Independent School

In the United Kingdom, independent schools are those that are not financed by the national or local government’s taxation system. Private sources fund these schools in the form of long term charitable endowments and gifts and tuition fees. These schools are therefore free from the need to accept “maintained status” imposed on other schools that accept financing from the state.

In Wales and England, certain boy’s boarding schools are popularly referred to as “public schools”. A British school that comes under the independent school category is normally a member of the Conference of Headmistresses and Headmasters.

In UK, today, you can find more than 2500 independent schools where at least 615,000 students from across the country study. Independent schools large in size offer partial or full boarding facilities for students in UK.

Older and larger independent schools enjoy a charitable status that offers them a £100m tax relief. This is mainly due to the fact that these schools save the maintained sector at least £2bn in costs and also spend £300m fee assistance for public benefit.

In an Independent British school that is a member of the ISC’s affiliated organizations, inspection is conducted by the Independent School Inspectorate. This inspectorate comes under the framework of agreement between the Office for Standards in Education, Government’s Department for Children, Schools and Families and the ISC. National inspectorates inspect schools not affiliated to ISC in England.

Pupils can be selected by the independent schools in a free manner. Usually students are selected based on academic and financial criteria. Certain British schools give credit for those who are proficient in music, sport and other talents.

Certain British schools that come under independent schools are confined to a particular religion. All their students must compulsorily attend services irrespective of what religion they belong to.

Independent schools charge exorbitant fees for day school as well as boarding students. Fees for boarding students average £23,000 per annum and £11,000 for day students. This is apart from the frequent, unpredictable costs for extra-curricular activities, equipment and uniform.

Being academically selective, the independent British schools use the Common Entrance Examination for students aged between 11 and 13. To attract the more able pupils, schools offer scholarships and aim to enhance their average results. Those who perform poorly are asked to leave and the independent schools replace them with students who perform well.

British schools that come under independent schools offer individualized teaching. Their quality of teaching is much better as compared to the maintained schools. Here the student teacher ratio is 9:1. These schools also offer longer hours of teaching that may even include Saturday mornings. Independent schools also emphasize on extra-curricular activities and organized sports and focus on overall development of students.

Emphasis is also laid on traditional subjects like classics, modern languages and math. In boarding schools students are provided with pastoral care and these schools teach them their own distinctive ethos such as accents, manners and social aspirations.

The quality of education being very high, the independent school students have greater chances of attaining an A* grade at the GCSE.