Britain's Youngest Boarder

[littledawley]

Anyone watching?

a very advanced 18 month old maybe

They had to stay for the first 10 days, ie only the first weekend!

erm..apart from by cuddling her, i don't know - the story was made up probably because their father fell of an Omnibus and required much help from their mum due to head injuries. Mum reckons he was violent, something which of course wouldn't be talked about, an that was why people were willing to pay money to send the kids away (under a given pretext). They left school in 1928 aged 18 though....and one went to university. Educationally fantastic for them.

18month old, right nappy on, romper on

ready for action

I thought it was a bit of an overreaction from a 10 yr old. [tough mum emoticon]

I am going to watch this tomorrow, I think there are sides to boarding that aren't clear until later on in life,
I am not totally antii boarding but I went when I was 7 as did my siblings so in effect my sister left the family home when I was 3.5 just before my brother was born, we didn't get to go to the same school because of the way the schools were layed out we were 3 miles away from each other.

The ins and outs of the education and the effect on my relationship with my parents is one thing BUT I have had as an adult to make a relationship with my siblings that hasn't happened naturally.

Quentin Freeth is quite a name.

truly, A toddler would have been toilet trained by nanny before going up...

Quentin was fab. I'd be quite happy if ds grows up like him. He had the right amount of knowing cynicism and a good sense of humour.

Not that it is a competition, of course, but the local school the head talked of so disparagingly about is this one. So, not a public school, but hardly one to be dismissive about.

Gosh MollieO I thought I was tough

Apart from the boarding there were quite a few things that I didn't like. When I was at school I hated boys being called by their surname and I hate it now. I didn't like the weekly lists-fine for those always at the top but horrible for those always at the bottom. I know that competition is good, but not in such a way at 8 yrs old. If I had the money then I still wouldn't send mine there.

Very revealing - like some bizarre throwback to 19th-century days of Empire with a veneer of modern informality to tart it up. This was a very rose-tinted-spectacles view of how how ruling-class power and attitudes are formalised and transmitted to the next generation of top bankers, judges, and Tory politicians. What we saw here was the systematic drilling of young boys in the tight range of manners, relationships and expectations that must be internalised by new draftees into the ruling class. What both the homesick boys and the tearful mums were learning is that loyalty to and total identification with your class comes before the natural affiliations and affections of family. The Chinese mother who was finding it difficult to dump her boy several thousand miles from home was getting a hard lesson about the cost of membership of the British ruling class. But I guess she ultimately accepted that it's more important for her son to have power and privilege than warmth and love, something her husband didn't even have to think about as he'd had the very training in the importance of class loyalty and cohesion that he now was prepared to pay getting on for £100k for his his son to acquire. Makes you proud to be British and a democrat!

Midfieldgeneral.

You put very eloquently what I was thinking.

I also know quite a lot of these grown up Quintins, and they are often stangely uncomfortable with physical contact, ie hugging and kissing, even with family members.

I think these boys were lovely, well mannered and educated. Quite impressive! Maybe I am a sentimental fool, but it is NOT great they do not get a hug and a kiss from their mum or dad when needed....and imho boys, especially bigger boys, need quite a bit of affection for a healthy emotional growth.

I think if my 8 year old had watched it he would have been packing his bags and demanding to go immediately based on the music and sports opportunities alone.

I would NEVER send a child away this young. My niece's partner went at 7 and is totally fucked up emotionally. Of course this could also have something to do with the fact that his very professional parents are emotionally distant (when he was in an RTA and taken to hosp his mother told staff she would come the next day despite being within driving distance)
Oh and of course he has let his doctor father down by not going to medical school.

Midfieldgeneral has written what I was thinking, but unable to get into words. I thought they were lovely boys who would go far-but at what emotional cost? Too high for me anyway. An 8 yr old needs to be tucked up in his won bed at home IMO-he needs a rest from the demands of the day.

If he was there I doubt your DS would be still up at past 9pm!

@ domesticsluttery

That's probably because as a TV show this was nothing other than a shameless puff-piece for Sunningdale. I wonder if the Beeb charged for the advertising? As for the sports - golf and clay pigeon shooting? FFS! This was all about training in the manners and pastimes of the posh, the privileged, the powerful and the wealthy.

I thought what was not shown was very revealing. No focus on the kids who failed to come top of every class; no focus on those public school interviewees whose firm handshake and steady gaze failed to gain them admission to Eton, Harrow, Hogwarts etc.

And what about those matrons, eh? A bunch of babelicious trustafarian sloanes. Good god! What's having sexy Sophie et al poking their pretty faces and tautly bedenimmed bottoms into your bedroom each night going to do to the gender attitudes of a gaggle of hot-housed sex-segregated 11-year old boys? Citizens of Mumsnet: I give you Boris Johnson.......

what jobs are they being groomed for exactly? (apart from government and military)