ISC Daily News Summary

The Guardian reports on the gap between independent schools and state schools at A-level, according to a detailed breakdown of last year's A-level marks which has been obtained by the newspaper.

Exam boards accused of spin to hide A-level grade inflation (Guardian)
Dumbing down disguised (Education Guardian)

The Daily Mail reports on a 12-year-old boy who is currently on a gap year after he finished his prep school education a year early. Gerald Roseman will begin at Malvern College this September.

Entrepreneur schoolboy who's on a gap year... aged 12 (Daily Mail)

Children's Minister Baroness Delyth Morgan has announced that home education is to face a review in England, which will consider how local authorities can ensure the education and wellbeing of children who are being taught outside school.

Children's Minister: Home education 'may be cover for abuse' (Daily Telegraph)
Home education 'can be cover for abuse and forced marriage' (Times)
Home schooling 'could be a cover for child abuse and sexual exploitation' (Daily Mail)
Home educators angry at review (BBC News Online)

A study by the Children's Workforce Development Council indicates that young children are being left without male role models because of a lack of men working in nursery schools. A survey conducted as part of the report shows that more than half of parents want more male childcare workers.

Parents demand more male nursery staff to act as role models (Daily Telegraph)
Can men really work with toddlers? (Times2)
Parents want more men to be school teachers, survey shows (Daily Mail)
Call for more male nursery staff (BBC News Online)
Childcare 'not just for women' (BBC News Online)

The Commons Skills Select Committee has accused the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) of misleading the public with 'impenetrable' jargon.

Department told to ditch the jargon (Independent)
Government department accused of failure and jargon (Daily Telegraph)
Higher education team dismays MPs (BBC News Online)

Today's Education Guardian supplement includes articles on how urban decay affects a child's education, a partnership between schools in Northern Ireland and Baghdad and the new proposed code for teachers from the General Teaching Council (GTC). Today's Guardian also includes a supplement on the changing face of higher education.

ISC, working with the Independent Association of Prep Schools (IAPS), is running a series of surveys to highlight the strengths of independent prep education. We are gathering data on a broad range of elements of prep education beyond the academic, including facilities, staff and standards of behaviour. We will combine these findings with information from the Annual Census to provide the fullest possible picture, and emphasise the added value that an independent prep education provides. The surveys are open until Friday 30th January and we would like to hear from any ISC school with a prep school element. Each school has a personalised link to their part of the survey: for more details contact rudolf.eliott.lockhart@isc.co.uk.

"Colleagues may not know that, in a voluntary capacity, I am Chair of Trustees of School Councils UK, an organisation that exists to promote school councils and student participation in every school. School councils are becoming common and increasingly effective in independent schools, but often they find themselves operating very much in isolation. SCUK offers, through its online network, a fantastic opportunity for school councils in ISC schools to share good practice not only with other independent schools, but with maintained schools up and down the country that use the same network. I would therefore encourage schools to join the SCUK network, as it is a great (and modestly priced) opportunity for online partnership, and an easy way to share ideas with the majority sector."

A primary school in Liverpool has banned its pupils from playing football until March in order to protect the pitch from becoming muddy.

School soccer ban (Daily Telegraph not online)