supersal1 
|
"But then he went to the more nouveau-riche chavtastic Brentwood School in Essex"
Granted, it doesn't have the same cachet as Eton or Harrow. It is a little younger than Eton but older than Harrow and Rugby. It strikes me as a rather good school and I certainly would have liked to have sent my kids there. Why do you think it is chavtastic - surely not just because it is in Essex?
Reply #941. Nov 28 10, 12:54 PM
|
Cymruambyth
|
Brentwood is not older than Harrow, Sal! Harrow was founded in 1243, while Brentwood opened its doors in 1558. Eton has been educating the sons (and now the daughters) of the aristocracy since 1440 and Rugby was founded in 1567.
Reply #942. Nov 28 10, 1:38 PM
|
supersal1
|
Granted there have been various schools at Harrow since the thirteenth century. However, the Harrow School of today was founded in 1572.
I just wondered what made Brentwood a 'chavtastic' school?
Reply #943. Nov 28 10, 2:20 PM
|
Cymruambyth
|
The Haitians went to the polls today. The betting is that there will be no clear winner and a run-off election will have to take place in January.
Reply #944. Nov 29 10, 12:13 AM
|
mjws1968
|
The word chavtastic is no reflection on Essex, I love the place, have spent many a fun weekend in Clacton or on the Naze. It does tend to be a school that attracts more nouveau riche than the traditional upper classes, it is a good school, I would hate Harrow, Eton or Winchester, full of "yoghurt" children (rich and thick) just there to get the bare minimum of qualifications before a career in politics or the civil service beckons. The children of families more recently come into wealth tend to be more snobby and intolerant of the working classes than their Harrow or Eton counterparts, and this is true of the man we were discussing, possibly having come from such a place more recently, they are more scathing of it. His opinions might be right or wrong (personally I believe wrong), his politics are irrelevant, it is the derision of the people who he used to represent that causes me discomfort, we need less of his sort in the already out-of-touch House of Lords.
Reply #948. Nov 29 10, 9:31 PM
|
cydonia325
|
mjws1968 ,
Thank you for sharing your opinion of Eton, Harrow and Winchester. My eldest son is a Winchester alum, not a toff and neither are any of his friends. I shall have to inform my son that he is a "yoghurt child". I am unfamiliar with this pejorative, and my son has told me a few of them, but then by your assessment, chances are, he is quite thick.
My ex and I worked very hard to send our son to Winchester and are very proud of him. I suppose it is fine to criticise a school like Winchester, but God forbid I made such sweeping statements about your local college.
Reply #950. Nov 29 10, 10:56 PM
|
Cymruambyth
|
Good grief, mjws, surely there were one or two bright sparks emanating from the hallowed halls of Eton, Harrow and Winchester. They can't all have been dimwits!
Reply #951. Nov 30 10, 1:58 AM
|
flopsymopsy
|
My grandfather went to Winchester, he wasn't a dimwit. A rogue, yes, dimwit, no! ;)
Reply #952. Nov 30 10, 2:36 AM
|
mjws1968
|
By no means all alumni of those three institutions are of restricted intelligence, just the fourth generation ones I met at Oxford and Cambridge when I went up for interview to study Classics and had the pleasure of watching them pouring catering size tins of baked beans down each other trousers and generally disturbing those who actually wanted to study and get a 1st in their finals to get on the postgrad course of their choice. This is why I ended up at Cardiff, where beans were strictly used on toast several times a week. Apart from the ones destined for Sandhurst who just wanted an allegedly easy degree and were sadly disappointed. Prejudiced, moi? My best friend went to Roedean.
Reply #953. Nov 30 10, 4:44 AM
|
| lesley153
|
When sprog was nine, and it was time for the move from lower to middle school, we tossed a coin and sent him to one of the two fee-paying schools in Bedford. (Lots of money at the beginning, bursaries not available till age 11, but we could manage two years and we thought if he didn't get a bursary he didn't belong there.)
Big mistake, nasty school, got nastier as they grew and discovered how much they could get away with. Overt racism, creative swearing, much damage to person and property, rude and bullying staff, and drug-dealing on school premises and even the school bus. Much of it witnessed by staff who had no idea how to cope, or couldn't be bothered, so they ignored it. The boys used to nip across the road to the supermarket where they would sit in the children's playground, smoking cigarettes with a variety of fillings, but the school put a stop to that as more and more people found out about it. The school is exceptionally good in the exam league tables. Well that's all right, then.
The school started admitting girls a few years ago, but there still aren't enough to have a remotely civilising influence on the school, only to add to the Public Displays of Affection on school premises. Nothing's really going to change until the staff change.
He left after GCSEs, and did his sixth form in a local "normal" school, where he regained his trust in humanity, and said he'd rather stick pins in his eyes than send a child of his to a private school. Then he went to Imperial and met people from Eton, Harrow, Westminster and the like, and decided that it was OK after all, because he liked them and got on with them really well. It wasn't the system at fault, it was that particular school.
I'm not sure if all that's relevant, but bits of it may be.
Reply #954. Nov 30 10, 7:18 AM
|
| Lochalsh
|
I went to good schools and then taught at good schools. Is that newsworthy, globally speaking? :)
Reply #955. Nov 30 10, 8:02 AM
|
| lesley153
|
Yes because not everyone did either, let alone both.
Reply #956. Nov 30 10, 8:15 AM
|
| Lochalsh
|
I wasn't vaunting any accomplishments--I don't need or want to do that--I'm just missing "news of the world."
Reply #957. Nov 30 10, 8:23 AM
|
| lesley153
|
"I wasn't vaunting any accomplishments..."
No, I didn't think you were. I was just missing the point, and I blame it on my brain slowing down in the cold. I often yell at the headlines when they include the next big story-line in one of the soaps. "Since when was that national news?"
OK, try this. Bookies are now taking bets on who will design Kate Middleton's wedding dress. My world is now shaken.
Reply #959. Nov 30 10, 11:08 AM
|
tobyone
|
Thanks, s-m-w. There's fascinating reading in that link. Not so much the belief in aliens, more the Wikileaks report of the Duke of York demonstrating his ambassadorial adroitness.
Reply #960. Nov 30 10, 1:48 PM
|
|
This thread has been closed to new replies.
|
Legal / Conditions of Use
|
Play Now! 
: 
