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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Head of St Pauls Girl’s School

112 replies

jeanne16 · 27/05/2019 19:30

Anyone else find the article about the forthcoming book by Clarissa Farr about her time as Head of SPGS extraordinary. She complains that parents are too pushy and that independent schools are too focused on getting the top academic results.

Since that is an exact description of St Paul’s itself, it seems odd to complain about it.

OP posts:
CruCru · 26/08/2019 20:47

I know this is an old thread but I’ve just finished the book and really enjoyed it. There are some really interesting parts about how a new teacher gets chosen at the school, the reaction whenever a teacher leaves and governance structures within the school.

I don’t think there was any criticism of SPGS itself, although she did say that it’s quite painful telling parents that only applying to Oxford, Harvard and Yale is unrealistic.

Tanline · 28/08/2019 23:24

Spgs has set a new national record with 99.5% students achieving 10+ A*-A (8/9) at gcse this year. The students work hard, why wouldn’t they want to aim for top Universities.

Rockylady · 29/08/2019 09:54

First Review from Amazon

"boring account of one school's year by month"
I pre-ordered this book based on the extracts in the Times on the problems of hothousing young girls. Instead of getting a decent analysis of education today (albeit a private one), this book is a whimsical memoir of the school year by month and a huge advert for her former school to boot. So unless you went to that school or have children there, give this one a skip. Nothing to see here folks and a waste of money.

It reminds me of what happens when you pop a balloon full of air.

Rockylady · 29/08/2019 09:56

Also I chuckled yesterday when I saw Amazon was trying to push the book with a sticker of "#1 bestseller in...." some narrow subject. (Who knows how they come up with this for new books, good influencing tool to push new things I guess beware....)

Well the sticker is not there today...

Arewedone · 29/08/2019 10:20

Waiting for a copy to hit my local charity shop :)

CruCru · 31/08/2019 08:44

Yes, the book is definitely a memoir. I'm sure that there are some very scholarly books giving an analysis of education but I had never expected that this would be one.

That's all right, we don't all have to like the same things.

Rockylady · 31/08/2019 13:20

Looks like it is as we said before the release - boring and futile. It also looks that it is not even interesting enough for the ones seeking some gossip either, based on your lines about the two things you found insightful.

CruCru · 31/08/2019 14:36

Feel free to not read this book if you don’t think that you would enjoy it.

I did enjoy reading it. There’s a lot in there apart from the few things I mentioned.

Rockylady · 31/08/2019 18:14

Perhaps you can elaborate a little more on the other things you found useful, but don't worry if you don't want to.

CruCru · 31/08/2019 20:23

Some of the things I was particularly interested in were:

  • The role of girls’ schools, the shock that girls who’ve been to this school sometimes get when they enter the workplace and gender identity issues that come up within the school;
  • What it’s like to join an organisation / school as a new leader / head, building new relationships, consulting while being the one who ultimately must make decisions, managing information flow within an organisation;
  • The process for recruiting a new teacher and the expectations of the teachers (they must be absolute masters of their subject who are prepared to go off the syllabus if the pupils want and who are able to adapt with very little notice);
  • The importance of good food at school and the ways in which schools (and school buildings) can enhance pupils’ mental health;
  • Coming to terms with perceived failure and managing the death of a pupil or someone close to a pupil; and
  • Communicating with parents and building relationships with parents.

There was plenty of other stuff but this was what stood out for me.

Rockylady · 31/08/2019 22:13

Oh well second Amazon reviewer is out and gives her 5 stars. Errr only he seems to be some university "Dr" who spends his life reviewing books (and being paid for it I wonder?) as he reviewed like 43 books on Amazon in August only.... Confused😂

So much for the endorsement, how good it would be if more normal readers reviewed it. I am learning a bit about the publishing world here too!

CruCru · 31/08/2019 23:21

Perhaps I’ll write my own review.

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