Tours of a former WW2 bunker owned by a school, use of an observatory, and allowing a nearby nursery to use school grounds in the event of fire are examples of community work used by the UK’s top private schools to justify their charitable tax breaks, openDemocracy has found.
Critics have called the community outreach “paltry” as Labour pushes for the government to strip private schools of their billion-pound tax breaks.
Wycombe Abbey School, a private school in Buckinghamshire that charges £14,700 a term in fees for boarding students, listed “bunker tours” provided to the public in its annual accounts (where it is registered as the Girls’ Education Company Ltd) as an example of its “community partnerships”. A former Second World War bunker is found on the school’s grounds.
