Independent schools chief warns of 'sectarian divide'
Thursday, 8 May 2008
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The head of the organisation representing most independent schools has warned of a major "sectarian divide" between the state and private sectors.
Chris Parry, chief executive of the Independent Schools Council – which represents 1,200 independent schools – said there was still a "perpetuation of attitudes and myths that seem to come out of the cold war" between the two sectors.
Lecturers in teacher training colleges "bullied" trainees to persuade them not to join independent schools. He said he would submit evidence of his claims to the Select Committee on Children, Schools and Families – where he was giving evidence.
Mr Parry told MPs he found it "very offensive" that he could not find provision in the state sector for his children. His comments came after a clash with Barry Sheerman, Labour chairman of the committee, who said an earlier description of private schools as "paid for" schools was offensive to people outside the independent sector.
"It is offensive to many people to disregard what people pay for through their taxes," Mr Sheerman said.
Mr Parry replied: "I find it very offensive that I can't find provision in the maintained sector for my own children. Where I come from the maintained sector is very poor and my wife and I have made sacrifices to send both our children to the independent sector."
Mr Parry, giving evidence to an inquiry into the links between state and private schools, also spoke out against the "beauty contest" element of ministers trying to persuade independent schools to sponsor the Government's flagship new academies.
Many private schools felt it meant putting all their eggs into the basket of one state school in the neighbourhood while neglecting the rest.
But Stephen Patriarca, head of William Hulme's Grammar School in Manchester, which left the independent sector to become an academy, said the academies movement had "broken down the divide".
