Archive for 2008

SEN2008 – another successful ISC special educational needs conference

One of the most popular dates in the busy ISC events calendar is the annual SEN conference for Learning Support Workers, SENCos and Heads from UK independent schools. Feedback for previous ISC SEN events has always been exceptional, and

We read the papers so you don’t have to!

I love my job at ISC as it is the perfect combination between routine and variety. Each morning I can be found at my desk bright and early with my head buried in a huge pile of newspapers, scouring the…

The School Open Day Season is upon us!

The try-before-you-buy aspect of schools flinging their doors open to prospective parents is great for both experienced and non-experienced parents. With the school open day season officially upon us they have cemented themselves as an essential part of the process…

The Fonz: Not too cool for school

When ISC staff members Hayley Dunlop, Alex Caish and Buffy Sansom attended the Teaching Awards this summer, little did they know they would be meeting The Fonz – AKA Happy Days actor and dyslexia campaigner Henry Winkler. ISC Press Officer…

ISCias Information Officer – Helping parents find independent day and boarding schools

ISCias is a FREE information and advice service for parents giving general information about accredited independent schools. ISCias deals with around 800 queries each month and that figure continues to grow!

My role as ISCias Information officer is to answer…

Private schools and charitable status

Since time immemorial ‘advancing education’ has been a charitable purpose and independent schools do exactly that. In recent times, some have assumed that to be charitable, relief of poverty needs to be a purpose of the charity in question. However…

School League Tables

Over the last few weeks, thousands of students have received IB, A-level, AS-level, IGCSE and GCSE level exam results. Families across the UK will have been looking at newspaper ‘school league tables’ in order to find out which are the…

Team ISC does the independent sector proud in Beijing

Hopes for British Olympic glory in Beijing rest in many cases on the shoulders of a number of former pupils from ISC schools.  Already David Florence, an ex-pupil of Stewart’s Melville College, has won silver in the men’s C-1 canoeing slalom,…

You’ll never be bored at boarding school

Boarding school is a popular option. Whether it’s due to the ‘Harry Potter’ effect, with children keen to go away to boarding school after reading about Hogwarts, or due to the efforts made to advertise the wide range of school fee assistance offered by many ISC schools in the form of bursaries and scholarships, there are now over 67,000 pupils at ISC member schools who are boarders: on a like-for-like basis this represents a 0.4% increase on 2007.

Keeping up the good work

On 11th July ISC submitted its response to the Charity Commission’s latest consultation on their public benefit guidance. To those not involved in charity law, it must seem as though the public…