Britain’s private schools are offering record amounts of financial support to middle class families who are struggling to keep up with above-inflation fee increases.

Bursaries and scholarships totalling more than £850m were offered to parents last year, with more than £700m coming straight from schools’ funds, according to figures from the Independent Schools Council.

Means-tested assistance increased 9 per cent while overall support has grown by almost a third in nominal terms since 2010.

Schools are offering an increasingly wide array of reasons to trim fees, going beyond traditional academic or music scholarships for the most able students.

More than a quarter of students now receive some sort of financial support amounting to an average of £5,345 a year each.

Eltham College in south London offers a 50 per cent cut in fees to the children of “chemists, travelling salesmen and grocers”.

Godolphin School, near Salisbury, offers a bursary of up to 70 per cent of boarding or day fees “to daughters of separated or divorced parents, at least one of whom is a member of the Church of England”.

Lathallan School near Dundee has scholarships for children with an interest in “bagpipes or marching drums” for the full amount of fees.

Sons and daughters of pub landlords, or children from the Isle of Wight or others displaying an aptitude for fencing or that show good “environmental awareness” are also eligible for support in other schools.

”Fees have gone up disproportionately relative to incomes,” said Susan Hamlyn, director of the Good Schools Guide.

“A GP with three children, even on a GP’s salary, is probably going to find it impossible to manage independent day school fees, whereas 20 years ago it might have been a bit of a squeeze but they would have done it.“

Fees increased on average by 3.5 per cent in 2015 — the slowest rise since 1994. But average wages are still more than 7 per cent lower than in 2008, after taking account of inflation.

“The sector is responding to the challenge of affordability with a significant increase in the level of fee assistance and means tested bursaries,” said David Goodhew, head of Latymer Upper School in London. “Independent schools are using their own funds to widen access and remain open to poor families and those in the squeezed middle.”

Rendcomb College in Cirencester is cutting fees for sixth-form students by a third, while 13 per cent of pupils at Christ’s Hospital, a boarding school in West Sussex get a full bursary and almost 40 per cent pay less than a 10th of the full fees.

The Whitgift Foundation, which runs three schools in Croydon, south London, is one of the few organisations that publishes a sliding scale of the support it offers families. Whitgift can approximately halve the £18,000 a year fees for a household with a £63,000 annual income and it offers support to families earning up to £93,000 a year.

Although data are difficult to come by, many parents have linked the rise in fees to the value placed on a British private school education by the international super-rich, whose resources dwarf those of even the most successful professionals.

The ISC on Friday said that the proportion of foreign pupils has remained steady over time and stands at about 5.3 per cent of the student population. Ms Hamlyn said that the proportion of children from overseas was higher at boarding schools. Some schools “would not survive without taking 40 per cent or even more from overseas”, she said.

There are now 6,280 children from mainland China, whose parents remain home, in UK schools, more than from any other country; 4,621 from Hong Kong and 2,330 from Russia, the ISC data showed.

The ISC said more children were in private schools now than at any time since 1974, when it started compiling the figures. Julie Robinson, general secretary of ISC, said: “Having felt the pressures of worldwide recession in 2008, independent schools have adapted where necessary and are thriving.”