ISC Daily News Summary

Times
Forty of the country’s best young spellers are steadying their nerves and loosening their tongues in preparation for The Times Spelling Bee grand final tomorrow. It is the culmination of months of practice for the teams of 11 and 12-year-olds. Ten schools will face each other tomorrow afternoon at the event in Leicester Square, London. The ISC schools in the final are:  Brighton College Prep School; Oundle School, Cambridgeshire; and St Martin’s School, northwest London.
Spelling bee (Times)

The Financial Times reported this weekend on a survey of 17 schools with the best A-level results in England, carried out for the Financial Times by the Good Schools Guide. The survey concluded that ‘leading independent schools have lifted their fees by an inflation-busting average of 4 per cent for the coming year, pushing through annual rises that could price more parents out of private education.’ Reference is made to a number of ISC schools. ISC will be responding to the article with a letter to the Financial Times. A link to the letter will be included in the DNS later this week.
Top schools raise fees in excess of inflation (Financial Times)

Daily Mail, Sunday Times
Ed Balls was facing mounting criticism last night over plans to replace school league tables with report cards grading each school from A to F. The Children's Secretary wants schools to get a single grade for overall performance, including academic attainment, pupil progress, tackling truancy, school dinner take-up, sporting provision and whether pupils are taught to control their feelings.
Ed Balls' plan to grade schools A to F 'will not help parents' (Daily Mail)
Ed Balls to ditch league tables in favour of school ‘report cards’ (Sunday Times)

Sunday Express
A-level history students are campaigning to alter their examination marks after they failed to understand a question. They say the phraseology in an exam paper describing Hitler as “a despotic tyrant” confused them and meant they did not know how to answer. Education chiefs say the complaints merely indicate how low standards in schools have become.
A-level exam 'too difficult' (Sunday Express)

Independent
Latin will make a comeback from today in all state schools, but it will be in the shape of dance lessons rather than the classics. A report today gives the green light for offering ballroom and Latin dance lessons to all schools to improve fitness levels and reduce obesity. NHS research shows that ballroom dancing can burn up to 300 calories per hour.
Ballroom dancing to be taught in schools (Independent)

School inspectors have been told not to sit in on lessons taught by the worst teachers because giving them critical feedback “can cause stress”, according to Ofsted guidance.
(Sunday Telegraph) 

Daily Telegraph
Academic scholarship is under threat in state schools, according to a leading head teacher. The needs of the very brightest pupils are often ignored in the drive to improve standards across the education system, said Shaun Fenton, prospective chairman of the Grammar School Heads Association. He said academic study needed to be protected as part of a "broad and balanced" education.
Bright pupils 'not being pushed' in state schools (Daily Telegraph)

Independent
White working-class boys are amongst the worst performers in English, according to inspectors. They are consistently being outperformed in the subject by Indian and Chinese pupils. The report, English at the Crossroads, reveals that the majority of white working class boys fail to reach the required standard in English national curriculum tests for 14-year-olds. Only 40 per cent succeed. Nearly half of seven-year-olds (47 per cent) also fail to make the mark in their tests.
White working class boys bottom of the class in English (Independent)

Evening Standard
A comment from Anthony Hilton in the Evening Standard on the Border Agency's new points-based system for allocating permits to foreign students to come to study in the UK.
Don't send foreign students packing (Evening Standard)

Sunday Times, Sunday Express
The Sunday Times and Sunday Express focus on the plight of new graduates entering into a competitive job market.
Focus: Generation why bother going to uni? (Sunday Times)
Tough times for the class of 2009 (Sunday Express)

Independent on Sunday
As thousands of school leavers are about to embark on gap years, the Independent on Sunday explains that students need to sort out the financial ‘nitty-gritty’ before setting off. One of the most important elements of this will be travel insurance.
Pack more than your bags for a gap year (Independent on Sunday) 

Sunday Times
Chris Woodhead answers education questions, addressing the issues of exam marking, teaching hours and the comprehensive system.
Answer the question with Chris Woodhead (Sunday Times)

Independent on Sunday
The Independent on Sunday features a profile of Brtitain’s first Hindu state-funded faith school. It reports that the pupils practice yoga, eat vegetarian food and are calm and alert, but critics say the rise in religious education is divisive and wrong.
Inside Britain's first Hindu state-funded faith school (Independent) 

Sunday Telegraph
A new book says today’s children suffer from ‘nature deficit disorder’. It is argued that children suffer physically and mentally from lack of contact with nature, and that they are being brought up without ‘meaningful contact with the natural world’.
Does your child have Nature Deficit Disorder? (Sunday Telegraph)

Sunday Times
In advance of the publication of a book called ‘The Sixties’ by Jenny Diski, the Sunday Times features an extract on how she created a school for ‘problem’ children in just two days.
Free thinkers (Sunday Times)

Guardian
The government is investigating a possible ban on British National Party members working as teachers in schools in a move that could challenge the legitimacy of the far-right party. A source close to the schools secretary, Ed Balls, said there had been several meetings on the issue with teaching unions which are lobbying for a change in teachers' contracts to prevent them from working if they are members of far-right groups, including the BNP. The issue was being "actively looked at", the source said.
Ed Balls considers ban on BNP teachers (Guardian)

Sunday Mirror
The Sunday Mirror comments on a Guardian interview with Gordon Brown, in which he speculates on possible career moves once he is finished with politics – “I could move into teaching”.
Gordon Brown tipped for professorship at Harvard or Yale (Sunday Mirror)

Sunday Times
A comment piece from India Knight, in which she explains her belief that the days when exam results were celebrated because they were a passport to a good career are gone.
Nine A*s? That’s wonderful, darling – but useless (Times) 

Dyslexic pupils ‘need more help’
Teachers should be given more training to help them identify children with dyslexia and give them extra support, a review by Sir Jim Rose is today expected to say.
Daily Telegraph (not online)

AF
A student became a mother less than 24 hours after sitting a final exam that earned her a first-class degree.
Mother gives birth and sits exam in 24 hours (Daily Telegraph)