The Department for Education (DfE) does a weighted survey annually of maintained primary, secondary, special and academy schools in England.
"At the moment we have a good choice of maintained schools, academies, and faith schools – but all comprehensive.
"This is the first year where I have kind of maintained the level of golf that I know I am capable of over an extended period of time".
He's also worried about the availability of good quality multi-academy trusts to take over the large number of maintained schools still to convert.
The heads, from a mixture of maintained and academy schools, who were joined by Dr Phil Wood from Leicester University's school of education, cite the focus on disadvantaged pupils and the release of data as being the most positive developments.
Whereas the fate of maintained schools lies in the hands of democratically elected local authorities, the future of each academy is "irreversibly placed in the hands of the present or any future secretary of state for education".
As schools become more autonomous, directors are forging new relationships with head teachers and governors, of maintained schools and academies, based on trust and respect for each others' expertise.
His report, released today at the HMC's annual conference in St Andrews, said: "There is no case for instituting formal procedures to secure the entry of maintained school pupils on lower entry qualifications.
The findings are based on evidence from nearly 3,000 inspections of maintained schools and academies conducted this year, and two specially-commissioned YouGov surveys of parents and teachers.
Three-quarters of the free schools are rated by Ofsted as outstanding or good, compared with two-thirds of maintained state schools inspected in the first quarter of this year.
We work with two educational charities, IntoUniversity and Eastside Young Leaders' Academy, which help us identify candidates with the greatest potential and character, and also work with a number of maintained schools across the UK.
