As the ISC survey demonstrates, independent schools are evolving to meet the demands of a changing society but the most successful schools are those that put children and their families at the heart of decision making.

I will never attend another event at Manchester, and have asked them to remove my name from anything which promotes the University. I would advise anyone considering studying at Manchester to consider how it treats its former students. If this is how it treats us - how will it treat you? As people to be cherished - or potential cash cows to be milked?

when it comes to adult learners making their aspirations a reality, there is a problem. People just don't realise how qualified they already are. A key factor that holds many potential adult learners back when considering pursuing a new qualification is that they don't appreciate that there is value in experience.

There's a case that students, who could be the next generation of leading scientists, architects, designers and mathematicians, could be slipping through the net through lack of awareness about visual/spatial thinking and the skills that those with a bias towards such thinking can bring to the table.

Like any successful business, independent schools need to understand and deliver what their customers - fee-paying parents - want in order to stay ahead in the education marketplace. The survey results appear to substantiate that with advanced strategic planning many schools are successfully achieving this.

One thing that any student has to remember is how to manage time, and when your school places equal weight to academics and community service, it can feel somewhat overwhelming at times.

The newly introduced testing of school pupils throughout England in a bid to determine their understanding of grammar, spelling and punctuation has sparked widespread debate about grammar in general. How much do we know about our language? How can we learn it? And does it even matter?

What this proposal really shows is that the matter of achievement is associated only with the acquirement of the higher grades and not when a student is awarded with a grade that corresponds with their potential and effort.

A revolution has happened and over the last decade increasingly many undergraduates want something different. We want to start our own businesses - inevitably small at first, but hopefully large one day.