ISC Daily News Summary

Heather Hanbury, president of the Girls' Schools Association (GSA), has suggested that professionals looking to get ahead should embrace 'soft skills that align with feminine qualities'. Mrs Hanbury, who is also the headmistress of Lady Eleanor Holles School, will address 150 other heads at the GSA Conference on the virtues of female leadership. By Craig Simpson, The Telegraph.

The Observer reports the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is facing criticism for using data from a report commissioned by the Independent Schools Council (ISC) to justify his decision not to add VAT to independent school fees. By Anna Fazackerley. The article features a quote from the ISC on the report by Baines-Cutler, which states: "Their data, which was gathered before the financial impacts of COVID and the cost of living crisis had hit British families, was independently corroborated by a later, unrelated ASCL survey of school leaders."

Ben Bradley, the Conservative MP for Mansfield, has said more should be done to recruit male teachers into classrooms, adding: "Good male role models are not just important for boys but also for girls for the same reasons." By Nicola Woolcock, The Times.

Libby Purves writes in The Times welcoming Mr Bradley's call for more male teachers, saying: "Nobody's perfect in any gender. But it is useful to boys to have good male teachers."

A coalition of women, youth and anti-violence charities, spearheaded by Girlguiding, has written to education secretary Gillian Keegan calling for the introduction of compulsory consent lessons, claiming sexual harassment has become "normalised" in schools. By Gabriella Swerling, The Telegraph.

According to The Telegraph, the Conservatives have hired two senior Labour figures from the Blair era as part of efforts to reform health and education. By Laura Donnelly and Louisa Clarence-Smith.

According to a poll by YouGov, 18 to 24-year-olds form part of the only age group that believes schools should "teach students that Britain was founded on racism and remains structurally racist today". Research by Eric Kaufmann, an academic at Birkbeck, University of London, for the Policy Exchange think tank, has raised concerns that children 'are being taught contested ideas as fact'. By James Beal, The Times.

Dame Rachel de Souza, the children's commissioner for England, has expressed concerns over the "insidious" nature of content some children are viewing on social media, warning it "should be a concern for all of us". By Camilla Turner, The Telegraph.

Andrea Bradley, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland, has said the union is "hopeful" a new pay offer will be made to avert a teachers' strike on Thursday. BBC News.