When single sex schools die, we will all be poorer
I didn't go to boarding school, but some small part of me feels as if I did because my inner life was vividly informed by books that supplied the requisite details: tuck boxes, luggage labels, dormitories, matrons, sanitoriums and exeats.
Our family bookshelves heaved with Enid Blyton's Malory Towers, Anthony Buckeridge's Jennings series and, most blissful of all, Geoffrey Willans' Molesworth escapades and Ronald Searle's St Trinian's volumes.
Even when my reading wasn't directly concerned with the single-sex boarding experience, girls and boys in children's literature were inevitably travelling home, or to stay with a guardian (the staple rule in children's books dictating that parents must be removed to make adventure possible), with initialled metal trunks, ready to let off steam. So seductive were these books that, aged 10, I idly daydreamed about being banished to a remote, cliff-top ladies' college. Or, better still, toiling as the school's maid after my father died, having lost his fortune investing in a friend's diamond mine, like Sara in Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess.
But I can't help wondering how the shelves of children will look in 20 years after all the upheavals in the private education sector. Surely the subject of single-sex boarding schools will be firmly relegated to the realms of fantasy, if it informs literature at all.
This week The Telegraph revealed that Labour's imposition of VAT on school fees has had a particularly brutal effect on single-sex independent schools, which are closing or going co-ed at a rate of knots. Once boys public schools littered the land, including many ropey ones (think of Evelyn Waugh's Pennyfeather in Decline and Fall, teaching at Llanabba Castle School). Now there are only four all-boys boarding schools left in the UK: Eton, Harrow, Radley and Tonbridge. Meanwhile, all girls establishments are racing to take boys, despite studies showing girls do best when educated separately.
Not only will children's shelves be changed by the upheaval, adult literature will be transformed too. So many books I've loved unlock British history and our national temperament – in particular our stiff upper-lip and fortitude – by taking an unsentimental look at boarding school life. Jane Eyre wouldn't linger long in the imagination had she not triumphed over the hideous deprivations she endured at Lowood School. Logan Mountstuart in William Boyd's Any Human Heart has a life underpinned by the friendships and rivalries he establishes at public school.
More chilling, is Sebastian Faulks' fine novel Engleby, where the working-class anti-hero is at an 'ancient university', after winning a scholarship to Chatfield, a public school for the sons of naval officers. During his schooldays he was hideously bullied and called 'Toilet Engleby' for the heinous crime of not saying 'lavatory', like his posher classmates.
If you think that sounds off-putting, then I can only say that literary memoirs like Charles Spencer's A Very Private Education and Antonia White's Frost in May are darker still. But they're also beautifully-written, salutary reminders that a late 20th-century revolution in the field of child psychology served to revolutionise private education, introducing the previously alien concept of wellbeing.
Not all boarding-school lit is grim. Look at James Hilton's Goodbye Mr Chips, a tear-jerking love letter to the finest teachers, while many women would kill to take refuge from modern life at Angela Brazil's St Chad's. The sad fact is these time-honoured avenues of escapism will slowly disappear, along with the schools themselves. Future generations, schooled by AI, will never know the worlds of nuance summoned by the phrase 'chizz chizz'. It will all be another country.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News24
7 hours ago
- News24
DA to challenge govt's plan for ‘crude racial classification' in workplace to meet quotas
Department of Employment and Labour/X Be among those who shape the future with knowledge. Uncover exclusive stories that captivate your mind and heart with our FREE 14-day subscription trial. Dive into a world of inspiration, learning, and empowerment. You can only trial once.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Family of 4 Were Vacationing When They Died in Air India Crash, Relatives Say as They Slam U.K. Government for 'No Support'
Mariam Ali Syed, her husband Javed, and their two children, Zayn, 5, and Amani, 4, were among the 242 people on the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner on June 12, according to Syed's sister-in-law, Yasmine Hassan She accused the U.K. Foreign Office of a lack of assistance to relatives of the 53 U.K. nationals who were on the plane Her family wants to travel to India, where the London-bound plane took off from when it crashed shortly after takeoffRelatives have confirmed a British family of four died on the doomed Air India flight as they slam the British Foreign Office for their lack of support. Mariam Ali Syed, her husband Javed, and their two children, Zayn, 5, and Amani, 4, were among the 242 people on the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London when it crashed shortly after takeoff in Ahmedabad, India, on Thursday, June 12 — Yasmine Hassan, Syed's sister-in-law, told The Telegraph. She said Syed, 44, and her family were returning from a vacation in India, adding that Syed worked for the London department store Harrods. But Hassan alleged the British Foreign Office has not extended support to the victims' families, saying there were 53 British nationals on the flight. Hassan also told the British newspaper that Sadaf Javed, Syed's older sister, who resides in London, wants to go to Ahmedabad but received no assistance from the Foreign Office. 'My sister-in-law, who is one of the passenger's actual sisters, is saying, 'I need to get to India. I need to get there as soon as possible. I need to bring my babies home',' Hassan said, according to The Telegraph. On Thursday, Air India announced that it has established friends and relatives assistance centers at Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Gatwick airports 'to provide support and take care of the needs of the families and loved ones of those on flight AI171.' 'These centres are facilitating the travel of family members to Ahmedabad,' the airline 's statement continued. Hassan told The Telegraph that the British Foreign Office has not offered anything similar as far as flying relatives to Ahmedabad. 'I called the UK Foreign Office to say, 'We've checked online and we can see that Air India has arranged two flights to help people from other parts of India get to Ahmedabad to be with their families. Is the UK doing anything like that?' ' Hassan recalls. Hassan was told by someone at the Foreign Office that they were unaware of that. 'So then I asked, 'Is there anyone I can speak to? Someone who might know if they're waiving visa requirements or offering fast-track visas, or if any emergency flights are being put on?' Again, she just said, 'No,' ' Hassan added. She told The Telegraph that she understands the lack of answers from British government officials, realizing that these situations take time. But she said she is angry by the apparent lack of support from the government. 'We really think people need to know that we've had no support – and they're British citizens. Yet no one from the Government has contacted us to ask, 'Can we do anything to help?' ' Hassan said. PEOPLE contacted the British Foreign Office on Friday, June 13, for comment. In a statement shared with The Telegraph, a spokesperson from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said, 'Our thoughts are with all those affected by the tragic plane crash in India – this is an unfolding situation, and it will undoubtedly be causing a huge amount of worry and concern.' 'FCDO staff are working urgently with local authorities in India and the UK to ensure families and friends are supported in the coming days, whether in the UK or in India,' the statement continued. Meanwhile, about 200 relatives of the crash victims have offered DNA samples at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital as part of the identification process, CNN and The New York Times reported. Among the relatives faced with donating a DNA sample was Sangeeta Gauswami, who saw her 19-year-old son, Sanket, off on the plane for London. 'We have had no news,' Gauswami said, according to CNN. 'We keep asking but no one will tell us.' Among the other 242 victims from the flight include two doctors and their children and the plane's captain and first officer, and a couple who shared an Instagram video before boarding the plane. Only one person, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a British man, survived the crash. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
British air crash victims' families hit out at ‘no support' from Foreign Office
The relatives of a British family said to have died in the Air India plane crash have expressed their 'anger' at the Foreign Office's failure to support them. Speaking exclusively to The Telegraph, Yasmine Hassan, 44, from west London, confirmed that her sister-in-law, Mariam Ali Syed, along with her husband Javed and the couple's two young children, Zayn, five, and Amani, four, were on board the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner when it crashed in Ahmedabad shortly after take-off on Thursday. The young family were returning from a holiday in India. Mariam, 35, had worked for almost a decade as a brand ambassador at Harrods. Mrs Hassan broke down when confirming the identities of Mariam's children, the two youngest family members on board the flight. She said: 'They are so small, they are five and four. And it's just thinking how scared they must have been.' She told The Telegraph: 'We're not angry about the lack of answers [from UK government officials] – we understand that takes time. We're angry because no one has reached out to offer support or even ask if we need anything. These are British citizens.' Mrs Hassan said she was pleading with the Government to offer urgent support to relatives of the 53 British citizens aboard the flight. She explained that her other sister-in-law, Sadaf Javed, 48, Mariam's elder sister, another British citizen living in London, was desperate to travel to Ahmedabad, but had so far been offered no support or assistance from the Foreign Office. 'My sister-in-law, who is one of the passenger's actual sisters, is saying, 'I need to get to India. I need to get there as soon as possible. I need to bring my babies home',' she explained. On Thursday, Air India confirmed it would fly in relatives of families who had been aboard the flight from across India. But Mrs Hassan said she was shocked that the UK Foreign Office had no plans to offer similar support to families in Britain. 'I called the UK Foreign Office to say, 'We've checked online and we can see that Air India has arranged two flights to help people from other parts of India get to Ahmedabad to be with their families. Is the UK doing anything like that?' 'The last thing my sister-in-law needs right now is to be worrying about visas and paperwork, when she's not even in the right head space. 'So I asked the Foreign Office, 'Do you know if the UK Government is arranging anything similar? Is anything being sorted?' And the woman just said, 'No, we haven't been informed of anything like that, sorry'. 'So then I asked, 'Is there anyone I can speak to? Someone who might know if they're waiving visa requirements or offering fast-track visas, or if any emergency flights are being put on?' Again, she just said, 'No.'' Mrs Hassan said she wanted to make the public aware of how little support was actually available for British families of those on board the crashed airliner. 'We really think people need to know that we've had no support – and they're British citizens. Yet no one from the Government has contacted us to ask, 'Can we do anything to help?' 'There are 53 British nationals on that flight. Some of them are from the same family. 'My sister-in-law's just thinking, 'I want to get there and be there no matter what happens'. 'This is her baby sister, her husband, and her sister's two children. 'Those two children see her like a second mum. She just wants to be there. And now we're having the stress of trawling airline websites, trying to find flights, wondering if we need an emergency visa, asking ourselves, 'Do we have to go to the Indian embassy? Can we apply for an e-visa?' – it's the added pressure when we're already struggling to cope.' Mrs Hassan made clear that the family was not asking for financial help, simply administrative support. 'I don't care if it's £1,000 or £3,000, I've got a credit card.' She also noted that the media appear to be better informed than the Government. 'Within the space of a few hours, we had The Telegraph and the BBC turn up at our house. We haven't had any representation from the Government come and ask, 'How's your family doing? This is a crisis. Can we support you in any way?' Nothing,' she added. A spokesman for the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) told The Telegraph: 'Our thoughts are with all those affected by the tragic plane crash in India – this is an unfolding situation, and it will undoubtedly be causing a huge amount of worry and concern. 'FCDO staff are working urgently with local authorities in India and the UK to ensure families and friends are supported in the coming days, whether in the UK or in India.' The spokesman declined to say whether the FCDO plans to arrange urgent travel to Ahmedabad for UK-based relatives of those on the Air India flight. However, consular support in the region has been increased to assist British nationals and work with Indian authorities, with the British High Commissioner travelling there on Thursday. A dedicated FCDO helpline has also been set up. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
