Harrow aims to offer more free places to less well-off

The north London establishment is the latest leading independent school to try to shed its "rich kids only" image in the wake of a law introduced last year demanding they prove their public benefit.

The 2006 Charities Act threatens to strip independent schools of their charitable status if they fail to do so. Collectively, the status nets them £100 million a year in tax breaks.

Barnaby Lenon, Harrow's Head Master, says toleration for schools perceived to be elitist is waning in the current "political environment".

The £26,445-a-year boarding school hopes to raise £40 million for bursaries by 2012.

Other schools have already started moving money from academic scholarships to means-tested bursaries in a bid to increase social diversity among pupils.

Eton is raising £50 million for bursaries and St Paul's School, in west London, hopes to offer all places purely on merit within 25 years with the help of £250 million of donations.

Writing in the Harrow Record magazine, Mr Lenon said: "The political environment is unlikely to tolerate a school which is only available to the sons of the very rich."

He admitted that few families could afford the school's fees, warning: "Harrow will be socially narrow if assistance cannot be given to some middle, lower income families."

The school already offers 21 pupils places at almost no cost.