The Independent Schools' Bursars Association (ISBA) and the Association of Governing Bodies of Independent Schools (AGBIS) are to merge and form a single professional association with charitable status. A statement from the organisations said that, from January next year, the merged association will "champion strategic vision, robust accountability and sustainable business practice, ensuring schools thrive in times of challenge and complexity". The new body, which is yet to be named, will be a member of the ISC's umbrella body. David Woodgate, chief executive of ISBA, and Richard Harman, chief executive of AGBIS, will be meeting with members in the coming months to discuss the plans for the merged association and listen to members' views. School Management Plus.

The average tenure of a current secondary head is now comparable to that of a prime minister or Premier League football manager, and a recent survey of 9,000 respondents found that just 37 per cent of deputy and assistant heads now aspire to headship. Tes talks to experts who explain how budget pressures, the new Ofsted framework and shifting school structures are all having an effect. By Cerys Turner. 

Strict bans on mobile phones in schools have "close to zero" impact on pupils' learning and show no evidence of improvements in attendance or online bullying, according to a study by researchers at US universities including Stanford and Duke. They looked at nearly 1,800 US schools where students’ phones were kept in locked pouches and found little or no differences in outcomes compared with similar schools that did not have such strict bans, concluding: "For academic achievement, average effects on test scores are consistently close to zero." By Richard Adams, The Guardian.

Formulae and equation sheets for some GCSE subjects will continue to be given to some pupils ahead of curriculum reforms, Ofqual has confirmed. The regulator has decided that exam boards will still be required to provide the exam aids for maths, physics and combined science, up to and including 2030 and 2031, the remaining lifetime of these qualifications. They had previously been confirmed until 2028. Welcoming the news, Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, called it "a positive step towards ensuring our exam system is fit for the modern world". By Esmé Kenney, Schools Week.

Jonathan Hetherington, head of More House School and chair of the Independent Schools Association (ISA), has said the government's overhaul of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision may lead to "woeful outcomes" for children like those at his school. Speaking to the Daily Mail, Mr Hetherington said that while he "supported" making mainstream schools more inclusive, some pupils would still be unlikely to cope. "It doesn't matter how inclusive you try to make that environment, there are so many children for whom it's not going to work. I think there's a real danger that many of those students are going to get pushed out," he warned. At the weekend, the ISA published a report highlighting that the independent sector is a "supporting pillar" to the entire SEND system, and ISA schools support more than 11,000 students with education, health and care plans (EHCPs) in specialist provision. By Eleanor Harding.

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