One of Britain’s most famous private schools is offering bursaries and scholarships for children of middle-class families, even if parents earn £120,000 a year.

London-based St Paul’s, which charges £7,827 a term, is offering discounts to families on a combined salary of £120,000, after headmaster Professor Mark Bailey admitted the school had become “unaffordable”.

This comes amid concerns that private school fees – which have risen by 550 per cent in the past 25 years and now cost up to £30,000 annually per child – are affordable only to wealthy foreigners.

Professor Bailey added that eventually, families on a combined income of £190,000 would become potential beneficiaries of bursaries.