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Independent schools body blames falling numbers on recession, while average fees rise to £13,200
The number of pupils at private schools has fallen for the second year running as the economic climate forces families to tighten their belts, figures have shown.
Student numbers dropped by 786 this year – a fall of 0.2%, the annual Independent Schools Council (ISC) census reveals.
The figures cover nursery-age pupils to 19-year-olds at 1,228 day and boarding schools in the UK.
Last year the number of pupils at private schools fell by 0.6%. Private schools saw a slight dip in pupil numbers in 2005, but that was attributed to falling numbers of school-age children. The last drop before that was in the early 1990s, at the end of the last recession.
Rudolf Eliott Lockhart, head of research and intelligence at the ISC, said this year's fall in student numbers was down to the economic climate. "The drop is inevitable in this climate and will affect some families," he said.
The 0.2% decline includes pupils whose parents live in the UK and those whose parents live overseas. When the two are separated, the figures show that the number of students whose parents live in the UK has fallen by 0.5% – to 480,814, while those whose parents live abroad has shot up by 5.5% – to 24,554. David Lyscom, the ISC's chief executive, said the rise in overseas students was "a great British success story".
The number of pupils who board has risen by 1.7% to 68,102, the figures show. Almost half of these students are sixth-formers.
The ISC's census also shows that the average cost of sending a child to a private school has risen by 4.6% this year to almost £13,200 a year.
The average termly fee for boarding and day schools, excluding nurseries, is £4,393. There are three terms in the school year. For day pupils, the average termly fee is £3,736, while for boarding pupils it is £8,384.
Some 22 schools charge more than £10,050 per term. Queen Ethelburga's College, York, is thought to be the most expensive mainstream boarding school in Britain and charges £32,985 a year for sixth-formers who come from overseas.
Lyscom said the average fee rise was the second lowest since 1994 and showed that independent schools were "very sensitive to the needs of parents and are doing everything they can to keep fees to a minimum".
The ISC said 14 of its schools had closed in the past year and described the economic climate as "the most challenging for decades". Some 33% of pupils in ISC schools now receive help with their fees – 7.5% more than last year.
Lyscom said independent schools had shown "remarkable resilience against a difficult economic background". He said this reflected the "high quality of education that our schools offer to parents and the value for money that this represents".
