Independent Schools Council

The Independent Schools Council (ISC) is a group of eight different independent school associations, joined together to better represent the thousands of children in ISC institutions. The council provides research, legal, regulatory and press services to the 1,200 schools it represents.

In total, around 500,000 pupils study at one of the many schools that are members of the ISC. If your child currently attends an independent school, or if you are looking for one to send them to, then you can check the ISC's annual census to see which schools are members of the council.

What does the ISC do?

The ISC has five 'strategic objectives' that lay out its overall intentions. It wants to "support the aims and objectives of our member associations, and provide a place where members from different associations might choose to meet".

The council also aims to "protect and promote" the independent schools sector, using "targeted, focused and effective campaigns" to get through to policy makers, and improve the UK's legislature regarding independent education.

The ISC wants to be a "leading source of legal and regulatory guidance" for independent schools, and to "conduct and compile authoritative sector research and intelligence". Its final objective is to make plenty of information available to parents online so they can make a well-informed decision about their children's education.

Several specialised advisory groups are also facilitated by the ISC, which bring together experts in several different fields to provide opinions and policies on a variety of topics. The ICT strategy group, for example, is currently focusing on controversial topics such as social networking, and how they apply to schools' computing policies.

Who is in the ISC?

Eight different independent school associations make up the ISC. They are as follows:

• Girls' Schools Association
• Headmasters' & Headmistresses' Conference
• Independent Association of Prep Schools
• Independent Schools Association
• The Society of Heads
• Association of Governing Bodies of Independent Schools
• Independent Schools' Bursars Association
• Council of British International Schools

If your child's school is a member of the ISC, there is a good chance that it is also a member of one of these organisations. It might be worth finding out which one, and checking its website to see what its own objectives are.

The ISC is also affiliated with the Boarding Schools Association, the Scottish Council of Independent Schools and the Welsh Independent Schools Council.