Helen Warrell highlighted our Open Access programme in a Financial Times report on private schools.

Private schools contribute £11.7bn to Britain each year, making them more significant for the country’s gross domestic product than the BBC or Liverpool’s economy, analysis shows.

The research, commissioned by the Independent Schools Council, and carried out by the Oxford Economics consultancy, claims to be the first in-depth analysis of the sector’s value to the UK.

Its authors estimate that Britain’s 2,600 private schools support 275,700 jobs, approximately one for every two pupils. The schools are also said to contribute £4.7bn in tax revenues, and £1.3bn in added value due to the high academic achievement of their pupils

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One proposal under discussion before the next election is that private schools should open their doors to a wider range of pupils by operating an “open access” policy, partly funded by the state. The scheme, put forward by the Sutton Trust charity, suggests that part of the pupil allocation for state schools should be used to help 40,000 low-income children attend private schools.

Read the full article here (£).