Parents fiercely protective of independence

New figures released by the Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS) showed private school rolls had stayed relatively stable in the past year, with a dip of just 0.4 per cent, or 115 pupils, across the country as a whole.

The figures show the independent schools sector is weathering the economic downturn and come after one of the country’s most expensive schools, Gordonstoun, which charges £30,000 a year in fees for boarders and around £20,000 for day pupils, said it had its highest intake of pupils since the 1990s.

SCIS said the continued stability of its schools was a “vote of confidence” by parents, with pupil numbers actually increasing at secondary level.

It said the slight reduction of pupils at nursery and primary level was due to decreasing numbers of primary aged children within the population.

John Edward, director of SCIS, said: “It is immensely reassuring that parents continue to be attracted to the excellence that our schools exemplify.

“The schools have worked hard in recent years to widen access and to support parents who need fee assistance.”

Around one in 20 children in Scotland are educated by independent schools, although the figure in Edinburgh is closer to one in four.

The figures, published yesterday, show there are 31,425 pupils at Scotland’s independent schools, compared with 31,540 last year.

The number of boarders fell by 2.2 per cent from 3,655 to 3,575, despite a rise of almost 4 per cent the previous year.

At special schools within the sector, there was a 4.4 per cent fall in the number of pupils from 680 to 650 and a 22.1 per cent drop in the number of residential pupils from 353 to 275.

Rod Grant, headteacher at Clifton Hall School in New bridge, said pupil numbers rose by 12 per cent this year.

The school charges £9,540 a year in the senior school and £9,075 in the junior school.

Mr Grant said: “There’s a variety of reasons parents continue to chose our school, but the economic outlook being unfavourable can sometimes be good for us because people worry about the cuts in state schools.

“For our parents, the last thing that will go when times get tough is their kid’s education.

“Once a child is settled in an independent school, parents will do everything they can to keep their children there, particularly if they are settled, thriving and happy.”

The most recent high-profile victim of the downturn was St Margaret’s School in Edinburgh, which closed last year.

But Keith Robson, national official for the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said many of the fears about independent schools at the start of the economic downturn had not come to fruition.

He said: “I’m not surprised by these figures. We were at one point getting schools that were making people redundant and we had huge concerns, but rolls have held up.

“People see education as a priority and will make savings to continue sending their child to the same school.”

The cost of sending children to an independent school this year has risen by an average of 3.4 per cent to £11,700.

But at one school, Fernhill, near Glasgow, has frozen fees this year and pledged to reduce them over the next two years.