ISC Daily News Summary

Brief article in the Times on the news the registration and regulation of independent schools will remain the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families rather than being transferred to Ofsted, as originally proposed. ISC Chairman, Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas, is quoted.

Schools plan rejected (Times)

The Independent and Daily Telegraph report that a total of 50 schools - including 15 state-maintained schools and colleges - will offer pupils the new Cambridge Pre-U when it becomes available for the first time in September. Reference is made in the Daily Telegraph to Charterhouse, Dulwich College, Epsom College, Eton College, Leweston School, Sherborne School, Rugby School, Shrewsbury School, Walthamstow Hall, Sevenoaks School and Winchester College, who will all be offering the qualification.

State schools join the revolt against 'too easy' A-levels (Independent)
Schools drop A-levels in favour of Pre-U (Daily Telegraph)

Further coverage of the Sats marking crisis, including an interview with Children's Secretary Ed Balls in the Independent. The Daily Telegraph reports that a quarter of pupils who took English Sats exams are still waiting for the results a fortnight after they were due to be published.

SATs? It's gas prices that could wreck Brown's autumn, warns his greatest ally (Independent)
Worst is yet to come for Brown, says Balls (Independent)
Quarter waiting for English Sats results (Daily Telegraph)
Exams head condemns too much meddling (Daily Telegraph)
Another bad day for school swot (Daily Telegraph)
Balls defies Tory calls to quit over the SATs fiasco (Daily Mail)
Exams 'are undermined by meddling ministers' (Daily Mail)
Balls: Don't blame me for Sats chaos (Daily Express not online)
No joy on lost tests (Sun)
Schools still wait for Sats marks (BBC News Online)
Morris tells Balls to reform Sats (BBC News Online)

A report by education pressure group Edge claims that the number of vocational qualifications taken in UK schools has almost doubled in a year to 155,000.

Schools adopt vocational courses (BBC News Online)
Vocational awards increase sharply (Financial Times not online)

A report by Ofsted, which looked into the under-achievement of white boys from low-income homes, has recommended they need action-packed stories about danger or sport to inspire them in lessons and schools should provide them with father figures.

Deprived white boys need ripping yarns, says Ofsted (Times)
The boys who need a father figure at school (Daily Mail)

A study by Principality Building Society suggests that British parents hand over £4,300 a year to fund their children through university - but more than 80% of the money is spent on partying and having fun.

Parents fund student fun (Daily Express not online)
University students blow 80% of cash from parents on living it up (Daily Mail)

Plymouth city council has banned its primary school pupils from putting cheese on their baked potatoes as part of a healthy eating drive.

Pizzas, yes, but no cheese with your potato (Daily Telegraph not online)
Schools ban cheese on jacket potatoes in drive to tackle obesity (Daily Mail)
Favourite off school menu (Daily Express not online)
Kids cheesed off by potato ban (Sun)
School ban for cheese over spuds (Daily Mirror)

A comprehensive school in Lancashire has told its female pupils not to use fake tan in a bid to stop them turning 'orange'.

Stop using fake tan, pupils told (Daily Telegraph)
'Orange' pupils prompt crackdown on craze for fake tan (Independent)
‘Save our girls from the orange-tan look' (Daily Mail)
Future's NOT orange as school bans fake tans (Daily Express)
Class war on 'orange' kids (Daily Mirror not online)