Posts Tagged ‘Private Schools’
Why should the state bail out failing private schools?
More than a hundred private schools are predicted to make the move in the state sector in the next decade according to former schools minister Lord Adonis. Should we be delighted, or dismayed? Most people would probably think any reduction in the number of “fee charging” schools in our highly stratified education system is a […]
Private gain, public pain
This weekend I will be speaking at the Battle of Ideas in a session called Public Education; private harm? I re-named my speech “Private gain, public pain” An outline of my contribution ( improvised on the day) is below: Private gain, public pain Quite clear that fee charging schools are very good for some people.At Eton for […]
Private schools see themselves as businesses. Lets treat them that way.
Every so often I check in on one of the longest running sagas in the education world – that of the charitable status of fee-charging schools. It is an epic tale going back 800 years to the foundation of charity schools like Eton and Winchester. The intricate web of endowments enjoyed by some of these […]
Ed Miliband ought to re-start the debate about charitable status for private schools
Which school sector has most reason to feel quietly satisfied as we start 2012? Free schools benefitting from a high profile and capital investment at a time of cuts? Early converter academies with their artificially pumped up budgets? The good fortune of both must surely be trumped by that of the private sector. No mainstream […]
Private schools should do more than just exist to earn their charitable status
First published in Guardian Education Recent rows about social mobility, interns and Nick Clegg’s work experience have been heated and flushed out some important, if intractable, issues. Odd therefore that an imminent court case about the meaning of charitable status for private schools, an equally significant issue for future social mobility, has attracted so little […]
Review into school building suggests buildings not ‘transformational’. So why do they care so much about them at Eton?
It has been fascinating to see, in the comments following the publication of the James Review into school capital funding, how many people believe that school buildings can’t have a transformational effect on children or impact on educational attainment. I wonder why it is then that the parents at schools like Eton, alma mater of […]
Private school bursaries are not a public benefit
So private schools are planning to lure state-educated pupils into their sixth forms with the promise of partial bursaries to study certain subjects. Ever since the 2006 Charities Act, the private sector has been under pressure to prove it provides ‘public benefit’ and this must be the latest wheeze. The 2006 Act led to the […]
Watch out for private school spin and dodgy statistics
The private school spin machine is cranking itself up, in readiness for its usual post GCSE and A level orgy of self congratulation. Consider the story on the front page of this week’s Observer, which claimed that privately educated pupils were expected to get’ three times as many of the new A* grades at A […]
Charitable status – a suitable case for the cuts consultation
I am grateful to my other half for his robust blog pointing out that George Osborne ( St Pauls) and David Cameron (Eton) could start their cuts programme by getting rid of charitable status for fee-paying schools. Whenever anyone raises this question, the usual reaction is that it isn’t worth very much money (around £100 […]
Some private school myths
Private school heads have been on the rampage this month. First out of the trap was Andrew Grant, head master of St Albans School and chair of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses Conference, moaning about the fact that his parents were made to feel guilty about paying school fees (£12690 per annum at his school). ‘It […]
