In a bid to address the severe shortage of women in engineering, schoolgirls from Benenden School have spent 18 months building a microlight plane and, after all their work, have taken to the skies in the aircraft. Reported by BBC World Service which quotes Zara Hussain aged 18, and Fernanda Wood aged 17.

Nick Forsyth, head of wellbeing at Kingston Grammar School, writes a letter to The Times about the work schools have done to support young people suffering from poor mental health which, he states, is often undone when students enter higher education. Letter halfway down the page.

The Times also includes an article focusing on a report by the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) which has shown thousands of young people are being turned away from mental health services, but are not being offered any other options.

Michael O’Sullivan, chief executive of Cambridge Assessment International Education, writes in The Times defending the difficulty of the IGCSE examinations.

Letter halfway down the page.

Research published by Cambridge Assessment has predicted that fewer than 200 pupils will achieve a sweep of the top grades, under the new GCSE grading system. By Camilla Turner, The Telegraph.

John Edward, director of the Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS), has said that the proposed tax hike faced by Scottish independent schools will also damage those in the state sector. By Henry Hepburn, Tes.

Dr Bernard Trafford, interim headteacher of The Purcell School, writes in Tes about the importance of teaching music to young people.

Kevin Stannard, director of innovation and learning at the Girls' Day School Trust (GDST), discusses why teaching should not be smothered by preparation for exams. Tes.

Lord Lexden, president of the Council for Independent Education (CIFE), writes for IE Today discussing how international students benefit from a CIFE education. References Bosworth Independent College and Collingham Independent College.

The Independent Schools Council (ISC) monitors the national and educational press in order to keep independent schools up-to-date with relevant education news. The DNS is a service primarily for schools in membership of ISC associations, although other interested parties can choose to sign-up. We endeavour to include relevant news and commentary and, wherever possible, notable public letters. Where capacity allows, we may include links to ISC blogs, press statements and information about school or association events. News stories are selected based on their relevance to the independent sector as a whole. Editorial control of the DNS remains solely with the ISC.

Sign-up to the email service is available on our website.

Members can contact the ISC if they know in advance of news, letters or opinions that are likely to feature in the media, or are aware of existing coverage which they would like to see featured in the DNS.

Headlines and first-line summaries are written by the ISC with the link directing to the source material. You should read and comply with the terms and conditions of the websites to which we link.