Alun Jones says party’s plan to cut tax breaks for private schools is based on outdated and patronising ideas about sector

The vast majority of the “educational apartheid” in Britain is caused not by private schooling but by parents buying their way into catchment areas for the best state schools, according to the first male president of the body representing independent girls’ schools.

Alun Jones, who takes over as president of the Girls’ Schools Association (GSA) on 1 January, accused Labour of returning to “70s class war” in its plan to limit tax breaks for independent schools. He argued the capacity to buy an expensive home near an excellent school represented greater privilege than a decision to make “huge sacrifices” to pay for private education.

“Eighty per cent of the educational apartheid that we see is actually due to geographical location,” said Jones, who is also principal of St Gabriel’s school in Newbury, in an interview with the Guardian.

“What’s the most privileged – being able to afford a £750,000 house and live in a catchment that takes you to what is defined as an excellent state school, or parents who want to make huge sacrifices and choose to opt for the independent sector?” The notion that private schools are elite is outdated, he argued.

A survey released in August by Lloyds Bank found parents were ready to pay a premium averaging £21,000 and rising to almost half a million pounds for a home in a desirable catchment area. Schools in some areas, including parts of London, now operate lottery systems to address the inequality of admission by postcode.

In November, the shadow education secretary, Tristram Hunt, unveiled Labour’s plans to cut tax breaks for private schools unless they do more to help children from the state sector. Independent schools would lose access to their 80% business rate relief, worth about £165m a year, unless they met a new “schools partnership standard”.

Jones accused the party of “harking back to 70s social class war” and basing the policy on “ill-informed, outdated and patronising” ideas about the independent sector.

He claimed nine out of 10 private schools were involved in some sort of partnership or collaboration with state counterparts, though the scale depended on resources available.

His school provides free Latin lessons for two local state sixth forms and manages an athletic track where facilities are used jointly with the state partner, though it does not have the funds to sponsor an academy, Jones said. Meanwhile, more than £63m was awarded annually by the GSA in means-tested bursaries, with half of recipients paying less than half fees.

Labour’s proposed new body to monitor such partnerships would merely be a quango monitoring what is happening, and a waste of taxpayers’ money, he added.

However, Labour argues that while some private schools are working hard to create real links with state partners, most are providing merely token benefits such as occasional use of a sports field or facility and must face tax penalties if they do not raise their game.

Jones accused Labour of adopting a “condescending attitude” but insisted he too wanted to see a breaking down of barriers between state and private schools. “One of the things I am really hoping to achieve as president is to get rid of the words ‘school type’ from the education language. I want us to talk about educating children and the fact that we all run great schools. What we are offering is a diverse range of schools serving a diverse range of children.”

Hunt rejected Jones’s claims. “There is more to be done to share facilities, insights and expertise between the state and private sectors. We would not be setting up any new quangos,” he said.

“We will ask the independent schools inspectorate to ensure that exactly the type of successful partnership St Gabriel’s has developed is emulated across the sector.”

Jones said: “Girls’ schools aren’t pink and fluffy: there is no cap on what you can achieve. You won’t do needlework and play the flute.”

However, he predicted far more mergers and collaboration between girls’ and boys’ schools in the next two decades, with a particular growth in the so-called “diamond model”, which sees girls and boys educated together until 11, taught in separate classes from 11 to 16 (either within the same institution or separately), and then returning to co-education in the sixth form.

“It’s an incredibly successful model which we will most certainly see grow,” said Jones, who said teenage girls educated separately were more likely to opt for non-stereotypical subjects, while boys would not be intimidated by high-achieving girls. Jones argues his gender is irrelevant to his desire to extend opportunities in education and the workplace for girls, he added, though his selection “just shows how outward-looking and modern we are”.

Jones also joined many fellow heads in lamenting the impact social media can have on the well-being of pupils. Schools needed to work closely in partnership with parents, who should take phones and other electronic media away from youngsters before bedtime to ensure “quality down time”, he said. Parents should also be sure to know the passwords of their children’s Facebook and other accounts and ensure the youngsters knew they could potentially access them.