ISC Daily News Summary

ISC Chief Executive David Lyscom is quoted in a Times article on the issue of ContactPoint. The article refers to guidance which ISC has provided to its member schools, which encourages schools to write to all parents warning them that ContactPoint 'will put some children at risk through data theft or loss'. If you are an ISC school and have yet to see this guidance, you can do so via the Member Zone section of the ISC website. The Times and Evening Standard also report on views expressed by Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, who has warned that laws that allow officials to monitor the behaviour of millions of Britons risk 'hardwiring surveillance' into the British way of life. Discussing ContactPoint, he said: 'I can see the benefits of a national database of children at risk ... I'm less convinced that you need to have a database of every child in the country. Is it not better to have fuller details of children known to be at risk and make sure that information is used properly?'

Parents urged to guard children's data (Times)
Information Commissioner Richard Thomas warns of surveillance culture (Times)
Database makes suspects of us all, watchdog warns (Evening Standard)

Articles in the TES relating to independent schools and the recession. One article reports that Arley House School is to close. Another article looks at the issue in general, with Chairman of HMC, Dr Bernard Trafford, quoted. Chairman of the Independent Association of Prep Schools (IAPS), Diana Watkins, is quoted in both articles.

More preps to shut their doors (TES)
Worth selling the second car to save his education? (TES)

A large photograph of pupils and maths teachers from Epsom College competing in the school's annual pancake race features in this week's TES 'people' section. Comedian and former Sevenoaks School pupil, Charlie Higson, is profiled in the TES magazine. The TES also reports that Neil Shaw will join Rose Hill Westonbirt School as head teacher in September.

Pic of the week (TES not online)
My best teacher - Charlie Higson (TES)
On the move (TES)

Figures from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) indicate that, although overall pupil absence in England's schools is at an all-time low, the overall truancy rate increased slightly last year.

DCSF: Pupil Absence in Schools in England, including Pupil Characteristics: 2007/08 (DCSF)
Truancy hits record high (Daily Telegraph)
Truancy 'linked to deprivation', say Tories (Daily Telegraph)
Truancy rate at 10-year high (Financial Times)
233,000 children miss a day of school every week (Guardian)
The age old problem of pupils skipping school (Guardian)
Primary pupils push truancy to new record as 63,000 children skip school each day (Daily Mail)
Truancy rate soars to record (Daily Express)
Young pupils fuel record truancy (BBC News Online)

A government-backed study by market research company BMRB suggests that more than one in 10 pupils are being sent to private tutors as parents pay premiums to get children into grammar schools and boost exam results.

A fifth of pupils get tutors in race for grammar places (Daily Telegraph)
Young pupils seek private help (Financial Times)
Private tuition boom as fifth of pupils is getting help at home (Daily Mail)
Tutors risk lawsuits when children fail to make grade (TES)

According to a DCSF study, parents believe that behaviour among children has got worse since the cane was abolished.

Caning pupils 'can be effective behaviour control' (Daily Telegraph)

The editors of the Oxford University newspaper Cherwell have resigned after a spoof edition was circulated making jokes about the holocaust and other controversial issues.

Oxford University newspaper editors resign over racist and explicit spoof (Guardian)
Oxford University newspaper editors resign over holocaust jokes (Daily Telegraph)
University of Oxford: Cherwell editors quit over racist, explicit parody (Times)
Outrage at Oxford students' sick satire (Daily Mail)

The BBC has learned that up to 70% of students from other European Union countries are failing to repay student loans they took out while at UK universities. The Student Loans Company (SLC) says 2,240 students should have begun repayments but 1,580 are not accounted for.

EU students 'failing to pay off university loans' (Daily Telegraph)
EU students who leave Britain get a 'free' university education by dodging repayments (Daily Mail)
Foreign students leaving UK debts (BBC News Online)

Too many reforms have hurt education (Times letters)

Universities warn of plans to axe B.Ed (TES)
Hard done by: how teachers lag behind on pay (TES)
Academies want right to run children's services (TES)
What a racket: head pays out £16k for a bit of hush (TES)
Diplomas struggle to build a profile (TES)
Road safety lollipops (TES)
Snow way they didn't learn a lot (TES)
Want pupils to talk? Give them better test scores (TES)
You can't pick and choose on disabled rights, campaigners tell ministers (TES)
Ofsted reveals winning formula of its star 12 (TES)
Youth custody - Schools could pick up bill for young offender education (TES)

Employees at a new office development in Sheffield will be able to get from the third floor to the ground floor of the building in a rapid, yet unorthodox, fashion, following the installation of a helter-skelter.

Leading article: Slippery customers (Independent)
Britain's first indoor office helter skelter sees staff slide down three floors in just seven seconds (Daily Mail)
I'm just sliding off for lunch...  (Daily Express)
It's helter skelter in the office (Sun)
Sheffield office staff get helter-skelter in place of lift (Daily Express)