A SCOTTISH private school that took the unprecedented step of freezing its fees to lure back middle-class families has seen a sharp rise in applications.

Fernhill School, on the outskirts of Glasgow, is projecting an increase in pupils of more than 50% – from 170 last year to 260 by the summer.

The small independent Catholic girls' school in Rutherglen was the only secondary in Scotland to freeze its fees last year – a move it intends to repeat this year, with a reduction planned for next year as pupil numbers grow further.

Officials said the fees were held at £8976 a year for a senior school day pupil because of concerns over the impact of a decade of significant increases across the sector.

The school was also facing difficult times, with pupil numbers falling from a high of 329 in 2006.

The move is likely to put pressure on other private schools to consider adopting a similar freeze, or restricting fee rises to a minimum.

Kathleen Boswell, chair of the school's board of governors, said: "We looked at the way fees were rising over the past decade and came to a decision that those rises are making a private school education unaffordable to families who would traditionally have sent their children to a private school.

"It is now quite prohibitive and we decided to change the model significantly and reduce fees to encourage more pupils.

"We also invested heavily in our bursary and assisted places programme to offer assistance to some of our existing families who struggle to meet the fees.

"Since then we have experienced an increase in interest from parents and we expect to see numbers grow significantly over the next few years."

In 2011, a survey by The Herald showed the cost to families of sending their children to an independent school rose by an average of 3.4% to £11,700 a year.

The highest-charging independent school in Scotland is Gordonstoun, in Elgin, which charges £20,802, 4.7% up on the previous year.

At the same time that fees have been rising, studies have shown the number of pupils in private schools in Scotland has fallen, with particular concern over a 7% decline in the number of pupils going into the first year of primary.

Previous reports by the Bank of Scotland – published before the impact of the credit crunch became apparent – have suggested members of key professions in Scotland can no longer afford to send their children to fee-paying schools, with teachers, engineers and police officers priced out of private education.

Mrs Boswell said one consideration for the school had been whether to allow boys into the secondary department to boost pupil numbers, but they made the decision to preserve the single-sex status of Fernhill in the senior school.

"A single-sex education is very important to the school and we feel it lets the girls grow in a happy and secure environment," she said.

"Fernhill is a small school and the chances of bullying happening are hugely reduced.

"The explosion of social media has increased the risk of bullying, but it is much easier to spot incidents in a small school and fix them before they get a chance to fester."

Fernhill was launched as an independent school in 1972, with a secondary department following in 1973.

Nursery and primary levels are open to both boys and girls, but the secondary department is girls-only.