Theatres face criticism over ‘two-tier’ pricing for schools

The National Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) have come in for criticism for charging higher ticket prices for groups of private school pupils than those from state school.

As reported by The Telegraph, the National Theatre offers £10 tickets during term-time for group bookings of more than 10 state school pupils, and £12 tickets for a group of private school pupils of the same size.

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The RSC charges state schools £10 per pupil for groups of 10 or more, and £16.50 for independent school pupils.

Shadow Culture Secretary Stuart Andrew described the discrepancy with school ticket costs as “clear price discrimination”, while calls have also been made for the Charity Commission to investigate.

“I have a huge amount of respect for the National Theatre, so this is particularly disappointing to see,” Andrew said.

“Despite receiving tens of millions in public funding, this feels like clear price discrimination – penalising private school pupils based on crude assumptions about wealth.

“Publicly funded institutions have a duty to widen access, not reinforce stereotypes or engage in socio-economic social engineering.”

‘Disappointing’

A spokesperson for Education Not Taxation, a group representing private school parents, said: “It is disappointing to see the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company discriminate against children who attend independent schools.

“They should encourage all children to embrace the arts, rather than forcing children to pay the price for the biases of these charities. We also urge the Charity Commission to investigate and address this issue.”

Concerns over ticket pricing for schools follows alarm over the National Theatre’s decision to drop its school touring programme.

In November, 50 leading figures in theatre signed a letter expressing “profound concern” to the theatre over plans to completely cut its primary school touring programme, calling the move “devastating” and “deeply damaging to working class communities”.

The RSC’s schools touring programme, however, will be viewed by the largest number of school children ever this year – an estimated 24,000 young people over 24 weeks.

A spokesperson for the National Theatre said: “State school tickets are £2 less than for independent schools (£10 and £12), and both are considerably lower than the market rate.

“This is part of our commitment to widening access for young people to world class theatre. This enables us to welcome as many students as possible at a time when schools across the country face challenging financial pressures which limit extracurricular activity.”

Review of pricing policy

However, the RSC has said it will consider making pricing adjustments. A spokesperson said: “Prices for private schools are at a slightly higher rate due to the differences in budgets that are available between state-maintained schools and schools in the independent sector, a policy which we have maintained for several years.

“However, we also recognise that there are many different kinds of independent schools and for smaller schools, as well as for schools that focus on children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. We are looking at how we can make appropriate adjustments, as part of our work to regularly review our pricing policies.”