ISC Daily News Summary

According to The Times, schools are to be given face masks and gloves deemed "not suitable" for the NHS as the Government seeks to redistribute the £8.7 billion worth of PPE that cannot be used by health services. By Chris Smyth.

MPs raised concerns shared by teachers that children are suffering with "extreme" separation anxiety from their parents and are "finding it really difficult to play with each other" as a result of the pandemic during a debate on the Government's education catch-up and mental health recovery programmes yesterday. By Callum Mason, Tes.

Writing in Tes, Henry Hepburn reflects on the impact of COVID over the last two years. He argues “it does not seem certain that the pandemic will have changed Scottish education is any profound or fundamental way”.

A new report from the Independent Assessment Commission (IAC) on the future of assessment and qualifications in England has suggested that “fundamental changes” need to be made to the current system and that GCSEs should be “comprehensively overhauled”. By Anna Britten, Independent Education Today.

Lord Young of Graffham, who was trade and industry secretary in the 1980s, has called exams "fundamentally unfair" and suggested they should be replaced by continuous assessment. By Rachel Sylvester, The Times.

Members of the National Education Union (NEU) working at Girls' Day School Trust (GDST) schools will strike in a week's time over opposition to their employers' plans to withdraw from the Teachers' Pension Scheme. By Callum Mason, Tes.

Clare Marchant, the chief executive of the Universities Admissions Service (UCAS), has said that lingering stereotypes about degree apprenticeships must be tackled to boost take-up of the courses, and suggested that a public information campaign would help to encourage more school leavers to apply for them. By Nicola Woolcock, The Times.

A report by the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre has found that teachers of creative subjects are the most likely to provide industry experience for their students. By Serena Haththotuwa, Independent Education Today.

According to The Guardian, parents who choose to home-school their children but fail to register them with the local authority in England could face sanctions under new government proposals. By Sally Weale.