ISC Daily News Summary

Daily Telegraph, Financial Times

A comment piece in the Daily Telegraph praises the independent education sector, describing it as a 'national asset'.

Tories need an education policy - here's one to benefit everyone (Daily Telegraph)
Policy Exchange powers party's 'liberal revolution' (Financial Times)

Country Life

Arts patron and former Blundell's School pupil Sir Christopher Ondaatje is interviewed in this week's Country Life, stating how his education in an independent school set him up for life.

Education is everything (Country Life not online)

Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Daily Mirror, BBC News Online

The latest research from the Sutton Trust suggests that pupils from state schools are missing out on £90,000 salaries because their teachers refuse to push them towards elite universities. The survey of more than 3,000 young people found half of those at state schools were unaware they could possibly get a better paid job if they had a degree from one of the 20 research-intensive Russell Group universities. However, two thirds of those educated in fee-paying schools said they were aware of the earning potential attached to different universities.

State school pupils fail to recognise differences in universities' earning powers (Sutton Trust)
State pupils are missing out on £90,000 salaries (Daily Telegraph)
Graduate pay gap between top universities and ex-polys (Guardian)
State school kids missing out on £90K salaries (Daily Mirror)
Pupils unaware of university rank (BBC News Online)

Times

'It seems to be only ministers that are concerned with integrating working-class children with middle-class ones.'

Stick to your own (Times letters)

Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Independent, Daily Mail, Sun, Daily Mirror, Daily Star

Ministers moved yesterday to scrap pupil referral units for disruptive pupils and replace them with specialist centres run by private companies, charities and academies.

School sin bins for children aged five (Daily Telegraph)
Sin bins for pupils to be scrapped (Guardian)
Disruptive pupils to be sent to specialist ‘sin bins' run by private companies (Independent)
Pupils aged five get a spell in the sin bin (Daily Mail)
‘Sin bins' for pupils at age 5 (Sun)
Bad kids to go to units (Daily Mirror)
Schools to sin-bin bad kids (Daily Star not online)

BBC News Online

The government has defended plans for the new school diplomas amid concerns that fewer teenagers than expected are choosing the courses. Ministers are to publish figures showing how many pupils will start the first five diplomas - which combine theory with work experience - when a national pilot begins in September. But supporters of the scheme said they believed the number would be significantly lower than the 40,000 teenagers the government had originally hoped for. The university admissions service Ucas has told BBC News Online that more than 100 higher education institutions have now provided statements backing the new diplomas.

Diploma take-up lower than hoped (BBC News Online)
More universities back Diplomas (BBC News Online)

Times

Exam board Edexcel has announced a new commercial service for schools that could involve teenagers sitting scores of online practice tests in the build-up to their GCSEs. However, critics fear that the new service will add to the enormous burden of testing, which already dominates children's education, and turn schools into 'battery farms'.

Exam board 'battery farm' for GCSE pupils (Times)

Herald

The Herald reports on a new social business that has been set up in Scotland, which links companies up with schools and puts pupils to work on a problem.

The kids are always right (Herald)

At the 2008 ISBA Annual Conference, ISC Head of Research Pru Jones presented new data on the responsiveness of the demand for independent education to changes in fees and parental incomes. While the data are a first cut, they reveal interesting relationships between day and boarding markets and how pupil numbers respond to changes in fees. The session focused on the importance of benchmarking, illustrating how ISC successfully uses member school data to lobby government and the media. The presentation and accompanying notes are now available on the ISC website in the research section.

G2

A G2 comment piece suggests the spelling of English should be simplified, as the government in Portugal has just voted to do with Portuguese. The writer argues: 'Instead of bemoaning children's waning spelling aptitudes, and blaming teachers, syllabuses and the malign effect of text messaging, let us put the blame where it belongs: an insane spelling system.'

Let's write our language as we speak it (G2)