Lord Adonis' Project

I read in today's Independent that the pilot project backed by Schools Minister Lord Adonis to give disadvantaged children free places at boarding schools has succeeded, after 3 years, in improving their academic progress to a standard higher than average for their age, according to a report published today. So campaigners now want the scheme expanded.

The number of emotionally deprived children taking part in the scheme at present – 97 - must be an extremely small proportion of the disadvantaged children in the UK. How were they chosen, I wonder?

My own childhood experience makes me sceptical. After spending a year and a term at boarding school at age 8/9 I returned to my old state school in Pwllheli to find myself way behind the others in my class, although I'd been among the highest performers when I left. Maths in particular was a problem; I'd forgotten much of what I'd previously learned, and failed to keep up with the new knowledge acquired by my classmates. I was given extra homework to help me catch up, which I succeeding in doing during the next 2 terms.

The boarding school I'd attended – Hillgrove Preparatory at Bangor in the 1940s – had no connection with the day school at present on that site, and as far as I know (and I'm sure my mother didn't when she sent me there) was unrecognised. Do unrecognised private schools still exist today? Perhaps someone could enlighten me on this. Registration was compulsory then, recognition was not. Registration required the school to be government-inspected for health and safety standards only, academic standards being presumably left to the judgement of parents and head teachers. Parents teaching their own children at home, however, were subject to compulsory academic checks by the local education authority, as they are today. An odd anomaly. Registration ruled out Dotheboys Hall imitations but did nothing to ensure the pupils learnt anything.

I assume the boarding schools chosen for the above project were all good ones. Some were boarding state schools, which are generally good. Private schools vary in quality just as state schools do, perhaps more so, as some are inevitably in it just to make a profit. I think it's very sad when parents with little knowledge or experience of such matters but having money to burn decide to send their children to a substandard private school wrongly assuming this will benefit the child. My mother, being a teacher herself, should have known better.

Perhaps the campaigners for this project have a hidden agenda – to support the private boarding school system by under-the-counter government subsidy.