In Competition No. 2744 you were invited to provide a poetic preview of the Olympic Games. The impending onslaught was viewed with a mix of dread and indifference. When pessimism and cynicism descend on the entry there are always a smattering of Pollyannas but on this occasion they were fewer than usual. Alan Millard’s evocation
What does the uniform say about a school – and its pupils? Sophia Martelli investigates Every parent at some stage has to ask themselves: ‘Which school will suit my child?’ It’s a serious matter and no one — surely? — would consider it on the basis of the fetchingness (or not) of the school’s uniform.
When I last watched the Heaven family home videos, a striking trend emerged. In every clip from the early 1990s, one of my siblings or I was being encouraged to sing. We babies were bounced on daddy’s knee, and he sang ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ over and over again until — looking goggle-eyed and faintly
Pierre, Baron de Coubertin (1863-1937) was a very odd cove. Inspired as much by a rural fête in Shropshire known as the Much Wenlock Olympics as by ancient Greece, he invented the modern Olympic Games. The original spur for his sporting endeavour was the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, which ended in a terrible French defeat.
Structural worries have put a stop to Bradfield College’s tradition of outdoor Greek theatre. Will Gore implores the gods (and benefactors) to be kind Bradfield College is one of the most attractive boarding schools in the country, and the jewel in its crown is — or was — its open-air Greek theatre. Greeker, as it
School was the perfect place to catch the acting bug, says Rachael Stirling — even if her family had to sit through some awful nonsense I have misgivings about boarding schools, but this much I know is good: in an effort to engage easily bored young minds outside the academic syllabus, there is nothing my
School holidays for the children of the affluent used to be about doing nothing in particular. Tagging along to a sun-baked villa, perhaps, or slouching around Verbier in search of familiar Harrys and Rosies. For the unlucky facing an exam year, there might be a week or two of cramming. But otherwise, these were the
Simon Blowey, Financial Planner – Brewin Dolphin It’s quite typical to begin a financial article with the well-worn quotation attributed to Benjamin Franklin that nothing in life is certain apart from death and taxes. However, as well as being a little trite and over-used, the sentiment is actually incorrect, despite its continued use by financial
With the same coat of inevitability with which everything else gets glossed, it now seems inevitable to me that I ended up at Eton. But it was never any such thing. None of my family had been to the school or anything like it. Like most parents, mine had put their faith in state schools,
In single-sex schools girls don’t see themselves through boys’ eyes, says Mary Wakefield I remember quite clearly the moment I first realised how very lucky I was to have been sent to a single-sex boarding school. It was the summer of 1989 and my friends, Becca, Ilona and I were all 13 and arm in
Co-education is now so much the norm, even in the independent sector, that those single-sex establishments which remain, especially boys-only schools, might be thought eccentric, old-fashioned or even wrong-headed. Independent schools have transformed themselves in this respect: a quarter of boys-only schools have gone co-ed in the past ten years, and there is — almost
Is there such a thing as ‘Boarding School Syndrome’? No, says Rachel Johnson A few months back, I gave a speech in Leeds to the Boarding Schools Association, in the course of which I spoke of the time I was sent to an all-boys prep school in another country days after my tenth birthday. ‘I
Most English independent schools, though not all, have their origins in Christian mission, Catholic or Protestant, and most maintain a compulsory element of religious instruction, both in the classroom and in the school chapel. It goes without saying that most things that form the basis of a school’s life are compulsory: attending classes, keeping fit,
There’s an art to filling in your UCAS form, and it doesn’t involve simply listing your after-school activities. Jamie Mathieson separates the bad from the good Applying to university is like moving house. You need to know what you want, you have to be realistic, and you have to get the paperwork right. It can
In Switzerland, declared Harry Lime in The Third Man, they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? The cuckoo clock. He would now surely have added the International Baccalaureate. There is no Swiss product which rates so highly with the British middle classes. Certainly not Nescafé,
The independent advantage starts early – frighteningly early, if you’re a parent, says Fraser Nelson Fifty per cent of children are of below-average intelligence, but try telling that obvious fact to their parents. Humans are programmed to find their offspring mesmerisingly delightful, and to consider them strikingly quick learners and budding geniuses. I know I
British education is in a state of flux and uncertainty. This summer’s A-level results have prompted concerns about the number of university places, as too many well-qualified applicants seek to get started in higher education before university fees rise next year. British education is in a state of flux and uncertainty. This summer’s A-level results
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Midway through my pruning session I realise I am cutting the wisteria up into really neat pieces. I mean, seriously neat. Each branch is carefully chopped into three and then placed in a garden waste bag. I do the same with the ceanothus until I have filled both my regulation green bags. Then I stand
‘Every job we do starts by listening to you.’ I stand staring at this sign for a long time as I queue at St George’s Hospital, Tooting. The waiting area of the X-ray unit is like the easyJet check-in zone at Gatwick when they’ve just cancelled a flight to Alicante. No, that’s not right. It’s