Take poorer pupils or lose tax breaks, private schools told

The Charity Commission today published guidelines saying independent schools must provide greater "public benefit" in return for their tax breaks as charities - worth £100 million a year.

As headteachers of some of London's top private schools rejected charges that they were "perpetuating apartheid" between state and independent sectors, the Charity Commission said they would be allowed to charge "reasonable and necessary" fees but stressed that the lower the fees charged, the greater the opportunity for most people to benefit.

It added that where fees were high the trustees of those charities would have to think of ways in which people who could not afford them might benefit.

Schools that flout the rules could have their bank accounts frozen, buildings seized and even be closed down or have trustees suspended in the most serious cases. Anthony Seldon, headmaster of Wellington College, caused the furore by accusing top private schools of carrying on in splendid isolation, while creaming off the brightest working class pupils from comprehensives.

He urged others to follow his school's lead and found a city academy or sponsor a trust school to build bridges between the state and private sectors.

Dr Seldon told a conference at his Berkshire school: "The only vision the independent sector has today remains entrenched in the 20th century dedicated to excellence and carrying on as we are in splendid isolation, detached from the mainstream national education system, thereby perpetuating the apartheid which has so dogged education and national life in Britain since the Second World War."

But his comments were rejected by private schools in the capital, including St Paul's Girls' School, City of London School, Godolphin and Latymer, Emanuel, Kingston Grammar, Eltham College and Forest School. Today, City of London's headmaster David Levin said: "As a South African, I find the comparison and parallel with apartheid utterly unbelievable."

Mr Levin said schools like City of London went to great lengths to raise funds for means-tested bursaries for pupils who could not afford fees.

Eltham College headmaster Paul Henderson said: "Independent day schools, such as ours, are not part of an apartheid system. We are part of the community, not outsiders, and have been working towards inclusion since our foundation." The heads said they had formal and informal links with state schools and some did plan to get involved with city academies.