Independent Schools, United Kingdom

I

Introduction

Independent Schools, United Kingdom, schools in the United Kingdom that are neither controlled nor financed by local or central government. They are sometimes referred to as fee-paying, private, or, in some cases, public schools. Each term is misleading to a degree, however: the schools are not fee-paying but fee-charging, and those attended by the majority of pupils in the independent sector are not private, that is, they are not run for private profit, but by a board of governors under charity legislation which ensures that any surplus income is put back into the school. The Assisted Places Scheme, whereby pupils unable to attend independent schools for financial reasons were given government-funded places, was abolished by the Labour government in 1997.

The term “public school”, sometimes applied to schools in membership of the Headmasters' Conference (HMC), has long lost its historical significance—denoting a school open to pupils from the whole nation rather than just local children—and thus its usefulness.

II

Independent School Structures and Statistics

A notable characteristic of independent schools is their variety. They include some of the most famous schools in the world—Eton, Harrow, and Rugby among them—and some of the oldest. The oldest schools in Britain, with years of foundation, are as follows: King's School, Rochester (604); St Peter's School, York (627); Wells Cathedral School (909); Warwick School (914); St Alban's School (948); King's School, Ely (970); Salisbury Cathedral School (1091); The High School of Glasgow (1124); Dundee High School (1239); Abingdon School (1256); Ruthin School (1284); and Bablake School, Coventry (1344).

Independent Schools range in size from a few dozen pupils to more than 2,000, and may be day schools, boarding schools, or a mixture of both. In 2002 the number of boarders increased for the first time in 15 years. However, since the mid-1980s the proportion of boarding pupils has witnessed a steady decline—in 2002, 14 per cent were boarders, compared with 28 per cent in 1982. Several factors are responsible for this trend: changing family patterns, cost (in 2002 the average boarding school fee was £14,100 annually, compared with £6,200 for day pupils), and the rapid reduction of the armed services, many of whose personnel traditionally boarded their children at school. More than 16,000 overseas pupils attended independent schools in the United Kingdom in 2002; traditionally, the largest percentage of these pupils come from East Asia, although in recent years there has been a considerable rise in the number of students from Europe (in particular Germany and Spain) and the United States. About two thirds of independent schools are co-educational, with the remainder split roughly equally between boys' and girls' schools.

Junior, or preparatory (“prep”), schools educate children up to the age of 11 or 13, senior schools generally to 18. Many independent schools offer teaching at all ages, from 3 to 18. Most preparatory schools now have their own “pre-prep” departments, covering the nursery and infant stages.

In 2002 there were more than 2,400 independent schools in Great Britain, educating 610,000 children. In England this represented about 7 per cent of the school-age population (with lower proportions in Scotland and Wales). Within England, there are considerable variations, by age and region. Whereas in London 10.3 per cent of children attend an independent school, in the West Midlands the proportion is only 3.3 per cent. At the primary stage, 5.4 per cent of children are in independent schools; among over-16s this rises to 19.1 per cent.

Many independent schools have religious foundations: of the many schools with strong Church of England connections there are some 40 cathedral choir schools; more than 100 Roman Catholic schools exist; and there are also Methodist, United Reformed, and Quaker schools. Jewish and, of more recent foundation, Muslim schools are among other faiths represented.

Independent schools are not obliged to follow the National Curriculum, but they prepare their students ultimately for the same public examinations; in England and Wales, for example, the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) at the age of 15 or 16, and GCE Advanced Level (A Level) at 18. That independent schools achieve high academic standards is not disputed. Of the 250 schools achieving the highest A-Level results in 2001, for example, 203 were independent. What is disputed by some is the extent to which this academic success is entirely or largely the result of selective admission policies. Some independent schools admit only children of the highest academic ability; many, however, admit a much wider range of ability.

III

Reasons for Choosing an Independent School

Surveys (in 1997 and 2001 by Market & Opinion Research International—MORI) indicate that class size is the biggest single reason for parents choosing independent schools in preference to those in the state sector (cited by 36 per cent of parents), and that roughly one family in five chooses the independent sector because of specific dissatisfaction with state schools. Similar proportions of parents cite high standards of achievement, better facilities, and discipline as decisive factors in their choice. Socio-economic analysis of these surveys shows that around half the children entering independent schools come from families where neither parent was educated at an independent school, with some 30 per cent coming from social classes C, D, and E, that is, at the lower end of the scale.

Parents increasingly tend to use both independent and state sectors as they suit their children's needs at particular stages in their schooling. Nearly half the children entering independent senior schools have been educated at state primary schools, while one in five of those leaving “prep” schools go into state schools. There is a similar crossover between sectors at the post-GCSE stage.

Given their complete dependence on fees, independent schools can only survive if they satisfy parents that they give value for money. Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, in spite of fees rising by around 10 per cent each year, independent school numbers grew steadily. Between 1985 and 1991, pupil numbers in the independent sector grew by 8 per cent. Since 1991, the effects of the worst post-war recession reduced numbers by about 3.5 per cent, although by 1995 the number of day pupils began to increase again and despite the abolition of the Assisted Places Scheme in 1997, the number of pupils being educated in the independent sector continues to rise in the early 21st century.

The evident success and the social and economic prominence of many UK independent schools fuels a continuing debate about their position in society. Many believe that the state's ability to provide high-quality education for all is compromised by the existence of a significant private alternative. The schools themselves argue that international conventions guarantee parental rights to an alternative to state education.