WHEN a school can count both William Wallace, the great Scottish medieval hero (allegedly, at least) and KT Tunstall, the singer, among their distinguished former pupils, then it must be doing something interesting. If we note that in recent times, t
his school also sent out into the world the novelist AL Kennedy, the TV presenter Andrew Marr, plus rugby international Andy Nicol, then it can hardly be called elitist or divorced from Scottish life. The institution in question is the High School of Dundee, one of the country's leading independent schools.
In the year since our last Scotsman guide, the High School of Dundee became the first independent school to be vetted by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator. Under new legislation, independent schools must prove they contribute a general public benefit in order to qualify for tax-exempt status. This test was slipped in at the last minute as a political hurdle designed to make life difficult for the independent sector. However, Dundee passed with flying colours.
The Charity Regulator, Jane Ryder, noted: "There was in Dundee's case a certain amount of local and national benefit which wasn't charged for…they made facilities available to local groups and they support the national curriculum."
A key benchmark was how widely bursaries were available – 13 per cent of Dundee High's pupils received financial support.
Scottish independent schools have always followed this tradition of being actively engaged with the wider community. Fettes College, for instance, has been developing links with Broughton High, a state school in Edinburgh which is a specialist music school. Joint concerts have been organised and Fettes allows Broughton pupils to use its pool and sports facilities. There has also been joint teaching. According to Michael Spens, Fettes' headmaster: "We have been able to offer subjects which Broughton can't, especially in languages. We've had a pupil from there studying Russian with us."
The past 12 months have shown strong growth in pupil numbers in the independent sector, despite the fact that there are fewer school-age children and falling rolls in state schools. Many new pupils come from abroad, attracted by the high reputation enjoyed by Scottish education in general. At Loretto School in Musselburgh, a third of sixth-form students are from overseas.
Independent schools have also been engaged in educational experiments over the past year. Sir Tom Hunter, the entrepreneur and educational philanthropist, recently called for the creation of programmes to encourage youth leadership.
Glenalmond College in Perthshire has launched such a programme which it calls the Bright Society, after William Bright, who taught at the school in the 1860s and was later a professor at Oxford. What makes this programme different from similar experiments in England is that 13-year-old pupils rub shoulders with pupils as old as 18.
All this suggests a success story. However, the sector still faces major challenges. The attitude to of the new SNP Government towards independent schools remains ambivalent. Christine Grahame MSP speaks for many Nationalist backbenchers when she claims "it is quite obvious" that independent schools are "only taking in rich people." Fortunately, Nicola Sturgeon, the Education Secretary, is on record as saying that the vast majority of independent schools deserve charitable status.
Where private schools face real pressure is from the deterioration in the wider economy in the coming year. This could price out some middle class families from using the independent sector. A recent study found that more than a half of headteachers surveyed thought independent schools would become unaffordable within ten years.
The lesson of the past 12 months is that the state and independent sectors do not need to view themselves as mutual enemies but as a set of choices open to Scottish parents.
Our annual guide to all secondary schools is designed to provide parents with extra information to make that choice effectively.
The full article contains 655 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
