Soaring fees push middle classes out of private schools

Ruth Gledhill in the Times reports that the Sutton Trust will make the case for fairer admissions this week.

Middle-class parents can no longer afford the soaring cost of sending their children to independent schools, research suggests.

Costs at top private day schools have risen by up to 50 per cent in a decade, while incomes for professions such as lawyers and academics have fallen in real terms.

…

Data from the Sutton Trust, the education think-tank, to be published on Thursday, is expected to show the extent to which schools are using random allocation or banding where they are oversubscribed.

Conor Ryan, of the Trust, said: “Access to the most popular comprehensives should not be limited to those who can afford to pay a premium on their mortgages or rents.

“Banding or random allocation can allow pupils to access these schools from a wider area, and this can mean fairer admissions in heavily oversubscribed inner city schools.”

Read the full article here.