Morning:
10°c
Private schools take in twice as many pupils from deprived backgrounds as top grammars and comprehensives, it was claimed today.
David Lyscom from the Independent Schools Council said the academically best-performing schools which do not charge fees have considerably fewer poor children than private schools.
The suggestion, due to be made in a speech to the council's annual conference in London today, comes as the organisation tries to counter its reputation for social exclusivity.
The sector is under pressure to do its bit under the new Charity Commission rules demanding they help low-income families.
The ISC said its new figures would counter the private schools' reputation of being "stuffed full of posh white kids".
Mr Lyscom said parents from all backgrounds decide to pay for their children's education.
"Even where parents are being squeezed, evidence suggests that school fees are one of the last areas where parents will cut expenditure," he said. "Unlike holidays, cars and flat-screen TVs, educating one's children is not seen as discretionary expenditure."
He said one in 10 parents who choose private education was from low-income areas, while 14.5 per cent earn the national average household income of just over £30,000.
As a result, more than a quarter of private pupils now receive direct financial support from their schools, either in means-tested bursaries or academic scholarships.
In his address today, Mr Lyscom will also claim that private schools are more ethnically diverse than state schools, shattering the myth that they are bastions of privilege dominated by upper-and middle-class white pupils.
Data compiled by the ISC from its 1,265 members - which include schools such as Harrow and Eton - has revealed that 23 per cent of pupils at private schools are from ethnic minority backgrounds comapared with 22 per cent in state schools.
Reader views (2)
Private schools do not do enough to reach out to state primaries in order to identify academically gifted children who might benefit from attending independent secondaries. It is very, very hard for a child at a state primary to gain entrance to an independent secondary - state school children are simply not taught how to tackle the entrance exams, and stand little chance against children who have been through the preparatory system (which coaches children in how to pass). Prep school-educated children also take up many of the places at my local state grammar, Latymer - poor but clever kids who have not been coached stand little chance, and so the social divisions continue. Whether a child is from an ethnic minority or not is irrelevant - there are plenty of well off families from minority ethnic communities, and boasting of having a higher percentage than the state sector doesn't make you inclusive (levels in the state sector merely reflect the racial make up of society). My local independent schools - Highgate and Channing - have never to my knowledge been anywhere near my childrens' state primary to recruit gifted pupils. Don't believe the hype.
- Lj, London, 02/06/2009 13:56
Report abuse
Its true, I know of three youngsters, two are at Oxford and the third at Cambridge. The state system would not have got them there.
- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, 02/06/2009 13:45
Report abuse
