More is spent on bursaries than scholarships

Private schools are spending more on bursaries for poorer children than scholarships for the brightest for the first time, a report found today.

Pressure to justify their charitable tax breaks is leading many independent schools to switch funds to supporting children from less affluent homes.

The study, by accountants Horwath Clark Whitehill, also warns that class sizes in private schools will have to rise if fees are to be kept affordable for parents.

The report, based on responses from 60 per cent of private schools, came as they faced calls to do more to help children from poorer backgrounds.

New tax laws require charities, including independent schools, to prove that they operate for the wider "public benefit" and not simply to educate the children of those who can afford to pay fees.

The study, reported in the Times Educational Supplement, found:

Last year, £200million was handed out in bursaries and scholarships in the schools surveyed.

For the first time just over half took the form of means-tested bursaries, designed to help families to pay fees.

Tim Baines, who compiled the report, told the Standard: "If you look back a few years you would find that more than half the money was spent on scholarships. Clearly there is a wish to respond in a positive way to the issue of 'public benefit' - and to be seen to be doing so in a very demonstrable way, which is in people's pockets."

Jonathan Cook, general secretary of the Independent Schools' Bursars Association, said that new charity rules had "focused" headteachers' minds.

On the issue of class sizes, Mr Baines said the pupil-teacher ratio had fallen sharply over the past decade in private schools.

However, he added that there was a question over whether schools would be able to afford to keep that up in the long term, especially in the current economic climate.

Typical fees at a private day school are now about £10,000 a year.