Private schools have been told to share teachers with local state schools, amid mounting pressure on them to justify their charitable status.

The Department for Education (DfE) published new guidance on ways in which fee-paying schools should collaborate with their neighbouring state schools.

Independent schools could allow state educated pupils to join their classes in subjects such as languages and Classics, it suggests. Private schools could also share facilities such as science laboratories with nearby state schools, it adds, while teachers from fee-paying institutions could share lesson plans and resources.

The new guidance comes against a backdrop of growing pressure on the country’s most prestigious private schools to step up their efforts to help less well-off pupils.

Three quarters of independent schools in England are registered as charities, earning them favourable business rates and VAT exemptions on fees.

To qualify as a charity they must demonstrate that they provide “public benefit” to a reasonably wide section of the public, rather than to a narrow group of wealthy individuals.