Lessons in Britishnessfrom Financial Times, available 19.04.2015, www.ft.com Why the rarefied world of UK boarding schools appeals to parents around the world Perplexed and afraid. That is how 17-year-old Subomi Ajibola felt when she saw a hunt for the first time last year. In her home city of Lagos, dogs are commonly kept for security, so she was aghast when packs of yapping foxhounds descended on the Italianate gardens of her boarding school in Gloucestershire in the west of England. “It was quite shocking. I don’t do well with dogs — I’m not really an animal person,” she reflects. The memory makes the Nigerian teenager — who speaks with precision and projects a steely, calm air — animated and agitated. This year, the head girl of Westonbirt School resolved to enjoy this quintessentially English pastime, so she attended a lecture on the history of the Duke of Beaufort’s trail-hunt and met the riders. “That’s an experience I can speak about in the future if I meet anyone English elsewhere. Having been to an English boarding school, it’s really nice to say you have seen it.” Such shared upper-crust experiences are part of the reason Subomi's father, a lawyer who also attended an English boarding school, sends his daughter to Westonbirt. He is far from alone. About 20 per cent of Westonbirt’s intake is from overseas. Pupils come from 17 different countries, with the largest cohorts coming from mainland China, Nigeria and Germany. The school lays on transport to and from airports. There is nothing new about sending children overseas to such schools. In the days of the British empire, boarding schools thrived as colonial administrators and local rulers sought to imbue their children with British culture and character. They are a staple of fiction, from Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers to Ronald Searle’s St Trinian’s and, more recently, Hogwarts, the school for wizards in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Boarding schools’ image as purveyors of a gold standard of education has enticed wealthy foreign families in the 21st century to dispatch their children to the likes of Roedean, Wellington and Eton. Today, 32 per cent of the UK’s boarding school pupils are non-British nationals with parents living overseas, according to the Independent Schools Council, the representative body for the UK’s independent education sector. Of the total number of non-British pupils at all the UK’s fee-paying schools — both day and boarding — with parents living overseas, the greatest number is from Hong Kong (4,704). However, among the steepest rises in recent years have been the numbers of pupils from mainland China and Russia. In 2007, 2,345 Chinese children attended UK boarding schools; last year the figure had almost doubled to 4,381. Over the same period, the number of Russian pupils more than trebled, from 816 to 2,536. 1 Sherborne and Wellington. The headmistress of Westonbirt. sent his daughter Stephanie to Charterhouse. too. The UK system can find an area for them to flourish in and build their confidence. She operates from her house in London — home to a hodge-podge of contemporary artwork and trinkets. “We found him a school that encouraged his sportiness. Despite his fears that she would find it hard to settle and suffer homesickness. She tells the story of one boy who was sporty but not a rote learner. “There is massive interest in all top independent schools. and their abilities are noticed and developed”. a leading boarding school in Berkshire. a boarding school in Surrey. it is not purely about acquiring the educational equivalent of a Gucci handbag. Natasha Dangerfield. but it is not very much about individual development.” says Emma Vanbergen. southeast England. They’re not encouraged to fail. to set up satellite schools in locations such as Beijing. but while sending a son to Eton might provide a chance to brag at a Beijing dinner party. a parent from Hong Kong. ‘Chinese kids work very hard and are focused on academics.” Irina Shumovitch. According to Susan Hamlyn.” she says. master of Wellington College.” she says. to think for themselves. Such enthusiasm has even prompted some of the best-known schools. particularly in China and Russia. He hoped she would widen her horizons.‘We could fill the school several times with international students’ As emerging markets have matured. including Harrow. It is very formulaic. want to give their children more creative opportunities at school than they might gain from the rote learning and tough academic teaching in their own countries. is an educational consultant to Russian families. “That ability to develop an all-round person is something the Chinese don’t do in the way that they educate. an advisory service for Chinese parents. to analyse. Bangkok and Qatar. Tianjin. “It helped boost his confidence and he did better in other subjects. British boarding schools have gone from being the preserve of the wealthy elite in those countries to being an object of aspiration for the middle classes. of course. “Chinese kids work very hard and are focused on academics. familiarise herself with the west’s culture and history and develop her English. education consulting director at BE Education. The UK system can find an area for them to flourish in and build their confidence’ Education is a status symbol. It is about grades and it is about performance. if you don’t make a mistake and if you don’t fail you can’t move on — you can’t develop anything. he detects that she has gained “confidence and is more determined” in her studies. Hong Kong. Families are also starting to send their children away at a younger age. more parents from Russia and China are placing their children in British preparatory schools from the age of eight. 2 . And. Shanghai. Simon Tso. “The children are not encouraged to experiment.” says Anthony Seldon. she describes the educational system of her homeland as “very rigid”. We could fill the school several times over with international students. director of the Good Schools Guide’s advice service. Parents. Formerly a Russian teacher at St Paul’s Girls’ School in west London.” Ms Shumovitch thinks Russian parents love the idea that their children are not “humiliated and shouted at… [they] are taken as individuals.” Yet parents also have a desire for their children to immerse themselves in British culture and speak the lingua franca of business in preparation for the global workplace. notes similarities in the Chinese system with Ms Shumovitch’s description of Russian education. rather than straight into senior schools at 13. originally from Leningrad (she left the Soviet Union before the city was renamed St Petersburg). “They’re always afraid to make a mistake. southeast England. “Long gone are the days of following in parents’ footsteps. [Those] families who traditionally made up the lion’s share of independent school pupils now find the cost of such an education beyond their reach. headmaster of King’s College School in Wimbledon. and complain that they cannot afford boarding schools. the average cost of a term’s tuition and boarding was £6. south London. she says. the reason being. Ms Dangerfield says. resilient and networked’ William Richardson. has been “reliant on the international market”. private education has become unaffordable for many British families. They do well all round. 3 . The school.949. because private schools were charging too much. The most prestigious schools in the world teach the children of the very wealthiest families in the world. made the headlines when he drew parallels between the banks’ excess before the financial crisis and current private school fees. the money.” As Robin Fletcher. in large part.” he wrote in a blog. last year it was £9. marketing the school to interested families. Fees have risen steeply in recent years: the cost of sending a child to a UK boarding school has increased 38 per cent since 2007. She regularly tours Russia and China. Running a school is not purely about the education — it is also about the finances. “Children in boarding schools win out in the graduate labour market. About 80 per cent of her time is spent overseeing the business and 20 per cent is devoted to the curriculum. He warned of an impending fee crisis. They are self-confident. renting out the 210 acres of land and the former stately home that is the main school building for weddings. “The traditional English boarding family no longer sends their children to boarding school. general secretary of the HMC (the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference). resilient and networked.. As the global markets went into meltdown after 2007. but the schools themselves are keen to exploit this market. Westonbirt’s director of admissions. Society has changed.000 a year. in short. As the Good Schools Guide’s Susan Hamlyn observes: “Sending two or three kids to a boarding school is expensive.596. has seen great changes. and are selfconfident. They like to see their children at home. although she is working hard on other revenue streams — for example. then even the local accountants and lawyers. points out. Last year. the “squeezed middle”. is not those on average incomes. International pupils hold appeal for schools such as Westonbirt because. Andrew Halls. Natasha Dangerfield is candid about the boarding school’s dependence on foreign students. Society has changed’ “First the nurses stopped sending children to us. who has worked at various schools over the past 17 years. in the context of private education. then armed forces officers.” he says. Yet it is not only the cost that is deterring British families — attitudes have also shifted.‘Children in boarding schools win out in graduate labour market.. says British boarding schools are very good at making children resilient adults who can earn a good living. then the policemen.” says Ms Hamlyn.” she says. ‘The traditional English boarding family no longer sends their children to boarding school. but those who earn about £100. national director of the Boarding Schools’ Association. Fees and fears There is no shortage of overseas families that want to send their children to UK boarding schools. “We have allowed the apparently endless queue of wealthy families from across the world knocking at our doors to blind us to a simple truth: we charge too much. Sitting in her wood-panelled office.” Patricia Stevenson. Russian and Chinese children. particularly online. described his time there in the 1960s as a prison sentence: “Colditz in kilts. In a 2011 paper in the British Journal of Psychotherapy she wrote: “Children sent away to school at an early age suffer the sudden and often irrevocable loss of their primary attachments.” Many ex-boarders have spoken out in adulthood about their traumatic experiences at school. who have been drilled in exams. can be a tempting way to bolster performance. the true identity of the person then remains hidden.” says Mr Richardson. William Richardson.” Therapists have criticised the practice of sending children away from their families. says boarding schools have modernised and many offer a mix of boarding and day schooling — attractive to families in which both parents work. For schools dependent on league tables as marketing tools. They don’t ship their child off in the UK any more like they once did. HMC general secretary. was founded in 1990 to help adults affected by boarding. a defensive and protective encapsulation of the self may be acquired. proposed the classification of a cluster of symptoms and behaviours as “Boarding School Syndrome”. In a fast-changing world fraught with parental anxiety about children’s safety. 4 . Boarding schools counter that much has changed since Prince Charles’s time. “The boarding sector is quite confident — proponents of boarding believe they have strong story to tell of pastoral care. Foreign pupils not only offer British boarding schools the prospect of revenue but academic gain too. a psychotherapist. Boarding School Survivors. This pattern distorts intimate relationships and may continue into adult life. Prince Charles. for many this constitutes a significant trauma… In order to adapt to the system.” A support group. Stories of sexual abuse by teachers in decades gone by have done much to undermine parents’ confidence in the system. Joy Schaverien. who attended Gordonstoun in Scotland.Ms Dangerfield agrees: “Parents have a different approach to boarding. such an education is an attractive proposition. Pastoral care is a priority today and technology makes families just a Skype call away. You’re not asked to explain or evaluate. Mobile phones. Consequently the girls did not leave their room for a whole weekend. She remembers one call from a Chinese mother who said she had heard Harrow was the best school and wanted to send her daughters there. While English boarders may be able to escape school for the night. Stories are rife of ruthless guardians packing children into rooms with numerous bunkbeds. “I love Yorkshire pudding. 18. Some agents are paid on a commission basis. Technology can shrink the distance from home. They have never been to the UK’ With so many foreign pupils come problems. Many are nurturing hosts but. the agent charges another commission — a process Ms Dangerfield describes as “handbag shopping”. not particularly understand or apply it. A teary email from a child after flunking a maths exam might escalate in a way that it would not if the parent could talk to the child at the kitchen table. 5 . Chloe Au. Sixteen-year-old Lucrezia Antinori from Rome says that when she first spied the cream on puddings she thought it was “gross”. placing their charges in unsuitable schools simply to earn the cash. There is also the culture shock. though. Two of her friends are drawn into the conversation about school lunches. longs for Sunday roasts. No one had told her the school was exclusively for boys. With each move. [In Nigeria]. a child far removed from family is vulnerable to homesickness. she went a whole week unable to speak to her family because she did not know how to get a Skype connection. but now she is rather partial to it. Ms Hamlyn says many agents are “completely unscrupulous [and] have never even been to the UK”. so are in no position to recommend schools.Westonbirt's first and second lacrosse teams prepare for practice on the field Culture shock ‘Many agents are unscrupulous. When she arrived at Westonbirt. Guardians provide a home away from school at weekends and half-terms and if a medical emergency arises. Skype and WhatsApp may lessen the pangs but can sometimes exacerbate them.” She still has problems with the food. others are just in it for the money. you learn it. Rogue agents and advisers preying on parental anxiety can also be problematic. I struggled when I had to give my own opinion. Subomi at Westonbirt says she found the isolation of her boarding school difficult. such excursions are not viable for a pupil from Beijing. Subomi says she has occasionally found adapting difficult. Ms Dangerfield came across one who only let his charges use the bathroom for seven minutes in the morning and made no effort to include them in home life. weekend or half-term at home. Another trick is to persuade parents to keep moving children to different schools.” she says. The demands of the English education system can require a big adjustment. black is black and white is white. On a personal level. “The way we learnt [in Nigeria] is. But here you have to explain why black is black. from Hong Kong. too. as with rogue agents. There is. And [pop groups. There are a few girls who have “an awful lot of money”. When Ms Dangerfield arrived at Westonbirt two years ago. ‘A teenage girl from Russia is the same as a teenage girl from the UK’ A school and all its pupils benefit from a diverse and international intake. who sees her time Westonbirt as “a wonderful experience”.” he says. They go to London “and come back with bags full of Louis Vuitton and ridiculous amounts of money spent — and not a lot of work going on”. you stick to what you know and are not open to different things. Ostentatious wealth can also be difficult. But if there were. “If you are coming here with a closed mind. might stem the flow of foreign pupils. which made the reason for them coming here completely redundant. concern among schools that the poor state of the eurozone economy. But to get the best out of British education means being open to new ideas. Whatever the proportions of various nationalities. You will still have discussions about how disgusting lunches are. you use the perfume they bring to enrich the school. she says. foreign pupils will remain a fixture in British boarding schools — a prospect that pleases Subomi. though. as well as political instability and the plunging rouble in Russia. Westonbirt’s A-level history group — just four girls — are studying pre-revolutionary Russia. Irina Shumovitch believes.Ghettoised communities within schools are another problem.” She set about reducing the intake and trying to integrate various nationalities.” She recommends pupils be prepared to “see odd things or experience life in a different way”. She tells the story of one oligarch’s child who puts his Vertu designer phone away when he goes to school in favour of an old Nokia. for example.” he says. The Russian girl picks up on what she perceives to be the anti-Russian nature of some textbooks. because he is wary of being ostentatious.” she says. says Wellington College’s Anthony Seldon. thinks the situation in Russia might mean more affluent people will take their children — and their money — out of the country. she felt there were too many Chinese girls. “A teenage girl from Russia is the same really as a teenage girl from the UK. “They give an unbelievable amount to the school culture. with the result that those children make little effort to speak English or adapt to school life. I wouldn’t [have] the full English boarding school experience. “It meant they were able to be one group and not integrate with the rest of their school. You will still have discussions about the length of your school skirt. Their teacher observes that the presence of a girl from Moscow has enlivened discussions.” 6 . Subomi believes the balance today is right. “I am sensing a degree of confidence from schools. says Ms Dangerfield. Integration can prove difficult. English education can improve Russian life generally. “Our young people are going to be working abroad and it gives them a good foundation. “Sometimes I wish there were more Nigerian girls. If you can get to know foreign pupils as individuals. “Having only one type of child is not good for a school. Ms Dangerfield insists that despite the cultural differences.” Robin Fletcher of the Boarding Schools’ Association says many schools want the cultural mix that international students bring. such as] One Direction transcend everything. however. Many boarding schools have been criticised by parents and in the UK press for accepting too many children from one nationality. Mr Fletcher believes the strengthening UK economy might boost the number of British boarders in the coming years.” he says. What is the outlook for British boarding schools? The proportion of international pupils dipped slightly in 2014 — to 32 per cent from 34 per cent the previous year. it might not work as well for you. teenagers are the same the world over. Girls are permitted to speak in their mother tongue only in the evenings or at weekends. Ms Shumovitch.
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