Private schools use less than 6% of fees to help poorer pupils

England's wealthiest private schools devote only a small fraction of their income towards means-tested bursaries, according to research that undermines claims that adding VAT to school fees would decimate support for poorer pupils.

- Richard Adams

The Private Education Policy Forum (PEPF), a thinktank campaigning for greater equality and transparency among independent schools, gathered data from more than 200 leading schools, and found they spent less than 6% of their total fee income on supporting pupils based on family income.

While independent schools argue that they support upwards of 100,000 pupils with assistance, the PEPF found nearly half of the support at the schools it examined was not means-tested, and included discounts for siblings attending the same school, fee rebates for children of staff, and sports or music scholarships.

As a result, the PEPF said, much of the fee remission given by those private schools may not go to genuinely disadvantaged children.