Rugby Mumbo Jumbo, Private Schools Letters

                                                   Sport

Scott Wisemantel, the England attack coach explained how they prepared their wing, Jonny May, for the game against Wales.

Abstract Shapes, Madge Gill (1882-1961)

Photo Credit: London Borough of Newham [CC BY] 

“We periodise Jonny’s week as the Ferrari. So the Ferrari gets put in the garage, we put the covers on the Ferrari and give it a good grease and oil change and that is how we periodise Jonny’s week and it gives him a really good visual for his week. He is extremely detailed with his preparation.”

(The Guardian, 2019)

Mumbo jumbo. In the actual game the Ferrari got battered (concussed) and had to leave the field for repairs. Will May remember the “really good visual?” Time will tell.

Abolishing Private Schools

The Schoolmaster, Gerrit Dou (1613-1675) 

Photo Credit: The Fitzwilliam Museum [CC BY-NC-ND]

…Well let’s be clear at the outset: abolishing private schools would not improve provision for state pupils. In fact, state resources would be further stretched, with higher costs and bigger class sizes. Almost 580,000 children would be transferred into the state’s hands, leaving the Department for Education to foot the bill.

What if the private schools became specialist state schools?

Fundamentally, you do not improve education by tearing down excellent schools, nor is education a zero-sum game in which outcomes in one school improve because another one disappears.

You could use the excellence in the private schools for the benefit of talented individuals.

Independent schools provide excellence, capacity and innovation. They support science and arts subjects, which are vital to productivity; foreign languages as we enter a post… world; qualifications such as the International Baccalaureate which provide a rounded curriculum; and through their focus on sport, 43 per cent of our new cricketing world champions.

So private schools could be turned into centres of excellence where talent and ability are the essential factors for admission and not background or the ability to pay.

…The criticism is that independent school pupils have more spent on them. But will abolishing these schools level the playing field? Inequality exists even within the state system and explains why the house price premium next to a school rated outstanding by Ofsted can be more than £100,000. This would only get worse with more competition for good state school places.

Or perhaps the private schools could become means tested. If you have the talent in whatever the school specialises in then you are given a place. If the parents can afford the fees, they pay the full amount. If they earn say, less than £20,000, they pay a few hundred pounds.

Through bursaries, independent schools are working to become affordable to all families, as they once were before the scrapping of the direct grant.

Entry to Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester is by audition. Thus, hopefully, it is determined by musical talent. Could this be an example of how private schools could see their future?

(Barnaby Lenon, Chairman of the Independent Schools Council, The Times, 2019)  

Letters

A retired PE teacher was wheeled into the operating theatre. “Hello, Sir,” the surgeon greeted him. The man went pale. “I hope you’re not the fat kid who I used to make run round the pitch,” he joked. “Oh no,” the surgeon said. “He’s the anaesthetist.”

(The Times, 2019)

*Buying a sandwich at Leeds train station the man said to me, “Do you want to go for a drink?” I said, “I am so sorry, I’ve got a boyfriend.” And he replied, “No, it’s a meal deal: if you take a sandwich, you can get a drink as well.”

(The actress, Jenna Coleman, on being asked for her most embarrassing moment.)

(The Guardian, 2019)