ISC Daily News Summary

All national newspapers

Widespread coverage of Team GB's continued Olympic success in Beijing. ISC would like to congratulate another medal-winning former ISC pupil - Cassie Patten (Plymouth College) has today won a bronze medal in the women's 10km swimming marathon. There are also a number of letters and comment pieces in today's newspapers regarding Olympics, education and 'elitism'.

British duo take 10km swim medals (BBC News Online)
Sharp elbows needed as marathon makes debut (Guardian)
True sport is about much more than counting medals (Guardian)
Now let's top the medals table for education (Times)
Going for gold is all very well - but who pays? (Times letters)

Financial Times, Guardian, Independent

'Educated, articulate and affluent parents in the UK who are able (nay, encouraged by sensationalist press reporting) to purchase education for their children have no interest or involvement in conditions and educational attainment in the state sector.'

Fee-paying parents have no interest in state sector (Financial Times letters)
Balls shock to challenged schools (Guardian letters)
A-levels have been dumbed down (Independent letters)

Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Daily Mail, Sun

An analysis by the Conservatives suggests that a quarter of schoolchildren will have missed out on a decent GCSE this year. The Guardian reports on figures obtained by the End Child Poverty campaign, which reveal that, in many parts of the country, fewer than one in eight of children who receive free school meals leaves school with five good GCSEs.

One in four pupils fails to win a good GCSE (Daily Telegraph)
'Two million without good GCSE' (Guardian)
Poorest children being let down by underfunded schools, says study (Guardian)
Two million pupils fail to get a decent GCSE under Labour (Daily Mail)
2m school flops (Sun not online)

 

Message to ISC schools: Please send all GCSE success stories and press releases to press@isc.co.uk. In particular, if you know today of any pupils who are expected to do exceptionally well tomorrow, please let us know as soon as possible so we can pass the details to journalists this afternoon.

Times, Guardian, Daily Mail, BBC News Online

University admissions service Ucas has given parents the right to take over their children's university applications, allowing them to act as proxy in their child's search for a place. Until now applicants had to deal directly with Ucas themselves. Ucas say that the proxy service had initially been set up to help students who were away on a gap year, who could nominate a parent or a friend to take over from them. However, one in ten of this year's half a million university applicants have ticked a new box on the form and named a parent or guardian as their agent in the race to secure a place at university.

Pushy parents take over as students start hunt for best university places (Times)
Parents allowed to take charge of university applications (Guardian)
Parents can be 'agents' for children during university admissions process (Daily Mail)
Pushy parents can act as agents (BBC News Online)

Daily Telegraph

The Russell Group of 20 elite universities has admitted that the new diplomas for sixth-form students, which will combine academic and vocational training, may not be tough enough to secure places on degree courses. The group will consequently begin an assessment of the 'academic rigour and general suitability' of diplomas.

Diplomas 'not good enough' for universities (Daily Telegraph)

Times, Daily Telegraph, BBC News Online

Children's Minister Beverley Hughes has announced that children excluded from school for misbehaving are to be offered the chance to go abseiling, quad biking and water skiing at camps in the countryside. The week-long 'community cohesion' camps aim to teach disadvantaged and troubled pupils about the dangers of gang culture and are being introduced to curb the rise in teenage knife and gun crime.

Excluded youngsters to be offered adventure camping (Times)
Teenagers to be sent to summer camps to promote community relations (Daily Telegraph)
Cash for youth diversity projects (BBC News Online)

The 2008-09 ISC Teacher Induction Panel (ISCtip) handbook for induction tutors, subject mentors and NQTs is now available on our website. The deadline for registering an NQT for an Autumn 2008 start is Friday 19th September.

Times, Daily Telegraph

A survey by Edge, an education foundation, has found that 48% of parents believe that they are more anxious than their children about tomorrow's GCSE results, with one in ten reporting sleepless nights.

Parents give their children a lesson in exam stress (Times)
Parents resort to bribes for GCSE success (Daily Telegraph)