ISC Daily News Summary

New figures show about 16 per cent of secondary schools in England have been forced to send some pupils home due to suspected coronavirus cases. By Hannah Richardson, BBC News.

Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT, has warned "the provision of remote education is simply not sustainable without substantial additional resources", as survey findings reveal 74 per cent of teachers report having an increased workload. By Dave Speck, Tes.

James Bowen, director of policy at the National Association of Head Teachers, has warned the NHS COVID-19 app is causing "huge amounts of confusion" for parents, as it is not clear whether children should stay at home if their parent has received a self-isolate alert. By Mike Wright, The Telegraph. A separate article in the paper answers some questions parents might have about the app. By Rosa Silverman.

Justine Greening, a former education secretary and co-founder of the Social Mobility Pledge, writes in The Times arguing "if the Government wants to level up Britain, it must take steps to deal with the education crisis".

Schools Week reports pupils who are unable to attend the Autumn exam series because they are self-isolating may have to wait until summer 2021 to try to achieve a better grade. By John Dickens.

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, has called for a "fallback" plan for next year's exams, warning "there has to be really high probabilities of lots of children not being able to do the tests". By Amy Gibbons, Tes.

Sir David Eastwood, vice-chancellor of the University of Birmingham, and Sir Chris Husbands, vice-chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University, write in The Times calling for the cancellation of next year's A-level exams.

Teach First is calling on exam boards to ensure at least a quarter of authors on their GCSE English literature reading lists are from ethnic minority backgrounds, amid concerns about a lack of representation in the curriculum. By Will Hazell, iNews.

A new report from the Edinburgh Poverty Commission has called on the city's independent schools to "do more to improve opportunities for people on low incomes, for example by sharing teaching and learning resources online". By Henry Hepburn, Tes.

According to a report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Britain is among the worst countries in the world for learning a foreign language, with pupils spending an average of just 1.7 hours a week perfecting second language skills. The Telegraph.