Press releases
18 December 2006
Pat Langham, Headmistress of Wakefield Girls' High School, is to become President of the Girls' Schools Association on 1 January 2007, taking over from Dr Brenda Despontin, headmistress of Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls.
14 December 2006
The Independent Schools Council (ISC) is to deliver today a scathing critique of the Government's proposed Children's Act Database. The proposal is for an Index containing details of every child in England, including name, gender, address, plus details of carer, school, GP, and any of a number of 'professionals' dealing with the child. The database will be accessible by more than 330,000 people. Claims that it will be "secure" are unsupported by any published evidence.
4 December 2006
The largest ever survey of university applications from pupils at Independent Schools Council (ISC) schools shows that nearly two-thirds of their applications to the most popular universities produced an offer of a place (each student can apply to up to six universities). Overall, 98% of ISC pupils received at least one university offer - the majority of them at a Sunday Times Top 15 University.
23 November 2006
The settlement was reached in March 2006 and is now formally concluded. It was co-ordinated on behalf of the schools by a Steering Group led by ISC General Secretary Jonathan Shephard, who comments:
15 November 2006
Alexandra Caish has joined the Independent Schools Council as Head of Press (6 November 2006).
13 November 2006
‘Being a head is one of the most rewarding jobs there is,' says Dr Brenda Despontin in her Presidential address to the Girls' Schools' Association (GSA) conference in Cardiff today. ‘But this country faces a headship recruitment crisis of unprecedented proportions, leading the Government to consider other models for headship.
19 October 2006
Reacting to the publication today by the DfES of their provisional GCSE and Equivalent Results in England 2005/06, ISC Chairman Edward Gould said: "These tables are largely meaningless. They do not give a true picture of the education sector in England, because they do not include results for International GCSE (iGCSE) examinations. Around a third of independent secondary schools teach to the iGCSE curriculum in at least one subject. Many schools see iGCSE as a better preparation for advanced level study.
26 September 2006
Delivering his Chairman's Address at the Annual Conference of the Incorporated Association of Preparatory Schools (IAPS) in Lisbon, Rowland Constantine, Headmaster of The New Beacon in Sevenoaks, Kent gave his assessment of the benefits of an independent prep school education as well as the challenges facing the sector.
8 September 2006
IAPS (the Incorporated Association of Preparatory Schools), one of the member associations of ISC, has today released the results in the 2006 Key Stage 2 tests taken by those of its member schools that entered pupils. QCA data has confirmed that 210 schools, 37% the schools in membership, used the tests.
1 September 2006
The Independent Schools Council (ISC) has released the results for the independent sector in the 2006 GCSE examinations. Commenting, ISC General Secretary, Jonathan Shephard, said: "These are formidably strong results, achieved by pupils with a wide range of academic ability."