Harrow School - a diluted global brand?

[Mrspepperpot1979]

Our DS has been offered a place at Harrow, which of course is wonderful – it’s a school with an extraordinary heritage. However, we're beginning to wonder whether Harrow, perhaps more than any other UK public school, has now evolved into something quite different from what made it so unique.

One concern is the sheer scale of Harrow’s international cohort - particularly the large number of pupils from China. While cultural diversity is something to be celebrated, it feels as though the balance may have shifted too far. When comparing Harrow with schools like Eton or Radley (both of which have made a point of avoiding overseas franchises), the contrast is quite stark.

Harrow has opened a significant number of international schools abroad over the last few years - notably in China – and continues to expand in this direction. While one can appreciate the commercial rationale, one can’t help but question what this says about the school’s strategic focus. Has the essence of what Harrow was – a quintessentially British boarding school experience – been changed for the worse or better as a result?

A number of the traditions certainly remain: the Harrow Songs, Bill, the distinctive dress, Long Ducker etc. But if the pupil body is so heavily international and the school’s global brand is now arguably its driving force, are families still getting the same experience that once made Harrow unique?

I’d really value hearing from others – whether you have current boys there, or considered it but chose differently. How does this international cohort impact the school culture, does it cause division? Through, for example, a lack of cultural reference points and different cultural sporting interests - i.e Rugby and cricket.

Do others share these concerns, or do you see this evolution as a positive step for a 21st-century institution?

Mrs. P. My whole family are professional musicians and I can’t speak about Radley’s music dept but Tonbridge isn’t great. Good luck in your search for a great school for music, academia and sport. Your attitude won’t get you liked in the circles of good schools

Where did your DH go to school @Mrspepperpot1979

That usually solves it for most people, if there are some ties there already.

The alumni of Harrow and Eton still far more impressive than the others, I am afraid.

DH was at Harrow so we know it well, hence the post.

All I have heard and my kids aren’t at this school (could never afford it!) is that the current headmaster is one of the very best in the top private school sector. So if a few Harrovian alumni are rebelling against the direction of the school, but it’s doing well financially and academically, then I would put my critical thinking cap on, especially if you are creatives! Perhaps your DH is being influenced? It’s a rhetorical question btw.

The reason I said that @Mrspepperpot1979 is because I remember that the old Etonian alumni network also seemed all outraged some years back when they did away with registration at birth and introduced quite rigorous academic tests. And now the school seems fine and doing well, both academically and financially, although I guess they focussed on expanding their endowment rather than overseas franchises. The current situation with private schools is that they have a Government trying to destroy them and there is massive political risk to the sector so if a school has been going a certain direction and the head is known to be good, someone less invested just assumes there is a reason for that and it may well turn out to be a good decision long term.

@Araminta1003 Eton spent their money not in for-profit overseas franchises but on founding a new state school (Holyport) and four new state sixth form colleges in England.

@ItalianWays - I just assumed the Harrow overseas franchises are used to make money for the school here and bursaries etc here? A bit like Brighton College?
Eton has a huge endowment fund into the hundreds of millions that seems to have been well managed on top of that (presumably by old Etonian hedge fund managers thrown into the mix?) They can then use the income from all that money on bursaries and outreach and state schools.
Most schools can only dream of having an endowment fund as large as Eton.

I obviously have zero idea as to what financial products these endowments are invested in as it will presumably all be confidential and in trust.
But would it not be absurd that one school could in theory invest millions into US tech stocks and make a killing to be used towards bursaries and UK state schools and that is OK, but another school who invested in education overseas to raise funds, that is supposedly morally reprehensible and has alumni running for the hills as it is so naff and nouveau riche?

@Araminta1003 I think you are getting over excited and putting words into other people’s mouths.

I said that rather than starting an overseas franchise, Eton had instead focused on starting state schools and colleges here in the UK. One makes money, the other one costs (a lot of) money.

No moral judgement - that was all you.

Well, I went up to Harrow yesterday with my son for a tour, and having followed this whole discussion with rather keen interest, I was most curious to see how my own impressions would compare. I must say, what I actually encountered was quite at odds with the picture painted by the OP. To my eyes, Harrow appeared very much a traditional British boarding school—with, yes, a sprinkling of international pupils, but nothing remotely approaching what was described. In fact, the account given here bears so little resemblance to reality that I honestly struggle to reconcile the two.

One (imprecise) way of identifying the quantum of non-UK cohort is to see what percentage of pupils have English as an Additional Language (EAL)

I say imprecise because a boy could have English as his only language yet never have set foot in the UK until he arrived at Harrow. Further, someone born and bred in the UK may have English as second language.

Another caveat is the most recent ISI reports are all from different years and many are outdated.

Nevertheless, I’ve had a look at the figures and it is interesting.

Using EAL as a proxy for non-UK cohort, you can see Harrow is by far the most foreign orientated and Eton is the least. They are are two ends of the spectrum.

Harrow and Winchester have the two highest proportion of EAL. Radley and Eton, the two lowest. Tonbridge is in the middle.

Harrow has about 2.75x the EAL of Radley and 4.5x of Eton

Harrow even has 1.6x more EAL than second placed Winchester.

Full results:

Harrow (2019)

226 EAL/831 pupils = 27%

Winchester (2024)

122/714 = 17%

Tonbridge (2021) = 12.8%

103/800

Radley (2023)

75/762 = 9.8%

Eton (2019)

76/1319 = 5.8%

SilverPine37. I fully agree

Hello MrsHLQ,

I agree with the ISI numbers for Radley and Winchester. However, if you don't mind me saying, I think the ISI website is now a bit more up to date and for:

• Harrow it is 167 pupils or 20% [per Harrow's 2024 ISI report]; and
• for Eton it is... five pupils or or 0.3% [per Eton's 2024 ISI report].

That Eton would report of five makes me think there is something amiss with the ISI's reporting... Nonetheless it was interesting to point to the ISI as I had not thought about that. Thank you.

Thank you

That Eton number sounds iffy.

In 2019 they had 76 EAL and the report says that 5 years later there are just 5 EAL. Very odd.

Meanwhile, Eton’s special educational needs cohort was 91 in 2019 but a whopping 375 in 2024. A massive increase.

I am wondering how accurate these figures for Eton are, as the movements are very significant in a short space of time.

@MrsHLQ

The SEN number doesn’t surprise me. It’s more common now at some schools for boys to have been diagnosed ADHD than not. Although, interestingly much more common among the Brits than internationals.

We have been very happy with Harrow. The school has an extraordinary spirit and has been a wonderful experience for our son.

Harrow have posted a year group photo for the incoming Year 9 students on their instagram page and the cohort is appears to be exceptionally diverse

We were harrow parents for 7 years until recently. A couple of comments:

—The number of British boys is remarkably low, in our house was around 30-40%. Quite typical. Having a postal address in Kensington does not make you a British family and it completely changes the dynamic.

—Parental support for “stuff” is a great indicator of the type (& location) of families. We came from a prep in Oxfordshire where parents really got stuck in. Imagine our surprise at Harrow when we were often the only family watching our boys play sport (hasten to add, they were not 1st team gladiators but 2/3rds). This permeates to other aspects too, such as social events and parent led activities. However, Long Ducker “gofundme page” you’ll see plenty of individual donations running of £1k+ from Zhou, Qis, Yings etc.

—the sense of (public) service and leadership has really diluted as a result of this diversity. My take: community service, CCF, DofE etc is “what the aspiration lower-middle classes do” and not really the sport of the global elite - our sons both thought, as a result of peer pressure and casual comments from house staff, that these activities were deeply unfashionable.

—some great school leadership, however it seems that they are under constant pressure from “the board” to make the books balance. The HM it seems is constantly swimming against the tide to keep the school traditional.

—Bullying issues taken very seriously indeed. Likewise broader misconduct, zero tolerance for any serious incidents.

-given the global diversity, this has affected the “networking” that harrovians were famous for. Our eldest, just stating a Masters, has only remained in close contact with his UK/european school mates. Most of the overseas boys appear to have disappeared to USA or elsewhere or are generally incommunicado. Don’t expect that 30-40% of PRC prodigies to be offering any opportunities to the next generation of Harrovians…

Excellent post, an unabridged insight from a recent Harrow parent which again highlights the impact that an imbalance of UK vs Intl pupils has on the pupils and parents. Its sad to see for such a wonderful institution.

But why are you blaming the school for the fact that plenty of British parents simply cannot afford a 65k a year education, especially if they stay here and get taxed here? I mean if they move aboard to a tax haven then possibly more could actually afford it.

Very fair point.

Based purely on a photograph of the new Year 9 at Harrow I has guessed 20% to 25% Anglo Saxon boys.

So I am not surprised to hear your estimation of only 30% of boys in the house were British.

the lack of networking is a good point

Harrow traditionally had a very strong life long network. But agreed, if most boys disappear off abroad never to be seen again it’s hardly a network that one can leverage is it

To put it simply, some think it’s sad to have that many international students.
Okay…
I think the international students would be relieved that parents who hold this belief won’t send their kids to the school.

International students are very welcome

I think the concern here is that if 70%+ of students in any year group are international then it becomes a negative

• factions based on language/background
• harder to bond in house
• traditional British team sports like rugby suffer
• post school network evaporates
• apparently even CCF and Duke of Edinburgh is suffering

despite what an earlier poster said there are enough people in UK that can afford £65k per annum fees

Radley and Eton have stayed much more British

this is clearly a strategic by Harrow.

however it will get to a point where for some Asian families the school isn’t British enough. I hear that happened at Roedean

There are indeed many UK families who CAN afford 65K pa for an education. But the numbers are dwindling. And many are London based which means they have a lot of choices.

AND fashions are changing:
-There is a move away from “elitism”
-There is a big move towards co-ed especially for boys. (Will be interesting to see where Prince George ends up)
-There is a move towards, at very least, a more flexible boarding model. (Thinking on this can be quite confused - parents want the full range of weekend activities but at the same time they want to see their children more than once every three weeks.
-Some families will now only consider weekly boarding.
-Some families have stepped back from boarding altogether - why go to Harrow if you can get a place at Westminster?
-Where parents do want single sex boys near London they usually want Eton rather than Harrow.

All of these factors undermine Harrow’s appeal to British families. I would be interested to know what people see as Harrow’s USPs for British families.