Ensure the council has a high profileUse all existing forms of communication. 8. Choose the right size and structureIn a large school one council with representatives from each class is unwieldy Successful councils comprise year or Key Stage councils.9. Don’t get hung up on pupil issuesDon’t get stuck on uniform and food. Behaviour, teaching and external relations are vital, too.10. Make it realPupils can spot the difference between a token exercise and a real attempt to involve them in decision-making.. In 1997, Tony Blair came to power promising to create a world-class education system. Since then, funding for state schools has risen, teachers’ salaries have begun to look better and standards (as measured by the proportion of pupils achieving grades A to C at GCSE) have improved.

The annual census by The Independent Schools Information Service, published next week, is expected to show another increase in the number of pupils educated privately, despite fee rises averaging 6.7 per cent in 2001 – well above the rate of inflation. More than 600,000 children are now educated outside the state system, representing a considerable saving for the Treasury (as much as £2 billion). What is it about independent schools that persuades so many parents to pay double for their child’s education?The most important consideration is the happiness of their offspring and finding a school that suits them. Here lies one of the great attractions of the independent sector: its diversity. Just as all children are different, so no one school suits every child.

Magdalen College School in Oxford, for example, has just 500 boys aged 11 to18, and offers an environment in which each can make his mark and where every teacher, including the headmaster, knows the name of every boy. Can that be said of schools with 800 or more pupils, the norm in the state sector?It is also a boys’ school (almost all of the surviving 400 single-sex schools are in the independent sector) that believes passionately that it can do more than most to address the problems of boys’ underachievement. In 2001, Magdalen was the tenth highest achieving school in The Independent’s GCSE league table, despite boys doing badly at this level nationally compared to their sisters.If the greatest strength of the independent sector lies in its diversity, most successful independent schools have common characteristics to which most prospective parents aspire. The first is academic ambition – not just league table performance but an environment of high expectation in which children are inspired by gifted teachers to regard what they are doing as a challenge, rather than a chore.This climate of high expectation extends to behaviour, the second-most often stated reason for parents choosing private education. Parents want an environment for children that is caring and well ordered. Alarmed by reports of teachers powerless in the face of aggressive pupils (and parents), they are unconvinced that state schools can offer them what their child needs.The key to creating this climate is the quality and commitment of the teachers. While governments shy away from remunerating teachers properly, the private sector is using its independence, and the flexibility that comes with it, to offer more attractive packages, including higher salaries, private health insurance, relocation allowances and reduced fees.

Only in this way can they stave off the worst effects of teacher shortages. That is surely another message for Mr Blair.Finally, perhaps the most attractive issue for parents, is the emphasis on the wider curriculum: music, debating, drama, sport. Parents want their children to succeed academically and understand how to behave but they also want them to enjoy life before the world of work takes over. For that, they will make huge financial sacrifices.The writer is usher (deputy head) of Magdalen College School Oxford. Years ago British Leyland launched a car with a square steering wheel. A brave idea, it was, sadly, greeted with derision and quickly withdrawn BL managers blamed the public for being too conservative. Meanwhile, the Japanese carried on selling people what they wanted BL later went bankrupt, doubtless still blaming the public.