Cradles of Success - Softcover

Monaco, Mario Di

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1908684062 ISBN 13: 9781908684066

Publisher: University of Buckingham Press, 2012

Synopsis

Choosing independent education is very expensive, yet its value can be incalculable. Choosing the right public school is therefore of great importance and involves a great deal of homework. Making the wrong choice could profoundly affect your child's educational, personal and social development.

This is not a definitive handbook nor is it intended to provide all the information needed for a particular school. But what it does give is a feel for the essence of the place, something which is often more important than facilities and much more difficult to capture.

The book includes important contributions from Anthony Wallersteiner, Headmaster of Stowe School, Barnaby Lenon, former Headmaster of Harrow, Sir Anthony Seldon, Headmaster of Wellington College, and Tony Little, Headmaster of Eton.

The first edition of this book was published in 2008. This updated and expanded edition examines the questions that remain: day vs boarding, co-ed vs single sex, academic rigour, all-round experience and, of course, affordability.

About this title

Review

...the best British independent schools continue to show themselves as truly world class. Mario di Monaco gives his readers an insight into the nature of that success. --Tony Little, Headmaster of Eton

A guide to Britain's premier public schools. It features 39 schools, contains articles by head teachers as well as parents and provides a forthright and idiosyncratic snapshot of the sector... So why did the author spend years researching what he describes as Britain's top-drawer public schools? The answer lies, it turns out, partly in his own background. A child of Italian immigrants (he describes his background as lower middle class&, Di Monaco realised at medical school that his own education did not match that of most of his privately educated peers. 'I am the product of a state school and an inexpensive sixth-form education. I read medicine at University College London alongside Etonians. I could see what the privately educated students had that I did not', he admits. 'They came with grade 8 violin. They could put on a play standing on their heads. They were confident and charming and had done so much already. I felt, 'Gosh, there is another world out there'.' ...By contrast, Di Monaco won his place at medical school after overcoming many hurdles. 'I remember the chemistry teacher at school nearly falling off his chair when I said that I would like to study medicine at Cambridge,' he recalls. 'He said, 'Do you realise that Cambridge is the ultimate educational achievement?' When I said that UCL was my second choice my teacher said, 'It's elitist and public-school dominated. Why not turn your attention to the lesser schools?'' 'Those are the kind of hoops you don't get at a public school, where going into medicine is not seen as a big deal.' Now a senior partner in a GP practice in northwest London, the doctor is determined to make life easier for [his sons], currently pupils at a prep school in Hertfordshire. To this end he has toured public schools, quizzed families and headmasters and researched exam results and university destinations... He admits that 'designer-label schools' are eye-wateringy expensive but he is prepared to pay the the required £30,000 a year for each of his sons. As he points out, privately educated pupils have a far better chance of winning a place at a leading university than do their state-school counterparts. 'When I went to university only 11% of the cohort went to university. Now it is 50%. The competition is more severe and I want to make sure we give to our children the best opportunities,' he says. 'The yardstick is still to go to a good university, get a respectable degree and a glittering career will follow.' '...I have met loads of boys who went to places like Radley; they are absolutely charming, whether they are barristers or boxers. At the end of the day that is why Russians and Chinese families choose British schools. They can get a good education anywhere but the traditional English values that come with the premier English public schools - that is what they want to buy into.' It may sound snobbish or old-fashioned but Di Monaco has no doubts at all. 'I know some people think premier public schools should be razed to the ground and they are divisive but that is left-wing nonsense,' he says. 'Why destroy a model that is working so well?' --Sian Griffiths, Sunday Times

About the Author

Mario di Monaco is a medical doctor whose interest in private education is borne out of the need to make the difficult choice between the best of schools.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Buckingham Press
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1908684062
• ISBN 13: 9781908684066
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 268