ISC Daily News Summary

The ISC events team will today announce a special promotion for schools interested in attending ISC’s special educational needs conference, SEN2009. Gabbitas have kindly donated a number of copies of their Schools for Special Needs guide, worth £19.99, which will be sent to the next thirty delegates who book a place at the event on Tuesday 3 November.

Now in its fourth year, and with a truly outstanding agenda, the conference for Heads, SENCos and Learning Support workers promises to be an excellent event. To book a place for you or a member of your staff, please visit the website.

Daily Telegraph
Letters to the Daily Telegraph on David Cameron’s reaction to the Charity Commission’s public benefit tests on independent schools.
David Cameron has failed to articulate a fundamental Conservative philosophy (Daily Telegraph)

Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph features a comment piece on social mobility.
How the class war backfired and put social mobility into retreat (Daily Telegraph)

Most national newspapers
Figures from the DCSF have revealed that the number of permanent school exclusions fell by 6.4% to 8,130 last year. Suspensions also dropped by 10%, which is the lowest for a decade. Children on free school meals are three times more likely to be excluded than other children. A number of senior officials have commented on the figures. Behaviour tsar, Sir Alan Steer, said the figures showed the number of schools with serious behaviour problems was at the lowest level on record. Conservative Shadow Schools Minister, Nick Gibb, has pointed to the fact that 500 children a day return to school after assaulting an adult or a classmate, stating that this shows that teachers do not have sufficient powers to keep control. Liberal Democrat Schools Spokesman, David Laws, suspects that the large drop in suspensions is due to the Government “fiddling the figures”.
School expulsions fall sharply (Guardian)
School pupils suspended for assaults 90,000 times last year, figures show (Daily Telegraph)
Travellers' children top list of exclusions (Independent)
Number of four-year-olds excluded from school doubles in a year (Times)
81,000 violent pupils are let back to school (Daily Express)
Kids of four in school violence (Sun)
500 assault pupils a day back in class (Daily Mirror)

Evening Standard
Kathleen Tattersall, Chairwoman of regulator Ofqual, has said that rigorous standards in science exams have been compromised and will not be fully restored in time for this summer's grades. She has also criticised the decision to make foreign languages optional, which led hundreds of thousands of teenagers to drop French and German.
Too slow GCSE reforms put this year's results in doubt, says regulator (Evening Standard)

Daily Telegraph
Government plans will mean that teenage volunteers and care workers must register their details with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) “in time for their 16^th birthday to avoid committing an offence.” Draft guidance states that they will have to register if they want to work with vulnerable groups, but would be exempt if they were helping youths their own age. From November 2010 anyone who starts a job in a school will have to register with the ISA. A report published today by a libertarian campaign group, the Manifesto Club, has criticised the guidance.
Teenage volunteers face prosecution unless they register with anti-paedophile database (Daily Telegraph)

Daily Mail
A Mori poll commissioned by the DCSF has shown that one child in four is not taking part in any organised sport. Despite rising levels of obesity, they fail to carry out physical activity at school or at home. 
One in four children is not playing organised sport at school or home... and the Government blames the weather (Daily Mail)

Guardian
The International Certificate of Christian Education (ICCE) exam has been deemed equivalent to international A-levels by the National Academic Recognition Information Centre (Naric). The organisation advises universities and employers on the rigour of lesser-known qualifications. The certificate is taught in around 50 private Christian schools in the UK. A pupil has complained to Naric that the textbooks used tell pupils that the Loch Ness monster appears to be a plesiosaur and helps to disprove evolution.
Creationist exams comparable to international A-levels, says Naric (Guardian)

Daily Mail, Times, Daily Express
It has been reported that more than half of children who take Tamiflu suffer from a number of side effects, including nausea and nightmares. Researchers have also found that many children found concentration difficult after taking the drug – which could affect their performance in school tests and exams.
Children treated with Tamiflu suffer nightmares and nausea (Daily Mail)
Tamiflu causes sickness and nightmares in children, study finds (Times)
Children hit by Tamiflu side effects (Daily Express)

Daily Telegraph
Parents are not to blame for the rise in bad behaviour among teenagers, new research has suggested. There is no evidence that parenting is worse today than it was 20 years ago, according to a study by the Nuffield Foundation. Today's parents are more likely to know where their teenage children are and what they are doing - in 2006, 85% of parents regularly asked their child where they were going, compared to 79% in 1986.
Parenting standards 'are improving' (Daily Telegraph not online)

Daily Telegraph
A mother of three boys comments on the newly published gender breakdown of the basic assessments carried out on every pre-school aged child.
Boys will always, always be boys (Daily Telegraph)

Daily Express, Daily Telegraph
The Open University is preparing to celebrate its 40^th anniversary.
We owe you, OU (Daily Express)
Open University: 10 things you didn't know about the educational institution (Daily Telegraph)

Times
The Times features a comment piece on school targets from an examiner.
If you need a target, don't be a teacher (Times)

Independent, Times, Guardian
In further letters today, Professor Richard Pring of the Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training, has claimed that grammar schools are unjust and ineffective.
A letter from Edward Gould in The Times discusses the focus on literacy in learning.
Letters to the Guardian discuss university deficits and costs for graduates.
Grammar schools are divisive, unjust and ineffective (Independent)
Focus on literacy (Times)
University deficits are on research (Guardian)

We are sorry not to be able to provide your weekly summary of the TES today. We will endeavour to include it with the Daily News Summary next week.

Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian
The Pope could top the pop charts this Christmas after agreeing a deal with a record company to release a CD of him singing in the Vatican. It is hoped that it will prove popular, not least because the Pope comes with a ready-made audience of about a sixth of the world’s population.
Benedict XVI's album is Christmas contender for Top of the Popes (Times)
Pope Benedict XVI releases album for Christmas (Daily Telegraph)
Pope Benedict to release an album in time for Christmas (Guardian)