Just 12pc of exams awarded top grades at £27,000 school

Camilla Turner, Lizzie Roberts

Patrick Scott

PARENTS are paying more than £27,000 a year to send children to a private school where just 12 per cent of GCSE exams will be awarded top grades, an analysis has found.

Bellersby College London, which charges £9,020 per term for day pupils, has emerged as one of the most expensive day schools in the country but where pupils achieve among the lowest proportions of grades 9 to 7, or As and A*s, in GCSES compared with other fee-paying institutions.

Using information from the Independent Schools Council (ISC), The Daily Telegraph has compiled a comprehensive database of private schools’ fees mapped against 2019 exam results.

Among the most costly boarding schools was DLD College in London, where fees are £17,666 a term but 28.07 per cent of GCSES were top grades.

Meanwhile, Badminton School was identified as one of the best value boarding schools as it had one of the highest proportion of top exam grades but among the lowest fees. At the allgirls school in Bristol, which charges £5,475 a term for day pupils and £10,765 for boarders, 77 per cent of pupils achieved top grades in their GCSES this year.

Rebecca Tear, the head teacher, said that her pupils do not just “jump through exam board hoops”, but get a “hands-on” approach to their education. The school, which was founded in 1858, counts Indira Gandhi, the first female prime minister of India as a former pupil.

Winchester College, Charterhouse and Wellington College were among the top five most expensive day schools.

Winchester College, an all-boys school which charges £13,304 per term, had the best results out of the three with 87.3 per cent of their pupils achieving top grades this year.

Private schools have come under pressure in recent years for hiking fees.

“The danger the sector is in is that it has lost the middle class,” said Martin Stephen, the former headmaster of St Paul’s Boys’ School. “Part of the reason is as simple as the fact that they have been able to put the fees up and not reduce the number of applicants.”

Barnaby Lenon, the chair of the ISC and a former headmaster at Harrow

School, agreed that the biggest threat for private schools is “if they don’t hold their fees down”.

He said: “Although it is true that the average fee has risen faster than salaries – which is not a good thing – nevertheless there are still a pretty large number of schools with fees around £14,000.

“Secondly, now many more women work so there is more money available to pay fees than in the old days when often mother did not work.

“Schools have greatly increased the number of bursaries which are available for families who can only afford half or three quarters of a fee.

“I totally agree that independent schools have to watch out that they don’t price parents out of the market, they are very aware of that and have made a huge effort to hold fees down.”

Bellersby College and DLD College both said that the majority of their pupils are from outside of the EU, and do not speak English as a first language.

“Arrival at Bellersby’s is often their first time away from home, meaning they have to make academic, cultural and language adjustments,” a spokesman for Bellersby College said.

“We specialise in caring for these young adults, tutoring them and preparing them for university entry and the future world of work.

“[Some] 399 of our 2019 graduates progressed to a top 50 UK university. We’re extremely proud of every cohort.”

DLD College said they work with a number of students who have found education “challenging”, and success cannot be measured by looking grades alone.

“Our students enjoy five-star, secure and safe boarding in the same building with a strong co-curricular programme to match,” a spokesman said.

“For these reasons, the cost of boarding in this part of London cannot be easily compared with the cost of a boarding school in other locations.”