Let’s celebrate our sector’s role in the national education system

Matthew Burgess, General Secretary

Fiona Millar (Charitable status for private schools: the judges say politicians must decide 10 January 2012) likens the charitable status debate to the plot of Downton Abbey.  It is her views on this issue and on the…

Looking for an independent school teaching job?

The Independent Schools Council provides a free Job Zone with hundreds of jobs listed each month, allowing you to find the job that suits you.

Independent schools upload their vacancies every day to the Job Zone meaning that you…

11+ Examinations

The Daily Telegraph reported a story at the end of November about the parents of a 10 year old girl, both doctors, who came to physical blows while discussing applications for their daughter’s secondary school place. This time last year,…

Coalition Caps

This month has provided much fodder for immigration observers. Two major speeches by the Home Secretary; the release of a Home Affairs Select Committee Report; the much-awaited report from the Migration Advisory Committee. The question schools ask me is: what…

Breaking the Link: Social Mobility and Education in Britain

Yesterday the Sutton Trust presented some of their work on social mobility at the Master’s seminar of the Company of Educators. They highlighted the importance of education for social mobility, stressing that the penalties for lower levels of…

Food for the Soul: Music, Art and Drama in the Independent Sector

The best schools foster the development of the whole child: academic achievement has its place, but in the busy and sometimes unforgiving 21st Century world we inhabit, there is also an important place for the social, spiritual (in its broadest…

Teacher Taster Days in independent schools

If you are a teacher in training, or interested in working in an independent school, then Teacher Taster Days will offer a valuable insight to what it’s like teaching in the independent sector.

What are Teacher Taster Days?…

After the election

The British electorate has spoken. But what have we said? If you believe many commentators it is that we want a hung parliament with a coalition or minority government. Whatever the merits of that argument the fact is that no…

Educational mobility

A new report on education mobility in England recently published by the Sutton Trust found that educational mobility in England has increased significantly since 1958. However, England lags behind Australia, Germany and the US in the international comparison.

The…

The Red Tape Peril

Interesting to read that the state sector is also blaming red tape and overzealous child protection policies for the decline of foreign exchange trips (see Telegraph article ‘Foreign exchanges ‘axed over security fears’). The independent sector has been equally worried; more…