Worried about Private school

I'd love to know where it is too, if it actually exists. If it is true then it is pretty sad that the OP is even considering the school for her ds after what the head allegedly wrote.

When ds was awarded his scholarship it was due to his talent but I think there was an element to do with his personality. However that is because you have to be a certain type of child to cope with the demands of his position.

I know, it's Malory Towers!

don't go there!

It won't be a London school - none of the 'door opening' ones there have a demographic as described. Unless perhaps it's a Jewish school.

It doesn't really matter where the school is, though, or even if it is exactly as described. We don't know DC's views, but OP sounds really unhappy with it. Time to exercise the fall back option, and be glad you had a firm view before deposits etc became payable.

Very good private secondary of the sort that will "open doors" and stand out on a CV, but simultaneously is questionably financially viable? And has a racist, snobbish power crazed loon for a head?

Nah. Madey-uppy. Well apart possibly the head bit - we are talking about the 1950s. Nowadays head teachers might still be all of that but they know not to show it!

Also, just in case, this is not wishful thinking / a figment of the OPs imagination (I do know of some ridiculously white schools in the further reaches of London) OP should not consider any school where there is any question over viability. Schools have left pupils stranded in their first year of GSCE when they have gone out of business, and this sounds like a marketing strategy headed that way

Dont waste your time bieng baffled Books their is no such a school/city in the UK only in the OP's imagination!
Oh well its livened up a dull Saturday evening.

Not in the least, Felicity. I work in one, my kids go to another, and by virtue of my job I come into contact with many, many senior leadership team (heads, bursars and deputies) members and governors. I could list all the inconsistencies and question marks but honestly I CBA. I expect this thread will go poof at some point, or at least a whole bunch of us (including me) will get deleted.

Oh well.

Am also baffled as to where the all white school might be. I live in one of the 'whitest' counties in the country but there are definitely more black and Asian children at both ds's private school and the grammar I work in that in the county as a whole (percentages, obviously, not absolute figures).

Just out of interest does this experience tally with anyone else's on the thread?

What's your objection to single sex education, OP?

I am all for it, not because boys and girls learn in different ways, or have different inherent abilities but because I believe it allows the different sexes to be themselves, with less concern about whether what they want to do is appropriate for their gender.

So, for example, girls don't feel that maths is not for them, because all of the bright maths students are girls. And boys get to dress up in feminine clothes for the school plays etc, and sing and play music, and not be concerned about that being "sissy".

captain dont forget it has a "tried and tested method of producing leaders" maybe its scout leaders they're producing?

I think the clue is in that it had to go coed because no one was sending their child there... Sounds horrendous, run a mile

Don't get seduced by the whole networking thing, I remember an Ampleforth boy back in the 80s couldn't understand why he hadn't walked into a city job on the back of the old school tie, plenty of his ilk propping up bars wondering why they haven't made it.

All white? Most good indies falling over themselves to prove they are inclusive. DD and her friends became totally fed up because all pictures of school trips etc. were of their group, since they were Chinese, Indian, African and a red head ..............

happy- doubt a public school, as it's obviously a day school from her comments...

exexpat- I realise that, I'm funning, sorry.

Maybe it's Whyteleaf? Or The Chalet School? (did they ever go co-ed?)

Not a major public school if it exists outside of the OP's imagination as her DS is going at 11 all major public schools producing leaders take at 13.

Abroad? Expat you could be right about the space time continum; South Africa 40 - 50 years ago or as already said the moon!

This is a load of cods wallop.

No head would write such a statement. Neither would any school offer a scholarship, even if only 25%, unless they really wanted the child. The competition today is too fierce.

When (if the letter is as you state) they talk about fitting in, are you sure that they mean your DS? Or have you proved so troublesome already that they are really meaning you and your attitude are making their decision to award a scholarship untenable? Is that why they talk about their "tried and tested" formula? Have you questioned/ interfered so much that they feel your attitude will be detrimental to your child's progress?

Sorry. That's how it reads to me (or total rubbish). If you are so concerned, and i would be if this was true, however, this is not my experience of major public schools AT ALL, send your DS state and hope he is so "heads and shoulders above the rest" that the cream naturally rises to the top and that he becomes the next Genius millionaire playboy.

Your school drops off your CV fairly quickly, or should do, once university and a few years of work fill it to the point where you are struggling to cut it down to a couple of pages. Living in fear of your scholarship being removed can't be fun.

The Cambridge school you mention is not all-white either (girls or boys). Nor are any of the private schools in Bath that I can think of.

With the all-white, leadership-inducing ethos and not wanting pupils who are not the right 'type', I think perhaps the OP has been reading too much fiction gone through some kind of hole in the space-time continuum and been offered a place in a British public school circa 1900. But then the co-ed thing wouldn't fit. Tricky...

"tried and tested methods of producing leaders"
Leaders of what? You've said its small school and is going coed for financial reasons so it doesn't sound like a big name producing prime minister ets. So what sort of leaders is it producing?
IMO this is not real.

According to the ONS in Bath just under 10% are non British white in Cambridge its just under 9%.

"the offer was conditional on DC's personality conforming to fit the schools tried and tested methods of producing leaders"

I would need to talk to the head about this in order to find out what exactly your ds would be facing. I am afraid it doesn't sound to me like a nurturing environment and I wonder if he will be happy there if his personality is to be repressed. What exactly is it about your ds' personality that the school is so concerned about?

And p e r s e school is co-ed now... [stirs]

Cambridge seems very white to me (I visit frequently)... but I live in an area with v high diversity.