No 10 to urge Eton and Harrow to do more to help state schools

THE head teachers of Eton College and Harrow School have been summoned to Downing Street to explain how they will share more of their resources with state schools.

They will be part of a summit of leaders of some of the country’s foremost private schools including Highgate School in north London, which charges its parents £20,000 a year, and Dulwich College, which costs £42,000 a year for boarders.

The gathering comes amid mounting pressure on the country’s high-prestige private schools to step up efforts to help less well-off pupils. Three quarters of the independent schools in England are registered as charities, earning them favourable business rates and VAT exemptions on fees. To qualify they must demonstrate that they provide “public benefit” to a reasonably wide section of the public, rather than to a narrow group of wealthy individuals.

Traditionally this has been done by offering bursaries and fee discounts to children from disadvantaged families. However, many private schools now enter into partnerships with local state schools, which can include sharing teachers in specialist subjects or opening up their sports facilities.

Downing Street officials and Damian Hinds, the Education Secretary, will attend the summit today, where head teachers will explore how they can increase efforts to assist state schools.

Lord Agnew, an education minister, said he was impressed by Eton’s efforts to collaborate with a local girls’ free school in Slough, where A-level maths students at Eton mentor girls studying maths GCSE. Speaking at a conference yesterday, he said: “The results are already evident in the additional progress these girls are making. It bought two dramatically different cultures together for mutual benefit.”

Ministers have backed down on proposals to scrap the charitable status of private schools that do not help out their state-school neighbours.