How independent schools are giving back
John Edward, director of the Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS), discusses how independent schools give back.
The independent school sector has come under particular scrutiny in the UK recently, not least as part of heightened political interest. The charitable status of independent schools is being called into question again with Labour’s recent calls for an integration of the entire UK sector, and with the Scottish Parliament now progressing the removal of the charitable rates relief for schools in Scotland, the public benefit of independent schools is being vastly overshadowed. There is no common approach across the UK to what that benefit looks like.
Charitable status has attracted, and still attracts, a great deal of public scrutiny and rightly so. All of the c.24,000 registered charities in Scotland need to demonstrate that they uphold and extend their charitable purposes. The independent school sector has undergone the most rigorous scrutiny since the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) started work. The debate in the Scottish Parliament, which led to the 2005 Act created the toughest test of charitable status anywhere in the UK and, in reality, anywhere in the world.
As part of their purpose of the provision of education, Scottish independent schools must and do ensure that public benefit outweighs any private benefit and ensure access to that benefit is not too restrictive. This involves means-tested fee assistance to widen participation in the schools, but also wider work to share expertise, resources, opportunities and facilities both locally and nationally. This duty to others combines with young people across the Scottish sector taking responsibility to work in and with the communities immediately around them as well as further afield.
Read more: https://ie-today.co.uk/Blog/how-independent-schools-are-giving-back/
Figures show choirgirls now outnumber boys in England's cathedrals
According to new figures, there are now 739 girls and 737 boys singing in cathedral choirs, with girls outnumbering boys for the first time. By Kaya Burgess, The Times.
After more than a millennium of male dominance choirgirls now outnumber choirboys in England’s cathedrals for the first time.
The tradition of boys singing in cathedral choirs dates back at least 1,110 years with the first boy choristers singing at Wells Cathedral in the year 909.
There are now 740 boy and 740 girl choristers in English cathedrals, according to church statistics, but The Times has learnt that both of these figures have been slightly rounded up. There are, to be more precise, now 739 girls and 737 boys, marking the first time that choirgirls have outnumbered choirboys.