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Schools Guide



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Foreword

When we in the Forces take the decision to send our children to boarding schools, there are always doubts. Will the school we have chosen provide the stability that we believe our children requiremore

Introduction

"We in the Services have three options: our children have a disruptive education; we board; or we live apart from our families. None of these is ideal for most people". Such was a recent indictment of the choice facing Service parents starting to educate theirmore

Articles
The Education of Service Children - the boarding option - Introduction Service Children's Education (SCE) CEAS Boarding? Choosing a School Government Funded Boarding Schools Boarding at an Independent School Types of boarding School Specialist Schools The Sixth Form Whatever next? Overseas Pupils and parents
Paying the fees

Paying the school fees ranks second only to paying one’s mortgage and, as such, this is a real attention-grabbing subject. Sending a child off to a fee-paying school means not only a major financial 2006: more

Special Awards

Looking specifically at grants and awards for children of those in the Armed Forces the ISBI lists some 200 schools. The following list has been specifically researched from the Independent more

From the editor

Ian Jones' career includes eleven years as Head Master of Bedford School, two years as the Director of Studies at Britannia Royal Naval College more

Useful information
 

BOYS ONLY
– Dr Ralph Townsend,Headmaster of Winchester College

To the best of my knowledge, Winchester College is the only boys’ school to have conducted a public consultation among all its constituents on the question of whether or not it should admit girls. One might have thought, in the case of a school that has educated boys (only) since 1382, that the overwhelming view would be to maintain the status quo, but that turned out in fact not to be the case, and so we had a genuine debate and a real choice to make.

There is (as yet at least) no conclusive research as to whether or not boys and girls learn better separately or together. In the end, we decided to stick to boys only, but not for reactionary reasons. One reason was that there are very few of boys-only full boarding schools left, and so there was an incentive to maintain a market choice. But more substantive reasons were that:

• Winchester has been educating boys for a very long time and we have built up a great reservoir of know-how about how to bring the best out of boys, especially those of an intellectual cast of mind. In treading their own path through the adolescent maze, the presence of girls can cause boys to hide their vulnerability and innocence, both of which are qualities to be respected and appreciated.

• The work of developing cultural sensitivity and confidence in adolescent boys (who retreat easily into macho postures in the face of feminine articulacy) requires careful handling: we want them playing the violins as well as the trombones!

• Given the right circumstances, boys like to take intellectual risks. They will chance their arm for the original idea, but not easily if girls are there to (unintentionally) inhibit or embarrass them!

• Some boys, at least, need time and space to develop away from the pressure to measure up to the conventions of “social adequacy” perpetrated by jiggling hormones. You can’t do everything at once, and not every kind of adequacy has to be achieved by the age of eighteen!

With imagination and organisation, it is possible to ensure that meeting girls and engaging with them intellectually and socially is a regular part of life in a boys’ boarding school. For these reasons and more, we continue to believe that there is a legitimate place for the boys-only model, perhaps not for all, but certainly for some.

Dr Ralph Townsend became Headmaster of Winchester College in 2005. He was previously Headmaster of Oundle School and before that Headmaster of Sydney Grammar School. He has taught in the Theology Faculty at Oxford and held teaching appointments at Dover College, Abingdon School and Eton. He has written books, articles and reviews and is a governor of a number of schools. He is an Honorary Liveryman of the Grocers' Company.