Following a writing contest for five to 13-year-olds run by BBC Radio 2's Breakfast Show, Oxford University Press has declared 'plastic' is children's word of the year. BBC News.

Sam Gyimah, the universities minister, says Oxford and Cambridge have 'not done enough' to improve admissions rates of British black students. By Harry Yorke, The Telegraph.

Amanda Spielman, chief inspector of Ofsted, is due to tell an audience at the Bryanston Education Summit - which takes place today at Bryanston School - that the child obesity crisis cannot be left for schools to fix. By Camilla Turner, The Telegraph.

Anti-bullying charity The Diana Award wants the definition of the word bully to be changed to 'a person who habitually seeks to harm or intimidate those whom they perceive as vulnerable'. BBC Newsround.

A new report by Universities UK has shown that universities are admitting twice as many BTEC students as they did 10 years ago. By Camilla Turner, The Telegraph.

Mental health campaigner Natasha Devon MBE says it is 'dangerous and naive' to blame young people's mental health problems entirely on technology. Tes.

The inclusion of 19th-century non-fiction texts in the new English language GCSE will benefit students and teachers alike, according to two educators. By Angelique Richardson and Helen Angear, Tes.

Guardian sports writer Anna Kessel questions why primary schools organise different events for boys and girls during sports days.

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.