For the first time, British independent schools are now teaching more foreign pupils in overseas campuses than they are in UK schools.
Partnerships between independent and state schools have also risen to its highest ever level, according to the Independent School Council (ISC).
The ISC has a membership which covers about 80 per cent of the total number of pupils taught in independent schools in the UK.
According to the 2017 census of its members,the number of pupils taught in overseas “franchise schools” has exceeded the number of overseas pupils in schools in the UK.
ISC members currently operate 59 campuses abroad, educating 31,773 pupils - an increase from 46 campuses last year with 27,619 pupils.
In contrast, this year there were 27,281 pupils in ISC schools whose parents were overseas.
The country sending the largest number of foreign pupils to private schools based in the UK continues to be China. In total 6,662 pupils whose parents live in mainland China attended ISC schools in 2017.
According to the ISC, partnerships between private and state schools have increased to a historic high.
In the census, 1,140 ISC schools (88 per cent of their membership) said they had partnerships with state schools - 28 more than last year.
The schools have over 10,000 partnerships, a figure which is 7.5 per cent higher than last year.
With each school working with about 155 state pupils on average, the ISC estimates this amounts to 175,000 state pupils benefiting from partnerships, assuming no overlap between schools.
The figures come against the backdrop of the government’s Schools That Work For Everyone Green Paper, which suggested private schools could lose the tax breaks that come with charitable status if they fail to contribute to the state sector.
The ISC is opposed to compulsion when it comes to joint working with the state sector. Commenting on the census figures, Julie Robinson, the ISC’s general secretary, claimed the “voluntary” nature of existing partnerships “is what makes them so successful”.
“Forcing partnerships which are not agreed by both parties would clearly be counter-productive,” she said.
According to the census, 13.7 per cent of pupils in ISC schools were recorded as having special educational needs and disabilities - up from 13.2 per cent in 2016.
There has been a notable increase in the share of SEND pupils in the “social, emotional and mental health” category, which covers conditions such as anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression, eating disorders and self-harm.
Twenty-two per cent of all instances of SEND were in this category, up from 18 per cent in 2016. The ISC said this could reflect “increasing awareness of these SEND types”.
The census also shows that the number of pupils taught in ISC schools has reached its highest ever level, at 522,879 pupils, although when new member schools are excluded the numbers were stable on last year.
Average fee increases this year were 3.5 per cent, in line with last year and the lowest since 1994 according to the ISC.
