The Times features an interview with Patrick Derham, headmaster of Westminster School, about his desire for the school to become fully "needs-blind". By Damian Whitworth.

Julie Robinson, ISC general secretary, has written to The Sunday Times about independent schools' efforts to provide means-tested bursaries, which can "change a life for the better".

Teachers from different independent schools are planning to set up a new sixth-form school called Scholar 6, which aims to charge parents around £13,000-a-year. By Camilla Turner, The Telegraph.

upReach, a social mobility charity, has developed a recruitment tool for City firms that shows employers a candidate's actual A-level results and then their “contextualised” grades. By Greg Hurst, The Telegraph. The article quotes Barnaby Lenon, ISC chairman.

Toby Young writes in The Telegraph about whether the low-cost private school model can succeed in England.

Kevin Stannard, director of innovation and learning at the Girls' Day School Trust, makes the case for building A-levels into a more coherent programme. Tes.

The chief executive of Bright Scholar, which is set to buy Bournemouth Collegiate School from United Learning, has outlined his firm's ambition to create a “global network of premium schools”. By John Dickens, Schools Week.

Lindsay Paterson, professor of education at Edinburgh University, suggests that homework has the potential to be as important for young children as play or physical exercise. The Sunday Times.

A study by Oxford University has found that bilingual pupils have, for the first time, pulled ahead of native speakers in GCSEs. By Nicola Woolcock, The Times.

The newspaper also features a report about an increase in families seeking bilingual schools.

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