Tatler on state schools

[SpeedData]

Have you seen this

I'm wondering what the point of it is, but the fact that it exists is interesting.

[DrNick]

the one they mention near to me is unremarkable - ofsted oustanding but unremarkable

[DrNick]

Plus check out the typo in the sub headline

[SpeedData]

Oh yes, hadn't noticed that!

But what is the purpose of a national list of so few schools? Who does it help?

[DrNick]

they sell magazines?

[SpeedData]

Yes... But I guess they must think their readership is interested for a reason?

[MrsSteptoe]

My guess - and I don't work in magazine publishing, so I can't be sure - but my guess is that they decided it would bring in a load of advertising revenue if they planned a magazine that contained an article encouraging state schools because it was obviously going to get attention being Tatler and all.

[MrsSteptoe]

Also, Tatler's readership is going to tend to live in areas where the state schools are better - Holland Park Comprehensive, anyone?

[nibs777]

hmmm.....is it supposed to boost house prices in proximity to those schools or church attendance?

"And get to know the all-powerful, very charming vicar, Father Gillean - he enjoys a good dinner party, we hear."

So are Tatler types going to be plaguing the man with dinner invitations then....? What does that suggest about getting into a tax payer funded state school?

There are no real facts - the entries like the private ones appear more like something written by a PR guru and I think a lot of schmoozing going on to get mentions...not the best way to choose a school at all.

[SpeedData]

So we're about to be invaded by Tatler readers? sigh there goes the neighbourhood...

[nibs777]

i mean who writes this rubbish...aaargh..

We're informed that Downton has a delightful school-gate crowd of 'super supermums'.....

[nibs777]

what is a delightful "super super-mum" btw?

How would you know this creature if you met her at the school-gate?

[MrsSteptoe]

there goes the neighbourhood...

[JugglingIntoANewYear]

I wonder if they're doing secondaries next month - and if ours will be in it?
Seems slightly odd to have quite so few - I'm sure there are lots of other nice and good schools out there!

[DrNick]

Imagine if you're father gilean and you're in there. Of the Staff. Professionally HOW embarassing.

[sailorsgal]

We are moving into the catchment of one of these schools but not worth moving ds just for a year.

[Shootingatpigeons]

If you are an upmarket magazine and want to gain lots of exposure then give a measly page over to your "guide to state schools" and cover a random selection in a few pockets of affluence with a bit of networking with the chattering classes, and thereby

a. get column inches in the rest of the press
b. get to come up every time an anxious parent googles "guide to state school". You get similar mentions if you google private schools, or even your Breast Surgeon
c. get some mumsnet posts, even a whole thread

[MrsSteptoe]

^^ Exactly, shooting.
and d. sell a load of advertising on the back of said one measly page.

[SpeedData]

Touché, shooting

[nibs777]

Exactly my thoughts on reading that, DrNick....

[soul2000]

Lets have a guess at the senior schools next month: Chelmsford County High/Tonbridge Grammar Reading School/ Tiffin Boys, and a token school from OOP NORTH.

You can bet they will just look at FSM and exam results ( Or by no of Two car families) . It will be very lazy journalism and pathetic.

Tatler doing its Marie Antoinette impression of playing "Peasants"....

.. Next month in Tatler " COULD YOU SURVIVE ON INCOME SUPPORT".

[Shootingatpigeons]

Soul You give away a shameful lack of cultural capital Tatler would even discuss a school in Essex? Nope, I gather it is Dame Alice Owens (for the Islington Tatlerati) and St Mary's Marylebone. It's not how good the school is, it is how exclusive the enclave it serves is.........

[MillyMollyMama]

I thought the article was aimed at impoverished Tatler types who have just a bit too much tied up in property to get a bursary! They are just providing them with a soft landing if they have problems with the fees for the next generation. These types of schools are completely off limits normally! They obviously have a few journos with friends who have a bit less money than the norm so they have been encouraged to spin them a yarn about each school. A bit of fun really! Definitely not serious journalism.

They did cover my DDs school fashion show in their Bystander section with a great pix of her creation so I am not totally against them!

[olivevoir58]

Really surprised St Mary Abbotts got a mention and Fox didn't...

[DrNick]

We don't really care..

[TheBuskersDog]

This the full list including secondaries:

Honeywell Junior School, London;St Mary Abbots School, London;Coleridge Primary School, London;Bentley C of E Primary School, Surrey;Meysey Hampton Primary School, Gloucestershire; Whissendine C of E Primary School, Rutland;Sciennes Primary School, Edinburgh;Downton C of E Primary School, Wiltshire;Piddle Valley First School, Dorset; Marton-Cum-Grafton Primary School, North Yorks;Holland Park School, London;West London Free School, London;Tiffin School, Surrey;Henrietta Barnett School, London;St Marylebone C of E School, London;Cherwell School, Oxford;Cranbrook School, Kent; Peter Symonds Sixth-Form College, Hampshire;Bourne Grammar, Lincolnshire;Robert May’s School, Hampshire;Dame Alice Owen’s School, Hertfordshire; Sir William Borlase’s Grammar School, Bucks; Hills Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge; Wymondham College, Norfolk; Colyton Grammar Devon; Gillingham School, Dorset; Bishop Wordsworth’s School, Wiltshire; St John’s Marlborough, Wiltshire; Ermysted’s Grammar School, North Yorks; North Berwick High School, East Lothian