ISC Daily News Summary

Teaching unions have criticised MP Michael Fabricant who claimed that teachers went “back to the staffroom and had a quiet drink” at the end of their shifts during the pandemic, while defending Boris Johnson, who was fined this week for attending a party in Downing Street during lockdown. Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, has called the MP's claims “wholly inaccurate and deeply insulting to the teaching profession”. By Freddie Whittaker, Schools Week.

Writing in The Times, former education secretary Baroness Morgan and former shadow education secretary Kate Green suggest that the mental health and wellbeing of young people must be "at the heart" of COVID recovery efforts.

The Scottish Conservatives have said that pupils in every council it controls after Scottish local elections in May will face longer school days and after-hours tutoring to help them catch up with education lost during the pandemic. By Mark McLaughlin, The Times.

Teachers attending the National Education Union's annual conference have said that schools should spend more time teaching children about pornography to prevent pupils sharing explicit images of themselves and from being impacted by the “distorted” depiction of sexual behaviours in pornography. By India McTaggart, The Telegraph.

The "low-quality" PHSE curriculum should be improved and teachers should be better trained to deliver it as part of improving mental health support for pupils in school, according to a new report backed by former education secretary Nicky Morgan. By Matilda Martin, Tes.

Experts from the University of Edinburgh have created more than 500 British Sign Language (BSL) signs to help deaf people navigate digital technology in the hopes that it will encourage more deaf students to pursue qualifications and careers in the digital sector. By Henry Hepburn, Tes.

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), graduates in England will pay up to 12 per cent interest on their student loans this autumn before the rate will dip in March 2023, when a cap on the interest will take effect. By Branwen Jeffreys, BBC News.