ISC Daily News Summary

Education secretary Gillian Keegan has criticised the Labour Party's proposal to tax independent school fees as ‘ill-thought through’ and suggested it would be unlikely to work. When asked about the report published by the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) on Sunday, Ms Keegan told LBC Radio: “It’s a really ill-thought through policy. They don’t really understand – they think of larger [schools]. There are 2,408 independent schools across the country – a lot of those are small schools, a lot of those are supporting kids with fairly specialist support as well." By Dominic Penna, The Telegraph.

In a piece for Conservative Home, the ASI's Sam Bidwell also looks at potential unintended consequences of VAT, and argues that state schools could be harmed by Labour's policy. He writes: "It’s clear that the impact on state schools will likely be far greater than advocates of the education tax are willing to admit."

Nearly 700,000 children with food allergies are at risk in the classroom as the majority of schools in England do not have recommended safeguarding policies in place to protect them, an analysis by the Benedict Blythe Foundation has found. Professor Adam Fox, paediatric allergist, said: “There is a clear need for a change in culture around how food allergies are managed in schools. The UK lags behind other countries and children are suffering and even dying as a result. By really educating the whole school community about food allergy we can turn things around.” By Katie Gibbons, The Times. 

Nursery costs and dwindling places will put pressure on government plans to expand childcare, a survey of English councils has revealed. Ellen Broome, managing director of Coram, said: “Our findings – with higher costs and dramatic drops in availability of childcare places – are concerning at this crucial time, showing the scale of challenge and the very real risks around this policy not living up to parents’ expectations." Jamie Grierson, The Guardian.

The health of children in the Coronavirus generation has “plummeted” to the “lowest rankings amongst other comparable nations” owing to the pandemic and cost of living crisis, a coalition of more than 200 charities and health professionals has said. Keith Reed, the chief executive of the Parent-Infant Foundation, said: “By age two, one in five toddlers are behind their expected developmental progress in the national checks undertaken. And it just builds … so it’s a ticking time bomb.” Poppy Koronka, The Times.

The absence rates for disadvantaged secondary school pupils in the autumn term were noticeably higher than their advantaged peers, analysis by FFT Education Datalab has revealed. Despite this, absence overall was lower in autumn 2023 than it was in autumn 2022, the research group found. By John Roberts, Tes.

Donna Stevens, chief executive of the Girls' Schools Association (GSA), writes for the School Management Plus on the progress made in the last 150 years since the association's inception. “We are redoubling our efforts towards the goal of true equality of opportunity... It is vital that young people feel empowered to pursue any path open to their talents and ambition.”