Anxious middle-classes look to private schools after coronavirus disruption

Exodus will create an even larger divide between affluent and disadvantaged pupils

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Increasing numbers of middle-class parents are planning to desert state schools this coming September, over anxieties their children have “fallen behind” private school pupils during lockdown and growing fears about the threat of further disruption to state education next year.

The Independent Schools Association told the Observer that it has noticed an upsurge in the number of what it describes as “high-aspirational, worried” parents of state school pupils looking for private school places in September, while the Independent Association of Prep Schools said demand had increased considerably during recent weeks.

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