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Independent Schools Council
The Independent Schools Council (ISC) is the umbrella body representing 1,234 independent schools educating more than 500,000 children in the UK, Ireland and overseas. ISC schools include the famous name boarding schools, though the majority of ISC schools are day schools which are not widely known beyond their local communities.
The great majority of children in UK independent schools are in ISC schools and there is an increasing number in ISC overseas schools (outside UK).
ISC was first established (as the Independent Schools Joint Council) in 1974 by the major governors', heads' and bursars' associations of independent schools. Reconstituted in 1998 as ISC, it underwent a major review in 2002 as a result of which its core functions were redefined.
Today, ISC engages with regulation; data protection; examination standards; university admissions and charity law. ISC represents the sector on these issues to Government and to the Media, and issues guidance to its member schools. Its research staff ensure that a secure and comprehensive evidence base is available for all its activities and its Press Department is responsible for relations with national, regional and international media. ISC issues regular guidance and information to member schools on a wide variety of political, legal, educational and practical issues and we are a first port of call for parents seeking information about the sector and individual schools.
ISC also takes responsibility for a variety of functions required equally by all member schools and associations, most notably the induction of teaching staff.
ISC provides and communicates essential information to its schools in a variety of ways including through the ISC Daily News Summary, a daily email service summarising major education news stories; the ISC Bulletin, produced two or three times a year; a website, www.isc.co.uk; and a number of surveys, publications and research reports on subjects of importance to the education community. The ISC Annual Conference attracts hundreds of heads, bursars, governors and other education professionals from ISC schools each year, and its specialist conferences provide essential information for school staff.
The ISC web site is http://www.isc.co.uk
Facts and figures
(sourced from http://www.isc.co.uk/FactsFigures_PupilNumbers.htm)
The UK independent sector as a whole educates around 628,000 children in around 2,600 schools. The independent sector educates around 6.5% of the total number of schoolchildren in the UK (and over 7% of the total number of schoolchildren in England) with the figure rising to more than 18% of pupils over the age of 16.
Pupils in ISC schools account for around 80% of the total number of pupils in independent schools in the UK.
There are now 506,500 children in ISC schools in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Of these:
- 68,102 are boarders and 438,398 are day pupils
- 258,154 are boys and 248,346 are girls
- 45,259 are nursery age (0-4)
- 155,286 are primary age (5-10)
- 222,124 are senior age (11-15)
- 83,831 are sixth form age (16-19)