It's not just state schools that have to adjust to problems such as a shortage of teachers, difficult children and demanding parents.

The independent sector also has to move with the times with the added burden of pleasing parents who pay the fees.

Over the years, dozens of private schools in Sussex have failed to meet those challenges and have been forced to close.

The head of Mowden School in Hove, Christopher Snell, took a wise decision when he realised his son, Mark, would not be joining him in the family-run concern.

He has decided to hand over management from September next year to the much bigger Lancing College.

Mowden, like many other independent schools, has moved away from boarding pupils to operating as a day school.

Now it is likely to follow Lancing in accepting girls for the first time and this can only be an improvement.

Single-sex boarding schools bring boys up in a rather monastic atmosphere which is not wholly suitable for dealing with life today.

Lancing is one of the best known independent schools in the country and should ensure a sound future for the Hove school.

Meanwhile, we wish a long and happy retirement for Christopher Snell whose family have provided a happy and successful school for generations of boys since 1896.