04-05-2025
Gillian duCharme obituary: Private head who switched to state school
Gillian duCharme had been head of Benenden School for 12 years when she was approached by a producer on Back To The Floor, a BBC series that ran from 1997 to 2002 in which people at the top of their profession volunteered to 'go back to basics'. The episode 'A Class Apart' aimed to show the sharp divide of the British education system by sending duCharme, a slender, swan-necked woman in her fifties who had spent most of her life in private schools, to a tough inner-city comprehensive. She agreed to do it, explaining: 'I'm deeply curious. I'd like to see how it all works, because I don't know.'
Set in 250 acres of rolling Kent countryside, Benenden was one of Britain's most expensive private
