In the news

DfES split

John Dunford's scepticism about abolishing the DfES was widely reported by the media, including the Daily Mirror, Daily Telegraph, Guardian and Independent. On BBC News 24, John said: "Education and skills were brought together some years ago and there was a logic about that. I don't see the logic in splitting it." He added that the move is especially worrying for colleges, which will have to serve two masters.

However ASCL did warmly welcome the appointments of Ed Balls and John Denham to represent the interests of schools and colleges within Gordon Brown's cabinet.

Exclusion figures

Exclusion statistics always cause a media stir and the figures released in June were no exception. Responding to the increasing percentage of students returned to the same school after a successful exclusion appeal, John Dunford stated in The Daily Express, Daily Mail, Telegraph, Independent: "Heads need and deserve better support than this if they are to maintain standards of behaviour."

He added: "Heads must take into account what is best for the whole school and they are best placed to decide what is a suitable sanction."

Win for uniform policies

ASCL has strongly supported schools' right to set appropriate uniform policies, and therefore welcomed the news that a student had lost her court case to force the school to allow her to wear a 'purity ring' in school.

"Such cases waste a lot of time and resources for schools and I hope that today's judgment will send a strong signal to parents and pupils that schools have every right to set a uniform and that pupils should abide by it," John Dunford said in the Guardian, Independent and Daily Mail.