Boarding pupils from overseas are looking to the United Kingdom as a safer option than the US or Australia, according to leading figures in the sector.

Barnaby Lenon, chair of the Independent Schools Council (ISC), said there was “growing interest” among families of overseas pupils in China about securing boarding places in the UK, because of the “serious” nature of the pandemic elsewhere.

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“I’ve spoken to agents in China this week who said that there’s growing interest in students coming back to the United Kingdom,” he said.

“And that’s partly because quite a lot of them actually went to schools in America and Australia, where Covid is still quite serious.

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“It’s still quite serious in the UK as well - but if there was no Covid in America then the situation would no doubt be worse for us.”

This is more positive news for independent schools, which were forecasting a disaster at the start of lockdown but now report a “fresh wave of enthusiasm” sparked by positive experiences of remote learning.

Christopher King, chief executive of the Independent Association of Preparatory Schools (Iaps), told Tes that the overseas families felt the UK government had handled the pandemic positively in comparison with the USA.

“I’ve had a number of conversations with heads in Hong Kong and they tell me that the parental perspective of how the UK - how the English government - has handled the coronavirus period is actually quite a positive one.

“We get the impression within these four shores that it’s pretty negative, the job that Boris [Johnson] has done, and the rest of the government team. But I think the view from outside, elsewhere is rather different…actually there is quite a positive perspective about the UK, which is a good thing.

“And then we benefit because of the negative perception of what’s happened in other areas, notably North America.

“Indeed, there’s quite a lot of suspicion within China of their own government statistics - shock horror - so there is some anecdotal evidence to support the view that, actually, things are OK here.”

Mr King said some parents of overseas pupils had already sent their children to the UK to quarantine before the start of term.

Although he added that there was “probably still within the sector more of a question mark over overseas boarders, and how many really will be there on day one”.

Mr King said overseas parents needed reassurance over cleaning and hygiene protocols within schools, and that a “visible manifestation” of this would be seeing face masks worn in public.

“I don’t think people are necessarily demanding it within the schools themselves - I’m not detecting that that’s the case - but they want to know there’s a really robust cleaning regime, children will have their own dedicated pencil cases and desks, and that key areas and door handles will be cleaned regularly,” he said.