ISC Daily News Summary

Daily Mail

Hampton School is featured in a Daily Mail piece on a recent Ofsted report, which calls for schools to provide father figures for boys. The school's English teacher, Peter Smith, is quoted, discussing the benefits of teaching boys and girls separately.

The betrayal of boys (Daily Mail)

Times

A group of authors and educationists have today accused the government of setting children up for failure through the Early Years Foundation Stage framework (EYFS). In a letter to the Times they say that ambitious EYFS targets - including using punctuation before a child turns 5 - are unrealistic and risk harming pre-school children by setting back their development. They accuse Children's Minister Beverley Hughes of ignoring her advisors and shelving research commissioned by her department because it contradicted policy.

Authors unite against early literacy (Times)
'Early learning policies should not be imposed' (Times letters)
Pre-School Choice (Times)

Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Guardian, Independent Education, Sun, BBC News Online

A letter from Children's Secretary Ed Balls to the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has emerged in which Mr Balls admits to possible 'risks' with the new online SAT tests. The Conservative party have said this latest revelation has ‘destroyed' Mr Balls' claim that he was not responsible for the crisis. Vice-president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), Lesley Ward, has said that children are being turned into 'little robots' by the primary school testing regime.

Balls wrote about 'risk' in online marking of Sats (Daily Telegraph)
The Schools Secretary should learn his lesson (Daily Telegraph)
Children becoming 'little robots' at school (Daily Telegraph)
SATs tests blamed for 'turning primary pupils into little robots' (Daily Mail)
Testing time for Balls (Guardian)
Heads must roll over the SATs debacle (Independent Education)
Sorry, Mr Balls, no holiday for you (Independent Education)
Parents: Bin SATs (Sun not online)
Schools hunting 'missing' papers (BBC News Online)

New Statesman

Large feature in this week's New Statesman magazine on how class has become more about money than upbringing. The piece refers to a time when 'you could tell whether a family was upper-middle, middle-middle, or lower-middle-class from the school its children attended.'

How cash overturned the class system (New Statesman)

Daily Mail, THE

High-profile history professor Kevin Sharpe has sparked a debate over the quality of today's degrees following an opinion piece he has written in this week's Times Higher Education (THE) magazine.

Why a degree is no sign of knowledge, by top professor (Daily Mail)
Beyond classification (THE)

Independent Education

Feature on the fact that many state schools appear to be failing to teach their pupils about the status differences between universities, and how this could potentially lower their long-term earnings.

The cost of making the wrong choice (Independent Education)

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

The Times leads with the news that parents whose children download music and films illegally will be blacklisted and have their internet access curbed under government reforms to fight online piracy.

Parents to be punished for children's net piracy (Times)
Look out, they're watching you (Times)
Internet providers to target parents of music pirates (Daily Telegraph
Illegal downloaders to get warning letter in government clampdown (Guardian)
Pirates face the music (Daily Mail)
Net firms in music pirates deal (BBC News Online)

Design lessons for schools (Guardian letters)

New Statesman

Education supplement (not online) in the New Statesman with an emphasis on vocational learning and preparing pupils for the workplace. The supplement includes an interesting analysis of the government's diplomas.

ISC has today sent the following information to journalists regarding the publication of this year's GCSE and A-level results from ISC schools: 
 

A-levels - A (test) set of A-level results will be sent to all journalists on Tuesday 19th August, followed by the full set of A-level results and press release no later than 3pm on Wednesday 20th August. This will be under strict embargo until 0001 on Saturday 23rd August.
GCSES - Will follow the same format - Test set to journalists on Tuesday 26th August, full results and press release no later than 3pm on Wednesday 27th August, under strict embargo until 0001 on Saturday 30th August.

The ISCias team will be at the CLA Game Fair at Blenheim Palace from Friday 25th - Sunday 27th July. If you are planning to attend the event, feel free to pay them a visit!

Times2

Former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq is profiled in the Times2 supplement, and reveals that, because of the financial sacrifices her parents made to give her the best possible education, she 'was the only girl at private school who couldn't afford to go on the skiing trip'.

Konnie Huq (Times2 not online)