ISC Daily News Summary

Saturday's Daily Telegraph included an article on the £65million annual profit made by the collective voluntary efforts of British parents, raising funds for their children's schools. The piece makes reference to Blackheath High School, Prior's Field School, Putney High School and Bromley High School. Head Teacher of Bromley, Lorna Duggleby, and Headteacher of Blackheath, Lisa Laws, are quoted.

How to tap the £65m well of parent power (Daily Telegraph)

Oxbridge is better preparation for Westminster than for real life

Independent

'The plain fact is that the better independent schools provide a far superior preparation for aspiring Oxbridge entrants to that available at most comprehensive schools.'

Oxbridge is better preparation for Westminster than for real life (Independent letters)

There are hazards in early learning

Times

'What needs to be done is to tackle the problem before the child starts formal education by, for example, home visits, parenting classes etc; in short, teaching parents.'

There are hazards in early learning (Times letters)

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has announced that the company at the centre of the school test fiasco has been banned from overseeing the remarking of papers. The National Assessment Agency (NAA) has taken over the role, despite the government having paid American firm ETS £165million to oversee it for the next five years. The Daily Telegraph reports that schools face charges of hundreds of pounds for appealing against the test results.

Exam watchdog takes over re-marking in test fiasco (Times)
New Sats blow as US firm is relieved of re-marking (Guardian)
SATs company barred from pupils' appeals (Independent)
Sats fiasco will cost schools hundreds in appeal charges (Daily Telegraph)
Curb on school tests company (Financial Times)
Firm in SATs turmoil is banned from re-marking (Daily Mail)
SATs yer lot (Sun)
Firm responsible for the Sats test fiasco gets boot (Daily Mirror)
Sats firm elbowed out of appeals (BBC News Online)

Chairman of teaching union Voice, Andrew Broadhurst, says that teachers barely understand the government's new diploma qualification, despite being expected to teach the courses in just over a month's time. Mr Broadhurst was speaking at his union's annual conference, where there were also calls to ban Wi-Fi in classrooms amid fears millions of children are being exposed to a risk of cancer.

New diplomas in chaos weeks before launch (Independent)
Teachers still in the dark over new diplomas, union leader says (Guardian)
Teenagers 'misled over new diplomas' (Daily Telegraph not online)
Call for ban on classroom Wi-Fi (Daily Telegraph)
Schoolchildren being 'pushed into studying new diplomas' (Daily Mail)

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) has revealed that a three-year-old girl was temporarily excluded from her school in South Wales after attacking a classmate.

Expelled at 3 (Sun)
Girl, 3, becomes 'youngest to be excluded from school' after attacking classmate (Daily Mail)

Today's 'Education Notebook' column in the Daily Mail focuses on whether summer holidays should be shorter, following research from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).

Are holidays better short and sweet? (Daily Mail not online)

A teenager has won her High Court discrimination claim against her school, which excluded her in 2007 for refusing to take off a religious bangle and breaking its 'no jewellery' rule.

Teenager wins legal bangle battle (BBC News Online)

A report by the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health and HIV is advising ministers that children as young as 11 should be given compulsory lessons on sexually transmitted diseases and contraception.

Lessons in sexual diseases for children as young as 11 (Daily Mail)
Sex education 'must become compulsory in schools' (Daily Telegraph)
Teach kids of 11 about sex bugs (Sun)

A study commissioned by the government-backed School Food Trust (SFT) has found that nearly half a million British children growing up in poverty are not entitled to free school meals.

Hard-up kids denied free school meals (Daily Mirror)

Three bogus colleges uncovered in an investigation by the Herald have been removed from an official government register. The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (Dius) took action after the newspaper discovered discrepancies in courses being offered and false claims about affiliations with professional bodies. The Herald also reports on positive responses to a Scottish Government consultation into proposals to give Scottish families whose children need extra help in the classroom more choice over where they go to school. 

Struck off: the three bogus Scottish colleges (Herald)
Hope for children who need help in class (Herald)

BBC News Online looks into why fewer boys and girls have paper rounds.

The strange decline of the paperboy (BBC News Online)