June Dawson was brought up in Bramley, Leeds, and left school with four O levels before becoming a civil servant.

She and her husband, Mike, felt “let down” by the state school system and were determined that their three children should have a better secondary education than they did.

Mrs Dawson has multiple sclerosis and can no longer work and the family depends on Mr Dawson’s salary as a teacher at a secondary school in Kirklees. “We’ve had to sell a lot of things and we’re about £10,000 in debt, which we’ve never had before, but it has definitely been worthwhile,” said Mrs Dawson..

Their children attended the primary school close to their home in Wakefield, but when daughter Hannah was 11 she passed the entrance exam to Wakefield Girls’ High School.

“We knew we couldn’t afford the fees, but the headmistress desperately wanted her to come to the school, so they agreed to help with the fees,” Mrs Dawson said.

The next year, her sister, Alice, joined the school on the same basis. Depending on their circumstances, the family pay between £250 and £550 a month for the pair of them.

Mrs Dawson said that the standard of discipline at the school, the headmistress and small class sizes were the reasons for wanting her daughters to attend.

The couple’s son, Thomas, chose to attend private school in the sixth form, but she credits Queen Elizabeth Grammar School for his entry into university to study pharmacology.

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