Author | Francis Green David Kynaston |
---|---|
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
ISBN | 9781526601278 |
OCLC | 1101130802 |
Engines of Privilege: Britain's Private School Problem is a book by Francis Green and David Kynaston about Private schools in the United Kingdom. [1] The authors argue that the "educational apartheid" [2] [3] of independent (private) schools and state schools in the United Kingdom:
Published in 2019, the book received a range of reviews from commentators inside and outside private schools. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] Writing in the Financial Times , Miranda Green wrote, "we can expect the manifesto-writers at the next general election to pass magpie-like over these chapters ... The appeal to act is heartfelt." [13] Privately educated journalist Hugo Rifkind in The Times described the book as doing "a fine job of explaining and damning Britain's private school problem", but also commented that "this powerful attack on public schools ends up an unintended advert for them". [14] [15]
Much of criticism of the book came from commentators who were educated independently, rather than in state schools, what the books calls private school lobbyists including members of the Independent Schools Council:
Anne McElvoy (state educated) wrote that the book "reminds us that many arguments recur down the decades". [18]
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public research university located in London, England, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidney Webb, Beatrice Webb, Graham Wallas, and George Bernard Shaw, LSE joined the University of London in 1900 and established its first degree courses under the auspices of the university in 1901. LSE began awarding its degrees in its own name in 2008, prior to which it awarded degrees of the University of London. It became a university in its own right within the University of London in 2022.
In the United Kingdom, private schools or independent schools are fee-charging schools, some endowed and governed by a board of governors and some in private ownership. They are independent of many of the regulations and conditions that apply to state-funded schools. For example, pupils do not have to follow the National Curriculum, although, some schools do. Historically the term 'private school' referred to a school in private ownership, in contrast to an endowed school subject to a trust or of charitable status. Many of the older private schools catering for the 13–18 age range in England and Wales are known as public schools, seven of which were the subject of the Public Schools Act 1868. The term "public school" derived from the fact that they were then open to pupils regardless of where they lived or their religion. Prep (preparatory) schools educate younger children up to the age of 13 to prepare them for entry to the public schools and other private schools.
Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind is a British politician who served in the cabinets of Margaret Thatcher and John Major from 1986 to 1997, and most recently as chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament from 2010 to 2015.
The Beaver is the fortnightly newspaper of the LSE Students' Union at the London School of Economics, England.
Catherine Beatrice Margaret Derham is a British newscaster and a presenter on television and radio.
The Independent Schools Council (ISC) is a non-profit lobby group that represents over 1,300 private schools in the United Kingdom. The organisation comprises seven independent school associations and promotes the business interests of its independent school members in the political arena, which includes the Department for Education and has been described as the "sleepless champion of the sector."
Harris Academy St John's Wood is a secondary school in St John's Wood, North London), that was re-named in 2017. It is a 7 form-entry non-selective co-educational academy. Its predecessor Quintin Kynaston was founded in 1969 by the merger of Quintin Grammar School and Kynaston School. The earlier schools, which were built on the same site, opened in September 1956. It has been an academy school since November 2011. The school was rated as "Outstanding" in 2008 and 2011 by Ofsted, the English schools' inspectorate; however, in 2014 it was rated "Requires Improvement", and in April 2017 it was rated "Inadequate" and as a consequence was placed in special measures. It joined the Harris Federation Multi-Academy Trust in September 2017.
Hugo James Rifkind is a British journalist. A columnist for The Times since 2005, he began presenting a Saturday morning programme on Times Radio in July 2020. He has been a regular guest on The News Quiz, on BBC Radio 4 since 2008.
The golden triangle refers to the triangle formed by the university cities of Cambridge, London, and Oxford in the south east of England in the United Kingdom. The triangle is occasionally referred to as the Loxbridge triangle, a portmanteau of London and Oxbridge.
Sir Howard John Davies is a British economist and author, who is the chairman of NatWest Group and the former director of the London School of Economics.
David Thomas Anthony Kynaston is an English historian specialising in the social history of England.
SharmishtaChakrabarti, Baroness Chakrabarti, is a British politician, barrister, and human rights activist. A member of the Labour Party, she served as the director of Liberty, a major advocacy group which promotes civil liberties and human rights, from 2003 to 2016. From 2016 to 2020, she served as Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales.
Kate Clanchy MBE is a British poet, freelance writer and teacher.
In England and Wales, a public school is a type of fee-charging private school originally for older boys. They are "public" in the sense of being open to pupils irrespective of locality, denomination or paternal trade or profession. In Scotland, a public school is synonymous with a state school in England and Wales. Fee-charging schools are typically referred to as private or independent schools.
Gabrielle Rifkind is a British mediator who has specialised in international conflict resolution working through non-governmental organisations, (NGOs) in the Middle East and United Kingdom. She is the Director of Oxford Process. She is known as a commentator on international peacemaking and related themes and author of several titles. Her work considers the role of human relationships in managing parties with "radical disagreements" with the goal of establishing areas of potential mutual self-interest.
Matt Cavanagh is a British political adviser and author. He was a special adviser in the UK Labour government (2003–10). He worked for Home Secretary David Blunkett; for Chancellor Gordon Brown; for Defence Secretary Des Browne; and for Gordon Brown again as Prime Minister from June 2007 to May 2010. Subsequently, he was an associate director at the Institute for Public Policy Research, working on UK immigration policy. He now works in the private sector as Director of Government Relations for Prudential plc.
Afua Hirsch is a British writer and broadcaster. She has worked as a journalist for The Guardian newspaper, and was the Social Affairs and Education Editor for Sky News from 2014 until 2017.
Patrick Sibley Jan Derham is a history teacher who served as Headmaster of Westminster School from 2014 to 2020.
Lee Elliot Major is Professor of Social Mobility at the University of Exeter, Britain's first professor in the field. His work is dedicated to improving the prospects of disadvantaged young people.
The 93% Club is a student-run charity that aims to provide opportunities and a network for state school–educated university students in the United Kingdom. It has chapters at 45 universities in the UK and has reached more than 10,000 students.
"in no other western society are private schools so deeply entrenched or so corrosive in their effects"—Francis Green and David Kynaston
One of the explanations Green and Kynaston propose for a 150-year history of stalled, delayed, abandoned and half-hearted attempts to change Britain's peculiar system of private schooling is that most people just can't be bothered.
This is a superb book