No one working on library enquiry counters can long survive without being asked about independent (private) schools. And no such member of staff can survive long without consulting The Independent Schools Guide, compiled by staff of Gabbitas, the UK’s leading independent educational consultants. Few decisions are harder to make than finding a suitable school for one’s child, and, it must be said, few subjects are more complex than independent schools. Such a bewildering range of nomenclature, religious affiliations, foundation ties, scholarships and bursaries! Thus we welcome a new edition of this, the most authoritative and comprehensive guide to independent schools in the UK. We must be grateful, too, that the 540 pages retail for only £12.99. There is a modicum of advertising included, but it is not obtrusive.
The work falls into four parts. Part one contains eight short chapters covering introductory topics such as “What is an independent school?”, “Choosing your school”, and “Finding the fees”. These essays are clearly written. I was particularly interested to find a list of schools that offer the International Baccalaureate.
Part two is the main geographical directory. This gives information about some 2,200 schools arranged by locality within county and country sections. Information is brief, but it covers name, postal address, telephone number, head, type (e.g. Girls Day 4‐18), number of pupils and fees. Much more detail is offered in part three, where entries cover a page or half‐page, but only of the 100 or so schools are featured. We are not told the selection criteria, but I imagine it might be those schools that put themselves forward. The information on these schools is good, certainly for many of the better‐known ones, but to take West Yorkshire as an example, 46 schools are listed in the main directory sequence, but only one features in this School Profiles section.
Part four is styled “Reference section”, which contains mostly indexes. There are seven of these listing schools which offer certain facilities – type of scholarship, bursaries and reserved entrance awards, provision for dyslexia, and English as a Foreign Language, or which have a particular character – single sex schools, religious affiliation, specialist schools (art, dance, music). There is a final alphabetical index listing all the schools. A glossary of abbreviations and listings of educational associations and other useful addresses are also provided.
There can be no doubting the value of this Guide, though I must confess to finding it confusing in places – not a reference book to use without some prior familiarization. The division between the main geographical directory and the selected school profiles was unclear. I often found myself looking in the wrong part – one tends to go straight for the fullest information. In the index of religious affiliation there are separate categories for Christian, Anglican and Church of England without any comment. Finally, I was surprised that in four of the specialist indexes, arrangement was geographical rather that by category. Nonetheless, this is a commendably useful work that belongs in all UK general reference collections.
