St Leonards School in St Andrews has had its charitable status confirmed after three years of uncertainty.
It is one of four independent, fee-paying schools which were told by the Dundee-based Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator they needed to make efforts to widen access to meet the charity test set out in law. All four have now passed.
The decision was welcomed by the Scottish Council for Independent Schools, which represents more than 70 schools with 32,000 pupils.
The regulator’s ruling ensures St Leonards which charges its 500 pupils up to £26,000 a year along with Hutchesons in Glasgow, Lomond School in Helensburgh and Merchiston Castle in Edinburgh, retain valuable tax exemptions.
OSCR chairman The Very Reverend Dr Graham Forbes said it had ”closely scrutinised” the efforts made by all four schools since ordering them to widen access to children from poorer families in 2008.
”The schools have enhanced financial support for lower income families and made their facilities more widely available in one example, from fewer than 3% of pupils receiving financial support to nearly 10%.”
St Leonards headmaster Dr Michael Carslaw said: ”I’m delighted that OSCR recognises the public benefit that St Leonards provides, not only in its provision of top quality education but also in the active part it plays in the local community and in making its facilities and expertise available to a range of external groups.”