School.Swap.The.Class.Divide.s01e02.ENG.SUBS.x264.WEBRIP.[MPup]

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2 of 2

Second of two programmes in which the headteacher and three pupils from a public school and a private school trade places to experience life on the other side of the fence.


In the second episode, Jo and her state school pupils get a taste of how the other half learn when they visit Warminster School for the week. Brett admits he is nervous about going to the prestigious boarding school but says he sees it as an opportunity. He says: “If I went to a private school I don’t think I’d really fit in. But I’d love to give it a shot. I think this opportunity is like a once in a lifetime thing for me.”

Nazh says she is more concerned the school might restrict the freedoms she is used to at Bemrose. She says: “It’s going to be like a prison, people controlling you, telling you what time to go to sleep. Like, you’re not allowed to put your hair down and you’re not allowed earrings.”

Jo admits she has a perception that public school pupils make more influential connections which land them better jobs. But Warminster head Mark says he doesn’t see it that way any more. He says: “I don’t think there is any magic formula that independent schools follow. I certainly don’t think it’s anything to do with connections - you know that may have been the case 250 years ago, I certainly don’t think it is anymore.”

Warminster has five boarding houses - two for girls and three for boys. Nazh is staying in Katy’s boarding house, Northdown, while Brett and Qasim are sharing a room with Jon at Boniface. Brett says: “This is good - I could actually get used to this. This is really fun. I am already enjoying this more than my school. That might sound bad.”

Watching the start of the school day, Jo Ward says: “It’s a very, very different beginning to the beginning that my young people have - already I can see that the young people here will be prepared to learn by their environment. Almost as if we are in a protected place here which is a lovely protected place but it isn’t real.”

For ambitious Nazh, coming to Warminster is a chance to meet the opposition. She says: “I want to see the type of students there, that are likely to make it to Oxford or Cambridge. I want to compare and see what’s the difference between me and them. I’ve had that dream since I was a little girl to go to one of these universities -somewhere big.”

The school week begins with assembly, taken by Mark Mortimer. He says: “Part of the job of the headmaster as someone famously once said is just to ponce around looking pleased, but there’s an element of truth there. I need to be visible, people need to know I’m interested.”

Having been told about the calibre of visitors to the school, including Lord Carey, Jo believes she has found an insight into a major difference between it and her state school in Derby. She says: “In itself it implies, ‘This will be you soon.’ Given that I don’t move in those circles, how do I persuade somebody who is famous and to jump on a train and come to Derby?”

In order to gain a place at Warminster, prospective pupils must be interviewed by Mark.
The state school students are invited one-by-one into his office. Mark tells Brett: “You’ve got GCSEs basically in two years’ time. It seems to me Brett, reading all of this, you’ve got the potential to do well at GCSE but you’re in danger of not doing well. That would be a great shame.”

British private schools are regarded as providing some of the best education in the world and a key component is teaching. Jo teaches maths at0 Bemrose, and sits in on a lesson taught by Warminster’s head of mathematics. She says the level of teaching is the same as at Bemrose - and Nazh agrees. She says: “We were expecting this wow factor, because students pay to come here, but I don’t see the difference between the teaching in here and Bemrose.”

For Mark, the crucial difference between private and state education is what happens outside the classroom. Every Monday afternoon Warminster school has time designated for activities that fall outside the academic curriculum, Brett has signed up for the combined cadet force, Qasim is getting his hands dirty with car club and Nazh is experiencing astronomy society. Their headteacher Jo says she’s not sure offering these options to the ‘captive audience’ of private school pupils marks the major difference between the schools. But she says she has gained an insight which she could use at her own school. She says: “I’ve almost had a lightbulb moment. And it’s to do with the amount of time, I think. The big difference for me is that at three o’clock or half past or four, when the school day ends, no matter how good the experience that I provide for them, they go home. So I guess my magic wand has been make all schools boarding rather than demolish all the private schools, so I’ve moved a long way.”

Mark suggests opening up Warminster’s clubs and concerts to Bemrose pupils as a way of working jointly together in the future. He says: “Some parents of pupils at independent schools might baulk at the idea that their school was now offering the same activity for local state school children who obviously wouldn’t be paying while they are working very hard to afford the fees. Whenever change is introduced there’s a period of resistance. But I am confident that this is where the future lies, if you like.”

Formal dinners are held a number of times a term at Warminster, and form an important part of the school’s education. The three state school pupils are invited to dress up to attend a history society dinner, something Brett is looking forward to. He says: “I’ll let other people start the conversations. I look like something out of James Bond. The name’s Riley, Brett Riley.”

Government funding for state schools is determined by the number and type of pupils who attend them, while private schools like Warminster rely on income from school fees. Jo says she is surprised pupils are also selected on the basis of academic ability. She says: “It did quite shock me that money wasn’t the only criteria for getting into schools like Warminster. In my head I thought if a family had money that was enough, that you would get a place, at not just Warminster, any private school.”

After their week at the private school, the pupils’ views on the merits of Warminster compared to Bemrose varied, with Nazh feeling unconvinced, Qasim unable to choose between the two, and Brett considering what a permanent move would be like. He says: “I thought everyone was going to be snobby and up themselves but they’re really not. Yesterday everyone was like, ‘You really do fit in here, you could come here and there’d be no difference between you and me,’ so yeah I reckon I would survive.”

Yet Jo says what she has seen won’t make her turn private just yet. She says: “They could pay me £500,000 a week, I could never be the Headmistress of Warminster, because you’ve still got to look yourself in the mirror every morning. That sounds disrespectful to the people here and I don’t want to be because they’re good people and they do a good job, but for me the children who need good teaching and good hearts are the Bemrose children, so that’s where I need to be.”