ISC Daily News Summary

Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph includes some tips for parents paying for school fees.
Children still have to be educated (Daily Telegraph not online p.28)

Times
The Times looks at the topical issue of bursaries.
'Daddy, can we sell our house and buy a yacht?' (Times not online)

Guardian
This week's Guardian Education Supplement includes a feature on Sats; the effect of budget cuts and reforms on Italian education and an interview with the racing driver and new science minister, Lord Drayson.
Guardian Education Supplement

Times
Thousands of trainee teachers are struggling to pass literacy tests that require them to spell words such as anxiety, relieved and mathematical. More than 11,000 trainee teachers, just over a quarter of the annual intake, failed to pass the literacy test last year at their first attempt, an increase of 16 per cent since 2001. The findings have prompted concern that new teachers may be struggling with the basic skills they will be charged with passing on to pupils. David Laws, the Liberal Democrat schools spokesman, said: "Spelling is a key basic skill. We need a renewed focus on getting the basics right."
Literacy tests for trainee teachers show that those who can't spell, teach (Times)

BBC News Online, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Times, Independent
British universities edge closer to scrapping their 200-year-old degree classifications today with a trial of report cards for thousands of graduates. The "achievement reports", which could eventually replace firsts, 2:1s and 2:2s, will list a graduate's marks in every module of their degree and any prizes. They are likely to mention a student's voluntary work while at university and include an assessment of their presentation skills and ability to work in a group. Manchester, Keele, Newcastle and 15 other universities are creating dummy cards for thousands of students who graduated this summer, to see if they work.
Universities try new grading plan (BBC News Online)
Students to get report cards at end of courses (Guardian)
Universities to offer degree 'report cards' (Daily Telegraph)
Eighteen universities to issue end-of-university report on students' skills (Times)
Universities say so long to 2:1s (Independent)

Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail
An investigation by the Soil Association has found that many nursery meals were still full of foods high in fat and sugar including chips, sweets and chocolate. As well as the low nutritional content of the meals, the report warns that too few nursery workers are trained to deal with children with food allergies, which could lead to dangerous situations and even death. The Soil Association, which supports organic farming, said that the standard of food given to young children was a "scandal" and called on the Government to set minimum nutritional limits.
Junk food 'still being served in nurseries' (Daily Telegraph)
25p 'junk' meals being served to nursery children (Daily Mail)

Daily Telegraph
Jamie Oliver has called for Government-funded food centres to be set up in every town in order to teach people to cook, just like Ministry of Food taught people to "dig for victory" and make the most of their rations during the 1940s. In a manifesto presented to ministers, he also called for cooking skills to be taught in primary schools as well as to adults at work and in the community.
Jamie Oliver calls for reintroduction of cookery classes in schools (Daily Telegraph)

ISC is delighted to announce the launch of a new online media advice section. Just log onto the member zone (you will need to register if you haven't already) and visit the media site. It's full of tips on working with the media and we hope you will find it useful.
http://www.isc.co.uk/MemberZone_WelcometotheMemberZone.htm

Daily Mail
While her classmates were celebrating their GCSE results, Luisa Filby had more pressing concerns - such as avoiding being bitten by tarantulas and other creepy-crawlies. The 16-year-old was trekking through the Amazon rainforest with her adventurous family at the time - watching tapir by dusk and observing monkeys from the top of tree canopies by day. Luisa couldn't discover how well she had performed in her exams for four agonising days due to lack of mobile phone coverage in the South American jungle. But the wait was worth it, as the grammar school pupil eventually reached civilisation and learnt that she had achieved a staggering 11 A*s.
Amazon adventurer gets 11 A* GCSE grades and is named Student of the Year (Daily Mail)