ISC Daily News Summary

Times
Letters to the Times on the issue of private school fees.
Letters - Don't give tax relief on private school fees (Times)

Daily Telegraph
Parents will be encouraged to have their children's personal details hidden on the Government's child protection database in a move by a rebel council that could sabotage the £224 million project. The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is launching a publicity campaign to let families know how much information on them will be held by ContactPoint. In defiance of Government guidance, it will tell them they can have details kept from the estimated one million officials who would otherwise be allowed to access them. If parents around the country decide to have their records shielded, it risks undermining the effectiveness of ContactPoint as a way for authorities to share information on England's 11 million children.
Parents are encouraged to 'shield' children on database (Daily Telegraph)

 

Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph reported this weekend that Sir Cyril Taylor, former advisor to Tony Blair, has said that plans to educate children from broken homes at private boarding schools are being scuppered by Left-wing social workers.
Left ‘blocks boarding school care scheme'(Daily Telegraph not online)

Daily Telegraph
Up to 1,100 small schools and tutor groups may be forced to fold or face cutbacks after being subjected to Government controls for the first time. New legislation has been drawn up closing a loophole that allowed many institutions to operate beyond the reach of the state. Among those affected is the Tyndale Academy in east London - the only school in the country still using corporal punishment.
Small schools at risk (Daily Telegraph not online)

Daily Telegraph, Daily Mirror
Hundreds of schools have banned their teachers from marking in red ink in case it upsets the children. They are scrapping the traditional method of correcting work because they consider it "confrontational" and "threatening". Pupils increasingly find that the ticks and crosses on their homework are in more soothing shades like green, blue, pink and yellow or even in pencil. Marking in red ink banned in case it upsets schoolchildren (Daily Telegraph)
Don't mark in red (Daily Mirror not online) 

Daily Mail, Sunday Express
Schools have installed CCTV cameras and microphones in classrooms to watch and listen to pupils as young as four. The Big Brother-style surveillance is being marketed as a way to identify pupils disrupting lessons when teachers' backs are turned. Classwatch, the firm behind the system, says its devices can be set up to record everything that goes on in a classroom 24 hours a day and  used to compile ‘evidence' of wrongdoing. The equipment is sold with Crown Prosecution Service-approved evidence bags to store material to be used in court cases.
Big Brother CCTV (complete with CPS evidence kit) to spy on pupils aged four (Daily Mail)
The dangers of keeping children safe (Sunday Express not online)

Daily Telegraph
Latin is set to be returned to the school curriculum following an official review. Ministers believe it is an "important subject" and may help school pupils to learn modern languages. Less than 15 per cent of state schools teach Latin and the number of qualified teachers is falling. However, the Department for Education is understood to be considering adding Latin to the new Languages diploma, which will run alongside GCSEs and A-levels from next year. Baroness Morgan, the schools minister, has indicated that the Government wishes to see Latin regain its status as an important language.
Students to be taught Latin in schools curriculum overhaul (Daily Telegraph)

Sunday Times
Universities should be free to charge whatever fees they like to improve the quality of teaching, a report commissioned by John Denham, the universities secretary, has recommended. The study claims that lifting the £3,145 cap on fees would mean that universities would no longer have to concentrate on meeting government conditions to secure funding and would instead be able to spend more on teaching.
Minister urged to lift cap off university fees (Sunday Times)

Observer
Britain's parents will be accused this week of "killing their children with kindness", as the government embarks on a new campaign aimed at the growing and deadly problem of childhood obesity. Graphic examples of children dying early from diabetes, heart disease and cancer will be publicised and the Department of Health (DoH) will reveal "shocking" levels of ignorance and complacency among parents who are failing to accept responsibility for their children's health. The campaign will be based on an unpublished DoH report, seen by the Observer, that has been sent to senior NHS managers. It says that three million families with young children need to be better informed to prevent their children becoming dangerously overweight.
Parents accused of killing obese children with kindness (Observer)

Independent
Comment in the Independent on the effects of advertising on children.
Leading Article: Wrong messages for our children (Independent)

Letters: Latin RIP (Daily Telegraph)

Daily Telegraph
Schools are being encouraged to hire dinner ladies and caretakers to teach singing following a decline in formal lessons. Ministers announced today that £40million would be spent over the next three years to get more children to sing at primary school. They claim music is vital for the development of other skills such as memory, selfconfidence and team work. As part of the move, they are hiring a series of "singing ambassadors" to take classes. Most will not be teachers but are likely to be drawn from the "wider school workforce and local parents", the Government said.
Caretakers asked to teach singing (Daily Telegraph)

Daily Mail
Children's books are becoming so violent and sexualised they should be accompanied by explicit content warnings, it has been claimed. Vulnerable children, parents and grandparents are increasingly at risk of buying novels without realising they feature bloody or pornographic scenes, a former president of the National Association of Head Teachers believes. Dr Rona Tutt's warning follows controversy over two recent high-profile children's book awards in which violence loomed large in the shortlisted novels.
Children's books are 'so violent they need a health warning' (Daily Mail)

Daily Mail
Pupils are being offered TVs, PlayStations and iPods in return for good behaviour as part of a reward points scheme expected to be operating in 1,000 secondary schools within two years. Tens of thousands of pounds are being spent on prizes to cajole pupils to turn up on time to lessons and behave when they get there. Youngsters collect Vivo points as if they were shopping at a supermarket or making regular flights and trade them for desirable gifts from an online catalogue. Truants and classroom troublemakers can get in on the act simply by demonstrating improvements in attendance or behaviour.
Behave at school and you'll be given a PlayStation or plasma TV, pupils are told (Daily Mail)

Daily Mail
Children who play computer games will do better at school than those who just sit and watch television, government minister Tom Watson has claimed. Mr Watson, the Government's eminister and one of Parliament's most prodigious bloggers, said the Nintendo Wii and the Microsoft Xbox can give children real educational benefits and that he had already witnessed progress in his three-year-old son from interacting with computers.
Children who play computer games do better at school, says minister Daily Mail (not online)

Daily Telegraph, Independent
Children are more likely to behave badly in front of male teachers than females, according to a survey published today. The National Union of Teachers found more pupils answered back and caused minor disruption in lessons taken by men. A minority of male teachers also reported an increase in threats from parents. Almost 77 per cent of men said lessons were regularly disrupted in 2008 compared to 72 per cent when the NUT last polled members in 2001. Among female teachers, 66 per cent reported upheaval compared to 67.5 per cent seven years ago. The NUT said it was a matter of "very real concern" that six in 10 teachers had not received any training to handle bad behaviour.
Pupils misbehave more with male teachers survey shows (Daily Telegraph)
Male teachers face more bad behaviour by pupils (Independent)

Daily Telegraph
The Post Office has enlisted seven-year-old children to help them explain financial terms to their customers. It carried out a survey that indicated more than half of its customers were confused about inflation, while nearly half struggled to understand the effect of interest rates on the value of currency. So the Post Office Financial Services (POFS) turned to children at Earlsfield Primary School in Wandsworth, southwest London, and asked them to define a number of financial terms. Their answers will form part of the literature the organisation will offer customers in branches and on the internet.
Children's grip on credit crunch will help Post Office (Daily Telegraph)