Independent schools - the figures stack up

The odds of winning the Lottery are about 1 in 14 million but 1 in 12 children is educated at an independent school. So why does private schooling feature in the discretionary spending section of so many household budgets?

In 2009 researchers analysed data on 10,000 people and concluded that those who had gone to public school earned 30 per cent more than their state school counterparts – 10 per cent was down to family background and 20 per cent was because of better grades achieved at school.

Whichever criteria you’re looking to fulfil in a private school for your offspring, be it faith, single sex education or location, class sizes will invariably be smaller.

In 2007 a survey of private schools reported one teacher for every 9.7 students. The following year, the published figures for the state sector were one teacher for every 21.6 pupils in primary schools and 16.1 for secondary.

Other analysis from 2007 highlighted that nearly two out of every ten school leavers going to 13 of the UK’s top universities

came from just 100 schools - more than 80 of which were in the independent sector.

You don’t need to be an accountant to understand the importance of these numbers.

Graham Wilson
Beever and Struthers Chartered Accountants