ISC Daily News Summary

31 March 2009


In a hurry? Click on a link to go straight to a story.

Independent sector

Bernard Trafford: Why is home education subject to safety checks?

Guardian
Bernard Trafford, head of the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle Upon Tyne, has an opinion column published in this week's Guardian Education Supplement on the issue of home education.
Bernard Trafford: Why is home education subject to safety checks? (Guardian Education Supplement)

General education

A-level pass marks may be lowered to help pupils

Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, Times
A-level pass marks could be lowered so pupils are not 'disadvantaged' by changes to the exams' format. Examiners will take into account pupils' GCSE performance when deciding results, the exam watchdog Ofqual has announced. Courses which began last term involve fewer but tougher exams, which Ofqual said would be less 'familiar' to students.
A-level pass marks may be lowered to help pupils (Daily Mail)
A-levels 'to be marked more leniently' under Ofqual guidance (Daily Telegraph)
GCSE results will contribute to A-level marks this summer (Times)

Higher education

Undergraduates worry about jobs

Financial Times
The Financial Times reports that eight in 10 students are ‘concerned' by current levels of graduate employment, according to a survey published today by the National Union of Students.
Undergraduates worry about jobs (Financial Times not online)

Scottish education

Parents battle to overturn school ban on full-fat milk

Scotsman
Parents have launched a bid to scrap a new law that bans every school pupil in the country from drinking full-fat milk. They say parents - rather than the state - should decide what their children drink in school. A Scottish Government directive, being phased in at all primary and secondary schools, prevents pupils from drinking the "high-calorie" milk recommended by health visitors and midwives for generations, replacing it with the semi-skimmed variety.
Parents battle to overturn school ban on full-fat milk (Scotsman)

Technology & new media

Little Britain 'makes pupils behave badly'

Independent, Daily Telegraph
Television executives are to be urged by schoolteachers to tone down the language and behaviour shown in programmes because pupils are copying what they see and hear in the classroom. A survey of almost 800 teachers found that the rudest behaviour in the classroom was caused by pupils copying Big Brother and Little Britain. Two thirds of teachers said they believed Big Brother had led to bad or inappropriate behaviour in their school - while 61 per cent cited Little Britain.
Little Britain 'makes pupils behave badly' (Independent)
Big Brother and Little Britain 'fuelling bad behaviour in schools' (Daily Telegraph)

Technology & new media

TVs in children's bedrooms ‘are breaking up families'

Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph
Parents should banish televisions from children's bedrooms because they break up families and create classrooms of badly behaved pupils, a teachers' leader warned yesterday. Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, revealed that growing numbers of youngsters were starting school unable to hold conversations because they talk so little with their parents.
TVs in children's bedrooms 'are breaking up families ' (Daily Mail)
Teachers call for TV ban (Daily Telegraph not online)

Education supplements

A selection of news from this week's Guardian Education Supplement

Guardian Education Supplement
This week's Guardian Education Supplement includes a look at the primary school with 15 male teachers; the problem of judging ‘added value' when inspecting schools; a small feature questioning whether ‘going to Oxbridge really matters', and there is an article on a mentoring scheme using top athletes to help boost children's self-esteem and engagement at school.
Guardian Education Supplement

Messages from other organisations

The Newspaper Education Trust ‘Journalist for a Day' Programme

From September 2009, your school can participate in our hugely popular educational live newsroom facility for 10-19 year olds, where pupils become editors for a day - writing and designing their own newspaper front page to deadline; often beating the evening papers at their own game! Nearly 30,000 young people have taken part in our programme so far - we'd like your school to take part, too!
For more information please call Anna on 020 7531 5079 or email
anna@the-net.org.uk
http://www.the-net.org.uk/

And finally...

Harsh truth of children's cane ledger

Daily Mirror
A record of punishments handed out to pupils has been unearthed in the loft of the granddaughter of the school's former headteacher. It shows how kids as young as six were lashed with the cane for apparently minor offences early last century.
Harsh truth of children's cane ledger (Mirror)

Keyword Search

Archive Search