Private schools 'must take problem pupils'

Top boarding schools should take "problem pupils" expelled from urban comprehensives, a leading private school head urged today.

Schools such as Eton and Harrow should embrace the Government's readiness to pay for places in the private sector, said Anthony Seldon of Brighton College.

The independent sector should also get involved in sponsoring some of the 200 city academies Tony Blair wants to build, Mr Seldon-told the annual Brighton College-conference.

School discipline emerged as the education system's number one problem during the general election campaign.

Education Secretary Ruth Kelly admitted behaviour was getting worse and promised a fresh crackdownon disruption. She earlier had to shelve plans to compel state schools, including grammars, to take their "fair share" of the most out-of-control children.

Labour's manifesto contained a little-noticed pledge "to encourage more small schools and boarding schools" to help disadvantaged children.

It stressed: "We support partnership between the state and private sectors to bridge the unhealthy historic-divide between the two." Dr Seldon - who has written a biography of Mr Blair - said private schools should see partnership with comprehensives as a major opportunity.

He said: "We should respond enthusiastically to the Government's plans for problem pupils to become boarders in our schools, as long as they are young enough and capable of responding positively to our environments."

This could be a severe culture shock for many boarding schools and for local education authorities. The number of boarding schools charging fees of more than £20,000 a year has soared from zero four years ago to 88 today.

Many councils, particularly those under Labour control, will fiercely resist calls to spend cash allocated to the state sector on schools which they see as the domain of "toffs".

And the experience of inner-city children who have attended elite boarding schools has not always been successful.

Dr Seldon, however, urged the independent sector to take the fight to critics of private education. He wants private schools to build their own alternative to A-levels and invest in a new teacher training college.

He accused heads in the sector of being "timid" and of having allowed ministers and the media to caricature them as "self-serving and self-seeking" schools for a rich elite.

"They have sneered at us when they should have feared us," he said.