ISC Daily News Summary

The Master of Wellington College, Dr Anthony Seldon, is to ask parents to vote on whether the school should abandon GCSE exams in favour of the International Baccalaureate (IB). Dr Seldon believes that GCSEs have become 'too formulaic', and wants the school to become the first in Britain to enter its 16-year-old pupils for the Middle Years Programme (MYP) of the IB. Headmistress of Wakefield Girls' High School, Pat Langham, is quoted, along with Head of City of London School, David Levin. Dr Seldon is also quoted in a Daily Mail feature on teenage drinking.

School ready to ditch 'boring' GCSEs (Times)
Wellington College to poll parents on plan to drop GCSEs in favour of Baccalaureate (Daily Telegraph)
The new Gin Lane - 250 years on from the notorious image, today's most distressing drinkers are children (Daily Mail)

The Daily Telegraph's sport section reports that for the first time since 1957 - and for only the third time in their history - Cheltenham College 1st XV have finished their rugby season undefeated.

Cheltenham College 1st XV remain undefeated throughout school rugby season (Daily Telegraph)

The Guardian reports that a million children living below the poverty line do not receive free school meals as a result of flaws in the funding system. According to figures released in parliament, half of pupils from families in poverty are not getting a free lunch because the income threshold to qualify is set lower than the current level used to define poverty. The Daily Telegraph reports on a joint study by the Social Exclusion Task Force, the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), and the Department for Communities and Local Government, which claims that working-class white boys have the lowest ambitions of any group of children.

One million poor pupils denied free meals (Guardian)
Poor white boys 'have lowest ambitions', Cabinet Office claims (Daily Telegraph)
'Aspiration gap' for white poor (BBC News Online)

Further coverage of an independent inquiry into what went wrong with the delivery of this year's Sats exam results, with the report due to be published later today. Meanwhile, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has announced that the exam board Edexcel has been given the green light to administer next year's tests for 11-year-olds. The QCA say Edexcel is its 'preferred bidder', although the contract has not yet been signed.

Catalogue of errors led to exams fiasco, says report (Independent)
Sats fiasco: Government testers to blame (Daily Telegraph)
Edexcel back in frame to run Sats (Guardian)
Q&A: Sats explained (Guardian)
Exam chiefs bring back old firm to mark SATs after summer of chaos (Daily Mail)
Test fiasco inquiry to lay blame (BBC News Online)

According to official figures, the norovirus has once again taken hold across the UK, with schools and hospitals among the places where the winter vomiting virus spreads the quickest. However, the number of cases reported is not unusual for the season, despite media reports of a 'crisis'.

The winter vomiting bug is sweeping through schools and hospitals (Daily Telegraph)
'Be vigilant' over vomiting bug (BBC News Online)

The Independent lists various world leaders who were educated in Britain, including a number who were educated at ISC schools. The new Prime Minister of Thailand was educated at Eton College.

Opposition leader educated at Eton is new Thai PM (Independent)