Boarding schools must provide scholarships for middle class children who cannot afford fees, the national director of the Boarding Schools Association will say, as he criticises prioritising of “opulent buildings”
Boarding schools must provide scholarships for middle class children who cannot afford fees, the national director of the Boarding Schools Association will say, as he criticises prioritising of “opulent buildings”
Robin Fletcher will say investing in state-of-the-art facilities might become “self-defeating” because middle class children won’t be able to enjoy them as they lack the finances to attend public schools like Harrow or Marlborough.
His comments follow an acknowledgement by Tony Little, the headmaster of Eton College, that the top independent schools have become too pricey for “squeezed” middle-class families.
Addressing a conference at Bedales School on Wednesday entitled “Thriving in a changing world”, Mr Fletcher will call for boarding schools to be affordable “not just for the very rich”.
He will say: “Each year independent schools invest heavily in new facilities, some of them very impressive indeed.