ISC Daily News Summary

BBC News reports that a growing number of schools have closed or finished early for the duration of the UK's record-breaking heatwave after temperatures reached 40.2C yesterday.

The Government has announced a 5 per cent pay rise for most teachers next year and confirmed that starting salaries will also rise by 8.9 per cent as part of the pledge to raise starting pay to £30,000. By Freddie Whittaker, Schools Week.

Leading teaching unions have criticised the pay deal, with Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, saying the union would be consulting members “to see whether they wish to take industrial action in response to this decision”. By Callum Mason, Tes.

Olli-Pekka Heinonen, director-general of the International Baccalaureate, writes in Tes outlining why he is pushing the organisation to review how its courses impact children’s wellbeing, adding: "I am determined that, in this hugely troubled world, we are dutybound to do everything in our power to depressurise schooling: to think about the whole student, and the whole school community, not just curriculum models and exams."

Tes takes a closer look at eight key findings from Ofsted’s report on how schools have been helping pupils to recover from the impact the pandemic has had on their learning. By John Roberts.

According to a new survey by Parentkind, 91 per cent of parents feel they have a good understanding of issues relating to diversity and inclusion in education and two thirds of parents say that they would like to be involved in helping their child’s school with diversity and inclusion. By Julian Owen, Independent Education Today.

Researchers at the Imperial College London have called for new regulations to cap the amount of junk food in school lunches, after their study found that two thirds of calories in school lunches come from ultra-processed foods such as cake, frozen pizza and chicken nuggets. By Eleanor Hayward, The Times.

The Government has appointed three providers to run the National Tutoring Programme and replace firm Randstad, as figures reveal take-up is more than 200,000 courses below target. By Tom Belger, Schools Week.