ISC Daily News Summary

A number of newspapers report that Spanish has replaced German as the second most popular language learnt in state schools, reflecting a change that has already taken place in independent schools. The annual survey was carried out by the National Centre for Languages (CILT), in conjunction with the Independent Schools' Modern Language Association (ISMLA) and the Association for Language Learning (ALL).

Spanish overtakes German as languages decline finally halts (Independent)
Spanish to overtake German as language of choice (Times)
Nazi history programmes 'fuelling decline in German lessons' (Daily Telegraph)
No increase in take-up of languages (Guardian)
Language learning now compulsory at only 1 in 5 schools (Daily Mail)
'Turbulence' in school languages (BBC News Online)

Television presenter and former pupil of The Abbey School and Luckley-Oakfield School, Sarah Beeny, is profiled in today's Independent Education supplement.

An education in the life of Sarah Beeny (Independent Education)

Extensive coverage and comment in all of today's newspapers following the Queen's Speech, with most articles focusing on economy-related announcements. In terms of education, the new legislation announced yesterday will mean that schools will get more power to search pupils for drink, drugs and stolen property, all head teachers will be forced to share pupils expelled from other mainstream schools and local councils will have a legal duty to intervene when schools are in trouble. Ofsted will also investigate under-performing schools more often. In her speech, the Queen said the reforms were aimed at 'ensuring every school is a good school by reducing burdens on the best while strengthening the powers to intervene where schools require support,' 

Queen's speech bill: education (Guardian)
Queen's Speech: education (Daily Telegraph)
Employees 'must have right to study leave' (Times)
Plan to give local authorities more power to help failing schools (Independent)
Saved by the loan arranger (Sun)
Education reforms set in train (BBC News Online)

Speaking ahead of a two-day British Council conference, which starts today in London, the Chief Executive of the British Council, Martin Davidson, has warned that university courses are under threat because lucrative foreign students could be priced out of the UK by the economic crisis. The Financial Times reports on a letter to university Vice-Chancellors from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce), which asks universities to play their part in boosting the ailing economy by finding £250million worth of projects to spend money on by the end of next fiscal year.

British Council: university courses at risk from credit crisis (Daily Telegraph)
Universities urged to help boost economy (Financial Times)
Downturn 'could hit universities' (BBC News Online)

Feature in Times2 on how some students may be tempted to pay essay-writing companies to help them prepare their UCAS applications. Today's Times also includes an interesting letter regarding university entry.

My own work? Er, not quite all (Times)
A student's tale (Times letters)

David Campbell - the head of leading publishers Everyman's Library - is demanding the return of free children's books after a state school in Chesterfield announced it was closing its library in favour of 'virtual learning'. The company donated over 250 books to the school's library between 1998 and 2005.

Publisher demands return of free books over library closure (Daily Telegraph)

A row has broken out over plans to hold a university beauty contest after women students branded it misogynistic and said contestants were treated like animals. More than 400 undergraduates have already applied to take part in the 'Miss University London' competition, with the grand final due to be held in February.

University beauty contest sparks ugly row (Daily Telegraph)
The frilly feminists: Uni students fighting to be beauty queen... and claiming it's their women's right amid a storm of protest (Daily Mail)

The explosive growth in the global population could be curbed significantly if teenage girls in the developing world were given the opportunity of completing a secondary school education, says Joel Cohen - a leading expert in human numbers.

‘Educate girls to stop population soaring' (Independent)

A Freedom of Information enquiry in Wales has revealed that more than £200 was paid to a schoolgirl who slipped on a carrot in a school dining room while another pupil was compensated £165 for slipping on leaves.

Schoolgirl handed £200 compensation for slipping on carrot (Daily Telegraph)

A primary school in Nottingham has been criticised for cancelling its Christmas nativity in favour of celebrations for the Muslim festival of Eid.

School cancels Christmas nativity in favour of Muslim Eid celebrations (Daily Telegraph)
No way in a manger (Sun)

Today's Independent Education supplement includes articles on new learning environments for underperforming schools, entrepreneurial students and the BETT 2009 event for educational technology.

A diary kept by a student at Cambridge University in the 1840s has been uncovered and suggests that Victorian students were more debauched than today's undergraduates.

Diary discloses debauched lives of Victorian Cambridge students (Daily Telegraph)
Charles Astor Bristed's diary exposes Cambridge University (Times)
Hard drinking and loose morals... life as a student (in Victorian Cambridge) (Daily Mail)