ISC Daily News Summary

Schools across the country have told children they can wear their own clothes or PE kits during this week and the next as temperatures soar during the UK’s heatwave. By Zoe Tidman, The Independent.

According to new figures from the Department for Education (DfE), England’s school pupil population is set to shrink by almost a million over the next 10 years. By Sally Weale, The Guardian.

According to a new analysis from Dame Rachel de Souza, the children's commissioner, pupils who had an unauthorised absence on any day in the first week of term are likely to have a significantly higher overall absence rate than their peers. By Matilda Martin, Tes.

Independent Education Today interviews Natalie Argile, deputy head and science teacher at Blackheath High School, on gender stereotypes, women in STEM and teaching girls how to weld. By Caitlin Bowring.

Lee Elliot Major, a professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, has warned that children from families in “deep poverty” are stealing basic items such as food and tissues from their schools and some are missing lessons altogether because they cannot afford the bus fare. By Sally Weale, The Guardian.

The Office for Students has warned that freedom of speech is at risk of being stifled on English university campuses after a record 200 requests for speakers and events were rejected in 2020-21. By Louisa Clarence-Smith, The Telegraph.

Marie Kawthar Daouda, a lecturer at the University of Oxford, writes in The Telegraph praising Shakespeare's plays such as Othello claiming: "Such human drama is part of the reason why Shakespeare so often rises above any attempts to cancel him."

New findings released by the DfE have revealed that 68 per cent of secondary schools that have been inspected so far and that were rated as ‘requires improvement’ (RI) have boosted their inspection grades since the return of routine Ofsted visits. By Amy Walker, Schools Week.