Private schools warn over 'rottweiler' Ofsted

Bernard Trafford, chairman of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, representing 250 of Britain's top fee-paying schools, said today that plans to place them under the control of education watchdog Ofsted - the "Government's rottweiler" - were a serious threat.

He dismissed ministers' demands for private schools to sponsor city academies, saying it was "rubbish" to suggest this was the only way the independent sector could keep tax breaks that came with their status as charities.

Dr Trafford's scathing criticism, at the HMC's annual conference in Bournemouth, will ratchet up tensions with the Government.

It comes before schools minister Lord Adonis is due to urge the assembled heads to get involved with the academies programme - and even to convert to academy status themselves.

Dr Trafford, head of Wolverhampton Grammar School, said: "We need to protect our independence because it's under threat. So we must say, very firmly, hands off. We are independent.

"We need to be very robust in defence of our independence - and fight this latest creeping regulation."

Dr Trafford hit out at a proposal to require all independent schools to register with Ofsted. He said: "I described Ofsted as Government's rottweiler. It's a bit fluffier these days, but its role is still that of the government enforcer. It is simply not acceptable to suggest that Ofsted should be both judge and jury, monitoring our inspections as it does now but also registering and regulating our schools."

Meanwhile, new charities law makes clear private schools must be far more accessible to families on low incomes. Many - including about 20 London private schools - hope to attract more children from low-income backgrounds on means-tested bursaries.

Others have offered to lend their expertise to city academies and Westminster is in talks to sponsor the academy planned to replace Pimlico School, the Sixties comprehensive that was failed by Ofsted at the beginning of the year.

Dr Trafford argued that the "magic" ingredient in the success of private schools was their independence.

He said: "The benefits of our independence - the freedom to teach the things we want, in the way we want to - are incalculable."

Dr Trafford said the tight public benefit test used to determine whether private schools should keep £100 million of tax breaks should not be used as a stick to beat the independent sector.

He added: "Such people just want to have a go with any weapon they can - the public benefit debate is the latest.

"The politics of envy is alive and well. And we can't win.

"We're damned if we don't do good works, and damned if we do because if we do, it is suggested, we're only doing it to keep the Charity Commission off our backs."