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Private schools are embarking on a round of cost-cutting measures, from reducing food waste and turning the heating down to postponing building projects, in an attempt to beat the effects of the economic downturn and keep a lid on fees.

David Lyscom, the newly appointed chief executive of the Independent Schools Council (ISC), said he was asking schools that had made efficiency savings to share their methods with the rest of the sector in expectation of tough times ahead.

While the move is unlikely to herald a return to the days of cold showers, fingerless gloves and porridge three times a day, the cost-cutting measures are indicative of less fortunate times.

When Britain last plunged into recession in 1991, enrolment numbers at independent schools fell - schools lost 11,500 pupils in five years, the equivalent of more than 20 average-sized schools closing. In today's terms, a similar fall in pupil numbers could mean the sector losing £126 million of income each year.

Mr Lyscom, a former British diplomat, insisted that most independent schools were full and that there was still pressure on places, although he conceded that smaller schools might be “hurting” and losing pupils as a result of the economic downturn.

“In general, education is the last thing that parents are going to sacrifice in a recession. Parents enter into a long-term commitment with schools. And they can get grandparents to help out,” he said.

If the last recession is anything to go by, however, it will not take long for enrolments to fall. In 1991, pupil numbers in ISC schools fell by 1,200 within 12 months and by a further 6,000 over the next year. It took seven years for the numbers to recover.

Mr Lyscom suggested that the sector might be in for a series of mergers or partnerships to achieve economies of scale, but said that cost-cutting measures would be adopted first.

“There are all sorts of practical steps a school can take. Schools are looking at energy efficiency and cutting food waste and at improving existing facilities rather than putting up new buildings,” he said.

Capital projects are likely to be the first area to suffer. Last year, ISC schools spent nearly £700million on building projects such as state-of-the-art sports, arts and boarding facilities.

Mr Lyscom said that schools would not make any cuts that would affect pupils directly. “That would be the last thing that would happen. Schools will not be allowing it to impact on children themselves.”

Some independent schools have made a point this year of keeping their fee rises below the inflation rate. Cheltenham Ladies' College has kept its fee increase to 4 per cent while City of London school managed a 2 per cent increase in fees.

Mr Lyscom's comments are the clearest acknowledgement to date that the effects of the downturn could be felt across the sector soon.

He hoped that schools would be able to make up for falling enrolments by redoubling their marketing efforts and persuading parents that independent schools were not as expensive as many people imagined.

It will be a hard battle. ISC schools offer £350 million in fee assistance a year and a third of pupils receive some degree of help with fees. But years of above-inflation fee increases, driven in part by rising demand in a booming economy, have already put independent schools beyond the reach of many middle-class families. Average independent school fees stand at about £11,000 a year.

Mr Lyscom suggested that schools could help to overcome the effects of the economic downturn by recruiting overseas students from countries such as China that had not been hit as hard by the crisis. “Just taking on one extra overseas student, if you are a boarding school, over the school career of a student is a significant amount of money,” he said.

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