In the news

School report card

"The balanced report card has the potential to reflect better the performance of the school than any single set of examination statistics, but it must replace league tables, not be in addition to them." This was ASCL's response to the proposals for a school report card as quoted in the Times on 9 December.

In the Guardian, John Dunford was quoted as saying: "We do not want to see the whole performance of a school reduced to a single grade. Schools already have a single grade - the Ofsted judgment - and it would be taking the pursuit of simplicity too far to pretend that a single grade can summarise the whole performance of the school."

Pupil voice

John Dunford expressed ASCL's frustration at the 11th-hour amendment in the Education and Skills Act 2008 which will require schools to consult pupils. He was quoted in the Daily Express and Manchester Evening News saying: "This is crazy."

In the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and TES, he said: "I am furious that yet another in this continuous stream of legal and educational duties is being placed on schools."

Coasting schools

ASCL issued a strong warning to the government on 14 November in relation to 'coasting schools'. The Guardian quoted John Dunford as saying: "The government must avoid the mistakes made when the National Challenge was launched in May, when many good schools serving very challenging communities were wrongly labeled as failures based on a crude, single benchmark. Sustained effort and support, rather than naming and shaming, is needed to raise achievement."

BBC online quoted John Dunford: "I hope that the government will introduce this strategy in a way that avoids the vilification of a list of schools said to be coasting."