
The State of Independence: Key Challenges Facing Private Schools Today
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Book Description
Exploring the most significant challenges facing independent schools today, this book asks leading figures from education, economics, politics, philosophy and the arts to give their views on how independent schools can adapt to rapidly changing markets which see them scrutinised as never before.
Acknowledging the independent sector as a vital and growing part of the global education system, this book explores how schools are to respond to financial, moral, pastoral and academic challenges, and so ensure their own survival, and the futures of the children they educate. Breaking a complex and varied field down into ten clear areas of analysis, essays written by leading education experts tackle the key challenges faced by independent schools around the world. Commentators consider the issues created by the upward trend of educating international students, question the extent to which independent schools have echoed societal movements towards greater access, diversity and gender fluidity, and provide first-hand insight into the experiences of staff, pupils and parents involved in the everyday functioning and longer-term development of the independent sector.
A health check on this most controversial of sectors, this book will enlighten and inform not only those working in independent schools today, but anyone interested in education, and will make an important contribution to a bigger debate about the place of independent schools at a time of political, economic and societal uncertainty.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
About the Editors
About the Contributors
Introduction – David James and Jane Lunnon
Chapter 1 The Pastoral Challenge
Julie Johnson
Rachel Kelly
Dick Moore
Emma Robertson
Sir Anthony Seldon
Chapter 2 The Academic Challenge
Helen Pike
Briony Scott
Joseph Spence
Kevin Stannard
Ian Warwick
Chapter 3 The Junior Challenge
Jane Cameron
Phillip Evitt
Richard Foster
Ralph Lucas
Ben Thomas
Chapter 4 The Financial Challenge
Stephen Crouch
John Edward
Heather McGregor
James Tooley
David Woodgate
Chapter 5 The Access Challenge
Ian Davenport
Patrick Derham
David Ejim-McCubbin
Nick Hillman
Barnaby Lenon
Justine Voisin
Chapter 6 The Diversity Challenge
Emmanuel Akpan-Inwang
Jaideep Barot
Jenny Brown
Nick Dennis
Mary Myatt
Chapter 7 The Gender Challenge
Jenny Allum
Natasha Devon
Richard Hoskins
Fionnuala Kennedy
Lucy Pearson
Chapter 8 The Innovation Challenge
Sean Dagony-Clark
Page Eimer
Dominic A.A. Randolph
Simon Walker
Crispin Weston
Ian Yorston
Chapter 9 The International Challenge
Edward Clark
Helen Wright
Justin Garrick
Virginia Macgregor
Jamie Martin
Cameron Pyke
Russell Speirs
Mark Steed
Chapter 10 The Political Challenge
John Blake
Ed Dorrell
Estelle Morris
Tom Richmond
Julie Robinson
Mark Scott
Roger Scruton
Conclusion – David James and Jane Lunnon
Index
Editor(s)
Biography
David James teaches English, and is Deputy Head at Bryanston School, UK. He has worked in independent schools for over 20 years. He is also an editor and author.
Jane Lunnon is Head of Wimbledon High School, London, UK. She has taught in independent schools for over 20 years.