{"id":252,"date":"2014-04-02T22:27:06","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T21:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hilarymoriarty.com\/blog\/?p=252"},"modified":"2014-04-02T22:27:06","modified_gmt":"2014-04-02T21:27:06","slug":"because-its-worth-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/?p=252","title":{"rendered":"Because it's worth it"},"content":{"rendered":"

A good education costs more than ever and independent schools need to show that they offer value for money, says Hilary Moriarty
\n
\nIn recessionary times, anyone contemplating independent education for their offspring must take pause for thought before they embark on the enterprise. How much? For how long? And how much is that in total? After tax? And if they are thinking about a child becoming a boarder, it’s probably the same questions, but with a higher pitch at the end of the sentence, demanding, in print, at least two question marks and italics \u2013 How much?? Answer: a boarding fee now will cost more than the average national wage.
\nIs it worth it? A good education is always worth it. Getting the right ‘good education’ for each individual child is the hard bit \u2013 broad, balanced, thorough, inspiring, tailored eventually to the interests and aspirations and talents of each child to enable them to go on to lead productive, well-enough-remunerated lives. Not a tall order at all.
\nResearch indicates that even people who cannot afford an independent education would like it if they could. They believe the smaller classes, more subject-expert staff, the longer days, the broader curriculum, the extra-curricular activities (Eton produces more than 25 student plays a year, when many schools think one big production a year is hard work) \u2013 all these things add up to a better education than is generally available in the local state school.
\nYou only have to look at the academic results, and the preponderance of independently educated people in the best universities and in the highest ranks of the most esteemed professions, to believe that it’s worth it. Indeed, it’s so worth it, government is looking to the independent sector to help them raise the game in state schools.
\nThe trouble is the rise in independent school fees, and in boarding most of all, has transformed the customer. I am sure I would enjoy the ride in a Rolls Royce, it would probably be money well spent, but ‘worth it’ becomes immaterial if the price is simply too high.
\nMy husband and I, who sent four children to independent senior schools, two of them as boarders, were not then \u2013 nor are we now \u2013 Rolls Royce riders. But it’s quite possible that most parents now able to afford the kind of education which I thought was expensive and which is now eye-wateringly so actually are Rolls Royce people. And if they are, they will come to the school doors with very different expectations of the head and the school than was the case back in the day.
\nWe were of the generation of parents who virtually did what the head asked of us, or told us, or allowed us. Viz. when I asked if our son entering senior school as a boarder could come home for a weekend every two weeks, the head was horrified \u2013 \u201cI do not want boys in class on Monday morning unable to think straight because they have been having a high old time at home all weekend! Certainly not!\u201d I capitulated. I do not recall muttering, \u201cYes sir,\u201d but I suspect I came pretty close.
\nIf I am sure of anything these days, it is that those days are gone. A headteacher talking to a parent like that now, would not see her, or her beloved, valuable child, for dust. The prices are now so high that the parents who can afford them have turned into extremely discerning customers: upset them at your peril. If I was grateful to be allowed to approach, they believe the customer is king.
\nSo what changed? The world, my friend, the world. Raise the fees, reduce the market, and a tender market will need more nurturing. Today’s parents do not kowtow to people who might once have said, \u201cWe are the professionals, leave it to us.\u201d A high-handed stance is likely to be greeted with a baffled, \u201cExcuse me? I am the customer \u2013 yes? I am paying the bill \u2013 yes? Then I expect service, the very best service, look at the prices!\u201d
\nWhile headteachers may have woken up to the new world, conjuring appropriate service from the whole school is not necessarily easy. Making sure the message of doing the job better than ever before gets through to the frontline troops can be a real challenge.
\nWorking out who is on the frontline, of course, is not always easy. These days, with prospective parents and pupils considering many schools before making their decisions, particularly for boarding, the front line is remote: the website. Slow, clunky, out of date, neglected, tired \u2013 pupil and parent are gone in 60 seconds.
\nHow often have I searched a website and not been able to find the head’s name? Or the school phone number? Or a message from the head \u2013 and when I do, how often is it very, very long and considered to the point of boring, and not actually welcoming? And the news? How recent? I have even gone to websites where I know there has been a change of head, but it’s not on the website. Ah. Photographs of staff? Even the head? Not always. More particularly these days, film clips? Something of the life and vitality of a school? A peephole into what it’s really like? A daily shot of today’s lunch? How many children with phones that could take film every day \u2013 great lesson, great match, great production??? The question marks are me thinking, come on! So much more is possible \u2013 and it’s your front window, your chance to say, \u201cCome on in, it’s really great here \u2013 look!\u201d
\nOr listen. Start with a phone call. I’m the head who once walked into her school’s hectic morning break reception area, much milling at the desk, and heard the receptionist lift a shrill phone and bark \u201cWhat!\u201d Might that have been a prospective parent, considering sending a child to board at \u00a3X per year for, perhaps five years? Yes, it might.
\nAt least it was a human voice. It is less common in independent schools, but even they now sometimes confront the casual caller \u2013 maybe with triplets aged 12, with a combined IQ of 500 and already Grade 8 in six instruments \u2013 with a recording which drones, \u201cThank you for calling Bloggs’ Academy. If you wish to report an absence\u2026\u201d You know the rest. Listening to it will steal three minutes of your life, and to prevent such loss you may decide to call a different school at once. Why start with absence? Are those calls so frequent they get priority? If so, what’s wrong with your school? Why don’t pupils just love to be there, come hell or high water?? I have even heard \u201cPress six for lockers and pastoral care.\u201d What? What?? Never mind the bizarre combination, what lunacy made you tell the world that the most important thing you do \u2013 look after the welfare of children \u2013 is way down there with the lockers? What madness is this?
\nSo \u2013 an independent education, possibly with boarding, is it worth it? Yes. But don’t take it for granted: to make it so, you may have to work very hard indeed.
\nThis article first appeared at http:\/\/ie-today.co.uk\/News\/because_its_worth_it_<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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