ISC Daily News Summary

Children should be introduced to the world of work at the start of primary school, former minister Alan Milburn has said. The author of a major report into youth activity in the UK has suggested children as young as four should be learning about different careers, with mandatory work experience placements for 14- to 16-year-olds. The report comes as the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show 981,000 people aged 16 to 24 in the UK were not in education, employment or training (commonly referred to as NEET) between April and June this year. Welcoming the report, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "The earlier young people can begin to make connections between what they learn in school and the possibilities that lie ahead, the better." By Hannah Karpel, BBC News. 

Fewer schools are being hit by cyberattacks but leaders need to assume more responsibility for keeping systems safe, Ofqual has said. According to data from the exam regulator's third annual cybersecurity survey, schools are now recovering faster from incidents, with two-thirds able to recover immediately in 2025-26, up from 55 per cent the year before. The proportion of schools and colleges experiencing a cyber incident has dropped to 27 per cent in 2025-26, slightly down from 29 per cent the previous year and 34 per cent in 2023-24. Ofqual is encouraging schools to put more stringent measures in place so staff know how to act should systems be attacked. By Jabed Ahmed, Tes. 

With the creation of intimate deepfakes now a criminal offence, the children's commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, has called for a total ban on nudification apps. In an article for Tes, Shezleen Salaam, the paper's head of safeguarding, says schools must be knowledgeable and ready to respond to the growing threat of such apps, which create fake sexual imagery. In addition to reporting incidents to the school's designated safeguarding lead as soon as they are made aware of them, staff should also avoid viewing or sharing images, and preserve any content as evidence. "There is a clear and urgent need for stronger measures to protect children online," writes Ms Salaam. 

Writing in School Management Plus, Michael Woodside, master of Westminster Under School, explains how the school prepared for its first intake of girls this term. "Despite the anticipation, and some nervous energy, on the ground it felt entirely natural, normal, exactly as it should," he says. Reflecting on the school's move to co-education, Mr Woodside concludes: "Thinking back to discussions, almost a decade ago, it feels strange to think that girls were ever not part of our community."

Oxford University has retained first place for a record 11th consecutive year in the 2027 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, while Cambridge has slipped from third to fifth. The authors behind the rankings said Oxford, which performed well on research productivity, international co-authorship and doctoral staff ratio, was ahead of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) by just 0.1 points. For the first time, three Asian universities – China's Tsinghua University, Peking University, and the National University of Singapore – claimed positions in the top 15. Completing the top 10 behind Oxford and MIT are Princeton, Stanford, Cambridge, Harvard, the California Institute of Technology, Imperial College London, the University of California, Berkeley, and Yale. By Nicola Woolcock, The Times.