ISC Daily News Summary

The weekend edition of the Financial Times included a feature on Eton College in the Life & Arts supplement. FT writer Harry Eyres recalls his memories from his time at the school and Eton Headmaster, Anthony Little, is quoted. Eton is also referred to in a Sunday Times feature on class.

Bold Etonians (Financial Times)
Class? No one gives a toff (Sunday Times)

'The requirement for "up to 500 development milestones" and that under 5s "be assessed on 69 writing, problem-solving and numeracy skills", is damaging to natural development and self-discovery through free play.'

No to curriculum for the under-5s (Times letters)
Curriculum shift caused problem (Independent letters)
A new school year (Daily Telegraph letters)

Chris Woodhead answers questions on bursaries and boarding schools in his Sunday Times column.

Chris Woodhead: Answer the Question (Sunday Times not online)

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) are preparing to reignite an international row as they urge fellow lecturers at their annual congress to consider whether they should sever links with Israeli universities as a result of the 'humanitarian catastrophe imposed on Gaza by Israel'. UCU will also warn today that increasing students' tuition fees will damage the education system.

Lecturers to debate breaking links with Israeli universities (Daily Telegraph)
Raising tuition fees a danger, say lecturers (Daily Telegraph not online)
‘Harm' of tuition fees (Times)
Academics reignite Israel row (Independent not online)
Israel, administration or pay? (Guardian)

Oxford University is today launching a £1.25billion fundraising drive to put it 'on a level playing field' with the leading universities in the United States.

Oxford seeks £1.25bn in donations (BBC News Online)

Saturday's Daily Telegraph reported that thousands of parents are having to pay up to £350 a year for their children to travel by bus to faith schools because some councils are scrapping free transport.

Pay for the bus to class, faith school parents are told (Daily Telegraph)

The new head of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), Lisa Jardine, says that school children should be taught about infertility as well as about avoiding pregnancy, to help them understand the difficulties they could face in trying for a family.

Sex education 'should teach about infertility' (Guardian)
Balancing act (Society Guardian)

An analysis of the government's £45billion Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme in the business section.  

Two years late, schools project is still in detention (Independent on Sunday)

A number of education-related stories from around the globe, including the news that authorities in Australia have rejected proposals to build an Islamic school in a town just outside of Sydney.

Suburban Sydney shows dark side as Muslim school row gets vicious (Independent)
Australia Muslim school rejected (BBC News Online)
India's newest graduates given final polish with lessons in the British way (Times)
School in 'Mockingbird' town faces lawsuit over racism (Daily Telegraph not online)

Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times, Daily Star, BBC News Online

Research carried out by a linguistics professor at the University of Wales suggests that children should be encouraged to send more text messages to help improve their literacy.

Texting improves literacy in children, says professor (Daily Telegraph not online)
Texting boosts children's literacy ;-) (Sunday Times)
Txting mks u clvr (Daily Star not online)
Expert says txt is gr8 4 language (BBC News Online)

Plans to tackle gang culture in and around schools have been drawn up in a report commissioned by the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT).

Teachers' manifesto to end gang culture (Independent)

Feature on home-schooling in the Sunday Times.

Lessons with mother (Sunday Times)

Final-year English literature students at Cambridge have been asked to compare the lyrics of the pop star Amy Winehouse with the poetry of Sir Walter Raleigh in their literary analysis exam paper.

Winehouse gets into Cambridge (Times)
Amy Winehouse lyrics analysed as poetry by Cambridge University students(Daily Telegraph)
Exam pits pop's lyrical prowess against Raleigh (Guardian)
Amy versus Walter (Daily Mail)
Winehouse words on English paper (BBC News Online)