Family Voice 2026 is now live!

This ground-breaking national research project is designed to answer the questions:
𝙒𝙝𝙤 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙨𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙨, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙝𝙮 𝙙𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙚𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙣?

  • This research will provide timely, sector-wide evidence to strengthen advocacy for independent education and inform public debate.
  • The findings will contribute to a more balanced and truthful national conversation about independent schooling.
  • The survey is being independently facilitated by the University of Chichester and represents the first step in our FAMILY VOICE campaign.

Family Voice will be ongoing throughout 2026, with a variety of surveys, studies, articles and findings shared with AFIS Schools and Members.

If you haven't already, join AFIS (it's FREE) and have your voice heard! Community participation is essential for success.

Further insight into this essential research:

We all make important decisions about our children’s education, shaped by a range of needs, values, and circumstances. The voices and real experiences of families who choose independent schooling need to be heard. This matters because national debate is increasingly influenced by ill-informed and negative narratives, about independent schools and the families who choose them, which overlook the diversity of backgrounds, motivations, and lived experiences within our national community.

The AFIS FAMILY VOICE campaign is your opportunity to take part in an important national survey, commissioned by the Association for Families of Independent Schooling (AFIS) and independently facilitated by the University of Chichester.  It will build a clearer, more balanced understanding of who independent schooling families are and why they make the choices they do.

It aims to build a clearer, more balanced understanding of who independent schooling families are, and why they make the choices they do. Registration closes on February 13th, so we urge you to sign up today. Community participation is essential to it's impact. 

This research is just the first step in a wider programme of initiatives by AFIS, designed to provide a collective national voice for families, and supporters, of independent schooling as part of the UK education system. By sharing your views, you will help to challenge misconceptions, address gaps in existing data, and ensure the importance of parental choice is better understood, and more fairly represented in future public and policy discussions.

If you haven't already done so, then please take two minutes to register here and help to shape a fairer, more informed conversation, about education for our children and future generations. You will be contacted by the University with a request to take part, when the survey is live.

We would also appreciate it if you could encourage friends, family and others at your school to join AFIS, to receive all the member benefits and contribute to this important research.

Every response matters. The more parents who take part, the stronger and more credible our collective voice will be. 

Thank you for your time.