Critics who blame private schools for the failings of the UK’s education system are “indulging in toffism”, according to the new head of the organisation representing the country’s most prestigious independent schools.
Chris King, taking over as chair of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC), whose members include Eton and Westminster, defends private schools as “the only truly independent schools” in contrast to state-run schools.
In his inaugural address to the HMC’s annual meeting in St Andrews on Tuesday, King will tell his audience: “I say to our critics: stop the politically charged, sterile rhetoric which gets us nowhere. Stop indulging in toffism and out-of-date preconceptions about the nature of our schools.
“Above all, stop believing that you can make the weak stronger by making the strong weaker. Instead of carping, accept we want to make a positive contribution.”
King – the head of Leicester grammar school, which charges fees of £4,000 per term – will tell his colleagues that they are “crucial to the country’s future success”.
“It is clearly absurd to blame the sector which educates 7% of the school population for the ills of the educational experience of the other 93%. This seems to me to be a distraction tactic, steering the debate away from serious and long-term issues such as funding crises and teacher shortages,” he will tell delegates, according to extracts released by the HMC.
The 275 HMC schools educate 215,000 of the 625,000 pupils at independent schools in the UK, and its members are a roll-call of some of the most famous names in education, including Roedean, Fettes and Manchester Grammar.
King will also make a detailed assault on the UK examination system, deriding examination boards as a “cottage industry” and criticising erratic exam marking as harming schools and pupils.
“The current situation is untenable. We are facing a perfect storm, of both decreasing public confidence and increasing pressure in the system,” King will say, echoing criticisms by state school heads and unions.
The conference is to call for improvements in setting and marking exams, a larger and better trained pool of markers, and a transparent appeals process.
The Joint Council for Qualifications, which represents the exam boards, rebuffed King’s comments, noting that the 70,000 successful appeals against GCSE and A-level grades equated to just 1% of entries last year.
“Our examination system relies upon the 50,000 teachers who each year mark over 15 million papers. They do a fantastic job and receive training from exam boards and ongoing monitoring to ensure high standards are maintained,” said Michael Turner, the JCQ’s director general.
The Department for Education said the exam regulator Ofqual was taking steps to improve the quality of marking. “Our new GCSEs and A-levels will be gold-standard qualifications that match the best in the world,” a DfE spokesperson said.
HMC heads are to join state sector representatives and the exam boards in a new expert group to look at marking problems.
King’s remarks also include a criticism of the government’s expansion of academies and free schools outside local authority control in England, saying they are “certainly not” similar to private schools.
“Increasingly the term ‘independent state school’ is coming into use – it is, however, an oxymoron. How is a state academy truly independent when, through Ofsted and performance tables, the government can set most of the curriculum?
“It is often forgotten, for example, that the reason we charge fees is precisely so we can remain independent,” King will say.
A recent survey of independent schools found that the average fee for day pupils is around £12,000 a year. State-run schools – including academies and free schools – receive on average less than £6,000 per pupil in England and Wales, although the amount varies by local authority.
