A new report from the Education Policy Institute suggests education recovery funding needs to be increased to at least £13 billion, warning that a minimum of £78 billion in lifetime earnings could be lost by children who missed out on education during the pandemic. By Hannah Richardson, BBC News.

Some school leaders have said that the cost of dealing with COVID is forcing them to make cuts to balance their budgets. Rob Kelsall, the national secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "About 33% of schools are now having to make cuts in order just to balance their books." By BBC News.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth has urged ministers to consider recruiting retired clinicians to help vaccinate pupils. By Harry Yorke, The Telegraph.

New figures from the Teacher Tapp app and SchoolDash have found that as a result of uncertainty caused by COVID, more teachers feel that they will be in the job in three years' time and fewer have considered moving to teach overseas. By Amy Gibbons, Tes. Other findings from the report suggest that the disruption to the teacher job market caused by COVID is “disproportionately” benefiting schools in disadvantaged areas which previously struggled to fill their posts. By James Carr, Schools Week.

According to Tes, there is "no evidence" of a post-COVID primary headteacher exodus as previously predicted last year. New data from TeachVac shows that 1,292 primary headteacher vacancies have been advertised to date in 2021, compared with 1,496 in the whole of 2020 and 1,446 in 2019. By Amy Gibbons.

New findings from a report by the Education Policy Institute suggest that the Government should explore "how to involve parents in the commissioning of tutoring". By Amy Gibbons, Tes.

The UCAC union has warned that some schools in Wales could be forced to close due to staff shortages exacerbated by COVID self-isolation. BBC News.

Schools in Suffolk are reintroducing face masks after a spike in COVID cases. Students and staff will have to cover their faces in communal areas outside the classroom and parents will also have to wear a face mask when collecting children in the playground. By Gareth Davies, The Telegraph.

Giving evidence to the Women and Equalities Committee yesterday, Katharine Birbalsingh, the Government’s new social mobility commissioner, said that “excellent behaviour” across all schools would solve pupils’ COVID learning loss “very quickly”. By Samantha Booth, Schools Week.

Ms Birbalsingh, who is also the headteacher of Michaela Community School, has said she wants to launch a nationwide campaign telling parents not to give their toddlers a mobile phone to play with, claiming it will make reading harder for them later on. By Sally Weale, The Guardian.

The latest episode of Attain's Fresh Thinking podcast features Stuart Douch and David Buckingham from Sompting Abbotts Prep School, to discuss how spending time learning about wildlife can benefit pupils' learning and wellbeing.

The Independent Schools Council (ISC) monitors the national and educational press in order to keep independent schools up-to-date with relevant education news. The DNS is a service primarily for schools in membership of ISC associations, although other interested parties can choose to sign-up. We endeavour to include relevant news and commentary and, wherever possible, notable public letters. Where capacity allows, we may include links to ISC blogs, press statements and information about school or association events. News stories are selected based on their relevance to the independent sector as a whole. Editorial control of the DNS remains solely with the ISC.

Sign-up to the email service is available on our website.

Members can contact the ISC if they know in advance of news, letters or opinions that are likely to feature in the media, or are aware of existing coverage which they would like to see featured in the DNS.

Headlines and first-line summaries are written by the ISC with the link directing to the source material. You should read and comply with the terms and conditions of the websites to which we link.