ISC Daily News Summary

According to a report by the Commission on Teacher Retention, conducted by think tank Public First, three quarters of teachers would resign if they could find a new job with a better work-life balance. The findings suggest a “crisis in staff room morale” has been driven by rising apathy and aggression among pupils, helping to push tens of thousands of teachers prematurely out of their careers. By Tom Witherow, The Times.

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) is “actively exploring” liaising with other groups intending to take legal action against schools regulator Ofsted in the wake of the death of headteacher Ruth Perry. The NAHT announced in March that it had begun the process of a judicial review of Ofsted’s refusal to pause inspections. By Freddie Whittaker, Schools Week.

Chief scout Bear Grylls has accused schools of failing to give pupils “an edge in life”, arguing that “so much of education” is boring. The TV survival expert said traditional education was “falling short” and that his goal was to give children “real-life tools and skills”. By Camilla Tominey and James Desborough, The Telegraph.

Tom Redmond, joint principal of Chetham's School of Music, has said he believes the pandemic is to blame for the fall in the number of children taking up the recorder and other wind instruments in schools. Chetham's has reported an 80 per cent decline in the number of young people playing the recorder in 10 years. By Aneesa Ahmed, The Guardian.

An Oxford University study has revealed that breastfed children are about twice as likely to go on to achieve top GCSE results, with a link remaining even after researchers took other influential factors into account. According to the findings, 81 per cent of pupils breastfed for at least a year passed their English GCSEs compared with 58 per cent among those who were bottle-fed. By Eleanor Hayward, The Times.

Leading children’s doctors have united to demand an outright ban on disposable e-cigarettes in a bid to end the “epidemic” of vaping. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) said it is “deeply concerned” about the long-term health impact of e-cigarettes on young lungs, hearts and brains. By Eleanor Hayward, The Times.

Writing in Tes, Luke Ramsden, deputy head of an independent senior school and chair of trustees of the Schools Consent Project, offers seven tips for managing safeguarding concerns. Urging colleagues to use technology efficiently, he says: "Schools should ensure that, as much as possible, their digital safeguarding platform is integrated with the other software that the school uses so that staff are not having to enter information more than once."

Robert Halfon has said English universities should commit to prioritising mental health by September 2024. The higher education minister added that if they do not, regulators would consider making such a commitment necessary for university status. By Hazel Shearing and Vanessa Clarke, BBC News.