All Independent Schools exist by permission of Parliament, and are responsible to the DfE for meeting what are known as the 8 Regulatory Standards (the regs) covered by the 2019 Guidance plus a plethora of policies for which we are to have due regard. Ultimately, individual proprietors are responsible for ensuring standards are met. Where the ‘owner’ is replaced by a Governing Body, it still remains for the new proprietor (the board) to take responsibility, an incredibly important protection for the Heads and their staff.

As proprietors, my brother Hugh and I also choose to be key workers in the school, covering administration and academics respectively, hence the titles Administrative and Academic Principals. It is required of us to ensure that the school’s leadership has the necessary skills and resources to enable the heads and colleagues to meet both the regs AND the aims, key values and offers of the school. We choose to employ professional experts who advise the school in matters of governance covering law, accountancy, finance & pensions, alongside visiting consultants who bring their insights in academic, health & safety, safeguarding, planning & building areas to complete (and complement) the knowledge and experience the Principals have gained over their 40+ years in post.

The evolving landscape of single-sex education in the UK is governed by DfE guidance, and where secondary schools choose to offer single-sex education because of the clear benefits for both girls and boys, we are required to provide comparable facilities and opportunities for both genders. As a consequence, the significant building investments in facilities including the refurbishment of both main secondary teaching wings, the provision of new Design & Technology, Food & Nutrition, and computer science classrooms concludes with the construction of new music and fitness centres this summer. To have completed this work within the 3-year time period has been a significant achievement for all involved.

Regulations keep moving, and most UK readers will have seen the immense fuss being created by the increasing poor attendance in the state sector across the country. Claires Court is required to report attendance information to RBWM and then DfE, and today’s figure shows that in the year to date, we are @94.6%  which, as we’ve been midst ‘of winter bugs, Covid and all sorts’, is on target to be 95% or more (5* performance). Thank you, parents & guardians, you’ve done your bit, and well done to our nurses too for offering that professional yet sympathetic voice and diagnosis when appropriate. It is interesting too to see the public discourse on the mobile phone ‘good/bad dialogue’; the issue is well managed in many schools (handed into school for safekeeping during the day for under 15s).  Screen time on scrolling clickbait videos and interpersonal relationships connected via social media are the current generational problems after hours (and not just for teenagers). Whilst we can’t prevent phone access at home, the school’s provision of secure, protected Chromebooks for 12+ years now is a remarkable success story for CC.

One of the advantages of my age and experience is that as well as serving on national and regional ISA Headteacher groups, I get asked to connect with some of the people with power and influence who are or may be driving public policy. Yesterday, I met up with Professor Francis Green, a social economist at UCL, whose work led to the Labour Party’s manifesto promise to levy 20% VAT on all private school fees. I spent a useful hour with the Professor, and he has taken the point that policymakers and those impacted need to meet to consider the outcomes of the policy now its negative impact on private school viability is becoming more visible. 

Later yesterday and still in London, I met as part of the Association’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion committee in the offices of the Independent Schools Council, a really forward-thinking group who are well ahead of the government on assessing the impact of policy and the provision of successful education in England and informed by colleagues working elsewhere in Europe and the USA. 

A good finish to the day was to return to school to attend the Juniors Parents evening to 6 pm and then the Senior Boys event to 8 pm. Genuinely it is with great pleasure that I ‘man the tea urn’ and catch up with parents, and it’s always good to hear how we are doing, ‘what’s going well’ and ‘even better if!’ What made the day perfect was catching this video from broadcaster and commentator, Ana Boulter, whose leading mission right now is to assist the government in changing its policy on VAT, and to use the authority of senior headteachers in the country to make her case. As Boulter proposes Wilding and Birbalsingh to share the job of sorting out education for the private and state sectors, I thought, dear reader,  to draw it to your attention… 

These are indeed times of change, yet ‘twas ever thus, and as the header, this week shows the early spring sunshine rising over Claires Court fields circa 7.45 am, we do need to look to the future and make sure our well-laid plans are realised for the benefit of pupils, parents and teachers. After half-term, I’ll be publishing the outcomes from the Parents Questionnaire 2025, and of course, will be inviting parents and guardians to offer their insights to aid our direction for 2026-2030. We couldn’t possibly have guessed Covid 19, Austerity and a Labour Government this time 5 years ago – does anyone have a crystal ball that works a bit better now?