Notable omissions from Tatler Schools Guide (South East)

[nightsky010]

A friend and I were looking at the Tatler Schools Guide (South East area) and noticed quite a few schools which were surprisingly absent. Can anyone provide insights on why this would be?

I assume they consider aspects such as exam resilts, exit results / uni destinations, quality of teaching, facilities, financial stability of the school, type of pupils, how fashionable the school is, direction the Head is trying to take the school in etc ? But even taking the above into account there are still some schools omitted which I would expect to see.

Examples from the south east area:

Somerhill / Yardly Court, Tonbridge:
It has never been in the guide afaik. This is the main feeder school for Tonbridge FGS! How can it not be in there? Doesn't it tick all the boxes above? Other Preps included in the area are Holmwood House (every year) & Rose Hill (dropped out recently).

Rose Hill, Tunbridge Wells:
Was in there 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 but not 2016. Wonder why it's dropped out for 2016? It's got great exits & results. Has it also become unfashionable?

Hilden Grange, Tonbridge:
Has never been included, anyone surprised by that? (Hope I'm referring to the correct school there!)

Lancing College, West Sussex:
In the guide 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 but NOT 2015, 2016. Doesn't this school have a national reputation? Isn't it very old & established? Very famous Chapel, even has a farm. Has it become unfashionable? Why did it drop out? I did see it's not been the top performer in the county for several years as its been 2nd place to Ardingly College which has the highest results in the county (in the guide for every year). Could that be why? Plenty of schools with lower results are in.

Ashdown House, East Sussex:
Did this drop out of the guide around the time of the terrible allegations?? That would explain it. It's back in now.

Insights / speculation / comments appreciated!

Oh, cake, does it matter what Tatler thinks? The founders of KCS were more interested in people who really did think. The present head would dismay them. It is indeed very sad that great schools like KCS are currently so badly led.

Good point Granola, I'm not sure the Tatler people can think, they're probably too busy buying shoes!

Too horribly true, cake. Google "shoes" and Tatler Schools Guide, and you find that the Guide was impressed by Vivienne Durham's shoes (Miu Miu). It awarded her "Public School Head of the Year", which I'm afraid she was proud to accept. Shame on her.
www.tatler.com/guides/schools-guide/2015/public/francis-holland-nw1

:-) shoes comment made me laugh!

That is beyond parody Granola.

Heres one school that doesnt think the guide is beyond parody.
www.warminsterschool.org.uk/news-and-events/news/t-s-g-2016

Well done, Warminster!

That is really good, thank you

That is very funny I would award an A* but the writer only talks about stepping foot into Warminster and neglects to mention what shoes they were wearing. Unforgivable!

I particularly love the education begins with an E philosophy, it sounds like a directs quote from Selsdon and makes about as much sense!

The Warminster parody is excellent. The school featured in a school swap tv documentary over the summer. I thought when I saw it that the head really had his feet on the ground. I confess I didn't particularly look at his shoes.

Warminster link is excellent! Very brave of them!

Oh, I must watch that school swap program.

The Warminster parody is great, however despite coming across as a warm and lovely school (I watched the original screening of School Swap) there's no getting away from the fact that Warminster's academic results come a long way down the Independent School League tables - 316th out of 364 schools for GCSEs and 295th out of 322 schools for A Levels (A/As) which is probably the main reason why Warminster didn't make it into the guide.
On the other hand, the school led by the designer shoe wearing head (Francis Holland School, Regent Park) comes in at number 60 and 70. I'm not a Tatler reader but the opening sentence to the Francis Holland review reads, 'The academic bar just keeps on rising - 86.7 per cent A-B grades at A-level last year.' Admittedly the shoes are mentioned in the second sentence but this frivolous comment is immediately followed by, 'Passionate about her school and women's education in general.' We're also told that the school has good pastoral care and a less competitive atmosphere than some other schools (isn't this just the sort of information always being asked by Mumsnetters when trying to decide between schools?) Therefore I do think this guide has some useful information amongst the froth.

Tatler is superficial and has never pretended to be anything else. It is absolutely not an authority on schools. If you want "information", look elsewhere.

It listed Highbury Grove for Islington. Results are 39% A*-C GCSE and omitted Central Foundation Boys (84%) in the same borough. It's an absolute waste of space.

Warminster is unlikely ever to get into The Tatler guide(for many reasons,not least it is very similar to many private schools,) so its spoof is funny but not really brave
Clavi is right ,Tatler does have some good stuff in the guide,they reacted a lot quicker to changes in a school we know well than the GSG did,so do not dismiss it just because of a few frivolous comments about shoes,read it in conjunction with other guides,but remember they are just that,guides...

Ha ha at the Warminster parody!

It's not a guide to high performing schools.

It's a guide to where Tatler-reading parents will feel safe sending Rupert and Daphne. And know that it won't be social death to mention.

But it is the omissions that are interesting Clavinova and while locally to me it does rightly include some less academic schools e.g. The Harrodian (which I love), it also excludes a lot of very academic schools e.g. Hampton, Guildford High.

Wrong shoes?

Of course the Harrodian is in, Jemima Khan's DC went there and Imran used to offer cricket coaching as a raffle prize (no, not breaching privacy, this was in the national newspapers).

'Notable omissions' would be all the dozens of excellent, non-selective state schools in London, staffed by highly qualified, hard working teachers, which turn out happy and high achieving children year in, year out. They won't be included because... why? Because the sort of people who buy the Tatler guide wouldn't consider having their children educated alongside a cross section of the community, regardless of how effective and well run the school is?

Any 'good schools guide' which is dominated by schools whose intake only includes high achieving children from monied families is a pile of utter snobbish wank IMO.

I think some people are getting rather carried away,if you actually read the Tatler guide you will see plenty of not particularly smart schools,people need to remember its a national guide not a south east guide,decent schools do exist outside the south east and because of space lots of schools wont get in.Its not like the GSG with pages and pages of so so schools,so obviously it will be easy to pick up schools that arent in it.

Snobbish wank?
www.tatler.com/news/articles/january-2015/the-tatler-guide-to-the-best-state-secondary-schools

Yes. One article, featuring a raft of state schools, mostly with hugely expensive catchment areas, or rigorous religious or academic selection.

An article, note, not a book.

The actual guide doesn't feature any state schools.