Clementine Wade, head of Year 12 at Ark Walworth Academy in south London, explains how Ark sixth forms are supporting pupils with Oxbridge applications through an initiative known as 'Project Oxbridge'. The article references St Paul’s School, which offers support to Ark schools with Oxbridge applications.

Richard Cairns, head of Brighton College, writes a letter to The Times arguing that universities should not be judged 'by the proportion of state school pupils they admit but focus instead on the proportion of disadvantaged pupils they admit'. Letter just above half-way.

The Telegraph offers "brain hacks" for parents to help children do well in their GCSEs. By Maria Lally. The article quotes Julia Harrington, head at Queen Anne’s School Caversham, and Ben Stephenson, the school's director of sixth form.

Research by the charity Youth Music has recommended schools adopt a "re-imagined music curriculum", which would see the studying of Mozart exchanged for Stormzy, in a bid to prevent pupils from being excluded. By Gabriella Swerling, The Telegraph.

Despite the education secretary's request to universities to stop offering unconditional offers to students, Birmingham and Oxford Brookes University have notified Damian Hinds that they intend to carry on making the offers to applicants. By Rosemary Bennett, The Times.

Damian Hinds MP has written a comment for The Times discussing unconditional university offers.

A study conducted by the charity Nurture UK has found one in four primary pupils suffer from hidden social, emotional and mental health difficulties. By Adi Bloom, Tes.

Grainne Hallahan provides five simple hacks to help teachers use Excel. Tes.

The schools minister, Nick Gibb, has said he is "persuadable" to an initial teacher training route focused just on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). By Jess Staufenberg, Schools Week.

Despite the introduction of the apprenticeship levy, the number of apprenticeship starts has dropped by 26 per cent. By Camilla Turner, The Telegraph.

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.