Private schools' plan to offer 10,000 free places for poorer students under attack

Children from poor backgrounds could go to top public schools like Eton under proposals unveiled by leading independent schools.

Fees at Eton - where David Cameron and Boris Johnson were educated - are among the most expensive in the country at more than £35,000 a year.

But independent schools are offering up to 10,000 places for children from state schools if the Government provides a subsidy of £5,500 per pupil.

The move is a fightback against Theresa May's grammar schools green paper, in which independent schools were warned to do more for society to keep their charitable status.

Among the most expensive UK public schools are Malvern College (£36,288), Tonbridge (£36,288), Harrow (£36,150), Eton (£35,721), Wycombe Abbey (£35,700), Winchester (£35,610) and Charterhouse (£35,529).

The 'poor kids to posh schools' proposal comes from the Independent Schools Council (ISC) and would make places available to students of all ages, from prep school to sixth form.

Some children would be tested for ability, but the ISC says it is not aiming the places at pupils already at top academy or grammar schools, but those from families on lower incomes.

Barnaby Lenon, chairman of the ISC, said: "The proposals we are putting forward go considerably further than some of the ideas the green paper suggested and, by helping create more good school places, both in state and independent schools, we would be helping to expand real social mobility in this country."

The proposal was immediately attacked by Labour. Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said it was a call for a return to an Assisted Places Scheme.

"Labour scrapped this scheme in order to fund smaller infant class sizes - a measure that helped millions of children rather than the handful that the Assisted Places Scheme supported," she said.

"Independent schools can and should do more to support state schools if they are to hold on to their business rates relief.

"I'm afraid promising places to a few children just doesn't cut it."

The former chief inspector of schools Sir Michael Wilshaw, a fierce critic of the Prime Minister's grammar schools revival, said the independent schools' plan does not go far enough.

"I think they can do better than that and if I was Government I would be asking them to do more as a quid pro quo for their tax privileges," he said.

The proposal was also attacked by the Labour former education secretary Baroness Estelle Morris, who is an ex-teacher.

"This is about a request to use state money, taxpayers' money, to extract the brightest children out of our comprehensive schools and skim them off and put them into public schools, and that's not good for the education system," she said.

But a Department for Education spokesman told Sky News: "Our proposals are about creating more choice, with more good school places for more parents in more parts of the country.

"We want to do this by lifting the ban on new grammars, and harnessing the resources and expertise of universities, faith schools and independent schools.

"We welcome contributions to the consultation and will respond in due course."