In the news...

Annual conference

The TES, Guardian, Independent, Times, Telegraph, and Sec Ed all contained coverage of ASCL's annual conference 17-19 March. BBC Online also ran several articles during the conference weekend.

An article in the Times focused on the association's call for the government to look again at how it spends more than £700 million trying to raise standards in areas of low achievement.

The article quoted John Dunford as saying: "Resources must be targeted accurately and without waste. Not the inchoate mixture of government initiatives that have sprayed funds around in recent years, like Dick Cheney on a quail shoot."

The article went on to say that there should be a "special focus" on the 300 schools that "had the greatest distance to take their pupils".

A full-page feature on Sue Kirkham appeared in the TES the Friday of conference. Among more prosaic facts, it contained the revelation that our president unwinds by visiting the sheep in her back garden.

In the same issue of the TES, Deborah Duncan, Council member, head of Horbury High School and author of the ASCL book Work-life Balance: Myth or Possibility?, was the main feature of the School Leadership section.

School dress

John Dunford was a guest on BBC Breakfast on 22 March, the morning of the decision of the Shebina Begum case over school dress code. Commenting on the case, John said: "I am delighted that the House of Lords has supported the school. It carried out an extensive consultation with the local community before deciding on the uniform.

"The purpose of school uniform is to create a community ethos and no individual pupils should be able to go their own way. This judgement will be widely welcomed by heads. If the judgement had gone the other way, it would have serious consequences for schools and communities that want their children to wear a uniform."