ISC Daily News Summary

Tomorrow is the final day for delegates to register for SEN2008 on Tuesday 4th November, and there are now only 10 places available. The conference is for Heads, SENCos and learning support workers in independent schools. Speakers this year include leading academics Madeleine Portwood and Claudine Crane; Christine Goodfellow CBE, Director of ContactPoint at DCSF; Christine Ryan, Chief Inspector at ISI; SEN practitioners Liz Baldwin and Pat Guy, as well as barrister David Wolfe and the ISC legal team. The event will take place at Hotel Russell in central London. For more information, or to book your place online, please visit http://www.isc.co.uk/sen2008.

Daily Express

Feature in the Daily Express on the Sylvia Young Theatre School, and some of its successful former pupils.

Real school for stars (Daily Express not online)

Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Daily Mail

The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) - Britain's biggest exam board - has admitted that it lowered grade boundaries in GCSE science exams to make papers less demanding than previous years. AQA insist that it had been forced into the move 'under pressure' from the government's exam regulator, Ofqual. It is believed to be the first time an exam board has officially acknowledged that standards have been purposely lowered.

GCSE standards 'deliberately lowered' to make sure pupils pass (Daily Telegraph)
GCSE pass mark cut under protest (Financial Times)
Examiners told to dumb down GCSE (Daily Mail)

Daily Mail

The Daily Mail reports on its front page that the intellectual ability of the country's cleverest youngsters has declined radically. According to research carried out by King's College, the 'high-level thinking' skills of 14-year-olds are now on a par with those of 12-year-olds in 1976.

Dimming down: How the brainpower of today's 14-year-olds has slipped 'radically' in just one generation (Daily Mail)

Guardian, BBC News Online

Figures uncovered by the Conservative Party following a parliamentary question suggest that the number of pupils being repeatedly suspended from school for short periods has sharply risen under a government policy to cut down the number of permanent exclusions. The Guardian also reports that Ministers have given the go-ahead for private companies to run small schools for excluded children in commercial ventures.

Record number of pupils suspended (Guardian)
'Sin bins' to be run privately (Guardian)
More pupils on repeat suspensions (BBC News Online)

Independent, Daily Mail

A leading west London state school is launching a High Court legal challenge in a bid to overturn a ruling it must change its admissions policy. The Schools Adjudicator found that Drayton Manor High School in Ealing 'indirectly discriminated' against children from 'less advantaged families'.

Top secondary school goes to court over admissions (Independent)
Now desperate parents hire lawyers to give them head start in battle for school places (Daily Mail)

Sunday Telegraph

The Sunday Telegraph reports that hundreds of grammar school places will be scrapped under the government's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. Plans to merge grammars will reportedly lead to a reduction in selective school places, increasing the competition between 11-year-olds trying to get into top schools.

Hundreds of grammar places go in mergers (Sunday Telegraph)

Independent

The government's Teacher Voice survey has found that almost half of England's teachers think pupil behaviour has deteriorated in their schools over the past five years.

Half of teachers say pupil behaviour is getting worse (Independent)

Independent, Independent on Sunday

Supporters of the Steiner teaching system are hoping to bring a state-financed academy to an inner-city area to solve the problems of disenfranchised youth. Those behind the scheme say the Steiner school philosophy - which is child-centred and anti-exam - would benefit bored youngsters who have been put off schooling by the rigidity of the national curriculum.

Anti-exam school to target urban youth (Independent)
Top marks, Ed. Now for Tesco schools (Independent on Sunday)

Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph reports that banned teachers could be allowed back in the classroom because of a 'loophole' in the new Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) child protection rules. According to the report, school staff barred from the profession for fraud or medical reasons could be given their jobs back.

Loophole may see banned teachers return to schools (Daily Telegraph)

Guardian, Times

The government is considering cutting student grants and freezing the number of university places after it 'drastically miscalculated increases in the bill for higher education'. The move would constitute a major U-turn, reversing last year's pledge to raise the number of students eligible for free money while they study and a key policy to boost the number of graduates. The move, which would only apply to England, would be fiercely opposed by students and universities, and risks a serious political backlash.

Student grants at risk after botched costing (Guardian)
Student grants at risk over £100m shortfall (Times not online)

Guardian

In a speech to be given today, Universities Minister David Lammy will say that there are still too many inequalities in the education system which prevent children from disadvantaged backgrounds from applying to study for a degree.

Education system must tackle disadvantage, says Lammy (Guardian)

Daily Telegraph, Independent

A report by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (Cabe) concludes that the creativity of children is being stifled by badly-designed, unimaginative 'cloned' playgrounds. Cabe has called on the government to build more exciting play areas.

Children 'bored by cloned playgrounds' (Daily Telegraph)
Bland play areas stifle children's creativity (Independent not online)

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

Further coverage and analysis of sex education, following last week's news that it is to be extended to primary schools.

Sex, love and a hundred awkward questions (Times)
Children aged five to get sex education (Daily Telegraph)
Anger at sex lessons for five-year-olds (Independent)
The Big Question: How do schools teach children about sex, and does it need to change? (Independent)
Where do baby rabbits come from? Sex education to begin at five in all schools (Guardian)
Sex education made compulsory in all schools (Guardian)
Are better sex lessons the key? (BBC News Online)

Army of unqualified teachers fills our schools (Sunday Times letters)
Chris Woodhead: Answer the question (Sunday Times)

Daily Telegraph

A survey by the Children's Safety Education Foundation (CSEF) suggests that millions of children could be missing out on Hallowe'en fun this week because many parents are too terrified to let their children play outside.

Hallowe'en fun too scary for parents (Daily Telegraph not online)