To think that Eton is being a bit cynical in offering to share some of its sports facilities with the local state academy?

[Shinyshoegirl]

Today's paper reports that Eton is offering free use of some of its 27 cricket pitches and its Olympic standard rowing lake to a local state school. Surely if they were really concerned about helping educational achievement for all they might consider sharing some of their teaching resources instead? I've nothing against cricket and rowing, but it seems like a token gesture towards their charitable responsibilities. Or am I being unreasonably cynical?

To be fair lots of private schools did this well before the new rules came out.

I thought all private schools had to have charitable status under some old laws?

Bastards eh? Having nice things and sharing them, you just can't trust some people...

It's obviously very kind and altruistic of them, then. And there is absolutely no need to suggest that there is a good reason for keeping this "sharing" to the extra-curricular facilities and to outside school hours. In fact, I confidently expect them to start sharing some of their teaching, school classroom resources, staff etc...

Maybe we could take this a stage further and share everything? Including the children? To the point where we do away with the divisions between certain types of schools altogether? That would be nice... wouldn't it??

What's that? No?... Ah. As you were, then.

UQD Eton do a very generous scholarship/bursary scheme for state school boys. They pay for everything for the boys who succeed, including the prep school from age 11 to 13.

Crumbs from the table.

OP i think yabu- its a nice thing Eton are doing

Sounds like a nice idea. At my school sport consisted of waiting for a bat at cricket, waiting for your turn at netball. Or running round the school grounds! Ooooh cold. lol.

Might be nice for the kids to try some new stuff, not like every local school can have its own lake installed is it?

I think maybe this was a bad example of a good point, eg difference of standards between private and state education. Some colleges do rent out high tech science labs to schools without, so is sometimes academic, not always sports related.

OK, I'm being a bit cynical - not really suggesting that their motives aren't well-intentioned.

But also trying to ask wider questions about what it implies. Because what it says to me is "yes, we're prepared to share what we have got, up to a point." Someone has obviously drawn a very clear line as to where this point should end.

Schools like Eton don't need to protect their charitable status. The extra fees that would need to be levied to make the difference are nominal to the parents who pay.
If they do somehting like this it's because they want to. And why not. It's a nice gesture, no?
I'm sure many of us do the same. We offer something small - a few hours of time, a small amount of money. We don't dedicate our lives and income to it but it adds up and makes a difference to some lives.
But some will always choose to see it as not enough.
Hey ho.

That's the problem with having a two-tier system unquietdad, in my humble opinion when you have that system those at the top will always defend what they have and try to keep it to themselves lest they lose it altogether.

I'd say it's human nature, not sharing, survival etc, but I'd like to think better of humans.

Our local private school shares its sports facilities with the local community, at a cost. I find it hard to see how schools can justify their charitable status when they don't do anything remotely charitable.

UQD we all draw lines.
We provide respite foster care. We've drawn a line because we could provide permenat foster care or adopt. But we don't. Why not? We don't want to. Simples.

Similarly, I always give a % of my royalties to charity. I could give it all away, I suppose. But I don't want to. I've drawn a line.

Why do they have charitable status?

UQD, there are always going to be limits on sharing anything. You could just as easily say that outstanding state schools should share their teaching resources, sponsorship etc with the local sink comp. That does happen to a certain extent in our area but again the line is drawn very clearly in the sand and the parents at the good school would be just as upset as the parents of Etonians if students from the other school suddenly started popping up in their dc's classes, using hte IT facilities etc.

And where are my italics?!

I know that private schools have to do this now, to maintain charitable status, but I've taught in state schools for 12 years now (minus a bit of maternity leave) and have never come across a private school that WON'T share. The most recent school I was Head of Drama in used to borrow (yes borrow, not hire) costumes and props from a local private school's enormous stock (was when I discovered the school actually EMPLOYED a full time wardrobe mistress) for school productions, and I have previously worked on county-wide drama projects using state school students but making use of private school facilities. I really don't know why you have such a problem with it OP.

My local public school gives art and music lessons to Yr 6 of our primary school and they let the primary school use their pool.

Dd (and the rest of Yr 6) even received a new, excellent quality recorder from them.

How very dare they!

Sorry, don't know how to do a link to the article, I'm afraid. It was in the Independent yesterday.

I do think it's great that they are sharing their facilities, but when I read that they have a total of 27 cricket pitches, it doesn't seem like this is such a major gesture!

I'd be far more impressed to read that they are offering the local state schools the occasional opportunity to share some of the educational offering as well, and NOT because I think their teachers are better, but simply because Eton offers a wider range of subjects. I'm pretty sure I've read of some private schools getting together with local state schools to offer opportunities which are not otherwise available, like the chance to try some Latin, for example, or additional modern language options. Or could they invite local schools along to hear some of the brilliant speakers that a school like Eton can regularly attract? Maybe they do all of this anyway, in which case I am chastened and will give up my unreasonable and cynical carping

Shinyshoegirl - the thing is though Eton do pay groundsmen to keep those pitches.

Those groundsmen are paid for by current parents. The grounds are part of the charitable foundation so fair enough to share them but Eton parents are are also paying for 100% of the staff resource that keeps the pithes in good condition that the state school is enjoying free as well as payng taxes that fund the state school.

Also might we ask why the state school has no pitches. Too many pitches were seized and sold off by local councils so the carping about resources is a tad unfair. Where a state school had pitches that were taken away by local councils and sold off to developers at a huge profit that is definitley not the fault of Eton.

IME Eton College is generous when it comes to the local community, and not in a 'lady bountiful' way either. The staff I have had dealings with are very straightforward types.

is this the article?

I think the OP's point is a reasonable one. The sharing of facilities is all very nice, but I'm willing to bet the parents of the Eton students would kick off if the oiks ended up in class with them.

A significant, if not the only point of private education, is purchasing a social milieu for your child. I doubt if the teaching skills are any better; it's not as if they can train to be a teacher in "special" colleges, though I'd accept that subject knowledge could well be better as they can insist on higher level degrees.

As for the charitable status, it should be removed from all private schools, and they should be completely private.

Yep, that's the article FritesMenthe!

What MollieO said. Eton offer full bursaries for pupils applying from state schools. Anyone can apply. And they do.

(Whether you want the likes of the Windsors, Dave C or Boris as your NBFs is another matter though.)

I wonder what 'joint specialisms' are? Lots of state schools offer cricket and rowing. Langley isn't the only state school to use the rowing lake, for the reasons I've already stated. I do assume they are the only ones to be offered use of Eton's cricket pitches though.

Langley Academy comes from the ashes of Langleywood - a seriously failing school that was closed down. I assume it is in the government's interest to see it succeed as a new academy hence all these 'partnerships'.

Actually not enough state boys apply for the scholarship at Eton and some years they don't award the total number available.