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How private education in the UK has become the preserve of the top 1 percent

UK family now needs an income of at least £150,000 ($213,000) a year in order to be able to afford to send two children to private school.

This was the analysis of independent financial experts quizzed by Verdict looking ad data released by the Independent Schools Council (ISC).

The ISC collects data on the UK’s private education sector and found that the average cost of a privately educated pupil attending school just during the day was £14,000 a year ($20,000).

For boarders (those who live at the school) the average cost of a private education in the UK is now £32,000 ($46,000) a year according to the ISC.

Despite the expense, some 522,879 children are at private school in the UK according to the ISC (up from 522,432 a year in 2016). Some 5.2 per cent of these children come from outside the UK.

According to the ISC around one third of these are given some help with their fees in the form of bursaries totalling £900m [£1.3m] (an average of just over £5,000 per child).

The ISC estimates that private schools educate around 6.5 per cent of the children in the UK.

The UK government tax authority (HMRC) estimates that only the top one per cent of earners are paid more than £150,000 [$213,000] a year.

Read more: https://www.verdict.co.uk/private-school-cost-earn/

Ampleforth School will offer Btecs

A leading boarding school is introducing vocational sixth-form qualifications for the first time.

Ampleforth College, a Catholic independent school in North Yorkshire, is introducing Btec courses for teenagers as an alternative to A levels.

Pupils at the school, which is set in 2,000 acres, will be able to take Btecs in countryside management, enterprise and entrepreneurship or hospitality.

The school, whose alumni include Rupert Everett, the actor, Antony Gormley, the sculptor, and Lord Fellowes of West Stafford, the Downton Abbey screenwriter, said that it wanted to provide a “holistic education” for its pupils. The subjects will be introduced from September, with teenagers taking either Btecs, or a combination of those qualifications with A levels.

Those taking countryside management will explore the legal and practical side of managing an estate. Enterprise and entrepreneurship will give students the skills they need to run a business. Hospitality will focus on event management and the importance of the industry for the economy.

Read more: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ampleforth-school-will-offer-btecs-h7jl06vbh