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'Why I believe in a boarding school education'

Malika Browne writes in The Times discussing why she supports a boarding school education, despite other parents' reactions to her decision.

My son’s school life is one long playdate, and one that does not involve stressful long drives or commutes on the London Underground. When he comes home for his absurdly long holidays, I feel that the time we spend together is quality time, free from school work and extra tutoring.

Boarding also now comes in many flexible forms. At my son’s school communication between children and their parents is encouraged and we are welcome to visit whenever we wish. The baffling trend for bussing children from London to the countryside in the morning and bringing them back in the evening — a growth market for small country schools — is a sign that parents realise how much more boarding schools can pack into a day, and yet they still bring their children home, no doubt exhausted, at night.

We are now back in London for the next few years — and possibly for good — but our children have remained full boarders and will continue to board for the foreseeable future. We see them every three or four weeks and we speak to them every second or third day. Selfish though it may sound, I am looking forward to not having to bear the entire brunt of their puberty when it hits.

Read more at: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/times2/why-i-sent-my-son-to-board-aged-8-s32kbjxpp

Schools are not preparing pupils for modern world of work where they will have 17 jobs in their lifetime, says leading head

Dr Anthony Wallersteiner, headmaster of Stowe School, discusses why preparing pupils for the world will be viewed by the "successful schools of the future" with more importance than preparing pupils for A-levels.

Wallersteiner criticises the Government’s new T-Levels, due to be introduced in 2020, as “not nearly radical enough” and calls for “new ecology of education which puts work experience at the heart of schools and universities.”

 “We’re working with an exam system that is not much changed from Edwardian times”, writes the headmaster, who has been at the helm at the co-educational boarding school in Buckingham since 2003.

“The truth is, making students sit alone at their desks does little to prepare them for a world where they will be working digitally, flexibly and collaboratively.

“Tomorrow’s school leavers and graduates will require a range of skills, not just scores: over their careers, they are likely to have an average of 17 jobs in five different fields of employment.

“Core skills like mathematics, writing and science will remain key but modern employers demand new ones like collaboration, coding, digital literacy, fluency in languages, critical thinking, creativity and entrepreneurial skills.”

Describing GCSEs and A Levels as “too narrow” he points out that companies like Microsoft are already starting to design their own online courses. “Ultimately, unless they respond, schools could find themselves cut out of the education process,” he warns.

“Schools, universities and businesses need to work together to prepare young people for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that haven’t yet been invented and solving problems which can only be imagined,” he says.

“The successful school of the future will regard preparation for work as more important than preparing its pupils for A-levels.”

Read more at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/11/09/schools-not-preparing-pupils-modern-world-work-will-have-17/