More cash needed for state boarding schools, warns head

Raymond McGovern, chairman of the State Boarding Schools Association, called for a greater investment in the sector to allow them to expand.?

Raymond McGovern, chairman of the State Boarding Schools' Association, said schools would struggle to meet the requirements of a tough new inspection regime without more money.

He also called on ministers to put more capital into schools to enable them to expand to take in additional pupils.

In recent months ministers have praised plans to allow growing numbers of “vulnerable” children to be given a boarding education. A number of the Government’s flagship academies have built – or are planning to build – boarding houses for pupils.

But speaking on Sunday, Mr McGovern, headmaster of Sexey’s School in Somerset, said new inspections introduced for the first time this summer to regulate pupils’ health and welfare provided significant challenges.

“Lack of central funding places state boarding schools at a significant risk, especially as – quite rightly – they must comply with the new National Minimum Standards,” he said.

There are currently 38 state schools in the UK with boarding accommodation.

Almost 5,000 pupils board at these schools, up from 3,674 in 1998 and from 4,695 last year. Education is free although boarding costs between ￡7,500 and ￡12,000 per year.

In recent years, a series of the Government’s semi-independent academy schools have opened boarding facilities, including the new Wellington Academy in Wiltshire and Harefield Academy in Middlesex.

Another school, Durand Academy in Lambeth, south London, is planning to open a satellite boarding school in West Sussex for children aged 13 upwards.

Mr McGovern said: “The Secretary of State for Education expressed his support for boarding when visiting Durand Academy… This is a significant departure for the state sector as families have traditionally had to fund boarding from their own incomes, or via the Armed Forces’ Continuity of Education allowance or an external charitable trust such as the Royal National Children’s Foundation.

“If the Government truly believes that ‘boarding which is free of charge is a good thing for the young people of Lambeth’ then surely the same is true for any young person in every local authority, particularly for those young people who are vulnerable or otherwise disadvantaged?”