Notes from the North

I am not the first to wonder why it is that Edinburgh has the largest number of private schools of any UK city other than London and therefore the highest proportion of children educated outside the state system. As a point of comparison Edinburgh (population 515,000) has 17 private schools while Glasgow (population 1.7 million) has 8, none of them boarding. Nationally in Scotland about 4% of all children go to an independent school (7% in the UK as a whole) whereas a startling 25% of Edinburgh children attend private schools.  St Georges School for Girls The cost of doing so is a significant drain on a family’s finances: annual fees in Edinburgh for day pupils can range from £11,000 to £17,000 and for boarders from £26,000 to a little over £37,500. From January 2025 those fees will go up by 20% to cover VAT that the new government will introduce.  The Edinburgh fees are high but still don’t come near the current cost of sending a child to Eton College – approximately £53,00 p...