ISC Daily News Summary

Further coverage of the potential impact of the recession on independent schools in a number of newspapers this weekend. ISC Chief Executive, David Lyscom, is quoted in the Observer, Sunday Times and Daily Telegraph. Headmaster of Hereford Cathedral School, Paul Smith, and General Secretary of the Independent Schools' Bursars Association (ISBA), Jonathan Cook, are also quoted in the Daily Telegraph. Registrar of Queen Ethelburga's College, Pat Jewitt, is quoted in the Observer and a governor at Bolitho School, Julia Hopson, is quoted in the Sunday Times. Reference is also made to the Girls' Day School Trust (GDST) in the Financial Times.

Private school offers laptops to woo parents (Observer)
Private school turns to parents for cash bailout (Sunday Times)
A parent's view of a school's plea for cash (Times)
Independent schools unfazed by the recession (Daily Telegraph)
Grammar hopefuls cross the county line (Sunday Telegraph not online)
Go for the grammar (Sunday Telegraph not online)
UK private education (Financial Times Lex Column)
Parents lend private school £300,000 to stop it closing (Mail on Sunday)
Grammar schools in demand as the credit crunch bites (Daily Mail)

Principal of The Cheltenham Ladies' College, Vicky Tuck, discusses what independent school leaders and governors can learn from the success of Sainsbury's Chief Executive, Justin King.

Vicky Tuck: Just like Justin? (Daily Telegraph online only)

The Sunday Express reports that single-sex schools 'out-performed those with mixed education', according to last week's school league tables. President of the Girls' Schools Association (GSA), Jill Berry, is quoted.

Girls' schools are tops (Sunday Express not online)

Letters in the Times and Daily Telegraph on the topic of independent schools and last week's school league tables. The letters have been written by David Lyscom, Executive Director of GSA, Sheila Cooper, and Headmaster of Cheltenham College, John Richardson.

Leagues apart - the real story behind school tables (Times letters)
We had social mobility (Times letters)
Misleading league tables (Daily Telegraph letters)
Big comprehensives cannot succeed in educating (Daily Telegraph letters)
Grammar myths (Independent letters)
Chris Woodhead: Answer the question (Sunday Times)
Lessons that being a teacher taught me (Observer letters not online)

Various articles on higher education in the newspapers this weekend, with the Sunday Times reporting that a 'class war' has erupted between universities over plans to slash government funding for institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge and redistribute much of it to former polytechnics.

The way to end Oxbridge elitism (Independent)
Funding cuts push universities into 'class war' (Sunday Times)
Class act on wards (Sunday Times)
Oxbridge against the odds (Guardian)

A number of Daily Telegraph articles criticise Labour's education policies, including Sats, one-to-one tuition, the age at which children start school and lessons in 'life skills'.

Gordon Brown's pledge on one-to-one tuition condemned as spin (Daily Telegraph)
Children should face multiple choice tests instead of 'joke' Sats (Daily Telegraph)
Four is 'too early to start formal school' (Daily Telegraph)
Traditional lessons axed in favour of 'life skills' (Daily Telegraph)

According to the government's social mobility policy paper published last week, teenagers who start work straight from school will receive the same amount of money for future training as university students.

Teenagers who start work from school to get same cash handouts as students (Daily Telegraph)

Article in the Times on a maths teaching method which is proving to be successful in France. The Financial Times reports that 'inquiries by maths experts about teacher training places have soared as the credit crunch tightens'.

Stella Baruk makes maths easy with magic squares and dogs' legs (Times)
Inquiries for courses on teaching maths jump (Financial Times)

A report by consultancy firm Perpetuity, which was commissioned by the NASUWT teachers' union to investigate gang culture in schools, has found that some pupils are wearing stab-proof and bullet-proof vests to school to protect themselves against gang attacks.

Scared pupils wear stab vests in school (Independent)
School pupils wear stab vests to protect themselves from gangs, report says (Daily Telegraph)
School sells lethal knives to 9-year-olds (Sun)
Terrified kids 'wear stab vests at school' (Daily Mirror)

A study by market research agency ChildWise has found that children are spending an increasing amount of time in front of televisions, computers and games consoles, cramming in nearly six hours of screen time a day.

Internet generation leave parents behind (Guardian)

Features on education and parenting in the Observer and Sunday Times.

Pushy parents are setting the best example (Observer)
Parents' playpen coup (Sunday Times)

A transport expert at University College London has warned that parents who bypass their local school to find a better education for their children could be inadvertently making them fat, because they are less likely to walk to school.

Parents who travel for better schools 'could be making their children fat' (Daily Telegraph)

The Sunday Times considers what prompted an MP to brand dyslexia a 'myth' last week.

Briefing: Dyslexia: War of words (Sunday Times)

A large number of obituaries and tributes dedicated to artist, children's television presenter and former Clayesmore School pupil Tony Hart.

Tributes to Britain's favourite art teacher (Independent)
Tony Hart, artist and inspiration for children, dies at 83 (Guardian)
Tony Hart, artist and children's TV presenter, dies aged 83 (Daily Telegraph)
Tony Hart (Daily Telegraph)
Tony Hart, artist and TV presenter, dies aged 83 (Times)
Tony Hart, the man who inspired generations of young artists, dies at 83 (Daily Mail)
World of art mourns Hart (Daily Express)
He inspired a generation of kids into creating art (Sun)

Thousands of people have taken part in global celebrations marking the 800th anniversary of Cambridge University.

University marks its 800th year (BBC News Online)
Quentin Blake's sketches of Darwin and Newton mark Cambridge University's 800th birthday (Daily Telegraph)