November Newsletter 2017 People who attend these nine schools are 94 times more likely to join Britain’s elite.

Thursday December 14th, 2017

A few more weeks left until the end of this school term. Christmas preparations are on the way, GCSE and A-Level students in some schools will start their mocks just before the holidays. Mock exams or mocks are a great “dress rehearsal” of future exams and a good indicator of all the areas that need addressing in preparation to the real exams.

Please remember to put in your calendar Christmas Carols at your child’s school, it is the highlight of the year and is always well worth your attendance.

If you are spending any part of this Christmas holidays in London, have a look at our guide of ice skating rinks in our Blog from last November. The popular ice rinks in London are more or less the same this year, with addition of a few new ones. I personally will be trying out Skylight, London’s first rooftop ice rink. This one looks like less of a family more of a young people’s hangout and therefore was chosen as the venue for our annual ice skating by my teenage daughter who will be visiting back from her uni. If you have children younger than 15, I’d choose a more traditional venue from our list.

In this issue I would like to talk about public schools in the UK and their significance in modern society.

People who attend these nine schools are 94 times more likely to join Britain’s elite.

Two leading British newspapers Independent and The Telegraph recently published their views on the research into the study, conducted by the London School of Economics and published in the American Sociological Review. The review looked into the past and present influence of the nine so-called Clarendon Schools: Charterhouse, Eton, Harrow, Merchant Taylor’s, Rugby, Shrewsbury, St Paul’s, Westminster, and Winchester College.

The two papers had very different headlines on the topic. Independent entitled their article:

People who attend these nine schools are 94 times more likely to join Britain’s elite.

The Telegraph decided that there are some good news for us:

Boys’ public school dominance over British elite has ‘diminished significantly’ over time, study finds. 

The truth is, although the dominance of the old boys network has somewhat diminished over time, still, Clarendon Schools  –  Charterhouse, Eton, Harrow, Merchant Taylor’s, Rugby, Shrewsbury, St Paul’s, Westminster, and Winchester College –  have traditionally educated around 0.15 per cent of all people aged 13 to 18, but still produce nearly 10 per cent of all Who’s Who entrants.

Of the UK’s 54 prime ministers, 36 were educated at one of the elite schools.

Even Oxbridge graduates are twice more likely to reach the elite if they are alumni from the nine Clarendon Schools.

Dr Aaron Reeves and Dr Sam Friedman, the lead authors of the paper, said: “Although the Clarendon schools have not always been the best performing schools in the country they have consistently remained the most successful in propelling their alumni into elite positions.”

Clearly their power lies beyond simple academic excellence and may be rooted in an extensive extra-curricular education that endows old boys with a particular way of being in the world that signals elite male status to others.

While the democratisation of education clearly dented the influence of these elite schools, their power remains a testament to how far adrift Britain lies from true equality of opportunity.

Who’s Who is the oldest listing of prominent British people since 1849. It has been published annually since 1897 and automatically includes people who reached certain prominent position in their career. It includes MP’s, senior civil servants, Peers, Dames and Knights, Poet Laureates and other noteworthy professionals.

Clarendon schools are the 9 schools that have been investigated for the use of public funding, financial and educational conduct in 1861-1864. Subsequently 7 of the 9 schools under Clarendon Commission investigation were included in the Parliamentary Act of Public schools of 1868. The act was to reform and regulate the schools that grew out from charitable organisations to educate the children of the poor into independent profitable organisations. Arguably this act has helped to further widen the divide between the rich the poor.

Merchant Taylor’s and St Paul’s protested, saying that they were not boarding schools and managed to get out of the Charter therefore only 7 schools featured in the final Act of Public schools, but are still included into the 9 Clarendon schools when we talk about it.

On the Subject of Religious Education.

Our other topic for this newsletter is the school subject of RE, or RS. In the UK, quite uniquely, Religious Education (RE) is part of the main curriculum. Although it can be taught with slight variations, approved by the local and school councils, it normally covers the study of a number of different religions, visits to synagogues, mosques and catholic churches and a detailed study of traditions, ceremonies and history of each of the major religions.

Religious Studies is the subject that pupils can take for their GCSE and A-Level exams and goes deeper into the studies of psychology, sociology and philosophy behind each religion as well as their history.

UK has always had complicated relationship with religion, particularly prominent historical events related to separation from Catholicism and the move to the Protestant church initiated by Henry VIII.

From 1950 to 1995, following the effects of World War Two, which had painfully brought the world closer together and the entry of black West Indians, and later Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists into a formerly white Christian country; religious renaissance in the ‘new’ nations such as India, Pakistan, Japan,  Israel,  Indonesia, Malaysia, and so on whereby other religions became known globally.

Religious Studies grew tremendously so that more advanced studies of the major religions, the minor religions, dead religions, indigenous religions, new religious movements and new-age type religions began to proliferate.

These days the school subject of RS taken at A-Level will get you well prepared for the university course on anything from Theology, Religious Studies and Psychology to History, Sociology and English.

I personally think that Religious Studies is one of the essential subjects on a par with History that needs to be covered in one form or another at school to enable young people to understand how other people think and live in peace with other people on this planet.