Prince George at Eton

[squashyhat]

Can anyone explain why Prince George is boarding at Eton when the family home is just minutes away across the river?

Mark Fisher is alumni himself so was that self deprecating Eton humour or what?
@Araminta1004
Mark Fischer, UK communist party bigwig as opposed to Mark Fisher, Labour MP for Stoke on Trent and, as you say, OE.

This charity links state schools to speakers who will do talks for free. Originally set up by Robert Peston.
https://www.futuresforall.org/

The private schools I know have good links to the nearby state schools and invite their pupils to all external speaker events. I wld be surprised if Eton doesn’t do similar.

This is why I am confused as to the point - and I don’t think it about speakers at Eton even though there were plenty of comments about that.

Other schools teach independence. Someone wrote that the children think they are successful because they get an answer to their letters where others must not.

That is just not true. 🤷‍♀️. so what is the actual point? (If you don’t want to be asked or just feel like insulting me in reply, feel free to scroll on!)

I remember reading a piece by a journalist years ago who was having a nightmare trying to find a secondary school for his daughter (state school). He said he didn't mind not having Fortnum and Mason standard school available, but wished there was a 'Marks and Spencer' type available for affordable fees!

He was joking...or half-joking.

But UK private education used to be available to a much wider demographic. It was affordable by most people who were prepared to make sacrifices - no new cars or expensive holidays. It's now moved into a stratospheric level where only hedge-fund managers and the international super-rich can really afford it.

I remember hearing David Mitchell (who went to Abingdon School) say more or less the same. He said his parents were teachers who just drove an old banger around and went without luxuries to send him and his brother to a public school. That just isn't possible now - the fees have gone beyond what even most professional people can manage.

I really does. It can inspire students and give them aspirations.

But I also think non-famous people who have something interesting to say can have a beneficial effect too - as long as they're effective speakers: charity workers, local politicians, local business people, the fire service and police. But they need to be good at speaking effectively to youngsters.

@CoffeeCantata yes I think that’s a really interesting point. My parents put 4 of us through private school while working as university lecturers. We bought clothes at jumble sales, walked everywhere, holidayed by staying with my grandparents, cooked from scratch and had no expensive hobbies, but fundamentally it was doable on their salaries by living cheaply.

Now my brother and sister in law are both university lecturers but can’t come close to affording fees for one child!

I wonder what’s made private schools so much more expensive? Is it an arms race to attract students by spending more on the facilities, and then pricing out most people?

His parents were not ordinary teachers. They were hotel managers and later taught hotel management at university.
He went to Abingdon school, a prestigious fee paying school. Abingdon school fees 38 years ago in real terms were just over £17,000 per term. A few thousand less than now.
Don't believe everything people tell you.

I know from personal experience! My family had a small business (very small!) and sent me and my sister to a private prep school in the 70s. My school mates came from similar backgrounds : shopkeepers, small tenant farmers etc.

They were different times. People really did drive old bangers around and I didn't go abroad till I was at university.

And I know many other examples! Plus - there was the Direct Grant system which sent able children to public schools, paid for by the government. I had a couple of friends who did that.

What do you mean by 'in real terms'?

It's notoriously difficult to work out the comparative value of prices in the past, but when I was at school, the fees for the posh school near to me were around £4K per annum. That would have been affordable by professional people.

At the independent school I worked at (until about 5 years ago) the teachers had an INSET where they were categorically told that independent education would soon be beyond the reach of such people. Things have definitely changed over the last few decades disproportionately in relation to wages, as house prices have.

I think it is, to a degree. The quality of some facitilies they have is astounding, so much so that they hire them out for prestigious events. Our local girls' private school has Olympic-standard fencing facilities and lots of tournaments are held there - all income for the school.

I think there's been a policy of trying to attract the international super-rich with some schools and the losers in this have been the old, indigenous demographic of dentists', doctors', solicitors' children who would once have made up the main intake.

@Mistachio Because some of us believe parenting doesn’t mean we have to be around every evening or morning.We like dc to be independent and have a life that doesn’t entirely revolve around us. It gives young people a very different grounding in terms of expectations and self reliance which is useful later in life.

yes, remember Clare Balding got a bit of a slating a few years ago when Rebecca Adlington mentioned that no ex olympians had ever been to speak at their school - Balding was shocked and seemed to think this was de rigueur, rather than (generally) the preserve of privately schooled athletes returning to their private schools to speak to currently privately schooled pupils, aka the 7%.

And yes I know, before User1234 comes out of the woodwork to declare that ACSHUALLY the bronze medalist for the hop skip and jump in 1972 came to speak to them in Bogtrott Comp, obviously not all athletes are privately educated AND sometimes those who were don't just pay it forward to their alma maters, but there's still a vastly disproportionate number who were (a third of the most recent team GB, I believe).

I also wonder if people will acknowledge that the 94% of state school people do not have the sense of legacy to their school that boarding school pupils may. All 3 of my schools have been demolished for housing. Not one is left to go back to and discuss my success. This isn’t uncommon. Institutions like eton last centuries. Bogtrot high does not

Also another observation from wine gate- the talk included a wine tasting. Us commoners were gaging to down as much as poss and go back to school merry at 11am on a Friday.
We didn’t have access to wine, our parents didn’t drink, in our world no one in their right mind would give a 16 year old wine. It was so scandalous.

The eton boys were already by then having drinks receptions and wine with dinner. 5 years later at the investment bank Christmas party who don’t think was behaving appropriately and networking and who was necking the free booze unable to believe their luck?

I'm sure noone would want state schools to be serving wine to students to help them learn to pace and behave appropriately.

There wasn't much for sporty pupils at my school. The facilities were actually reasonably good - it was a typical 60s built, by the 80s falling-to-pieces building but the sports equipment was plentiful and in good condition and the playing field was huge. But the teachers were almost constantly on work-to-rule which meant nothing happened outside the school day, no teams going to play other schools and so on, not even inter-school competitions, just the compulsory games x 1 per week and P.E. x 1 per week. There was a swimming pool for my first couple of years there but it fell into disrepair, was closed and never reopened.

I caught the clip of Prince George walking in with his parents on CNN yesterday and felt super old...I still remember the little toddler in his pyjamas with President Obama!

I wish George well with his studies.

I also hope that in this era of social media, that people recall all of their less-than-stellar teenage moments that were not filmed on phones and distributed around the world via the internet and extend a generous level of grace to George for any typical teen moments.

Yes that makes sense. I would like to see some more “no frills” private schools, much cheaper fees, focus on smaller class sizes and high behavioural standards without all the fancy stuff.

Often it’s just a committed teacher that makes all the difference in a child’s life.

Did your parents not approve of you attending?

The biggest difference for academic improvement, confidence, speaking to adults, being inspired and having teachers get to know you and encourage you is class sizes / size of school overall.

It’s one of the reasons private schools often use their faculty to student ratio as a prominent statistic in their marketing material.

My DD went from a state school of 1300 pupils to a private school of 120 pupils. There are only 40 pupils in her entire year. Her foreign language class went from 30 kids to just 6.

Her maths class has just 10 kids in it. There’s no hiding or coasting - the teachers are also far less stressed because they don’t have to split their focus between the teaching and managing behaviour in the same way as larger classes.

All the teachers in the school can easily learn every students name - and it’s easier to give everyone leadership opportunities because you don’t have to split it between many students.

There’s no way to replicate that for state schools without significant investment in state school education, more schools, more teachers.

Based on my post, where did you get this query from?

@wordler i agree my trio attended a secondary with 500 in total 100 per school year not that tiny but in a very remote rural location and having staff that are your neighbors who know you, know your family is huge, friends who's parents teach at the school etc. it's the personal touch that carries a long way.
i could google but does eton do social events with girls schools?

Yep, there are socials with girls schools like Downe House, Wycombe Abbey, St George’s Ascot, St Mary’s Ascot, St Mary’s Calne etc. They do joint plays and musicals too as well as concerts eg. The big festival chorus each Lent has local choirs joining in like Taplow Girls.

Also as there has been a lot of talk on here about societies, many of the societies and talks are equally attended by students at partner schools like Holyport and the SEBMAT schools. Facilities are shared with them too eg. the swimming pool is made available to the local state primary for swimming lessons, the astros are used for local hockey teams etc.

@Xiaoxiong sounds like he’ll get a nicely rounded education.

I Think the Eton sixth formers actually have their own pub on the High Street!

This definitely used to be so, unless modern times have caught up.