Concerned about the change in curriculum/culture in independent schools

[clarafarraday]

My son has attended an independent school for some time now. Recently I have noticed a change in focus to accommodate new international students. The rumours are that financial contributions are having an impact on decisions being made at the top. I chose to send my son to this school because of its prestigious reputation and I was hopeful that they would help him to excel and achieve his full potential. I’ve tried to speak with the school’s bursar but I am not getting anywhere. I feel that focus is shifting and special measures are being introduced for these international students which is wrong because we all pay our fees.

Ah yes, poor Winchester College, with its shabby buildings and facilities. I hear it has a woefully stocked library, appalling music facilities, virtually no choice of sports and an awful theatre with ancient lighting and sound systems and no-one professional to run it. There really is lots of expense spared there to keep the costs down and stop it from becoming a place that only a vanishingly tiny proportion of the world population can afford.

And obviously, learning to scuba dive, shoot and fish are essential skills to offer in any school.

Crikey, roundabout, I just checked the website and it's true about the scuba diving. Proves my point entirely. These really are the last days for our great schools.

As for the OP - I think she needs to make more clear what is changing as a result of the international students. What is her ds no longer able to excel at and why?

granola / rounda
What about the skiing, polo, show jumping and freediving teams ?
Oh silly me, they are at the State 6th form college up the road.

Winchester (and Eton and Wycombe and Harrow and Benenden and Roedean and Westminster and the like)
are not about facilities : they are about ethos

I could never afford any of them but regularly blag the 2 hour parking outside Wincol

THe worry that OP has is very real and DOES NOT APPLY TO TOP SCHOOLS
its the second tier that are in deep trouble

the top tier are complacent .... for now

And really, extremely wealthy children from overseas are a much better cultural influence on your children than less well off locals with a poor work ethic who don't teach you anything about the world that you didn't already know.

Rubbish they aren't about facilities. They wouldn't be offering so much in the way of facilities if these facilities were not used or wanted by their clientele. Besides, I would have thought hunting, shooting and fishing WAS part of the ethos. A rich person's ethos does not come cheap...

Scuba diving isn't just facilities, Talk, it's a fad enjoyed by people with loadsamoney and air miles and a whole "qualifications" system has been built round it. It's a lifestyle thing. It should have no place in a school, independent or state.

An ethos in which you are encouraged to be adventurous, confident and inquisitive about the world and alert to all its exciting possibilities requires you to bring all these exciting possibilities to the doorstep of your school in order for your boys to experience them first hand... Or at least, that's certainly one way of doing it if you can afford it.

OP's worry certainly does apply to top schools. By pandering to the fads and whims of the international super rich, their ethos is changing for the worse faster than the second tier's, which is only trying to fill funding gaps.

Actually I am said overseas parent who has sent their DD to a British boarding school. You will find that most overseas parents value most is not the flashy new buildings or the ensuite rooms. They value quality of teaching and pastoral care more. Most would choose a local boarding school that fullfils that need. Where the majority of children are local. Helps with learning the accent and speaking in general..
My DD has had no problem integrating. What does make me laugh is that her best friend is a Russian. So the sterotype maybe true. She also has many local girl friends and many from other different countries.

The old adage is that it reallly doesnt matter about the brand it is the quality that matters

Hang on, hang on, i wouldn't rate scuba diving alongside polo as an elite sport. most people i know who are into it are macho working class van drivers who spend their weekends fishing shopping trolleys out of flooded mines in Wales. Also, have you been to sharm el sheik where everyone and their Nan has a go?

Our local state school has a scuba diving club, as well as the private one.

Quality of teaching, pastoral care and the conveniently forgotten breadth of experience... all of which are eye wateringly expensive. Ensuite bathrooms for all would be cheap by comparison .

"Quality of teaching" is not "eye wateringly expensive", roundabout. Teachers at independent schools are paid much the same as teachers at state schools (and aren't generally any better btw). It's the heads who are paid eye watering amounts these days, quite unnecessarily.

The "could never have afforded them" is of course a myth, sort of. My son and some of his classmates are looking at schools such as Winchester. None of them will be able to afford to go there without substantial bursaries. At least one is more likely to go to such a school than our local independent day-school options because his family will probably be asked to pay less for the boarding school.

python
The "could never have afforded them" is of course a myth,
My oldest could never get into Winchester
cos she's a girl

and substantial bursaries are an utter irrelevance to the 50% of households whose total income is less than the fees

Teachers at Private schools are often paid less than state (because they never have the Social / SEN / paperwork shit and longer non term sessions)

Private schools are exclusive : they exclude by one means or another

the more exclusive, the more control the head has over the results
BUT
the rush for foreign cash is going to bite a lot of them soon
It would be amusing if MLR rules were applied to private schools in the same way they are to accountants

and substantial bursaries are an utter irrelevance to the 50% of households whose total income is less than the fees

Don't quite understand what this means. In fact I must have misunderstood...

gruach
I have clients with bright kids
but they are builders and earn £25k a year
applying for bursaries would never occur to them
and the "social fitting in" just aint gonna happen

Bursaries go to the "magically" poor children of alumni and the well connected.

I'll admit to being wrong only when the public schools publish the full data - which they won't as it would kill their charity status stone dead.

At least the Ltd Co schools are honest.

I think you'll find, granolamuncher, that when "quality of teaching" is tied up in the wealthy mind with relatively small class sizes, impressive-sounding qualifications and connections, and a huge range of subjects for a relatively small pool of people (see small class sizes again...), rather more than actual quality of teaching (which unqualified parents cannot, after all, judge for themselves, so they will be looking elsewhere for evidence of it, and wanting to maximise the chances of it happening, too, by screening out the difficult to teach and ensuring there aren't too many other children competing for the teacher's attention), plus pensions, that quality of teaching on those terms is really very bloody expensive! You can't offer that many sports, that much music, that many extra curricular opportunities, that many languages, that number of school plays etc, all with specialist teachers, theatre staff, etc, without it costing a lot of money (and requiring a lot of facilities, cosmetically scruffy looking or not...). It isn't comfortable bedrooms that are breaking the bank, it's the desire to have lots of overqualified people for the age group concerned offering more than one person could ever possibly want or fit into their busy life, so that it is there should they ever happen to want it. That is what the most expensive public schools are offering.

Gosh. I'm a state school teacher and have long thought the quality of teaching in state schools is, for the most part, better than in private school. The thought of quite poor boarding facilities makes me feel a lot of relief I can't afford to send dc to private school. I honestly think you are paying more for social connections than education. With that in mind, I'm saving up to send dc to Oxbridge!

I would be really sorry TP if even one family (too poor for the rich catchment) was put off from applying for and being awarded a 110% bursary because you've told them that being neither alumni nor well connected (just clever and ambitious) they are the wrong type of people.

Haggis
if its any sideways, DDs UCAS did not include Oxford, Cambridge or London, but she still has Nobel in her sights

I'm sticking with state. My children are happy, well cared for, well educated and close to home. I have no interest in silly arguments over whether teaching is generally better in one sector or the other. There are good and bad teachers everywhere. I therefore judge on an individual basis. I am also not interested in rifle ranges or, tbh, social connections.

None of that solves the OP's problem, though, as she is paying for something she doesn't think she is getting.

I agree, roundabout. All op can do is look around for alternatives and decide if what she is paying for is still worth it. ta1kin, that is amazing-well done dd!!