Two of Scotland's last single-sex private schools are to merge

Two of Scotland’s last single-sex private schools are to merge following Labour’s plan to put VAT on fees. 

Stewart’s Melville College for boys and The Mary Erskine School for girls, in Edinburgh, have announced that they will be fully integrated within two academic years.

The move will leave Scotland with only three single-sex schools – all private – as every state school north of the border is co-educational.

From January, Labour will charge VAT on fees at all private schools, including those in Scotland, saying the money raised will pay for 6,500 new teachers for the state sector.

In a statement, the school said the merger would help reduce costs and ‘limit substantial fee rises’ beyond ‘unavoidable VAT increases’.

Currently, the two schools are run by the same principal and share a junior school and sixth form.

However, as part of its ‘diamond’ structure, there are effectively two separate senior schools for pupils aged 11 to 16, on different campuses, one for each gender.

Under the merger, the girls and boys will be taught together at what will be called the Erskine Stewart Melville Senior School, which will be located on the existing Stewart’s Melville campus.

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The dwindling number of single-sex schools in Scotland is remarkable since many parents prefer them, especially those with girls.

Head teachers of other all-girls schools say female pupils feel more confident taking maths and science subjects when there are no boys around.

Anthony Simpson, principal of Erskine Stewart Melville, said: ‘The new structure is far more efficient, and beyond unavoidable VAT increases, it will help us to limit substantial fee rises.

‘Crucially, it will also enable us to continue investing in innovative teaching and learning.' 

He later clarified that he began exploring the feasibility of a fully co-ed school ‘long before the introduction of VAT on school fees hit the headlines’.

He added: ‘Of course, with economic conditions as they are, a key goal for the school is to keep its fees as low as possible, but the decision to move to a fully co-ed school was led by the desire to create the best possible environment for teaching and learning so that our students continue to thrive.’

He said that junior pupils already questioned why the sexes were segregated when they reached the age of 11.

‘We have more and more parents who are questioning or asking us if we will go co-educational,’ he said.

The merger plan has been forged over the past 18 months.

Mr Simpson said that there were already signs that parents were nervous about losing their state school place when they were unsure how much a private school fee would cost.

He told The Times: ‘Our roll is down from last year. We did not lose any students. We had less come in and that has been replicated across the sector.’

It comes after the Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS), warned that schools have ‘little to no ability’ to absorb VAT on fees because of ‘significant increases in the cost of employing teachers’.

If the VAT policy goes ahead, it said, ‘the only financial lever open to most schools in Scotland’ would be ‘to reduce staffing levels of both teaching and non-teaching staff’.

After the merger there will be just three single-sex independent schools in Scotland: St George’s in Edinburgh and St Margaret’s in Aberdeen, which are both girls’ schools, and Merchiston Castle in Edinburgh, a boys’ school.

Scotland’s last remaining single-sex state school – Notre Dame High in Glasgow – began admitting boys in August 2021.

Labour has been contacted for comment.