Are we alone?

[ailurophile]

Onewestguncopse wrote

It is the nature of young people to resist change at first, then accept it gradually before embracing the new order as 'tradition' to be defended at all costs! In five years most of the current pupils who knew about the past will have moved on - staff tend to stay for longer but on the whole move on too if the school changes in a way that does not suit. I think that CH will continue to many years to come but would be very surprised if it was not a different place (with the same essential caring ethos) by the time that my son who is 10 and may join the school in 2010 leaves.

The Old Blue fraternity tend to feel nostaligic in a way that the current Blues do not understand - their time for nostalgia will come but most pupils in my experience just want to get on with things, stay out of trouble, make friends, have fun and get a good education. The naughty and vocal always account for less than 10% of the whole (if that).

So in answer to your question, some pupils feel strongly about the changes (inevitable), others grumble but accept and a lot either do not care or support the changes. A bit like Old Blues - i would think that 80% of Old Blues either accept change, feel uneasy but accept change or frankly do not give a damn!!

Thank you for your response, but I fear that my actual question has been less than clear! Of course I absolutely understand that a school is going to change and new traditions evolve over time. As it happens I have worked for the same employer for over 20 years, and my own job - indeed the whole nature of my industry - has changed beyond recognition during that period. I am far from expecting things to remain 'just so'. What concerns me about CH however is the pace, and more specifically the nature, of the changes which are happening, and the way in which these changes are being communicated to parents.

I opened this thread because I was shocked by a huge and almost overnight rise in our 'means tested' fees which was out of all proportion to any increase in our actual means, and because no-one at the school was prepared to recognise the impact of this on our family or to discuss it with us. Onewestguncopse says that "most pupils in my experience just want to get on with things, stay out of trouble, make friends, have fun and get a good education." Sadly, my children are unlikely to be able to continue to do this at CH, and it is clear from the posts on this thread that we are not alone in having to think about withdrawing them from the school which they love. It is the specific impact of financial changes on families like ours that I was hoping someone at CH might recognise. Perhaps it is unfair to expect Onewestguncopse to comment; if even the Headmaster is powerless to act in the interests of these pupils, what can the staff be feeling?

[onewestguncopse]

I know staff are sympathetic and certainly feel that to withdraw a pupil for financial reasons must be painful and stressful for all concerned. Sadly this is not uncommon now - indeed we are often now getting enquiries from parents at other fee paying schools who have lost jobs or hit hard times. Unfortunately for some reason our fees seem oddly high in the 'middle order'. Not sure of the figures, but I know that I could not afford to send Harry to CH as a teacher at another school. The fact remains however that FULL BOARDING is very very expensive. Our full fees are £10,000 more than those of decent day schools. Therefore, a generous 50% means tested bursary at that day school would mean an education for £2500 a term as opposed to £4,000 here.

That is the challenge and that is why (IMHO) that Full Boarding without any option of day places to boost revenue (and we would fill day places here in days) is unlikely to remain viable.

[lonelymom]

Are you saying that it is likely that CH will soon be offering places to day pupils? If so, I didn't know that was in the pipeline

[YadaYada]

It seems as if there is a very delicate balance between the original ethos of the school and the need to make ends meet.

[lonelymom]

Yes, totally agree, and I'm not saying that I don't agree with the decision to do so (if I've got the right end of the stick, that is), I just didn't realise it was something being considered. I suppose it makes sense to do it, but I wonder what the effect would be on the children, whether a 'them and us' situation would be created between the boarders and the day pupils.

[dinahcat]

I am not sure what westguncopse means by saying he could not afford the fees if he worked in a different school. There a quite few parents who are teachers who pay fees and don't work at CH. I am one .Perhaps I hve got the wrong end of the stick. Not unusual...

[icomefromalanddownunder]

The fact remains however that FULL BOARDING is very very expensive. Our full fees are £10,000 more than those of decent day schools.

That is the challenge and that is why (IMHO) that Full Boarding without any option of day places to boost revenue (and we would fill day places here in days) is unlikely to remain viable.

I'm still feeling that somewhere, buried beneath a mass of emotion, frustration and unrelated thoughts, that I have something sensible to say about this. For anyone who continues reading, I apologise in advance for rambling ..............

I absolutely agree that change is necessary in any institution, and that some find any change, however minor, difficult to deal with.

Full board, will, of course, always cost considerably more than day care.

At Hertford, between 1965 and 1970 we boarded under conditions that would probably be considered abusive and intolerable now. I was awarded an ILEA scholarship, and my parents, who I now suspect were suffering from PTSD after attending high school amidst bombings and evacuations, were extremely proud, and saw CH as an opportunity for me to escape council housing in Streatham and gain a better education than was considered to be on offer at local high schools. As it was, I left CH at the end of UVth, studied for A Levels at St Martin-in-the-Fields and did very well, thanks very much. In fact, my understanding is that my graduating year from St Martin's gained far better grades than my contemporaries at Hertford.

What I think I'm trying to say is that we get what we pay for. Current student expectations and requirements are far in excess of what has been on offer in the past, and by fulfilling these the school has moved far from where it once stood, with the result that it now has to charge fees that are not affordable by the present day equivalent of my parents.

Options? Well, if the pupils and parents truly want to be at CH for the education, perhaps they would be prepared to consider a drop in living standards to cut costs and thus fees? So, no cafeteria choice of foods - one main feeds all. Tough luck if you are vegetarian or can't stand cheese fish (sorry, had to throw that one in. Check out Hertford threads for explanation).

Cut back on cleaning costs by forcing pupils to do some cleaning as part of their education. Apologies if this is still part of daily life at Horsham.

I am not trying to be facetious, and apologise if the suggestion of cost cutting has already been discussed in the thread.

Caroline

[blondie95]

As a non foundationer, I only full time boarded on my grecians, but even then knowing your parents house is literally down the road! It didnt cause much split the fact that on my deps I went home everynight bar saturdays. Most boarding schools do have a number of day places! and from prevoius schools where my father has taught they have either been intergrated into the houses or have had day boarding houses they can use as a base. Day pupils literally dont sleep there, they would do prep there just not sleep i would imgaine

[lonelymom]

they would do prep there just not sleep i would imgaine

But doesn't prep finish at 8.15pm? That would be very late for the non-boarders to be collected and go home. The only reason I wondered whether it would cause a 'them and us' feeling is because on a different forum that I look at from time to time, there is a section on independent schools and it is the view of some of the forum members that there is a definite divide between the day pupils and the boarders. Some of those forum members obviously have experience of the divide, whereas I haven't, so I was picking up on their experiences and wondered whether it would happen at CH. Also, if the only difference would be that day pupils didn't sleep at CH, where would the big savings come from? If they had day boarding houses to use a base these would also need to be cleaned, heated, maintained etc, so apart from not having to pay a staff member to be on duty through the night, what other costs would be saved? I'm probably missing some obvious ones, aren't I? You can all correct me now

[blondie95]

No lnoelymon you have pointed out a good few things, my post was based on how i understood the day/boarding aspect of other independnt schools my dad taught at. I also imagine that day pupils would be 'local' so unlikely to have long jounreys homes after prep time? But who knows if they intergrated the day pupils into the current boarding houses then obviusly that would save a cost of having a another boarding house to clean and staff! And if they turned up for 1st lesson there wouldnt be breakfast costs

[lonelymom]

I suppose we'll have to wait and see whether it even happens. I think onewestguncopse said it was his opinion that CH might go down that route. I guess we just have to 'watch this space...'

[YadaYada]

I dont know if anyone saw the series that was on last year about 11 year olds in different situations moving to different secondary schools. One story they followed was a girl joining Cheltenham Ladies College (I think) as a day pupil. She found it hard to settle and make friends and by the end of the first year she had joined as a boarder despite living close by and was much happier.

I suspect that having day students and boarders brings with it its own set of problems and rewards.

[blondie95]

yes i remember seeing that programme, but there are an aewful lot of schools that have boarders and day pupils happily and have done for a number of years. if it casued divides and undue stress would it stilll be an option?

[dinahcat]

lot of my daughter's friends have gone home this weekend as they have no exams. We live too far for her to do this aand it woud be too expensive.I think she has found it a bit lonely. My son is in a house where a lot of his peers go home on Sunday after chapel and that too can be a bit boring. I imagine that is what you get if you have mixture of full boarders,weekly borders and day boarders. It's a bit fragmented.

[onewestguncopse]

The day place issue is not school policy but is in my opinion inevitable if we are to have the money to support the boarders on reduced fees. It may not happen soon but is on the cards for the future unless a Russian billioniare pitches up £15,000,000!

The days when we could cut back on cleaning, reduce the food bill by only doing one meal for all etc are gone. Social services would close us down and parents simply would not want to send their children to us. That is not an option.