ISC Daily News Summary

UK primary school class sizes are among the biggest in the industrialised world, according to an international study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which compares the state of education in around 50 countries. The report found that primary school teachers in the UK face classes of 27 children, exceeded only by Chile with 28, while the OECD average is 21. The findings also reveal the UK's ratio of pupils to teachers is the fifth highest behind India, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. By Sally Weale, The Guardian.

Writing in Independent School Management Plus, master of Magdalen College School Helen Pike explores education expert Tim Oates' recent report about the pandemic's ongoing impact on schools. Reflecting on the positive and negative effects of lockdown, Ms Pike states: "For all of us, the frank urgency of Oates' report will be welcome, even though the reality is far from it in many ways."

With one child being referred to mental health services every three minutes and a third of secondary school pupils avoiding classes due to anxiety, mental health expert Horatio Clare urges ministers to introduce some "radical solutions". Mr Clare looks at a variety of ways that schools are trying to address these issues, including the smartphone bans imposed by a number of independent schools. He adds: "The upcoming reform of the Mental Health Act is a chance for Sir Keir Starmer, Bridget Phillipson and Wes Streeting to take out a national insurance on our children’s wellbeing." The Independent.

In an interview with Tes, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Cambridge Tamsin Ford says that in order to improve attendance, schools need to take a collaborative approach through understanding how it interacts with mental health issues and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Professor Ford advises schools to appoint attendance monitors to identify persistent absence, saying: "The idea is to try and understand the reason for the lack of attendance and to see if there’s something fixable." By Zofia Niemtus.