The Independent Schools Council is a politically independent, not-for-profit organisation representing 1,270 independent schools educating more than 500,000 children. It exists to promote choice, diversity and excellence in education, developing talent at all levels of ability and from all backgrounds.

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Information Management

The database management team plays a vital role ensuring that the ISC is the hub of accurate and timely information for the independent sector. The team deals with an average of 10 data requests a week from a wide range of organisations, including research bodies, the press, consultancy companies and parents. Staffed by two experienced IT developers, the team's work covers four broad areas:

ISC Annual Census
Census information is now all collected online in January each year. The recent move to online completion aims to save schools time and accelerate the checking and submission process.

Financial Benchmarking Survey
In 2008 ISC, ISBA, IAPS, and the accountancy firm Horwath Clark Whitehill (HCW) are working together for the first time to publish a comprehensive financial benchmarking survey and report for the independent schools sector. This joint venture will allow schools, free of charge, to benchmark their financial performance against other similar groups of schools. Participating schools will be able to access certain financial survey data for earlier years. The report will be launched jointly by ISC, HCW and ISBA at the ISBA Annual Conference in May 2008.

Exam results, University admissions and other surveys...
A-Level and GCSE results were collected online by the database team. The move to the online system has greatly improved efficiency and error checking. The team also build online surveys to collect valuable information on the whole sector.

ISC schools database
Development of the ISC schools database is ongoing. Current projects are aimed at improving the parental search function and the process by which new schools submit data to ISC.