Tatler publishes state school guide for ‘people like us’

CREDIT: This story was first seen in iNews
Tatler, the high society bible, has issued its guide to state schools that its says will meet the exacting standards of “people like us”, iNews reports.
The glossy title launched its first guide to state schools in 2014, a move which it claims prompted “flabbergasted amazement” that Tatler readers would consider sending their children to a non-fee paying school.
The article states: “When we published our first State Schools Guide, back in 2014, the reaction was one of flabbergasted amazement. ‘Wonders will never cease,’ said the world. ‘Tatler readers at state schools?’
“Well, wake up, world: these days, most ‘People Like Us’ a) can’t necessarily afford to send our children to private schools and b) don’t necessarily want to.”
A quick glance at the list of schools is likely to raise eyebrows, however, given they are located in some of the most exclusive postcodes in the country.
Topping the list of primaries is Barnes Primary School in south-west London, where the average property price is just shy of £900,000, according to Foxtons.
One “insider” warns that the catchment area for the school gets “smaller every year”, according to Tatler.
Elsewhere, the magazine suggests Dulwich Hamlet Junior School, in the south-east London suburb, where the average family home stands at £852,00.
Primrose Hill Primary School, in north-west London – alma mater of Boris Johnson and the Miliband brothers – makes the list. As does Great Tew Primary School in Chipping Norton, the Cotswolds, where former Prime Minister David Cameron has a home.
Interested parents are told to ask the school about the “shaking the champagne bottle tradition”.
Among the secondary schools suggested is King James’s School in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, of which one mother gushes: “’My husband went to boarding school from the age of eight and said the facilities at King James’s are better than anything he had’.”
Another, secondary is the “highly selective” Nonsuch High School for Girls in leafy Surrey, which even boasts an observatory.
The article says: “Only the academically determined need apply (‘Make no mistake, the 11+ is tricky,’ advises a parent) and entry is highly selective, with places offered by test results and then catchment area (3.26 miles from the front door). Around 10% head to Oxbridge each year, and Greek and astronomy are on the curriculum (there’s even an observatory).”
The full guide is published in Tatler’s February edition, which comes out on Thursday.
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