Private schools find this war uncomfortable. Sorry: they have only themselves to blame
You’d think that Russian pupils with cases stuffed full of dosh might have raised the odd eyebrow
What’s going on in British private schools? It’s hardly the most pressing issue regarding the war in Ukraine, but there certainly seem to be repercussions. One friend with a child in a west London school tells me of a recent fight between a Russian and a Ukrainian pupil, both 15, where the Russian ended up with a broken nose and an ambulance had to be called.
In north London there is apparently a battle raging between another private school and parents who want to throw a Ukrainian fundraiser. The school is reluctant since, not so long ago, one Russian father paid for the new gym.
Last month, an investigation claimed that dozens of oligarchs have been sending their children to British boarding schools and paying the fees with dodgy money. Schools that the investigation suggested might be faced with this problem include Harrow, Brighton College and my own alma mater, Wycombe Abbey.
I still love my school friends dearly, but, as far as I know, not one was the daughter of a gangster. Parents were mostly Staffordshire farmers, psychiatrists and airline pilots. Unless the farmer was flogging AK-47s on the side – but he seemed more a shotgun man. There were no instances of dormitory drawers stuffed with wads of cash, indeed all that mine were stuffed with was cans of vanilla Impulse deodorant and photos of the family dog.
Astonishingly, earlier this month, the Independent Schools Council had to advise its members – the likes of Eton, St Paul’s and Thomas’s, attended by the small Cambridges – not to take cash from sanctioned individuals. Schools responded by saying they didn’t want to turf blameless children out. Or lose the fees, I suspect.
According to the ISC’s 2021 census, there are about 2,300 Russian pupils at British private schools, and there’s obviously a danger, or many dangers, in assuming they’re all the sons and daughters of Putin’s pals. A good number may simply be the children of wealthy Russians who work here, and while you may be suspicious of the accent and blacked-out Bentley, having either of those things is not a crime.
But schools can’t come over all “Not us, guv’nor” and claim absolute innocence when some of them have been accepting dubious money from some parents for a while. At my stepbrother’s school, at the start of every term, one Russian boy arrived and immediately made for the bursar’s office with a case full of dosh. He was a large lad, but this was more than he needed for his tuck-shop tab. Where did they think that money came from?
A friend who runs a consultancy business advising people on the best schools for their children tells me that dubious requests have shot up in recent years. One mother asked which all-boys’ school would be able to provide accommodation for her son’s security detail. A couple of his clients have put their children into boarding schools with fake names, for protection. The schools allow it, he says, if it’s for the security of the child.
Again, this isn’t illegal. But doesn’t it seem rum behaviour for establishments so keen to prove that they’re churning out thoroughly upstanding pupils?
Especially if so many of those pupils are going to end up as prime minister.