ISC Daily News Summary

Sunday Times
Girls who play cricket in public school boys’ teams are turning into world class players, the Sunday Times reported. Reference is made to Brighton College; Wellington College;  St George’s prep school, Windsor; Oakham and Marlborough. Anthony Seldon, Master at Wellington College, and Roger Nicholson, Brighton College’s director of sport, are quoted.
Maiden victory (Sunday Times)

Daily Mail
Knowledge is becoming a 'dirty word' as Government officials encourage schools to downgrade traditional subjects in favour of skills teaching, an adviser to Prince Charles warns. Bernice McCabe, headmistress at North London Collegiate School and director of the Prince's teaching institute, said the Government's blueprint for teaching state school children was 'wholly inadequate'.
Prince's adviser slams trendy courses that make knowledge 'a dirty word' (Daily Mail)

Guardian
A south London primary is planning to set up a boarding school in the home counties to remove pupils from the "violent" streets of Brixton once they become teenagers. Durand primary school, in Lambeth, is applying to become an "all-through" academy teaching children from three to 19, but from the age of 13 pupils will be transported to a new senior school built on the site of an old private school outside London, from Monday to Friday every week.
Lambeth primary to take its teens to home counties boarding school (Guardian)

Daily Telegraph
Record numbers of A-level students, including thousands with straight-As, will be rejected from university this summer as applications soar in the recession. Research by The Daily Telegraph suggests demand for degree courses has surged by almost 65,000, even though few extra places are available. With the deadline for applications looming on Tuesday, numbers are believed to be up 11 per cent across Britain. Universities have already been warned they face fines for over-recruiting this year. The pressure on places has been fuelled by a sharp rise in applications from mature students.
Record numbers of A-level students 'to be rejected from university' (Daily Telegraph)

Independent
Up to 5,000 newly qualified teachers are to be offered the chance to study for a new master's degree for the first time in a bid to boost teaching standards in the classroom. The initiative is the first stage of a scheme under which the new course is eventually expected to be offered free to all new teachers.
Teachers go back to school in bid to raise classroom standards (Independent)

Sunday Express
Hundreds of free homework clubs are opening in public libraries as cash-strapped parents struggle to pay for tutors. Youngsters who used to rely on after-school tutorials had been forced to miss out until the clubs sprung up across the country. They are filled with pupils of all ages who are taught by library staff and volunteers.
Free study clubs fill up (Sunday Express)

Financial Times, Independent, Sunday Times
State school pupils falling behind in mathematics and English will be offered private one-to-one tuition paid for by the government, as ministers struggle to address the stubborn minority of pupils who still fail to meet the standards of numeracy and literacy set out by national guidelines.
Private tuition for state pupils (Financial Times)
Struggling pupils promised one-to-one tuition (Independent)
Balls to give private tutors to weak pupils (Sunday Times)

Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph,
The number of pupils attending grammar schools has soared by almost a quarter under Labour, according to new figures. Selective state schools have expanded to meet rising demand from parents who are concerned at the standard of education offered by many comprehensives. The growth in pupil numbers will embarrass Labour which passed laws in 1998 aimed at preventing an increase in selective schooling.
Grammar school numbers soar under Labour despite law aimed at preventing increase in selective schooling (Daily Mail)
'One size fits all' schools failing bright pupils (Daily Telegraph)
Schools freed from Whitehall's grip in massive Labour U-turn (Daily Mail)

Daily Telegraph
A fresh row over dumbing down erupted as it emerged children could pass "simple" Sats tests with fewer than half marks. In one science exam, 11-year-olds were asked whether a woolly hat reflected the light and what happened to water when it was put in a freezer. A mathematics question asked pupils on the verge of starting secondary school to round 540 to the nearest 100.
'Simple' Sats tests face criticism (Daily Telegraph)

Times
Primary school teachers should receive a £10,000 “golden handcuffs” payment for working in the worst primary schools, a leading charity says. A report by the Sutton Trust, a charity that tackles educational disparity, said that the Teach First scheme, which brings top graduates into teaching in secondary schools for two years, should be extended to primary schools, which risked being the “poorer cousins” of the sector. More should also be done to encourage men to teach in primary schools.
Sutton Trust says primary schools need top graduates as teachers (Times)

Financial Times
The unfolding farce over government funding for college building limped along on Friday after the country’s biggest quango announced cash for a mere 13 projects across England. The Learning and Skills Council’s decision leaves more than 160 that had submitted bids to wait almost two years, when they can ask again for the required money.
UK colleges left without building cash (Financial Times)

Observer, Sunday Mirror, News of the World
Parents of children who regularly behave badly in class could be hauled before the courts under wide-ranging government school reforms to be unveiled this week. Court-backed parenting orders could be imposed on families who refuse to co-operate with teachers over disciplining their children. A parenting order requires parents to take specific steps to control a child's behaviour - including attending parenting courses or counselling sessions, ensuring their children are at home at a certain time, or avoiding certain situations and people. Failure to comply could lead to parents being fined or given a community sentence.
Parents face fines if pupils behave badly (Observer)
£1k fine if your child's unruly in class (Sunday Mirror)
Asbo parents sent to school (News of the World)

Financial Times magazine
Across Germany parents are taking advantage of a progressive government scheme that enables men to take months off work as sole daytime carers of their newborn children. Is this the model for the fathers of the future? This weekend’s Financial Times magazine investigated.
Honey I’m at home (Financial Times magazine not online)

Sunday Times
The spectre of a hidden epidemic of sex crimes inside Britain’s classrooms has emerged after Scotland Yard revealed there have been nearly 900 rapes or serious sex attacks in schools. The figures - the first of their kind produced - show that 65 victims were raped in secondary and primary schools in London in the past five years. A further 826 were the target of other sexual assaults.
Hidden surge in classroom sex attacks (Sunday Times)

Independent
Letters: The side-effects of dyslexia (Independent)

A selection of education comments in the press this weekend:
Cadenzas in a curriculum: Rebecca Front (Guardian)
DAVID DAVIS: Bec Grammar gave this kid with scuffed shoes chances he had never dreamed of. That's why we must bring back these inspiring schools (Mail on Sunday)
JANET STREET PORTER: A mobile? No, what children really need is an education (Daily Mail)
Richard Dawkins backs atheist camp to give children 'godless alternative' (Guardian)

Daily Mail
Boys are genetically programmed to prefer Bob the Builder to Barbie dolls, say scientists. Tests involving children as young as three months suggest biological differences and not social pressures dictate which toys children like to play with. The U.S. study looked at babies aged three to eight months - before they can identify even the gender of other people.
Why boys will pick Bob over Barbie - children are genetically programmed, say scientists (Daily Mail)

Daily Mail
Being the eldest may have its perks, but first-born children face twice as much pressure to succeed in school as their younger siblings. Such high parental expectations make the eldest children more susceptible to anxiety or depression later in life, researchers say. A survey of almost 10,000 mothers found that they had wildly differing expectations for their child's academic success, depending on their birth order.
Pressure on eldest child (Daily Mail)