ISC Daily News Summary

BBC Southern Counties and BBC Surrey Radio
ISC Chief Executive, David Lyscom, was interviewed live on the radio this morning (BBC Southern Counties at 7.05am and BBC Surrey at 7.40am) discussing the effect of the credit crunch on the independent sector. A listen again link will be included in Monday's Daily News Summary as the feature is not yet available from these programmes.

Sun
Eton headmaster Anthony Little writes in the Sun on a new initiative supported by Eton. The plan is to raise £50million to help students who cannot afford the fees of £28,000 a year.
Eton's £50m bid to fund ordinary pupils (Sun)

Guardian
White working class boys fell further behind their classmates in GCSE results this year, according to figures which suggest government efforts to close the social gap in exam results are stalling. The figures, released yesterday, show that white boys on free school meals lagged further behind the national average in this summer's exams compared with a year ago. Just 16% reached the government's target of five good GCSEs including English and maths - 32 percentage points behind the national average of 48%, and a one-point slip on last year.
White boys on free meals fall further behind in GCSEs (Guardian)
White working class boys among worst achievers (Guardian)
Poor pupils fail to make the grade (Times)
White working-class boys 'worst performers at school' (Daily Telegraph)

Guardian
Front page article in the Guardian reporting that the global economic downturn has wiped at least £250m from the leading British universities' endowment funds, a Guardian survey has revealed. The universities of Cambridge and Oxford, whose endowments were valued at £907m and £680m respectively in July, are understood to be the biggest losers. Cambridge's fund plummeted £84m in the year up to July - before the credit crunch began to really bite - prompting fears that the worst is yet to come.
Crisis blows hole in uni funding (Guardian)

Daily Telegraph 
The Daily Telegraph reports that Labour has failed to hit half of its key education targets, according to a report. Vital goals to boost childhood literacy and numeracy have not been met, despite huge investment in primary education. Ministers pledged to increase the number of 11-year-olds with a decent grasp of the three-Rs to 80 per cent by 2002, but only 75 per cent reached acceptable standards. Targets to cut school truancy rates, reduce the number of teenagers out of work or training and boost the number of pupils with decent GCSEs have also been missed since Labour came to power.
Education targets on numeracy and literacy being missed (Daily Telegraph)

Daily Telegraph
A lecturer at a top university has told how he was ordered to mark up poor work amid pressure to climb vital league tables. Stuart Derbyshire, senior lecturer in psychology at Birmingham University, said he was told to "work harder to find the excellence" in his students' work. In one instance, an essay he believed was "fatally flawed" was given a good grade by a moderator - ensuring the undergraduate concerned got a 2:1 instead of a 2:2.
University lecturer ordered to mark up poor work (Daily Telegraph)

Guardian
Oxford University's under-21 rugby squad is being sent on a cultural diversity course after a row over racism and antisemitism. Three weeks ago pictures emerged of team members "blacked up" and wearing loincloths for an African-themed party named the Safari Bop. A week earlier, one of the players had invited students to the squad's "bring a fit Jew party". Students are alleged to have been told to invite a pretty Jewish date and arrive dressed as Orthodox Jews carrying bags of money.
Oxford Rugby Team Get Diversity Lessons (Guardian)

Daily Mail
Children as young as nine are being recruited at their school gates to stash guns and deliver drugs for gangs, a chilling report said yesterday. Growing numbers of pupils are being sucked into gang culture because schools are seen as 'fruitful' recruiting grounds, it warned. Children who fear gang violence are prepared to risk arrest and expulsion by bringing knives or guns onto the school premises for protection, it found. The report, commissioned by the NASUWT teaching union, painted a disturbing picture of the extent to which gang culture is 'infiltrating' schools.
'Children of nine being recruited at schools to stash guns and deliver drugs for gangs' (Daily Mail)

Independent
Since Unicef, the UN children's charity, reported last year that British youngsters were the unhappiest in the Western world, government ministers have been on the back foot about how children are cared for in the UK. As a result, 29 of the contributors supplying answers to people's everyday problems in national newspapers and on television will be attending what the Department for Children, Schools and Families calls a "relationships summit" next week. They will include Deidre Sanders, of The Sun, who has been answering readers' problems since 1980.
Agony aunts to cheer up UK's children (Independent)

This week's TES reports that schools and local authorities are breaking the law by failing to comply with their statutory duties for pupils with special needs. There is an article looking at slang in the classroom, an in-depth feature on the Timss study published this week, and an item on the Swedish education model.
TES

Daily Mail
Modern children's TV shows are better because they hold their young viewers' attention more effectively than classics such as Andy Pandy and Bagpuss, a ground-breaking study found yesterday. Programmes such as In the Night Garden are more appealing because they skilfully use vivid colours, repetitive words, music and high definition picture quality to give a ‘3D feeling'. However, old favourites such as the Magic Roundabout and Button Moon often provoke negative reactions in children such as fidgeting, yawning and passive staring at the screen, said the study.
TV's Top of the Tots: Modern shows 'better than old favourites' (Daily Mail)