Independent School (United Kingdom) - Present Day

Present Day

As of 2011 there were more than 2,600 independent schools in the UK educating some 628,000 children, comprising over 6.5% of UK children, and more than 18% of pupils over the age of 16. In England the schools account for a slightly higher percentage than in the UK as a whole. According to a study by Ryan & Sibetia, "the proportion of pupils attending independent schools in England is currently 7.2% (considering full-time pupils only). This is slightly below the level seen in 1964, at the start of the time series, when around 8% of pupils attended independent schools. However, there has not been a gradual fall over time. Between 1964 and the late 1970s, participation fell from a little under 8% to reach a low of 5.7% in 1978. During the 1980s, participation rose, reaching 7.5% by 1991. Over these 13 years, participation in the independent sector increased by 1.8 percentage points or by just over 30%. The changes since 1990 have been less dramatic, participation falling to 6.9% by 1996 before increasing very slightly after 2000 to reach 7.2%, as seen at present."

Most of the larger independent schools are either full or partial boarding schools, although many are now predominantly day schools; by contrast there are only a few dozen state boarding schools. Boarding-school traditions give a distinctive character to British independent education, even in the case of day-pupils.

Most independent schools, particularly the larger and older institutions, have charitable status. The Independent Schools Council say that UK independent schools receive approximately £100m tax relief due to charitable status whilst returning £300m of fee assistance in public benefit and relieving the maintained sector (state schools) of £2bn of costs. The Charity Commission is currently formulating tests of public benefit for charitable schools as required by the Charities Act 2006.