To think this 'Austerity Day' is one of the most patronising things I've ever seen?

[NoHunsHereHun]

St Paul's Girls school having to eat baked potatoes and fresh fruit for lunch. For a day. I mean FFS, there are SO many better ways to help. Volunteering at a food bank for one.
www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-44578499

spgs.org/academic/university-destinations/

I just checked - last year 20 to Ox, 21 to Cam, 21 to the US and 50 elsewhere (just totted the 'others' up quickly in my head, might be a couple out). Anyhow, I was much nearer in my earlier guess than the 100 mooted.

I think NLCS and St P is usually about a third to Oxbridge from memory althoug most would go to good universities as with other simialrly academically selective schools in the state sector too like Henrietta B.

Its the US applications that need the strong Extra-Curricular on top of first rate academics, so the ones we mainly came across. These kids had astonishing schedules, with music and sport and community activity on top of turoing and school work.

In fairness what appeared like a strange cliquishness where they tended only to acknowledge each, and to ignore those outside their circle, may simply have been a survival mechanism. Its tough being a Renaissance kid, so you simply close down and get on with it. That said I remember the shock of one Kensington banker's wife on discovering SPGS actually admitted girls from state schools, rather than simly from the "right" preps. She was clearly appalled. An austerity lunch may be crass, but it is at last a start.

Highly selective schools seem not to be able to avoid becoming echo chambers of status-reaffirming messages, albeit with a wide range of possible superior status. My experience of Paulinas is that they constantly have to excel and be seen to excel (even, as one Paulina told me in all seriousness, as the “inspiration and muse” for what was very much her DH’s business). This is very tiring!

I think you are right, Need, that there is a certain sort of survival mechanism that shuts out different lifestyles and opinions in order to carry on with what is an extremely demanding way of being in the world.

Not sure

Woops...what I meant to say was...

Not sure about St Pauls but my DH went to an equally posh school and can't look at jacket potatoes because he ate so many of them when he was boarding.

I love that someone describes themselves as being the ‘aspiration and muse’ of their dh’s business. As my Dc would say, that’s comedy gold

Anyone else cringing at ‘Paulina’? There’s a bit of a London bubble here, far from coming across ‘so many’ Paulinas, I’ve never heard of this school except referred to occasionally on MN, and had no idea it was supposedly so amazing until it expected to be applauded for its jacket potato meal. I expect I have this in common with most people in the rest of the UK.

I had never heard of the school or "Paulinas' before this thread either!

Paulina is the same as Etonian or Harrovian.. Just what they call themselves.

Bertram, yes, but it is also in the heart of seriously affluent West London with a serious academic blue-stocking tradition.

It uised to be where establishment London sent their DDs. Carol Thatcher, Rachel Johnson, Victoria Coren, Stephanie Flanders, Thomasina Miles etc, but has increasingly become the go-to school for London's very sucessful expartiate community.

Its an odd one. I know several Paulinas who have opted not to send their bright DDs there preferring the more straightforward approach of Putney High or Latymer Upper. My understanding is that the nearby G&L deliberately adopts a more caring/nurturing approach so as to provide a useful alternative. SPGS does seem to have a tough culture, and I have a good friend who was quite damaged by her time there. And as user1499173618 suggests, academic excellence is one thing, but not everything. The combination of the existing culture with parents used to a "class placement" approach to University entry, which brings with it a need to compete with classmates, appears to present a whole raft of additional problems.

Boys from the boys-school are called Paulines.

“Expected to be applauded for its jacket potato meal” 😂😂😂

That’s exactly it - Paulinas, IME, expect to be applauded for everything. I once took a new colleague out to lunch on her first day and she managed to tell me how she had had an affair the previous year but had cleverly managed to keep her husband. And then showed me her slim thighs. I was supposed to applaud those too.

SPGS is so 'posh' there is no school uniform ! However, there is a strict uniform code meaning every girl has to turn up in either 'chanel' or Boden the better value option.

Paulina is the same as Etonian or Harrovian.. Just what they call themselves

I may have a comprehensive education, but I had deduced that!

THE TUTOR SYSTEM
FOOD
MEDICAL
PSHE PROGRAMME
PEER SUPPORT
Food
Everyone knows teenage girls can be picky eaters, so we try to give them lots of choice. We regard the enjoyment of good and healthy food as a priority and lunch at St Paul’s is a real highlight of the day.

We’re committed to a healthy and substantial food culture and all our catering takes place in-house so we know what’s going on to our plates. Our extensive lunchtime menu offers several hot options from roasts to international dishes, a salad selection, hot and cold desserts and masses of fresh fruit. Before school, we run a great value breakfast bar serving up cooked and continental breakfasts, juice and porridge. You can even watch some of your meals being prepared in front of you.

Feeding up to 900 hungry students and staff is quite an undertaking – and in an average week we use 2,000 eggs, cook 280kg of fresh meat and 95kg of fresh fish, together with 315kg of potatoes, noodles and rice. We top all this off every week with a healthy 600kg of fresh fruit. Taking responsibility for our own catering allows us to meet any special dietary needs and operate a seasonal, flexible purchasing policy, seeking an ethical approach wherever we can.

It reads like an advertisement for a five star hotel !

I don't agree with most of this. I have never heard anyone who went to St Paul's going on about it ever in ove r50 years. I have never met anyone there who expects to be applauded for charity work. most charity work is something private people do. If people don'tw ant to send their children there that's fine but the criticism of what is a very good school just seems a bit unfair to me although I suppose if it puts off some people applying that will make things easier for those competing for places!

You are talking rubbish, letstalk2000. However this entire thread is pretty much an exercise in not letting the facts get in the way of a good bitch so I guess you are not alone.

As for the 'strange cliquishness', you may like to remember that a lot of Paulinas face the types of ungenerous and downright inaccurate comments on this thread in person from the age of 11 so it is quite possible they are just avoiding more of the same.

Well said, Xenia.

I am betting the girls who were not up to getting into the UK's best universities were shipped off to America. 'US Universities' hides a multitude of sins!

I've heard lots of people who went to public schools, including St Paul's going on about it years later.

Xenia, the school put out publicity for this, they obviously expected plaudits for it,

Opopanax really, when DD got a place at Westminster, the immediate reaction from some of the SPGS girls she knew was "you only got in because Westminster is not nearly as academic." (Others were more generous!) Needing to be the best was seriously engrained.

Xenia, charity is an odd one. For Americans it is tax deductable and is something you highlight. For example it was a matter of pride to be considered rich enough to be invited to a private dinner with the SPGS head to be tapped for money for the bursary fund. Certainly not something you would keep quiet about. Fundraising in West London schools is serious business and can take quite an unbritish approach. Seriously expensive tables at unadvertised fundraising dinners including mega-bucks auctions. I understand that the SPGS Christmas fair is also quite something.

How is quoting from the school's own website talking rubbish?

Lala-land not so. Harvard, Stamford, MIT etc are far more over subscribed than Oxbridge, and generally have stronger international aademic reputations. Getting a place can be like a military operation. SAT practice starts years in advance, as does collecting material for a PS. UCAS is a breeze in comparison.