BRITISH children are missing out on foreign exchange trips, warns an article in The Independent.

They report on a survey of 450 headteachers, carried out by YouGov for the British Council, which showed that only 39 per cent of the country’s secondary schools take part in foreign exchange trips involving a stay with a host family. State schools are half as likely as private schools to offer such schemes.

US Brits love our tea – 165 million cups drunk a day - and the latest trends in tea drinking have been reported in the Daily Express.

Apparently the days of letting tea brew for minutes to get the right taste have gone. According to Martin Isark of the consumer site canieatit.co.uk the advised brewing time now is less than half a minute for all the major brands of teabags sold in the UK.