When I was small, I was brought up to be very left-wing. My grandfather held very strong union values; I went to a state comprehensive school, and did pretty well out of it. Thanks to a combination of good teaching and personal ambition, I achieved my goal of studying at Cambridge university. (I attended Churchill College, a modern building in brutalist brown brick. It amused me to read a recent feature in The Guardian regarding Cambridge admission procedures, which focused on Churchill but featured pictures of rather prettier edifices).
At Cambridge, I met privately educated students and sneered at them for being “bourgeois”. Amazingly, some of them remained friends with me. At the time, Cambridge was proud of its 50% state school ratio, which was nevertheless most unrepresentative of the nation as a whole.
Now we have a child of our own, I’m astonished at how differently I feel. Perhaps I’ve mellowed with age; or maybe (most probably) I’ve become more middle class myself as I’ve travelled along my chosen career path. It helps that as editor of Cornwall Today, I’ve visited some of Truro’s private schools, which advertise with the magazine.
With its sweeping views of the cathedral and city, Truro School was lovely, reminding me of Cambridge’s more ivy-clad colleges. Truro School students have access to a fabulous art collection, theatre and multitudinous sporting activities. The students I met were fine, upstanding citizens, destined for great things.
And I’ve been attending toddler group at Polwhele House on Truro’s outskirts. On my first day, I was given the full tour, along with a list of activities planned in the run-up to Christmas: working with home made play-dough, making treasure boxes then filling them during a winter welly walk, etc. All followed by a snack and a story or song. It’s a wonderful place to spend an afternoon.
For the first time, I find myself asking: if I could afford to send my daughter to such a school, would I really deny her the privilege of a good education, based purely on principle? It’s so much harder to stick to that view when I can see the inherent goodness before my very eyes.
Polwhele is a prep school taking pupils from age 3 to 13. I’d love to see Daughter in its uniform – having returned in a professional capacity to write a feature about the place (see February’s Cornwall Today, out next week), I’m convinced the educational goals of owners Richard and Rosemary White could only be of benefit to my daughter.
But there are many reasons, both practical and personal, why this might not happen. Could we afford to send Daughter to private school? What if we had a second child – could we afford the cost of two school fees? It would hardly be fair to deny one the privileges that the other has enjoyed.
And of course, it’s not simply my decision. OH is much more rigid about his state school ethics. Penair was good enough for him, and will be good enough for daughter. And he’s quite right. As highlighted in the September issue of Cornwall Today, Penair School has a fantastic reputation, and has been making great strides in food education thanks to a forward-thinking chef.
Education is a highly emotive subject, and our views are often coloured by our own experiences, be they good or bad. As my own were unerringly positive, I could hardly imagine sending Daughter anywhere other than state school – or so I thought.
I don’t remember my mother agonising over which school to send me to as a child. In those days, you went to the one nearest your home, which must have made things a whole lot easier. Today, such schools are over-subscribed. Some have religious ties, prompting the question: do I want my child to be led thus from such a young age?
And the state school system is far from perfect. Failing schools are often found in difficult areas, where teachers are working in challenging environments, tackling discipline issues as well as education needs. Small wonder parents play the postcode lottery, or have their children baptised. It might not be right, but what wouldn’t you do to help your child through life? (I know there are probably many answers to that question).
Principles are important. I still believe that everyone should have access to the same education opportunities, and not just those who can afford to pay for it. And just as there are boffins who rise from state schools, so I’m sure that public school produces its own share of not-so-intelligent specimens.
I see education as a basic human right, like health care. It still worries me when our systems are broken up in favour of competition. Is it naïve to hope that one system could make it better for everyone?
I hope this blog doesn’t come across as too overtly political, as that was far from my intention. And, as always, I should stress that the views contained in my blogs are my own, and not those of my employer. It’s simply an honest account of how the opinions I thought were deeply entrenched have changed unnoticed over the years. It’s surprising, confusing, yet only natural.
As a teenager with few responsibilities, I accepted the credos handed onto me by others, spouted them openly and scorned those who disagreed with me. I haven’t abandoned these ideas completely, but they have changed to fit the person I am today – a mum pushing 40, with different priorities. Judging by the comments I’ve had already (this is my second draft), I’m not alone.
I don’t pretend to know enough about the issue to have an expert or even informed view; but now that I have a child, it’s no longer black and white for me.
* Polwhele House schools all of Truro Cathedral’s boy choristers, and we were treated today to a fine display of their talents at the annual Cushion Concert sponsored by CT’s sister title, the West Briton. Parents and children of all ages sat at the front and enjoyed a short performance of beautiful music including Franck’s Panis Angelicus, Lloyd Webber’s Pie Jesu, Rutter’s For the Beauty of the Earth (a personal favourite), and Timothy Winters – a poem by Cornishman Charles Causley set to music by fellow countryman Russell Pascoe.
It’s a brilliant idea. I love classical music, especially choral, but concerts aren’t the ideal environment for toddlers, to whom the concepts of being quiet and sitting still are anathema. So it was heartening to be surrounded by other parents, whose little treasures were chasing each other and climbing the pulpit while our daughter, bless her, slept through the entire thing. The music was beautiful, and I hope she had sweet dreams.
I can relate to this so much KIrstie having moved from my home town to ensure my children went to a better school! Although the school I attended (you know where I mean) educated me well, (although again I do believe personal ambition plays a major factor in this) things change as do reputations which all played a major factor in the decisions we made. I think I would hate to be in a position of being able to afford private education because I would hate to have to make that choice as I feel it would be a terrible choice as there as so many positives to both. Maybe that is why I was destined to not be in that position yet lol !!! We all want what is best for our children and we wouldn’t be good parents if we didn’t strive to help them achieve everything they can and deserve.
Great article Kirstie. Having submitted our admission form for Max’ primary school place only this week your blog strikes a cord. One of our reasons for moving to Kingston was its excellent state schools. Like you I’ve always been in favour of state education. I think that we were the privileged ones when it came to our schooling. I don’t think that there are many public schools that could boast of a student/ teacher ratio of 5:1. I wish a similar education for my boys. However, all our local schools are oversubscribed and we must now play a waiting game to see if we have secured a place. IIf we don’t get one, maybe we will have to resort to a pre prep for the short term….
Try visiting Russell Pascoes school .. Richard Lander in Truro… some of the best choral singing in Cornwall .. excellent results and caters for every ability with no selection… Richard Lander, helping every child whatever their background achieve their full potential…
I think your honesty is useful Kirstie. It certainly isn’t naive, I think, to imagine a better system in the UK. Who could instigate it, or how that would come about is the issue. Educated, informed and above all, rational and open-minded people like you need to keep asking how to improve things, it keeps the debate going. If other European countries can manage without education being commercialised, nor kicked about politically, then we need to look at how to do that too. But, I’m no expert either!
In principal I believe that all children are entitled to free education, but my own experiences of comprehensive schools, both as a pupil and a teacher, did not inspire me to want to keep my own daughter in state school education, thus I chose private school education (first Polwhele then Truro High School) from when she was 9 – despite then being a single mother on a low income. Early days with Henry yet but most likely he’ll start off in state school education and see how it develops….there seems to be a lot of press about state schools achieving ‘outstanding’ – I don’t know how much of this is genuine or simply headteachers figuring out what boxes they need to tick to satisfy the Ofsted Inspector!
Such a thorny issue. Being Convent educated, I felt at a distinct disadvantage to my state educated peers (whose curriculum had been broader to my own) when I went to St. Austell Sixth Form College. My husband, as an army child, was sent to one of the very worst Private Schools in England. I later taught in 3 Comprehensive Schools and had a mixed feeling about the kind of social education the kids acquired.
In a nutshell, OH and I both have very skewed views on Private education vs State.
As it happens, my more delicate, dyslexic child is
at Truro School, but the younger, brighter and gregarious child is more likely to go to the local Comprehensive this September where (fingers crossed) I believe he is better suited. My husband’s wallet will be very relieved but it is still on our conscience that we might be denying him some kind of privileged better start in life. We are still going through the motions and he will sit Truro’s entrance exam this Saturday as an insurance measure. However, unless they offer us a fat scholarship and beg us to send our ‘genius’ son to their school, at the moment I’m prepared to have him be the ‘test’ experiment. In 5 years time, I might be able to advise you which one is better
Interesting article, having experienced both the state and private systems in Cornwall (St Kew Primary, Wadebridge Comprehensive and Truro High School for Girls) I think the establishment is less important than the individual teachers, and the pupil in question. I have fond memories of all three but my primary education at was then a very arts based St Kew CP has influenced me more than any other (hence the choice of interior design as a career I think!).
I found this really interesting, as when I was younger I attended both private and state schools, and have always had really strong feelings about what I ‘thought’ I thought, until Bodie and Finn started school. When Bodie was due to start school I was beside with myself with stress not wanting him to go to school here (to the point I even started looking into homeschooling as an alternative) as I had heard some terrible things about the local schools. We couldn’t afford private school so I was adamant I wanted him in a school that was at least as high up in the world of ofsted reports as possible……. ie I became obsessed with moving to Truro, somewhere definitely on the right side of the line (not sure where that line is but it must be there
) , and how the crow flies became my most used phrase for a while lol. As it happens, we didn’t move. He went to the school I didn’t want him to go to and he did well, liked school etc Said school has since become outstanding in their last couple of ofsted reports, and I personally believe is an excellent school, it was improving hugely whilst Bodie was there but when Finn started it had come on leaps and bounds and now amelia is doing amazingly well there. I know its not all about reading, (but just an example) but any school that can teach my 6 year old to be reading secret seven books, harry potter, and the hobbit completely by himself has to be doing SOMETHING right? Amelia looks all set to be reading fluently even earlier, she started school in sept and can already read a book on her own. They both love the school, and enjoy it so much (although they obviously have their off days not wanting to get dressed some mornings like any children 
). Anyway, my point was, I was always adamant I would of had my children go to private school if possible, if I could of sold my house to pay for it, I would of. Turns out I think their schools (especially the primary) are definitely providing as good an education as they would of had anywhere else. Ok they may not have quite so many extra activities after school…. but then maybe that means I get to do more stuff with them? 
Essentially, it really was just my hang up I think, and thankfully was completely un warranted, although I do appreciate we were lucky as well with the schools we ended up with as it could of been very different. I think essentially a lot of it comes down to the school in question, I’m sure there are good and bad schools on both sides?
Pat on the back for the good article anyway xoxo