The Independent Schools Council is a politically independent, not-for-profit organisation representing 1,270 independent schools educating more than 500,000 children. It exists to promote choice, diversity and excellence in education, developing talent at all levels of ability and from all backgrounds.

Select Search Area: Enter Search Keywords:

The Independent publishes a response from ISC

13 March 2008

The Independent has published a letter from the Independent Schools Council in response to their 'Private schools warned on fees' story.

ISC's letter in the Independent - published 13th March 2008

Letter to Independent

Sir,

Regarding your story Private schools warned on fees (12 March), independent schools already provide many thousands of places to children from "working-class homes". One in three of the 500,000 students at independent schools receives fee assistance and one in four lives in a postcode on or below the national average income. And independent schools are committed to increasing the number of assisted places they offer. But this has to be within practicable limits: the majority of schools do not have access to large funds or endowments and have little scope to raise fees to fund extra places.
On a day when DCSF revealed that 36% of London schoolchildren will not be able to attend their first choice secondary school, some parents, whose children were unfortunate enough to miss out, will be able to choose an independent school as an alternative as long as they make financial sacrifices. The cost of this vital choice should not be pushed beyond the means of middle and low income households through arbitrary (and legally incorrect) insistence by the Charity Commission that schools should fund free or subsidised places when the money isn't there.

Matthew Burgess

General Counsel, Independent Schools Council