An affordable private school alternative in London: the New Model School

Looking at the keywords people are using to hit my blog, I see that affordable education is at the fore of most of their minds. Not surprising given the number of parents who have taken their children out of independent schools already in response to the credit crunch and the anticipated exodus from those schools [...]

Would you like fries with your education?

When I see a characterful individual restaurant open another branch, I always despair.  Will it retain its character and quality? Will it expand and become a chain equivalent to Pizza Express or Wagamama — perfectly adequate but lacking that je ne sais quoi that the individual restaurant possessed?  I feel the same way about schools.  [...]

Early immersion, SVP

I have been obsessed with languages for goodness knows how long.  A funny thing, really, when you consider that I only really speak two languages fluently as an adult.  I remember asking for a Berlitz teach yourself Spanish book for Christmas when I was eight and how thrilled I was to actually get it.  Over [...]

School à la carte

My daughter has another two years before she applies for a place at an LEA-run school or is assessed for a fee-paying school.  There are other possibilities too, including foreign government schools in London and alternative (but relatively cheap) fee-paying schools. And, of course, there’s home schooling. The more I look at the stress of [...]

Lest we forget…

Today is Remembrance Day. On this day, I do stop to think about the lives lost in the two World Wars, though with the passage of time and an increasingly critical eye, I do question what it is, exactly, that I’m remembering and what it is that my daughter (aged 20 months) will “remember” — [...]

The afterschooling imperative

I learned a new word this week.  “Afterschooling” (noun), “afterschool” (verb; as in “I afterschool my kids”)  Afterschooling is consciously augmenting your child’s school-provided curriculum.  Afterschooling parents are hybrids: think homeschooler meets laissez faire parent.  Many of us were afterschooled and didn’t even know it; our parents probably didn’t know it either.   They took us [...]

O ye of little faith — what school for you?

I think we should end public funding of faith-based schools in England.  Or at least those who advance the usual arguments against fee-paying schools should acknowledge that there are many similar arguments for abolishing publicly-funded faith-based schools, and if we’re going to get self-righteous when chastising those who choose to send their children to fee-paying [...]

From London day school to…boarding school? Are you outta your mind??

Can’t afford fees at your London day school any longer? Well, have you thought about sending your child to boarding school? “What?”  You ask.  “Are you a complete moron, Snowdon? That’s like saying ‘Let them eat cake’ when they can’t afford bread!”  Hear me out, folks… Sometimes, solutions aren’t always intuitive.
The average London day school [...]