ISC Daily News Summary

ISC is pleased to announce the launch of its new online blog section, which will be updated regularly with announcements from ISC staff, analysis of relevant sector news and discussion pieces on a wide range of topical issues. In order to encourage debate and discussion, readers of the blog are also able to post their views and comments on the page. The latest blog presents ISC's position following the publication of the ContactPoint security review last week. We look forward to your feedback.

Financial Times

A Financial Times analysis piece focuses on the tens of thousands of middle-class parents from around the world who send their children abroad for an education at independent schools in English-speaking countries. The article looks at the various motivations behind this decision of parents from South Korea, China and Germany. Head Master of Bedford School, Dr Philip Evans, Headmaster of Box Hill School, Mark Eagers and Head Master of Harrow School, Barnaby Lenon are quoted.

Parents pay for private school privilege (Financial Times)

Daily Telegraph

Master of Wellington College, Dr Anthony Seldon, is quoted in a Daily Telegraph feature, recognising the problems arising as a result of the inconsistency of Easter holidays among UK schools this year.

School holidays? Give me a break (Daily Telegraph)

Independent

'Philip Hensher is spot on as he laments the proposed axing of the short oral exam for GCSE language students in favour of continuous assessment of oral skills by teachers.'
Alex Gordon, Head of Languages, The Arts Educational School London

Dropping oral exam devalues GCSE (Independent)

Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Scotsman

Research by Scottish Widows suggests that 55% of parents provide financial support to their grown-up children, helping them to pay school fees, get out of debt, pay off student loans and get on the property ladder.

Parents fund young adults (Daily Telegraph not online)
Business booms at the Bank of Mum and Dad (Daily Mail)
Parents 'sapped' by adult children (Scotsman)

Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Daily Express, Sun, Daily Mirror

Further coverage of the latest government truancy figures, which indicate that truancy rates have risen to their highest since 1997. The Department of Children Schools and Families (DCSF) figures also reveal that overall absence is at a record low.

Overall absence falls to record low but Young People's Minister urges schools, councils and parents to do more to target persistent absentees (DCSF)
Truancy rate hits a record level as schools reject 'weak' excuses (Times)
Truancy hits record high despite £1bn campaign to reduce it (Daily Telegraph)
63,000 truants who shame Labour daily (Daily Mail)
School truants hit record 63,000 a day (Daily Express)
Truancy soars (Sun not online)
Truancy levels hit a record high (Daily Mirror)

Daily Telegraph

Further coverage of the views of Chief Schools Adjudicator, Philip Hunter, who believes that catchment areas should be withdrawn to give children from poor backgrounds more chance of getting into the best schools.

Schools blow to middle classes (Daily Telegraph)
Independence is the way to improve state schools (Daily Telegraph)

Financial Times, BBC News Online

Figures published by the DCSF reveal that the number of people awarded vocational qualifications has risen to a record high, although the pace of growth in this year-on-year increase has continued to slow. BBC News Online reports that the construction industry needs to find 182,000 more workers in the rush to complete buildings for the 2012 London Olympics, according to the Construction Skills Network.

Record numbers of young people are qualified for work and life as target is hit a year early (DCSF)
Vocational targets in doubt despite record skill awards (Financial Times)
182,000 extra Olympic builders (BBC News Online)

BBC News Online

Students across the country are taking part in a day of protest against universities' links to the arms trade today.

Universities arms trade protest (BBC News Online)

Financial Times

Comment piece in the Financial Times following yesterday's article on government proposals to give employers new powers to shape higher education degrees.

Business studies (Financial Times)

Daily Telegraph, Times, Daily Mail

Internet safety campaign group, Childnet International, has warned that social networking websites have fuelled teenage bullying and recommended that internet firms that allow videos of so-called 'happy slappings' to be shown should face prosecution.

Bullies 'thrive on social sites' (Daily Telegraph)
Websites 'should face charges over happy-slapping videos' (Times)
Teenage bullies 'use YouTube and Facebook to torment their victims,' parents warned (Daily Mail)

Independent

A survey by the National Obesity Forum suggests that children are missing out on physical education and sport because of the pressure on primary schools to succeed in national tests.

Children lose out on PE in schools (Independent)

Herald

Glasgow Caledonian University has been ranked as the second-best university in the world for the experience of its overseas students in the latest International Student Barometer survey. The Herald Society supplement includes a feature on the new Scottish Teachers for a New Era (STNE) teacher training scheme.

Scots university is voted second best in world (Herald)
New approach to training cuts drop-put rate (Herald Society not online)
A conflict of interest (Herald Society)

TV production company Kudos Film is looking for a school to film the third series of the popular CBBC spy drama 'MI High' from mid-May to the end of September. Ideally they are looking for a school built in the 1960s or 1970s to film in classrooms, corridors, the school gym, the school hall and exteriors. If possible, they would also like to base the whole production on site with space for a number of production offices. For further information contact Ian Hogan on 07813 112098 or e-mail ian.hogan@btinternet.com.

Guardian

Students in Hull are among those affected by last night's earthquake, which measured 4.7 on the Richter scale.

From Manchester to London, quake shakes Britons out of bed (Guardian)