The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator has passed five schools in its charity test, but one has failed, having provided “too narrow” an access to the benefit it provides.
The regulator said that Wellington School in Ayr places “possibly unduly restrictive conditions on accessing the benefit it provides”, with restrictively high fees and too small a proportion of its income applied to providing access to those without the means to pay.
The school charges fees from £1,336 to £3,469 per term increasing in annual increments from nursery to secondary school. It provides 3.1 per cent of its income to assist those unable to pay, focusing on low-value bursaries, assistance that OSCR says is not substantial enough to mitigate the level of fees charged.
Martin Tyson, OSCR's head of registration, said: “As regulator, we must ensure that charities provide public benefit as set out in the legislation.
“We have now assessed 32 fee-charging schools and established this process as part of our ongoing work. Of the decisions announced today, five schools have satisfied us that they provide a sufficient level of public benefit. However, one, Wellington School, has not and we have therefore issued a direction to comply with the legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament.”
The charity test, set in legislation by the Scottish Parliament, says that the purposes of the body must be exclusively charitable and that it must provide public benefit.
The five schools that passed the charity test are: St Margaret’s School for Girls, Aberdeen; Robert Gordon’s College, Aberdeen; Kelvinside Academy War Memorial Trust, Glasgow; Belmont House Ltd, Glasgow; and Glenalmond College, Perthshire.
Three further schools are still in discussion with the regulator with decisions currently underway. These schools are Fernhill School, Glasgow; Struthers Memorial Church, Greenock; and the International School of Aberdeen.
OSCR is undertaking the review of 40 fee-charging schools as a priority. In January Tony Blair’s former school, Fettes College, also failed the charity test. It is one of four schools so far in the review to have done so.
