ISC Daily News Summary

ISC is pleased to announce tomorrow's launch of our Educational Research Update e-newsletter. This is a free informative newsletter that will keep you up to date on key research related to education.  You can sign up easily to this service through the ISC website, but as subscribers to the Daily News Summary you will receive it automatically tomorrow. As part of our ongoing website and e-communications developments we have also added a new research section to our website, including a wide range of interesting information on the ISC research team and their work, which will be updated on a regular basis. 

Guardian, Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail

Research by Cambridge University, Sunderland University and the University of the West of England (UWE) suggests that children from privileged backgrounds suffer no academic disadvantage if they attend badly performing state schools, although they tend not to integrate themselves with pupils from poorer backgrounds. The research was based on the experiences of 124 families from white middle-class homes in London and two other unnamed urban areas.

White middle-class children not held back by poorer state schools (Guardian)
Privileged children excel, even at low-performing comprehensives (Times)
‘We thought of moving to get a good school but said blow it' (Times)
State schools are 'clever choice' (Daily Telegraph not online)
Affluent comprehensive pupils 'fuel class tensions' (Daily Mail)

Independent Education

Today's Independent Education supplement includes a letter on the International Baccalaureate (IB) from Headteacher of Westbourne School, Kenneth Underhill. The supplement also includes an opinion piece on the wide range of qualifications now available to young people written by former senior education adviser to Tony Blair and David Blunkett, Conor Ryan.

IB is only option (Independent Education letters)
Pupils need better advice on their options (Independent Education)

Independent Education

Television presenter and former St Michael's School and Croydon High School pupil Anneka Rice is profiled in the Independent Education supplement.

An education in the life of Anneka Rice (Independent Education)

Daily Telegraph, Times, Independent, Daily Mail, Sun, Daily Mirror, BBC News Online

Ofsted has called for languages such as Arabic, Bengali and Mandarin to be given a higher status in England's schools to enable more pupils to learn them. Ministers say they will work with training providers to widen the number of trainee teachers of world languages. The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) is calling for exam grading in modern languages to be brought into line with other key subjects because the association says it is harder to get good grades in modern languages than other GCSEs.

Bengali lessons should be as common as French, says Ofsted (Daily Telegraph)
Oral language exams are essential (Times letters)
Mandarin course for teachers (Independent not online)
Let pupils learn Bengali, says Ofsted (Daily Mail)
GCSE in language 'too hard' (Sun not online)
French is 'too hard' (Daily Mirror)
Community languages 'lack status' (BBC News Online)
Call for GCSE languages regrade (BBC News Online)

Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, Times, Independent Education, Daily Mail, Evening Standard

Chairman of the Russell Group of top universities and provost of University College London, Malcolm Grant, has warned that the international standing of some of Britain's top academic institutions is threatened by the new tax regime for foreigners living in Britain. Mr Grant believes that the removal of some of the long-standing tax privileges for non-domiciled residents will make it harder to recruit and retain staff from overseas and could threaten donations. There is also further coverage today of the news that university drop-out rates have failed to improve, despite £800million being spent on retention schemes.

Universities warn on non-dom taxes (Financial Times)
University devalued (Daily Telegraph letters)
Drop out - get some real education (Times)
Drop-out waste (Independent Education)
A degree of betrayal (Daily Mail)
Colleges blamed as a quarter of students drop out (Evening Standard)
Student unrest (Evening Standard)

Herald

Edinburgh's Queen Margaret University is to become the first in the UK to open a campus in Singapore as part of wider efforts to capitalise on the lucrative market for overseas students.

Scottish university to open campus in Singapore (Herald)

Financial Times

A National Skills Academy for financial services will open in London today to help a wider range of people find jobs in the City.

Finance academy to open in London (Financial Times)

Daily Telegraph, BBC News Online

A study by St George's University of London has found that children who eat a lot of salt also consume more sugary drinks to quench their thirst, increasing their risk of obesity.

How salty diet leads to fatter children (Daily Telegraph)
Salt 'could fuel child obesity' (BBC News Online)

Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Daily Mirror, Daily Star, Evening Standard

A former teacher at an Islamic school in London has told an employment tribunal that pupils at the school were exposed to literature inciting religious hatred.

School 'kept secret copies of race-hate textbooks' (Daily Telegraph)
‘Curriculum of hate' at Saudi school in London (Daily Mail
Muslim school 'shredded 2,000 books used for lessons in hate' (Daily Express not online)
I got sack at 'racist' academy (Daily Mirror)
Muslim school's 2000 race-hate books shredded (Daily Star)
Muslim school 'that taught pupils from race hate textbooks made photocopies after order to shred them'  (Evening Standard)

Independent

Today's Independent Education supplement also includes articles on an energy-saving school, a new pay bargaining structure for lecturers and flexible testing.

Times

The world's first museum dedicated to a language - The English Project - is to open in 2012 in Winchester as part of the Olympics cultural programme.

Museum will celebrate England's most elaborate gift to the world (Times)