ISC Daily News Summary

National Director of the Boarding Schools Association, Hilary Moriarty, is quoted in an article on state boarding schools in today's Independent Education supplement.

A safe haven for state pupils in need (Independent Education)

The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) has admitted that grants for students in England starting university next year will be cut because the government underestimated how many would be eligible for support.

Grants for middle-income students cut after blunder (Guardian)
Thousands of students worse off after error leads to a cut in university grants (Times)
Middle class hit by university move (Financial Times)
Middle-class students lose grants (Daily Telegraph not online)
Student grants for middle class slashed (Daily Mail)
Student grants to be cut after funding blunder (Daily Express)
Uni gaffe is £200m (Sun)
Cash error cuts grants to 40,000 (Daily Mirror)
Grants cut over funding blunder (BBC News Online)

Student complaints are rising at around 10% per year, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) has said. The education watchdog believes that the increase will continue, and has launched a consultation to improve the way students' complaints are handled.

Student complaints rising by 10% a year (Guardian)
Surge in complaints about degree results shows the 'death of student deference' (Daily Mail)
Ombudsman may name and shame (THE)

A group of children were asked to take a pledge to be 'nice to' gypsies on a school visit to their local council offices in South Norfolk.

Primary school children told to take pledge to 'be nice' to gypsies (Daily Telegraph)
Outrage as council makes pupils stand on chairs and pledge to be nice to gypsy children (Daily Mail)
Children forced to vow: We'll be nice to gypsies (Daily Express not online)

School pupils, university students and teachers have staged demonstrations across Italy against a school reform law just passed by parliament, which is expected to cut the education budget.

Protests over Italy school reform (BBC News Online)

Research by the University of Western Ontario suggests that sporting champions are more likely to have children who go on to succeed in their own right because mental toughness is inherited.

The secret of sporting success: champions breed more champions (Daily Telegraph)

A nine-year-old boy had a fright when he found an escaped cheetah in his back garden in Cambridgeshire. The cheetah is thought to have escaped from a local zoo through a faulty electric fence.

Boy finds cheetah in his garden (Daily Telegraph)
'Mummy, there's a cheetah in the garden and it's eating my bike' (Independent)
Boy finds escaped cheetah in garden (Guardian)
Cheetah spotted in boy's garden (Sun)
Nine-year-old Toby comes face-to-face with escaped Cheetah (Daily Mirror)
Boy finds cheetah in back garden (BBC News Online)