Tatler on state schools

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Have you seen this

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

well a selective school is very likely to be in it

unexciting tatler

There's a primary school called 'Piddle Valley'? :o Maybe in Reception...

There's a primary school called 'Piddle Valley'? :o Maybe in Reception...

So funny I posted it twice

Piddle Valley school is on the Piddletrenthide / Piddlehinton road near Puddletown.
lovely area.
Would love to live there.

I find it funny that they picked out Bentley school - that has the fastest bypass in the UK

pleased that they have spotted my local 6th form - about twenty years after the rest of the world did

and amusing that many of the secondaries are ones that hire DH - buffs nails.

There must be some reason for having such a useless uninformative article, and I guess Shooting has nailed it.

I wonder if they will be as blasé about the entry requirements for the super-selectives named which hugely outperform the posh public schools, and for which your TatlerSprogs will have to be super bright?

I am surprised that Pates, The London Oratory, Camden Girls School and Tiffin Girls are not on the list.

Obviously no Tatler journalists, friends and families have kids there.

And after all, there is no reference to the actual effectiveness of the education on offer at any of the schools.

The wonder is that people can be persuaded to part with money to read such drivel!

The list is random rubbish.

Personally as a Holland Park school parent I would not put it on the list - school is ok but largely hype over substance - no doubt the vain head is rubbing his hands in glee. St. Mary Abbotts is only on there because of Cameron's and Gove's kids going there. Fox, Bousfield etc are far superior.

By the way very few Holland Park locals go to Holland Park School - mostly people in social housing in north Kensington - like me! Isn't the Wandsworth school the one that excluded the council estate from the catchment area?

So the top three ranking state secondary state schools in the country by % who get into Oxbridge - Queen Elizabeth Barnet, Colchester Royal Grammar and Reading School are not mentioned .... .........nor do most of the others in the top ten by Oxbridge % - e.g. Tiffin Girls, St Olave's, Pates .....strange.....

nibs777
yah but for the gels getting a yummy placement at Sotheby's before marrying an Earl they are just U

I think the W London Free school tried to gerrymander it's catchment, but may be wrong.

Charter in Southwark tried to claim an estate wasn't in catchment because they disallowed a popular pedestrian path.

Honeywell effectively selects on house prices anyway.

Which the article doesn't mention.

Honeywell is, surprisingly enough, quite near a fair bit of affordable housing here and there secretly dotted amongst the posh pads.

Anyway, this article, and the introduction of Free Schools etc, have all come about because those independently educated people who expected to be able to send their kids to private schools are in many cases no longer to afford to do so. So they thought they would cherry pick state funding and institutions to create little enclaves for their offspring. This went on before but the effect has been multiplied.

It's all wrapped up in a rhetoric of school reform, inclusion and opportunity, but really this is a story of private schools borrowing too much money to build fancy facilities, encouraged by banks and naive governors, and ending up struggling to repay their debts in the face of falling roles. Also rising teacher salaries making fees increasingly unaffordable.

"So they thought they would cherry pick state funding and institutions to create little enclaves for their offspring. This went on before but the effect has been multiplied. "

This, this and thrice this.

And designating Tatler-approved schools will further enclave the schools deemed desirable in a self-perpetuating polarisation of what they call the 'fee-free system'.

I love the way they replicate the matey 'oh what a character' descriptions of Heads and staff, as if parents can choose based on an interview over sherry.

I think in reality the Tatler reading parents wouldn't touch those schools with a barge pole! DD2 attends one of the schools on the list - she has some rather affluent friends through her out of school activities - I remember one Mum - actually foreign (English speaking country) physically recoiling when I told her which school DD went to.

Once I walked behind DD and a few friends when she was in year 7 while they walked the leafy streets of Holland Park on their way home. I was surprised to see people crossing the road to avoid them or clutching their handbags fearfully - it was bizarre!

I suppose these schools must have a certain catchment type - Honeywell parents spent £11,000 on Abel and Cole boxes as part of their school fundraising in 2012 for example (info on charity commission website). Camden Girls fsm rate much too high to make the list!

It's about finding "people like us" amongst the parents.

Tatlerish doesn't equate to either rich or clever. But it does sell to those aspiring to be a particular kind of socially sound.

Then again some of the included schools like Tiffin Boys is open selection so no catchment type...I think children come from far and wide....including Slough and Langley....

Someone in the Tatler office probably knows a boy at Tiffin - or they added a few grammar schools for good measure - I doubt it's very well researched.

Just remembered - Tiffin Boys has a resident opera company at the school - that must be the attraction!

Actually (sorry can't resist a marketing case study) the vast majority of Tatler readers are not parents, 21% are 15-24 and 49% are over 45 (I am guessing from the low number of 25-44s mostly towards the older end of 45 +, probably reading it in the waiting room of their Harley Street Consultant as they stave off death). digital-assets.condenast.co.uk.s3.amazonaws.com/static/condenast/Tatler-Mediapack-20142.pdf They bring out these keepsake editions, two a year for teens (I am imagining the gals in the dorms lusting over the bodies of the posh male totty) each year, to encourage advertisers to believe their adverts for watches will hang around and be revisited. I doubt the measly page on state schools based on chatter and innuendo could be described as a major push to engage or serve a new section of readership, unlike the Cosmetic Surgery guide . More like a way to get exposure on the cheap as I posted before. It would be overegging it to read more into it.

but of COURSE grammar schools will be good - thats a no brainer!

Those grandparents in Harley Street have a good excuse not to pay school fees now - another cruise instead!

Over 45 is not synonymous with being a grandparent! Or having DC beyond school age!

Seriosuly, with average age for first birth in UK being well over 30 now, and the higher demographic groups often being at the older end of typical, over 45 could easily encompass parents seeking schools (or validation of approach to schooling).

I'm 49 and my DCs will be going to one of the places on the Tatler list
I'm not rich, nor is DH

I am well past 49, and I still don't know anyone who reads Tatler, apart from seeing it in Harley Street Consultants waiting rooms where I was staving off death , and I do know lots of people in the catchment for one of those schools . As I say I would not read anything into it but a magazine flexing it's marketing strategy to get some exposure.

True Tiffin doesn't have representative FSM but it is over representative on BME. And the parents in the process of choosing schools are far too busy practising VR tests with their offspring to read Tatler.......