Inside Eton’s social mobility drive
Pairing the institution with a nearby state college has enriched both of their futures, finds Peter Stanford
Social mobility – or the lack of it – is under the spotlight following the resignation of the board of the government’s Social Mobility Commission. If Justine Greening, the Education Secretary, is searching for evidence that progress is actually being made to narrow the attainment gap between rich and poor, she might take a look at what, for many at first glance, might seem an unlikely place: Eton College.
In 2014, when Britain’s most famous public school announced it was to be educational sponsor to a new state-funded free school for boys and girls, the plans were roundly attacked as a gimmick to offer “Eton on the cheap”, rather than a genuine boost to social mobility.
Because Holyport College is just eight miles away from its sponsor’s historic site near Windsor Castle, has a traditional ethos, fills 45per cent of its places with boarders, and is able to use Eton’s top-of-the-range sport, technology and arts facilities, it would, critics suggested, attract not local just-about-managing parents looking for a good school, but rather those seeking all the perks of a private education with the taxpayer picking up the tab. Ben Mccarey, deputy head of Holyport, smiles and shakes his head. That isn’t, he says emphatically, how his school has turned out.
Mccarey joined Holyport from the very start, moving there from a “gritty” inner-city comprehensive in south London. The decision came, he admits, only after long soul-searching: “I was your classic Left-leaning, bleeding-heart liberal teacher.”
What convinced him, he recalls, was recognising that the project was driven by a commitment to what he describes as “engineered diversity” – bringing together seamlessly in one community pupils from the state and private sectors to create “a school with a social purpose”.
Far from being elitist, it has aboveaverage levels of pupils with special educational needs, and from minority ethnic backgrounds. It also includes more “looked-after” children on its books than in all the local schools around it put together.
This diversity was highlighted in its first Ofsted inspection, published in the summer, which judged the school to be outstanding in every aspect.
Sitting alongside Mccarey as we talk in a hi-tech classroom at Eton is Tom Arbuthnott. As director of outreach, he was recruited last year by Simon Henderson, Eton’s new, young and “updating” headmaster, to fulfil a pledge to make the college a force for good both in its local community and in the British education system.
While use of Eton’s second-to-none facilities is obviously going to benefit Holyport pupils, the benefits flow both ways, Arbuthnott emphasises. “Our students are so enriched by the Holyport relationship. The interaction between the two schools makes their whole experience of school better. Both sets of pupils realise that they aren’t that different.”
Mccarey chips in. “Kids are kids. They learn from each other.”
For the boys from single-sex Eton, going to Holyport is also most obviously a chance to meet girls – and some of them admit that it has started them wondering why their own school isn’t mixed-sex.
“Sometimes you can feel a bit stuck in a bunker at Eton,” explains one sixth-form student, “but coming to Holyport gets us out, and to meet people we might not have met otherwise.”
These shared activities seem to generate just as much enthusiasm among the Holyport students. “Having these joint sessions gives us role models. It is like being part of a bigger family,” explains one 14-yearold girl.
The same sentiments are expressed by Walter Boyle, Holyport’s founding head teacher. “The key to this partnership,” he explains, “is that it isn’t just joint. It is equal. I have never felt that anyone from Holyport is a second-class citizen in the arrangement. Quite the opposite. I worry sometimes that we get much more out of this than Eton.”
On occasion, he acknowledges, the clout and status of Eton brings benefits, as for example when its pulling power attracts speakers to give talks that the Holyport pupils attend. Recent “names” include Lord Robert Winston, Michael Gove, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Sir Elton John.
But, he is keen to make plain, it is the practical, day-to-day reality that really makes the difference. Holyport’s success so far – including that Ofsted verdict of “outstanding” – is something that Simon Henderson is anxious to make plain properly belongs to Holyport’s staff and pupils.
“If we are proud to be a small part of that, it is because our two schools are a genuine community.”
‘The key to this partnership is that it is equal’