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!

So,which schools would be in your obviously non snobby or wanky guide?

Obviously Tatler has to appeal to its readership - it is a commercial enterprise after all! I would expect a bias towards boarding schools, well established names and London-based day schools - perhaps Hampton and Guildford High (day schools) are too suburban (and yet too close to London) and indistinguishable from dozens of other high achieving day schools in the south east.

Any extra 'information' regarding pastoral care and the atmosphere of a school is surely useful to prospective parents.

The Tatler State Schools Guide is obviously superficial (a gimmick?) and only lists a handful of schools anyway although it does include schools such as The Grey Coat Hospital and Dame Alice Owen's which many non-Tatler reading parents like to pretend are comprehensive schools.

I know nothing about Islington schools - the appeal of Highbury Grove School must be an 'Islington thing'.

There must be something about Vivienne Durham and her shoes as The Good Schools Guide describes her as, 'infuriatingly svelte and chic' - oh dear!

No, I wouldn't take the GSG seriously either. Obviously equally obsessed with heads' body shapes and fashion sense.

As I mentioned upthread, its owner and editor in chief is an aristo who's a Liveryman of the Mercers Company, which runs SPS, SPGS, Abingdon etc, a connection the "Guide" has failed to mention.

Toughasoldboots

Why did you take your DC out of Hilden Grange? Something negative about the school?

The Tatler guide is for Tatler reading parents. They want to send their children to schools where they will meet people like them. Tattler provides a simplified guide to this. DD's old school was ecstatic when they were included (loud web site announcement) but are now dropped. Insufficient movers and shakers and old money. Too parochial as well.

Other DDs old school is always included and there is a big difference in the type of parent. The school heaves with well connected old and new money. U6 leavers' parents bought a Prada handbag for the Head so she passed muster for Tatler! (Luckily not full price as a parent gets a discount at Prada). No comment on their web site about Tatler - they expect to be in!

Designer handbags, shoes, we get the picture. What is so depressing is that some of our great schools are currently led by heads who actually believe (and I mean really honestly believe after a successful sense of humour bypass early in their career) that the Tatler guide "matters" (in the immortal words of Michael Halls, head of KCS Wimbledon). It would make Dr Arnold and Miss Beale weep.

Maybe I should have titled my post "Why aren't there more Tatler types attracted to these schools?"

Granolamuncher
Could he not just have meant "matters" as in "crucial for advertising" rather than "should be highly regarded"?

Because, nightsky, Tatler types stick together! If you have seen them first hand and see their pictures in back page photos in the magazine attending glitzy events and parties, it becomes blindingly clear that they Know Each Other. They stick together and marry each other. They shoot, they discuss their mutual friends, and they are comfortable amongst people like them. It is a type of club. However these parents are a small enough group not to populate all good schools. They will even populate less academic schools, eg Stowe, because not all their children are bright. However not one of them will want to go to a school where they don't know anyone!

Therefore, as I said earlier, the guide is for them and they know who they are. It is not for every-day parents who scrimp and save for a local private school. To most people, the guide is meaningless. Taltler sells itself as an exclusive magazine and not one for the mass market. I too fail to see why schools fawn over being included but they do see it as a marketing opportunity. Unless the school is so posh, of course. Then it does not need to bother with promoting the Tatler inclusion - probably it's old girls write for it! Lots of parents supply the information to Tatler and that is why it is up to date! It has insiders!

Millymollymama

Ah, maybe these things pass me by without me noticing! I imagine I probably know a fair few of these Tatler reading parents then!

Toughasoldboots
I might PM you in that case?

Could he not just have meant "matters" as in "crucial for advertising" rather than "should be highly regarded"? Yes, that's possible but if he was in the slightest bit interested in widening access and if he was in the least bothered about not coming across as a snob, he wouldn't advertise there.

This report in the local Guardian and the KCS entry in Tatler for 2016 suggest Andrew Halls does care about widening access:

www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/11722670.Leading_independent_school_welcomes_primary_state_pupils_in_bursary_scheme/

www.tatler.com/guides/schools-guide/2016/search?Location=London&page=3&LocationName=kings-college-school

Why do you keep misquoting Andrew Halls granola? He quite clearly doesn't say, 'Tatler matters' in the BBC programme but, 'It matters to us how we're perceived everywhere.'

Re KCS Mr Halls is going off on a sabbatical leaving the more than capable Ms Hunnaball in charge - and she is far too sensible to read Tatler. Mr Halls is very popular with the boys which is surely the most important thing. Soon after starting at KCS DS ( a mess of a boy), ran into Mr halls approaching a door from opposite directions. DS with a pile of uncontrollable files and books, his shirt hanging out etc knew he should open the door for him but couldn't work out how. Mr Halls signalled to him, opened the door himself waving DS through first and carried on. DS always remembers this because his prep head would never have done that.

Returning to Tatler I hark on about Guildford High because it is a recent Sunday Times school of the year winner. It is owned by United Learning and only one of their schools features, Caterham, but it does scupper my theory that they wouldn't pay to be listed. I agree with MMM that the Tatler reading class have their own lists of acceptable schools but I just can't work out why it wouldn't include Guildford High.

Andrew Halls let the BBC in to KCS to film him telling the Tatler "researcher" about his wonderful new expensive buildings etc. He is flattering about the "Guide", which he calls "fizzy" but which he should have called "trivial".How a school is perceived by Tatler should not matter to anybody, least of all the head of KCS.

He has form. At MCS Oxford he put the fees up so high professors can't afford them now and he put up an enormous hoarding announcing "Sunday Times School of the Year". He pretends to be interested in access but he's clearly a snob who loves the media.

Regarding Surrey, there are 3 other senior schools in the 2016 Guide which are in Surrey. A geographic spread may also be an editorial issue. Also if the other schools appeal more to Tatler parents, (the Sunday times school of the year award is not something they would worry about), then they get included and Guildford High does not. There is quite a lot of change every year with the inclusion, and dropping, of "lesser" schools but there are ones that will always be there.The time for Guildford High may well come!

I know nothing about Tatler to speak of, but lots about GHS. I wouldn't have thought they'd need or particularly want to be in the Tatler guide.

asilver you are ruining the rather lovely picture I have of a Rupert/Felicity being employed full time at GHS for the sole purpose of achieving an entry in next years guide. I am trying to think of an appropriate job title.

FGS Halls isn't a snob. A bit of a tit perhaps because he doesn't necessarily play the game of the established over privileged as well as he could and shows his chinks. My ds didn't respect him when he was there but does now. Halls is bright, commercial and has stamped on some of the Junior and Senior Evans Croneyisn. His only crime is to have ordinaryish roots that stick in the craw of some of the established Wimbledon Village lot. We quite liked it because he is closer to those of us who have made our own way. My DH empathised with his lack of polish and raw passion. As did I.

If Halls isn't a snob, he shouldn't behave like one. If he wouldn't have Tatler at home, he shouldn't let its so called "researcher" into his school. If he sent them all away, Tatler, the Sunday Times, and the GSG, then I might be able to respect him.

I'd still have trouble with this notion that he's "commercial" though. On another thread a year ago I queried the sense of opening a string of franchise schools in China at a time when the Chinese economy was showing signs of weakness. Since then we've seen the stock market crash there and KCS's scheme really is looking lunatic. No wonder he's taking a sabbatical.