Richard Adams reported for The Guardian from the Sutton Trust/Carnegie summit

Independent schools should lose their charitable status unless they volunteer to run state academies, the UK’s chief schools inspector has said, warning that the reluctance of private schools to help educate poor children is a moral outrage.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, head of Ofsted, said: “I get quite angry when I hear independent school heads saying ‘inequality is getting worse, we’ve got to do something’ and wringing their hands. Well, we know that. So get stuck in and sponsor an academy.”

Speaking at a conference on social mobility on Wednesday, Wilshaw added: “I think they should lose their tax subsidies and the reliefs they get from the Charity Commission unless they sponsor an academy and show that they really mean what they say.”

…..

But Wilshaw’s comments were rejected as “utter nonsense” by John Claughton, headteacher of King Edward’s school, Birmingham, who was present at the conference.

Claughton said his school worked with nearly 200 state primary schools in Birmingham, and last year alone spent £2m on means-tested scholarships, with 100 of the school’s 850 pupils receiving a full rebate of the £12,000 fee and a further 100 benefiting from financial assistance.

“To say that we do nothing for our community is disgraceful. Accusing independent schools of stealing all the state school teachers is extraordinary,” Claughton said.

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Sir Peter Lampl, founder and chairman of the Sutton Trust, told the conference that teacher recruitment by independent schools was a big issue at a time of severe shortages in the state sector.

Read the full report here.

See also Teachers in deprived schools ‘more likely to be inexperienced’

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