Private schools are abandoning their charitable status in a bid to avoid having to admit disadvantaged pupils, it has been suggested.

In the past year, nine schools have dropped their charitable status, according to the Independent Schools Council's (ISC) annual census.

The proportion of ISC schools with charitable status has dropped this year to 75 per cent, from 77 per cent last year.

Despite the tax breaks that it comes with, 32 of the new schools which joined the ISC last year did not have charitable status.

Bernard Trafford, interim head of the Purcell School, a boarding school for young musicians in Hertfordshire, said there is a “huge pressure” on private schools to “prove public benefit” when they have charitable status.