Shop now with AFIS

Browse here for exclusive offers for AFIS members on clothing, travel, events and much more. 

Click Here
Background
AFIS - A not-for-profit Community Interest Company

About AFIS™

AFIS™ is the UK’s only membership organisation bringing together parents, relatives and alumni who believe in the value of independent education as part of a diverse and complementary national school system.

We amplify our members’ collective voice to foster a fairer, more balanced debate about independent schooling. We champion the families who choose it and the schools that deliver it — celebrating the partnership, commitment and shared values that help shape exceptional young people who contribute meaningfully to society and the economy. In doing so, we help safeguard choice and strengthen the sector for the future.

AFIS is an independent, apolitical organisation, not aligned with any political party.

The People Behind AFIS

Michelle Daniells

Michelle Daniells

AFIS Founder and CEO

Michelle is a full-time single mother of a son and a daughter who both attended local state primary schools and are now thriving at a local independent senior school, supported by means-tested fee assistance from the school and the generosity of their grandparents.

Her career spans a broad range of commercial management roles in business planning, marketing, consultancy, and business development, across diverse sectors, from large engineering and manufacturing companies to small service firms and charities.

An accomplished entrepreneur, Michelle has founded and grown three successful ventures: producing and supplying artisan ice cream to restaurants; developing and commercialising an innovative range of food products stocked by supermarkets nationwide; and designing and delivering self-employment and business start-up training and mentoring programmes. She also shares her entrepreneurial experience with young people, giving talks and running enterprise advice clinics at local secondary schools.

"It is disheartening to see the widespread misconceptions surrounding independent schools and the families they serve. Experiencing first-hand the rich socio-economic diversity within our own school community was a key motivation for me in establishing AFIS, to commission vital research that challenges stereotypes and encourages a more balanced public conversation."

Peter Hogan

Peter Hogan

AFIS Director and Chair

Peter's two children were educated first in the state and then in the independent sector as day, flexi and full borders.

Peter has been a school leader and teacher in independent, state, charitable and for-profit sectors in the UK and Asia. He has 25 years' experience of leadership in very different, dynamic, competitive environments. He has founded a Prep school, has experience franchising a school brand into new markets, is a qualified schools inspector and acts as a mentor and coach to school leaders. The schools he has led have received Best in Country and Best in World Awards.

Outside his school responsibilities Peter has served as education advisor to The London Stock Exchange, The Financial Times, RBS, Barclays Bank, The Personal Finance Education Group, The Jane Goodall Institute and the Ministry of Education in Thailand. He has written textbooks about economics, business studies and technology in schools. He writes on educational matters in the UK and overseas and has been a keynote speaker to school governors at the CBI and Institute of Directors. In Poland, Russia, the Caucasus and Asia he has lectured to Heads and teachers on topics including leadership, AI, wellbeing, pupil recruitment and safeguarding. His education consultancy projects have included creating an online tuition college, an anti-bullying app, an online bank for schools and stock market resources used globally by 100,00 pupils annually.

Peter has served as Chair of Governors at a UK day and boarding school, governor at a state school and a board member for the University of Wales.

Michelle Leete

Michelle Leete

AFIS Director

Michelle is the mum of a teenager daughter who has attended a local independent school from year 7.

A strategic and results-driven leader with considerable experience across global marketing, sales, and product. I specialise in building high-performing cross-functional teams and driving organisational success through innovative leadership and collaborative approaches.

With a proven track record in both large and small organisations, my expertise spans:

Team leadership and organisational development

Brand management and strategic marketing

Partnership and business development

Corporate strategy, including mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures

Product launches and content acquisition

Career Highlights:

Spearheaded the Wiley publishing partnership for the London 2012 Olympic Games

Global leadership of the renowned For Dummies publishing program

Beyond professional achievements, I am deeply committed to access to education and development for all, believing that growth enhances individual and collective performance. My leadership philosophy centers on creating supportive environments that empower teams to exceed shared goals and deliver exceptional results.

AFIS Advisory Panel Members

Francesca Ellsmoor

Francesca Ellsmoor

Executive Headteacher, Auckland College Independent School, Liverpool

Chair of the AFIS Advisory Panel

Francesca is an accomplished executive leader with experience driving strategic transformation, innovation, and sustainable growth across the education and business sectors. State-school educated and now Executive Headteacher of the independent school her own four children attend, she is deeply committed to creating dynamic, inclusive environments where pupils and staff flourish. A strong advocate for parental choice, she is passionate about championing every child and ensuring families can access the education that is right for them.

"I truly believe in the power of education to change lives. Quality education gives pupils purpose and the skills to shape their own futures. My priority is to ensure that academic and personal growth remain at the heart of our work, preparing young people to thrive in a rapidly changing world. As educators and leaders, we must collaborate to harness our collective strengths for the long-term welfare of our societies."

Andrew Hampton

Andrew Hampton

AFIS Advisory Panel Member

Andrew Hampton has two daughters, a son and four grandchildren. His three children all attended the independent schools where he worked as a Head of Music and then Headteacher.

Andrew stepped away from Headship after 18 years in 2021. He founded the Girls on Board approach in 2017 and the Working with Boys programme in 2023. He is the author of When Girls Fall Out (2021), Working with Boys (2023), and How to Run a School (2025).

His ideas centred around the central importance of mutual respect in the relational cultures of pupils in school and how adults, both teachers and parents, can support those cultures to be consistently dignified, compassionate and empathetic.

Adam D'Souza

Adam D'Souza

AFIS Advisory Panel Member

Adam D'Souza is a teacher, expert schools advisor and educational entrepreneur. He is the founder of Select:ed, an international school placement consultancy helping families find the right-fit schools for their children; he has a particular specialism in academically selective school entrance at 11+ and 13+. He has taught English, history and philosophy, and held leadership roles in some of London's most distinctive schools. His articles about education have appeared in the Daily Telegraph, TES, Prep School Magazine and Time & Leisure.

Alongside teaching and advisory work with Select:ed, Adam is also a board director of Divergent Schools, a non-profit setting up new, independent SEND schools that seek to bridge the gap between mainstream and special school education. He serves as a governor of a 3-11 co-ed prep school in London, overseeing future schools transition. In previous roles, he was on the founding management team of Chatsworth Schools, a group which acquired and transformed small independent schools. At Hampton Court House, a bilingual all-through school, Adam led the development of a new holistic academic curriculum and diploma programme for students aged 9 to 13.

Mario Creatura

Mario Creatura

AFIS Advisory Panel Member

Mario has seen first-hand how independent schools support families from a wide range of backgrounds, including through bursaries, specialist provision and strong pastoral care.

Professionally, Mario has spent his career at the intersection of public policy, communications, and community engagement. He has worked in Parliament, in 10 Downing Street, and in senior corporate roles advising some of the biggest corporate brands on political strategy, reputation, and long-term planning.

Alongside this, Mario has spent over a decade serving as an elected councillor in Croydon. He is an active mentor for young people through the Social Mobility Foundation, helping students from disadvantaged backgrounds navigate university applications and early career pathways.

"Too often the national debate ignores the families who sit in the middle - those who make sacrifices to choose the right environment for their children, or who rely on bursaries to access opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach. AFIS plays a vital role in bringing evidence, clarity, and fairness to that conversation, and I'm proud to support its work."

Paul Flint

Paul Flint

AFIS Advisory Panel Member

Due to the foresight of his parents, Paul, who is now an executor of the Arthur Ransome Literary Estate, was educated at Haberdashers School in Elstree. In the 1970s it was possible for students from families with modest means to benefit from state funding to certain independent grammar schools, A scheme that has sadly disappeared.

Paul joined the Royal Navy as a post-graduate geographer before, 10 years later, working as a manager in the NHS and subsequently as bursar of two independent schools: a girls' day school and then a co-ed day and boarding school in the Lake District. His ex-Army wife taught music and drama in independent and state schools, and their two sons both attended an independent school, studied the IB and are pursuing successful careers.

"Parents of children at independent schools," says Paul, "are very often first-time buyers with no family history of privilege and many make considerable financial sacrifices to give their children the best possible start. They should not be penalised for choosing to do so."

Aryan Vedhara

Aryan Vedhara

AFIS Advisory Panel Member

Aryan is a 16 year old entrepreneur, founder and investor currently a pupil at King’s College School Wimbledon. He is the Founder and Chief Executive of The Aspire Project, a not-for-profit delivering practical education in numeracy, AI, finance, writing and career readiness to pupils from underserved backgrounds. He is also the Founder and Host of Building Resilient Futures, a podcast featuring global leaders, Forbes 30 Under 30 founders, CEOs and investors, which has passed fifteen thousand listens.

At King’s, Aryan chairs the Co-Curricular Committee and the Charity Committee, and serves as an Ambassador for Finance, AI and Entrepreneurship. As a student with SEND needs, including ASD and ADHD, he has seen first hand how the tailored support and structure of independent schools enable students like him to thrive. His father also attended a leading independent school after growing up in the UK, giving Aryan a strong appreciation of the long term impact such environments can have across generations.

Aryan is keen to support AFIS because he believes in free choice of education and in protecting the significant academic, social and economic value that independent schools contribute to the UK. He wants to help ensure that families, including those with children who have SEND needs, can continue to access the schools that allow them to flourish.

Join AFIS Back to top

Why we Created AFIS

AFIS™ was founded by a small team of independent school parents who were concerned about two growing challenges:

  1. 1. The increasing prevalence of negative and ill-informed narratives about private schooling and the families who choose it, which fail to reflect the diversity of backgrounds, motivations, and experiences within the community.

    2. and

  2. 2. Rising financial pressures on families that affect children’s education and limit access to independent schooling.

AFIS was not formed in response to a single policy issue, nor as a short-term reaction to changes such as VAT on school fees. We exist to provide long-term support for families who choose independent approaches to education.

A Credible Voice for Independent Schooling Families

A note from our Founder:

“When my eldest child first went to an independent school in Year 7, I became aware of the absence of a national organisation to unite and represent families who choose private or independent education. Until then, I only had experience of the state education sector, where a national body exists to represent parents by undertaking research to inform and influence policy and public debate.

While independent schools and their leaders are served by a number of trade organisations that represent schools and champion the sector, there has been no equivalent voice dedicated to the individuals and families who choose and access independent schooling and, in the vast majority of cases, fund it themselves.

Over recent years, there has been a growing negative rhetoric directed at private schools and the families who choose them. The wider socio-political climate has often felt increasingly hostile, shaped by ill-informed judgements and unbalanced media coverage that reinforce narrow stereotypes of wealth and elitism, while overlooking the diversity of backgrounds, motivations, and experiences within independent schooling. This has contributed to a public debate that often unfairly stigmatises families for their educational choices. Like many others, I have found this both saddening and frustrating. It became clear to me that robust research and a more evidence-led conversation were urgently needed, and that this could best be achieved through a national platform that brings families together and gives them a collective voice.”

Michelle Daniells

AFIS Founder and CEO

Michelle Daniells

We are not just about VAT on School Fees

AFIS was not formed in response to a single policy issue, nor as a short-term reaction to changes such as VAT on school fees. We exist to provide long-term support for families who choose independent approaches to education.

While many families, including our own members, would welcome the removal of VAT on school fees, the debate around VAT served to highlight a deeper and more enduring need: a professional association to represent families who choose, or, in some cases, feel they have no viable alternative to, independent schooling for their children.

“If only AFIS had existed years ago, we would have had a stronger voice in the debate about VAT on school fees.”

Michelle Leete, Independent Schooling Parent

The introduction of VAT on school fees understandably generated strong public debate. It also exposed a significant gap. In the absence of a national association, thousands of parents and supporters turned to social media to share their experiences and viewpoints. Many contributed thoughtful, well-reasoned insights on platforms such as Mumsnet and Facebook, but there was no central organisation capable of collating, analysing, and presenting this collective wisdom in a coherent and credible way. Valuable lived experience was being shared every day, yet it remained fragmented and largely absent from the wider national conversation.

From Online Debate to Meaningful Representation

The unstructured nature of social media discussion brought clear limitations: extreme or hostile voices sometimes dominated online spaces, with the tone of debate becoming angry and polarised. This, in turn, attracted disproportionate, negative media attention, with coverage focusing on a small number of inflammatory comments rather than the many constructive and thoughtful contributions being made

This highlighted the need for a platform where parents’ voices could be heard in a coordinated, credible, and evidence-led way.

AFIS was created to provide that platform. We bring families together, translate lived experience into robust evidence, and offer a clear, balanced, and professional voice to support informed national discussion about independent schooling.

Our first major research project, in collaboration with Chichester University, will commence early in 2026 and will focus on:

Who are independent schooling families and why do they choose independent education?

Challenging Crude Wealth Assumptions

We know that the blanket assumption that all private school families are wealthy and privileged is inaccurate and ill-informed. In reality, most families who choose independent education are not super-rich; they do so for a wide range of personal, practical, and educational reasons — with the specific needs of their children at heart, and make significant financial sacrifices. Many also rely on financial support from relatives and benefit from schools’ fee assistance and bursary programmes to make this choice possible.

Did you know?

Although public debate often focuses on the largest and most high-profile private schools, the reality is that most are small—71% educate fewer than 300 pupils. These schools make a vital contribution to the education system, providing tailored learning environments that meet the specific needs of their pupils and reflect the values and priorities of the families they serve.

Why AFIS™ is needed NOW:

The Independent Education Landscape Is Changing

  • The public debate around private schools has become increasingly divisive and polarised.
  • Families who choose independent education face growing stigmatisation, driven by stereotypes and outdated, crude assumptions about wealth and privilege.
  • Rising costs mean fewer families are able to access private education.
  • Financial pressures are forcing many schools to reduce the level of means-tested fee assistance they can offer.
  • An increasing number of independent schools are closing due to mounting financial challenges — including the impact of VAT on school fees.

This has created a clear need for stronger research and new ways to support both families and schools.

When we spoke with other parents at independent schools, many said they wished an organisation like AFIS™ had existed years ago. “If only we had something like this to advocate for us before the recent VAT issue”. Better late than never—the need remains urgent and AFIS is here now and will help the sector prepare for future challenges.

Independent school families

Why an Association for Families who choose Independent Education

In seeking practical solutions to the challenges facing families who access independent schooling, two key questions emerged:

  1. 1. How can we reach and bring together the many families and supporters of independent education?

    2. and

  2. 2. How can the research and family support work be funded in a sustainable and transparent way?

    3. The answer is AFIS™—the Association for Families of Independent Schooling.

Through our member families and our partner schools, we are building a collaborative, solutions-driven community, one that will make a big, positive difference.

Our Revenue Sources

Our members represent a large and valuable audience for retail brands, many of whom are very keen to collaborate with AFIS to offer their products and services to our members. By shopping through the AFIS Shopping Centre on our website, members generate financial benefits for all AFIS stakeholders—without paying higher prices or missing out on special offers.

Donations

Grants and social funds

Advertising and sponsorship fees

Contributions from the AFIS online Shopping Centre

Revenue goes towards the AFIS Schooling Costs Fund, our research work and our operational costs. All profits are re-invested into the AFIS not-for-profit, community interest company.

AFIS is Apolitical and Independent

AFIS is a not-for-profit community interest company with no shareholders and no commercial interests to serve.

We are independent of political parties and are not a lobbying organisation or think tank. While we engage constructively with policy developments that affect our member families, AFIS is not aligned with any political agenda.

We are not funded by schools, political bodies, or think tanks. AFIS is supported by donations from our members and supporters, and by revenue generated when members choose to use the AFIS Shopping Centre.

Join AFIS Back to top
AFIS Logo

Championing parental choice, wider access and fairer representation for independent schooling families.

AFIS and Association for Families of Independent Schooling are registered trademarks of AFIS UK LTD.

The Association for Families of Independent Schooling (AFIS) C.I.C. is a community interest company, incorporated in England and Wales, company number 16817786.

Quick Links

Join AFIS

Legal

Facebook LinkedIn X Instagram TikTok YouTube

© Association for Families of Independent Schooling (AFIS) C.I.C. All rights reserved.