Small schools' champion takes chair

5 January 2005

David Vanstone, who has become chairman of the Independent Schools Association (ISA) for 2005, intends to champion the strengths of small schools during his year of office.

Mr Vanstone, who is 49, has been head of North Cestrian Grammar School, Altrincham, Cheshire, since 1996. An 11-18 boys' grammar school with over 300 pupils and girls in the sixth form, the school focuses on individual attention, small classes and nurturing unfulfilled potential and has a reputation for success with dyslexic pupils.

Mr Vanstone said: "The focus on individual attention for which ISA schools are renowned means that they represent a model of excellence which I want to promote throughout the nation. The genuine benefits attached to small schools and the need they fulfil is fully appreciated by parents and pupils alike but too often ignored by legislators and those who control the nation's purse strings."

Educated at Leeds Grammar School and Cambridge, where he read history, Mr Vanstone trained as a teacher at Goldsmiths' College, London, and started his teaching career at Whitgift School, Croydon. He subsequently became head of history at Hymers College, Hull, and from 1990 to 1996 was deputy head of Stafford Grammar School.

He has been a member of the ISA National Executive since 1997 and chairs its Academic Policy committee; he also sits on the joint GSA/HMC Education/Academic Policy Committee. He is a trained inspector for the Independent Schools Inspectorate and is a governor of a local maintained primary school.

Married, with two children still at school, Mr Vanstone is also a keen fencer. A regular competitor in regional and national competitions he also coaches to national school level.

The Independent Schools Association is one of the five professional heads' associations within the Independent Schools Council. It has nearly 300 member schools educating over 70,000 pupils of all ages.