Rod Grant: High-quality state schools vie for parents' attention

THE oft quoted reason for falling primary numbers is that external economic influences are curtailing parents' ability or desire to fund independent education in their child's early years.

However, if money was the main determining factor then we would see numbers drop across the age groups, and that is clearly not happening.

Indeed, the total number of pupils receiving an independent education has been steady in Scotland for almost 30 years, regardless of the wider economic backdrop.

My own school has seen a 13 per cent increase in pupil numbers over the last year, so we need to dig deeper to establish a more robust reason.

One determining factor is the high number of quality primary schools in the maintained sector doing an excellent job. However, secondary schools have a tougher job, having to operate a full inclusion policy, serve disparate and wide-ranging catchments, and introduce a new curriculum without knowing what the exam system will look like.

As a result parents, particularly those of primary seven children, will desperately seek an independent education for their child at secondary level, so as to avoid a massive regional secondary which is often seen as remote from the small local communities they are meant to serve.