ISC Daily News Summary

Independent, Guardian

The Independent reports that Birmingham City Council is to tell its 440 state schools that they must give as much priority to children's emotional well-being as they do to literacy and numeracy. Master of Wellington College, Dr Anthony Seldon, is referred to. Robin Alexander - the head of the Primary Review inquiry into primary education - has told a conference that adults are to blame for a decline in children's happiness because they control a commercial world which 'rams celebrity down children's throats.'

Lessons in happiness are made a priority in Birmingham (Independent)
Children have celebrity rammed down their throats, says professor (Guardian)

Times, Independent, Guardian, Daily Express, Daily Mirror

The government has announced a £5.5million scheme to build on and extend the success of dance programmes for young people. Culture Secretary Andy Burnham said the 'Strictly Youth Dancing' initiative will include a pilot scheme of specialist dance teachers in schools and six new centres of advanced dance training by 2011.

British children take steps to look better on the dancefloor (Times)
£5.5m plan to inspire new generation of Billy Elliots in schools (Independent)
Strictly dancing (Independent)
TV dancing craze fuels search for new school stars (Guardian)
Why £5m to teach dancing in school is ‘a step too far' (Daily Express not online)
Kids' £5m for dance (Daily Mirror)

Daily Telegraph, Times, Guardian, Daily Mail, BBC News Online

Various reports from the annual conference of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL). The union has warned that schools are becoming 'Orwellian' societies where CCTV cameras in classrooms monitor pupil behaviour and staff performance. Surveys by ATL reveal that pupils and parents are increasingly targeting teachers with offensive e-mails and text messages and many teachers believe that classrooms are unsuitable environments for learning.

CCTV in classroom spies on teachers, says union (Daily Telegraph)
Staff hit out at 'unfit' school buildings (Daily Telegraph)
Teachers fear rise of cyberbully parents and classroom cameras (Times)
Survey flushes out teachers' toilet complaints (Guardian)
The CCTV spies in the classroom (Daily Mail not online)
'Big brother' schooling predicted (BBC News Online)
Teachers warn over cyber bullying (BBC News Online)

Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail

Examination board OCR has announced that GCSEs in ancient history will be introduced from next September to capitalise on the popularity of Hollywood blockbusters such as '300' and 'Troy'.

Hollywood inspires a history boom (Daily Telegraph)
The Trojan course (Daily Mail)
History in the making (Daily Mail not online)

Independent, Daily Telegraph, Sun, BBC News Online

Government figures show that the number of people barred from teaching last year rose sharply following a tightening of the rules of who can work with children.

List of teachers banned rises (Independent not online)
Sharp rise in offenders banned from school work (Daily Telegraph not online)
Paedophile 'sir' purge by Balls (Sun)
Banned offender numbers rise (BBC News Online)

Daily Telegraph, Times, Daily Mail

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has warned that graduates face a bleak summer of job-hunting as companies cut back on recruitment programmes because of the crisis in the financial markets. The Times and Daily Mail report that Oxford University is to employ a police 'quad squad' to patrol its colleges.

Graduates entering a bleak jobs market (Daily Telegraph)
‘Quad squad' to patrol Oxford (Times)
Oxford University drafts in police for the first time in 900 years to monitor rowdy students (Daily Mail)

BBC News Online, Financial Times

The Learning and Skills Council - the public body currently charged with providing and improving the skills needed by a modern economy - is to be closed down 'by 2010', with most of the funds to be transferred to local authorities.

£10.4bn skills agency scrapped (BBC News Online)
Vocational training quango to be closed (Financial Times)

Scotsman, Herald

The latest figures from the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) reveal that the number of Scottish school-leavers who achieve top marks has increased. An 11-year-old boy has been denied entry to the school of his choice because he once attended a Catholic primary school.

Improved exam results draw mixed views (Scotsman)
Family fury as child denied entry to first choice school (Herald)

Guardian

To mark the fifth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq, a feature in the Guardian focuses on a school in Baghdad.

Shabby, tired and scared - the pupils who know all about the word 'enemy' (Guardian)

Today's Education Guardian includes articles on foreign students, community languages, diplomas and ‘elitism'. Today's Guardian also includes its regular education technology supplement, Link, and a supplement on teaching finance (not online).

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

Ian Usher, a former pupil of Barnard Castle School, is hoping to make a fresh start after a failed marriage by putting his entire life in Australia up for sale on the auction website eBay.

Australian auctions entire life on eBay (Daily Telegraph)
For sale: my house, my friends, my life (Times)
For Sale: My life in Oz... including a house, job, motorbike, clothes, and, of course, a barbie! (Independent)
Brit who emigrated to Australia sells his ENTIRE life on eBay after being jilted by his wife (Daily Mail)
Australian to auction off 'life' (BBC News Online)