ISC Daily News Summary

Dame Rachel de Souza, children’s commissioner for England, has warned that thousands of children have “fallen off the radar” during lockdown as she launches an inquiry to track down youngsters who are not in the classroom. By Camilla Turner, The Telegraph.

According to The Times, as part of the Government's Veterans’ Strategy Action Plan, former service personnel will be targeted to become teachers, with offers of a £40,000 training bursary to become a secondary school teacher. By Larisa Brown.

According to Oxford University Press, “anxiety” has been voted the children’s word of the year. Researchers say the findings highlight the impact lockdown and school closures have had on children’s health and wellbeing. By Gareth Davies and Max Stephens, The Telegraph.

The National Deaf Children's Society has warned that deaf children are "falling behind" at school after the return of face coverings in classrooms and has called on parents of deaf children to email education secretary Nadhim Zahawi about the impact that face coverings are having on their children. Tes.

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, writes in The Times reflecting on mental health funding in the UK. He suggests that the mental health support teams being developed in more than 300 schools across the UK can make a real difference "but consistent and additional funding is needed if the model is to reach every school".

Writing in The Times, Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, has suggested that personal statements on university applications "have become a systematic disadvantage to poorer students" and should be dropped or replaced with a set of specific questions.

Researchers at University College London's Institute of Education have said that the Government's approach to teaching primary school pupils to read in England is “uninformed and failing children”, calling on the ministers to drop its focus on phonics. By Sally Weale, The Guardian.

Oasis Academy Shirley Park school in London is launching a youth centre to help students deal with grief and honour two pupils who were killed in a fatal stabbings last year. Headteacher Saqib Chaudhri said: "What we want to be able to do is show students that actually this is a time when we rely on our values more than any other time." BBC News.

Hannah Bardell, the SNP’s consular affairs spokeswoman, has defended a controversial census that asked pupils about their sexual experiences, adding: “Young people don’t have to answer these questions if they don’t want to. I think it’s regrettable that a number of councils have pulled this." By Constance Kampfner, The Times.