ISC Daily News Summary

The Daily Telegraph predicts that a record one in five GCSEs will be awarded top grades this week as results rise for the 20th year in a row. As reported yesterday, the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) has warned that many independent schools are moving away from GCSEs because of their lack of rigour, with key changes being introduced from next year likely to further undermine the exam. Secretary of HMC, Geoff Lucas, is quoted.

Record GCSE grades as pupils take soft options (Daily Telegraph)
Leading schools 'will shun' new modular GCSEs (Evening Standard)
No quick exit from GCSE challenge (BBC News Online)

Feature in the Daily Mail on Polam Hall School pupil, Alex Griffiths. Alex, who received her A-level results last week, was kidnapped as a newborn baby and reunited with her mother three weeks later. Her mother sold her story to a tabloid for £110,000 and used the money to pay for an independent education for her daughter.

Being kidnapped as a baby was the best thing that ever happened to me (Daily Mail)

Comment piece in the Daily Telegraph on Team GB's Olympic success, by Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. Mr Johnson states that 'roughly 58% of the contestants we sent to Athens in 2004 were educated at independent schools - schools of a type that educate only 7% of the general population; and, in the past three Olympics, the independent sector has walked off with 45% of the medals.'

What on earth has come over our aimless, feckless, hopeless youth? (Daily Telegraph)
Posh and privileged? Not these Poms (Daily Telegraph)

The Independent reports that the life story of Rory Stewart, an Eton-educated former diplomat, is to become the subject of a Hollywood biopic starring actor and former St Edmund's School, Canterbury, pupil Orlando Bloom.

Lawrence of Arabia reborn - Orlando's inspiration for an epic (Independent)

Research by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London and the University of Stirling indicates that the number of students accepted onto higher education language courses has slumped by almost a quarter during the past decade.

Dramatic decline in foreign languages studied at university (Independent)
Hoping that someone speaks English is not enough in a globalised world (Independent)

The Scotsman reports that Scotland's schools are facing a leadership crisis as increasing numbers of head teachers take early retirement to avoid the growing pressures of the job.

Mass exodus of heads leaves schools in crisis (Scotsman)
So why has such a prestigious position become a poisoned chalice? (Scotsman)
New paths to schools' top jobs must be found (Scotsman)

Official statistics from Glasgow City Council show that the number of violent or abusive pupils being suspended or expelled from state-run secondary schools in Scotland's largest local authority has plummeted in the past year.

Big fall in number of pupils put out of schools (Herald)
How to realise those big ambitions (Herald)

Article in the Daily Mail's Education Notebook column on the increasing number of pupils who are taking so-called 'smart pills' to boost their exam performance.

Fears for 'smart pill' generation (Daily Mail not online)

Enid Blyton has been voted Britain's best-loved author in a survey of adult readers, commissioned to mark the 2008 Costa Book Awards.

Blyton is voted UK's best-loved storyteller (Guardian)
Blyton more popular than Shakespeare, says survey (Independent)
Enid Blyton beats Roald Dahl and JK Rowling to be voted Britain's best-loved author (Daily Telegraph)
Famous Five creator Enid Blyton beats Tolkien and Shakespeare as best-loved author of all time (Daily Mail)
Enid Blyton beats JK Rowling and Jane Austen to be No1 author (Daily Mirror)