ISC Daily News Summary

The education secretary has urged ex-teachers to return to the classroom in order to help address staffing shortages caused by COVID, adding: "Anyone who thinks they can help should get the process started now on the Get Into Teaching website." By Nadeem Badshah, The Times.

According to The Telegraph, Nadhim Zahawi has warned that schools are likely to face disruption until Easter. By Camilla Turner.

Shadow schools minister Stephen Morgan has written to the Department for Education emphasising the need for a "proper workforce plan" for schools in the new year in order to prevent "defacto school closures". By John Roberts, Tes.

iNews speaks to headteachers about their experiences over the past term, and what they believe is in store in 2022. By Will Hazell.

With parents worrying about potential school closures again in January, an article in The Telegraph looks at what home schooling does to your children, at every age. By Emma Reed.

Concerns have been raised that soaring COVID infections could result in the cancellation of mock exams for GCSEs and A-levels in January. By Sian Griffiths, The Sunday Times.

Writing in The Telegraph, Annabel Heseltine looks at what the cancellation of exams would mean for young people.

Jane Prescott, head of Portsmouth High School and former president of the Girls’ Schools Association, has spoken of the ways in which schools are trying to reduce waste this Christmas. By Camilla Turner, The Telegraph.

Angela Neustatter writes in The Observer about the 'forgotten role' of her grandmother, Lillian Ada Neustatter, at Summerhill School, where pupils can vote on the school's 400 “laws” and overturn or create them in twice-weekly meetings.

Professor Chris Imafidon, the father of “Britain’s brainiest family”, has suggested the ways pupils are currently taught are "Victorian", stating: "I want the Government to ban all black and white textbooks from schools and teach Shakespeare as an app with Bart Simpson quizzing Shakespeare." By Sian Griffiths, The Sunday Times.

Nick Robinson, presenter of the BBC's Political Thinking podcast, interviews Katharine Birbalsingh, the new chair of the Social Mobility Commission who has also been labelled Britain's strictest head.