggests a health adviser to the Government. The payments into Child Trust Funds would leave healthy teenagers with more cash than their less fit peers when the tax-free policies mature on their 18th birthdays.
Pupils to be paid to eat healthy food (Daily Telegraph)
Technology & new media
Online content providers sign up to code of conduct to protect children
Higher education
Campaign to cut student drop-out rate is failing
Higher education
Cambridge makes it easier for sixth-formers to apply for a place
Guardian, Times
The University of Cambridge is to make it easier for sixth-formers to apply for a place. A spokesman said the university hoped that the move would encourage more pupils from "nontraditional" backgrounds to apply.
Oxbridge fails to boost state school intake (Guardian not online)
Cambridge aid (Times)
Letters
School intake
Letters
Letters: Chris Woodhead replies
Other
Sarah's Law
Independent on Sunday, Daily Mail, Sunday Times
Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, is to revive shelved plans to give parents the right to check with police if anyone given regular access to their children is a convicted paedophile, it emerged last night. She has agreed to trial a scheme allowing single mothers to run checks on prospective new partners to ensure they have no child-sex convictions.
'Sarah's law' comes a step nearer (Independent on Sunday)
Parents can be told of local paedophiles but can't pass it on (Daily Mail not online)
Parents to get power to check on paedophiles (Sunday Times)
Other
Asbestos
Daily Mirror
Pupils may be at risk of lethal exposure to asbestos in schools, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) has warned.
School killer (Daily Mirror not online)
Other
Stressed teachers cost £84m
News of the World
Stressed teachers took more than half a million days off work last year - costing taxpayers £84 million, according to figures revealed by the News of the World using the Freedom of Information Act.
Stressed teachers cost £84m (News of the World not online)
Other
Rock-steady chair means an end to classroom tipping
Observer
Thousands of pupils will be saved from falling over as they fidget in their seat, thanks to an untippable chair designed by maths and PE teacher Tom Wates.
Rock-steady chair means an end to classroom tipping (Observer not online)
Other
Boarding benefits
And finally...
Is it for newspapers to eduate?