Letters | 26 May 2012

Private passions

Sir: I was a pupil at St Paul’s School from 1952 to 1957. I remember seeing the bill for a term: £30 tuition, plus £15 ‘extras’ (lunches, books…). I was a scholar, so the £30 was deleted. It was no great distinction to be a scholar, as there were 153 scholars among the 650 pupils. My group of friends all got Oxbridge scholarships.

As a student in 1960, I had a holiday job as a milkman. I only earned £12 a week, but some milkmen earned enough commission to bring their weekly wage packet up to £20. In the 1950s, the average milkman could afford to send his son to St Paul’s. The fees now are little under £7,000 a term. Stephen Robinson’s powerful piece (‘Private Grief’, 19 May) shows us what has gone wrong.
John Crooks
London SW15

Sir: Stephen Robinson, in his engaging overview of the independent sector, is wrong to suggest that bursaries for deprived pupils have a detrimental effect on the quality of our top public schools. Here at Rugby, fully funded places for disadvantaged young people have had a transformative impact. Those on bursaries enrich school life, with many blending in so well with other students that it is hard to tell who is receiving full financial support. Our access scheme, the Arnold Foundation, also defines who we are as a school and serves as a powerful reminder of the charitable mission laid down by our founders. Instead of seeing such initiatives as part of some malaise afflicting private schools, we should celebrate their role in widening aspiration and broadening diversity.
Patrick Derham
Headmaster, Rugby School

Sir: Stephen Robinson bemoans how much private schools have changed since his day. There’s also the degeneration of ethos. In my day two of the worst sins were vulgarity and swanking (on a par, my father used to say, with being pi, murder and cheating at cards).