‘A generation of school children need to be put before ideology’

Rallying ideologies and party-political point scoring have characterised recent debates about the future of education in the UK and of independent schools specifically. Historic tensions between plurality of educational opportunity and uniformity of provision, reflected in Labour’s current plans for a National Education Service (NES), have surfaced once again.

To be clear, Bradford Grammar School is without political affiliation, much like the associations to which we belong. We will work with any Government that genuinely wants to work with us. However, we rightly ask questions of any policy, irrespective of its point of origin, if we feel it might be damaging to the education of our children and, more broadly, wider UK society and economy.

The Labour Party is vocal in its intention to ‘integrate/nationalise’ (abolish) independent schools, believing that this will facilitate social justice and provide opportunity for all. The UK has been here before. Whilst the rhetoric around removing independent schools from the UK’s educational map and seizing independent school’s assets has softened in recent days, there remains a serious threat to the sector. The possible imposition of VAT on fees and/or removal of business rates relief, coupled with other upwards cost pressures (not limited to Teachers’ Pension Scheme contributions), constitutes “abolition by the back door” according to Fiona Boulton, chairwoman of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC).

The benefits of imposing VAT on fees have been disputed. Labour argue that £1.64 billion will be raised annually, but these calculations have been characterised as “dodgy” by HMC’s Executive Director, Mike Buchanan, primarily because of flaws in the underlying assumptions upon which they are based. Not surprisingly, the sector has jumped to its own defence. The Independent Schools Council (ISC, to which HMC and therefore BGS belongs) has demonstrated that its 1,364 schools currently contribute £4.1 billion a year in tax, while concurrently saving the taxpayer £3.3 billion annually, by virtue of educating more than 530,000 children who would otherwise be in the state system. Furthermore, according to independent analysts Baines Cutler, the movement of children back into the state system over a five year period would yield a total cost to the public purse of £1.35 billion (additional to lost taxation). At the end of those first five years, the taxpayer would be £416 million pa worse off.

Then there is the matter of potential violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, the first protocol of which protects a parents’ right to a free choice in the education of their children reflective of religious and philosophical convictions. “Social justice at the expense of human rights?” asks Jeremy Hyam QC, in an article that sets out the issue in plain terms. Abolition by virtue of legislation or punitive taxation would be in direct contravention of the Convention which protects plurality in education in the UK and across Europe – initially conceived to provide a check on the power of the state and the messages that might potentially be commutated through classrooms.

Shifting the focus closer to home and using Oxford Economics methods and data for the academic year 2018/19, we have done some sums for Bradford Grammar. BGS contributes more than £6 million pa in tax, generating almost £21 million pa for the national economy and over £11.4 million pa for the local economy. The saving to the state is £6.3 million pa through students not taking up a place in a maintained school. Alongside this, BGS is a significant employer in our city, employing 269 teachers and staff and educating well over 1000 children who would otherwise need to be found places at local schools. The potential abolition of BGS and institutions like us represents a significant loss for the local and regional communities that we have served for generations – and ultimately, to the nation.

The histories of Bradford and Bradford Grammar School are intertwined. We aspire to be of value to the city, fostering good learning and instilling laudable high ambitions in our young people. Many of our alumni champion civic causes, most recently through the Odeon regeneration project. Others, including the late Sir Ken Morrison, David Hockney and the Brownlee brothers have, and continue to, enhance Bradford’s reputation nationally and internationally. We are not complacent, of course, and always strive to contribute even more to our home region by improving educational provision for local children, working in partnership with local state schools. There are numerous examples of the latter, including: paired reading and maths mentoring programmes at Heaton Primary School, paired reading at Frizinghall Primary and Shipley C of E Primary, and sports coaching at St Philip’s Girlington. Our pupils also volunteer with Age UK, mentor children from refugee families at Bevan House, and support Barnardo’s Young Carers. We are also a willing partner in Linking Network activities. We learn much from working with colleagues and children in neighbouring schools and organisations and hope they might say the same of us. We want to be seen as good Bradford citizens and well-regarded ambassadors for the District.

Our friends and partners frequently visit BGS. Last year, for example, we hosted 38 local schools for a Brownlee Triathlon event and 35 schools at the Bradford School Games; our sixth formers were volunteers on both occasions, helping approximately 2,000 local children to participate in sport at BGS. Recently, our NASA Moon rocks exhibition and music masterclasses were enjoyed by hundreds of local children through highly successful school roadshows. Commitment to the local community is at the heart of much that we do and last year we raised almost £10k for charities, including Bradford-based NEESIE (a platform for single mums and their children), Bevan House and Bradford Nightstop, a charity that helps Bradford’s young homeless people.

Significant fee assistance is also provided to enable children from a wide cross section of our community to attend BGS; many awards are in excess of 80% of the total fee, and some cover the full fee. Widening access to ensure diversity is fundamental to our our school’s identity (going back to direct grant days) and we intend to increase absolute amounts of fee assistance and the relative proportion of 100% awards. Improving social mobility and cohesion in Bradford is at the heart of our historic purpose and foundation, and we are grateful to our benefactors whose vision and support makes this possible.

Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, calmly advised that “Labour mustn’t throw the baby out with the bath water” and get “bogged down in distractions such as an ideological war waged on private schools, which would be time-consuming, costly and damaging”. His article in the Times Educational Supplement closed with: “the real trick of good government is to improve upon the best of what already exists”.

The abolition of fee charging independent schools would not level the playing field of educational opportunity, not when, according to Savills, reported in The Times, the average differential price between a house in the catchment of a school rated ‘good’ and one rated ‘outstanding’ in the East of England is £102,000. This would fund 5.9 years at a ‘typical’ private school in this region. In the South West and South East, the difference would fund 3.9 years of schooling and in the North West it is 3.7 years. In Yorkshire and Humberside, the equivalent figure is 2 years.

I was struck by the message and tone of Fiona Boulton’s opening address at the HMC Conference recently. Fiona pressed upon her audience the right of all children to have a privileged upbringing – a loving family and safe, supportive environment; inspirational teachers and staff in all kinds of schools; healthy, strong friendships; clean air and high environmental quality; these are all privileges. To assume that only independent schools deliver privilege is an insult to our state sector colleagues.

Let us hope that our politicians pause to draw breath for a moment and put the education and welfare of a generation of school children ahead of ideology.