Thinking ahead: Summer ideas

Jan 10, 2018

Here are a few ideas for your children – big or small – this summer

BEGINNING JUNE

MID JUNE

SUMMER SCHOOL + FAMILY

YOUNGSTERS

SUMMER SCHOOL RUN BY BOARDING SCHOOL

SPORT

ARTS

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

ACADEMIC

WITH BRITISH CHILDREN

BUDGET

WORK EXPERIENCE

SUMMER CAMP PLUS

USA

The Blues

Sep 13, 2017

“Oh, London is a man’s town, there’s power in the air;
And Paris is a woman’s town, with flowers in her hair;
And it’s sweet to dream in Venice, and it’s great to study Rome;
But when it comes to living there is no place like home.”*

My brother remembers a boy at his Prep school in the 70s, when he was about 8 years old, who, the moment his
parents had dropped him back at school, would race down the drive in a bid to escape.  In those days, conditions at
boarding schools were generally pretty tough and it was more or less standard to be permanently miserable,
constantly homesick.  Since it was rare to find any support from within the school, pupils had the choice between
keeping a stiff upper lip (ie. supressing their feelings) or running away.

Happily, much progress has been made since then. Homesickness has not been eradicated, of course: the next few
weeks will no doubt see boarding schools throughout Britain coping with numbers of tearful children.  On the whole,
however, after the first few days of no doubt feeling rather lost, pupils will be so busy – in and out of the classroom
– and making friends that they will hardly have time to be feel blue.  Getting involved in all that is on offer is a key
element in feeling part of the school and, in some small way, ‘at home’.

And what an enormous variety is on offer these days to keep pupils occupied throughout the week and the week
ends.  A transformation from my own boarding school days, from which I can remember two extra-curricular events:
1) watching the film “To Kill a Mocking Bird” on a big screen in the school hall and 2) stopping off for chips after
going to a play in a local town (I can’t remember what play; the chips were much more memorable).  I can
remember because they were about the only extra-curricular things that happened over 4 years of boarding school. Most week-ends were spent eating sweets, which might help overcome the Blues in the short term but make them
very much worse in the long run.

Of course – I say from my own experience – it is not uncommon for the parents to suffer the blues as well, feeling
the hole left by their absent child.  And so arises the question: how often should parents make contact?  Perhaps a
little more than a closely-monitored call once every half term on the House phone (harking back once more to my
own schooldays) but perhaps a little less than a long Skype home every evening. A family whose 10 year old son
has just started at a Prep school in England have been advised by the Headmaster not to call for the first week:  a
gentle way of saying ‘let us do our job and give him time to settle in without distractions from home.’

Rest assured: on hand today are a friendly team, well-qualified to listen to a child’s needs outside the classroom as
well as in.  These include a Housemaster or Housemistress and their deputy, a Tutor, Matron, nurses in the
infirmary, generally a chaplain and several other members of staff who a child can turn to for pastoral care.  There is
no longer any need to bottle up the blues, sharing them only with the pillow and teddy at night-time.

*Henry Van Dyke, 1909

Country Life

May 9, 2017

“Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”  Samuel Johnson*

There is no disputing that London is an exciting, vibrant city – currently The Place to

Be.  However, whilst I cannot deny that, if I found a pot of gold, I wouldn’t say no to a

house in Chelsea, I can assure you that there is a great deal more to England (and

indeed Britain) than London and I urge you to take the time to explore it.   Britain may

not have France’s glamorous ski stations or sunny beach resorts (why do you think

we Brits flock to them?) but, it does not lack variety, colour – and, above all, LIFE – lots of it.

In Britain, it is perfectly normal to live in the countryside full time; in fact, according to

official statistics, the rural population of England is growing steadily. Even in the

smallest village there is a pleasant feel of bustle and activity and a strong sense of

community and family life; the countryside is generally agreed to be the best place to

bring up children.

Of course, country life would not be complete without a local pub or two.  Gone are

the days of my childhood when my sister, brother and I were banished to the pub car

park with a bag of crisps whilst my parents enjoyed their weekend shandy:

nowadays, with licensing rules relaxed, pubs heave with families and offer all kinds of

food, from ‘home grown’ fish and chips to the rather more exotic Thai curry.

And then there are the countryside-based schools, both private and state, day and

boarding.  There is no lack of them: in fact, the choice can be bewildering.  I have a

list of 405 boarding schools (all based outside London) and am on a mission to visit

them all: roughly 200 to go.

Accompanied by BBC radio, I have motored thousands of miles up and down the

country over the past three years, driving from Ashby-de-la-Zouch to Barton-in-the

Beans via Upton Snodsbury, Westley Waterless and Great Snoring, taking in

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwll-llantysiliogogogoch on the way.  I have

encountered goats clinging on to Welsh cliffs, New Forest ponies roaming across the

Hampshire roads, found myself stuck behind sheep in a Wiltshire lane and been held

up by a couple of cows wandering along a Surrey High Street on a Monday morning.

Thanks to these unhurried creatures and the extra mile-long drive many schools

possess, I have often arrived frazzled, dishevelled – and late – at my destination.

And yet, however frazzled, dishevelled and horribly late I am, the welcome I receive

at each and every school is always warm and welcoming; quite literally at those

which have blissful, roaring fires in their main hall.  Within minutes I am ensconced in

a comfortable sofa, offered a cup of coffee and made to feel at home. This sense of

welcome and well-being continues as I am taken throughout the school: from

Chemistry lab to Dining Hall, from squash court to school theâtre, energetic children

dashing past from classroom to sports field, from saxophone practise to art studio.

On occasion, I have been accompanied by the Headmaster’s dog carrying a boys’

slipper in its mouth, have stopped to say hello to the Hunt as it rode through school

land or been introduced to the school pigs; on another I ended my tour by walking my

own dogs through the school fields with the registrar. There has hardly been a visit

when I don’t think ‘I wish I had been to school here’.

My own boarding school was a former Tudor Palace, once owned by Henry VIII and

accessed by a vast tree-lined drive.  The surrounding area has now become fairly

built up but in my time the weekly highlight was a long traipse over country fields to

get to the local sweet shop.  Most of my memories of the school are of being outside:

cross-country running in the winter, playing tennis until late in summer evenings, or

simply the smell of freshly cut grass as I gazed out of the window during an afternoon

of maths. The rural environment was certainly of no detriment to fellow pupils such as

designer Anya Hindmarch and CNN’s Christina Amanpour who, along with other ‘Old

Girls’ turned successful business women, have gone on to cope rather well with the

pace of city life.

Although my job is to recommend boarding schools, I sometimes feel like a traveI

agent or member of the local tourist board, at times resorting to preparing

photographs of local towns for parents to reassure them that their child is not being

packed off to outer Siberia.  Just as I explain to people that sending my own children

to boarding school in England was a present, not a punishment, I try to explain to

families that venturing into the depths of the British countryside is a positive thing, not

a banishment.

Whilst I acknowledge the choice of a school should not be made on its physical

appearance or the acres of parkland surrounding it, I do believe that a beautiful

environment can only have a positive effect on pretty much anyone, children and

teachers alike: really worth going that extra mile. The airport may not be Heathrow or

the station St Pancras, but the jostling of people on arrival is likely to be lesser and

the traffic on the journey onwards – baring a few stray beasts – usually lighter.  It

does not mean, however, that the quality of a school will be inferior; simply, that the

choice will be greater.

So I urge you: take the time, branch out, get off the beaten track – and don’t miss out

on these countryside gems, fizzing with life seven days a week.

*Samuel Johnson wrote ‘A dictionary of the English Language’ in 1755.

HAPPY EASTER

Apr 6, 2017

Sorry, this entry is only available in Français.

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