ISC Daily News Summary

In the ISC's latest blog, Phoebe Bradley, deputy head academic at Putney High School GDST, responds to growing evidence on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on cognitive ability and explores how the education sector must respond to best prepare young people for the future. "Teaching students how to use AI is imperative," she says.

More than £300 million could be taken from the Department for Education's (DfE) capital budget over the next four years to pay for increased defence spending, according to an official document published yesterday. It sets out how the defence plans will be funded, and says ministerial departments have been asked to contribute 1p in every £1 – or one per cent – of their capital budgets from 2026 until 2029-30. The DfE's total capital budget over the period from 2026-27 to 2029-30 is £31.4 billion, meaning £314 million is set to be taken from the department's budget. By Jabed Ahmed, Tes.

White working-class students are excluded from almost all Oxford and Cambridge diversity scholarships, despite a recent inquiry report revealing they are some of the most disadvantaged and underachieving pupils in English schools, analysis by The Telegraph has revealed. At both universities, the paper identified at least 15 scholarships, bursaries or financial aid schemes targeting undergraduate, master's and PhD students from a black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) background. Commenting on the findings, shadow education secretary Laura Trott said: "It’s time to move beyond identity-based preferences. Support should be focused on the most disadvantaged, regardless of their race or ethnicity, not to satisfy DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] targets or quotas." By Albert Tait and Ben Butcher.

Academy leaders' pay should follow "rules" that are "in line" with other parts of the public sector such as the NHS, schools minister Georgia Gould has said. Salaries at the largest NHS trusts are capped at around £280,000, but academy trusts face no such rules – six CEOs now earn over £300,000, and the highest earner is on more than £500,000. Schools Week has learned that ministers will unveil controls on MAT CEO pay alongside the long-awaited September teacher pay award, which could be announced as soon as today. In a Q&A with the paper, Ms Gould said "nothing is off the table" as the government looks to ensure salaries and annual pay rises awarded to academy trust executives are "proportionate and justifiable". By Lydia Chantler-Hicks.