Jenny Brown, headmistress at City of London School for Girls, has a letter published in today's Times in light of the news that at least two independent schools are moving away from GCSE qualifications. Ms Brown writes: "While schools will have very different approaches, pace and timelines, both the independent and maintained sectors largely agree that reform is required."

The letter can be found halfway down the page. 

Schools Week reports almost a quarter of secondary schools and one in 10 primaries are preparing for disruption this week as members of the NASUWT teaching union have started limiting their working time. Polling by Teacher Tapp suggests 14 per cent of secondary teachers and five per cent of primary teachers planned to participate in action short of a strike, which began on Monday. By Freddie Whittaker.

Term-time holidays are “entirely socially acceptable” after the pandemic, according to a study by policy consultancy Public First. During focus groups held this summer, parents across England (whose children had missed school in the past year) said ensuring a child's daily attendance at school is no longer felt to be fundamental to good parenting. By Louisa Clarence-Smith, The Telegraph. 

An Ofsted report on the subject of physical education (PE) has found that most schools do not provide “clearly defined and broad” PE lessons, with many “not matching the ambition of the national curriculum”. The findings form part of the inspectorate's latest subject report, which looks at how it is taught in schools. By Amy Walker, Schools Week.

Ministers should widen their teacher workforce strategy to focus on the problem of teaching assistants (TAs) taking second jobs or leaving the profession amid rising living costs, a report by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) has warned. The report, which surveyed senior leaders in schools, suggests some TAs have left school work entirely in favour of better-paid roles in sectors such as hospitality and retail. Tes.

For the first time in half a decade, the number of 18-year-olds accepted into university in the UK has fallen. Figures published by UCAS also show that while fewer students got into their first choice of university this year, more qualified for their second choice, or accepted places through clearing. By Hazel Shearing, BBC News.

The Times reports that an unprecedented number of students have secured university places via clearing, with UCAS figures revealing more than 38,000 teenagers have found courses through the system in the 28 days since A-level results were published. By Nicola Woolcock.

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.