ANÁLISIS DE LOS RESULTADOS
4.1.1 Temas económicos
Although the vast majority of the pupils came from well-off families1, there was
a small number of families who struggled with money. Despite the financial burden that this might entail for a lot of the family budget, some parents still preferred to send their children to a fee-paying school, as they recognized the value of the education it could provide and did not want to risk their children’s future. During an Open Day, I asked a parent why they were considering St Aber’s.
You just want the best for your child. I mean, we will struggle a little. But it is the only option around here. It’s not only about educational success. I just want my child to be a good human, you know. I don’t care about the academic so much. I just want her to be happy. I mean, obviously, I want her to do well at school. But you want them to be happy. That’s why I prefer St Aber’s and not other schools that put so much pressure.
This is where the narrative of the school on not being an academic hothouse, was important. Both parents and pupils appeared aware of the risks of too much stress and the effects on mental health and well-being. Matthew, for example, compared St Aber’s to another school, when asked to describe his schooling experience.
I think a lot of other schools are very strict, well maybe not strict but I don't know how to explain it. Like my cousin went to Rowland’s5 and he hasn't been as happy. They have a very
rigorous regime. They are pushed, there is more order. They want their data sheets to show specific things at the end of the year, right. This is their primary concern. Whereas here possibly not as much. […] I have met other people from Rowland’s and
1
For example, there were 23 bankers, 10 barristers, 24 CEOs, 186 company directors or executive directors, to give a small sample of the different professions.
they are very competitive. I mean that is a real school to study and he didn't like it there. He got kicked out. I mean I don’t think this will happen here. They will be a lot more compassionate.
The fact that educational establishments are prepared to ‘kick you out’ if you don't achieve academically is concerning in itself. Matthew’s views depict the idea that intense pressure was not what parents were looking for when considering St Aber’s. Another instance was Olivia, a girl in Upper Sixth who I would describe as very academic, but also equally artistic, who drew comparisons with an all-girls private school, one that would again be described as an academic hothouse.
I mean my friends at Catherine House6 have eating disorders,
well not all my friends, but just because when you are in that weird single sex environment this is not like real life, and it is so academic focused, high pressured, you have to try and control your eating to balance that and you feel that you constantly struggle. I think they enjoy the friendship but the schooling sounds really stupid. Whereas here, yes, there is an increasing emphasis on academia because the results are going up, but the Headmaster has always maintained that St Aber’s is kind of a school where you can do everything.
She praised the school that allowed her to take Theatre Studies as an A level and ‘actually pursue it like a scholar and still apply somewhere like Oxford7, where
they might look down on a subject like that’. She recognized that the school was very encouraging when pupils make their choices of A levels and how they try to develop different types of intelligence as ‘it is not only about academia, you
6Changed name of another private school.
have to develop your emotional intelligence and all the rest of it’. She defined the ethos of the school as:
make you a rounded person so you are best prepared for life beyond. Lots of people here, they do encourage other options, because they know that you can be out of your depth if it isn’t your choice. So yeah in my words, make you well rounded.
She also described how her parents really wanted her to have that holistic education, as it was something they never got themselves. They both went to not very good schools and especially her dad spent a lot of time expelled from school. Her mum never went to university, and whereas her dad did, he was ‘kicked out of uni’ and never went back. Fortunately for them, they moved to Hong Kong and were able to make their fortunes there, but their educational journey was not something that they wanted their children to experience. Their trajectory resembled that to a lot of parents at the school. They made money through their efforts, it was not inherited, and a few of them would identify as working-class while growing up. As some of pupils reflected, education for their parents was not part of their aspirations while they were growing up but that had changed. This is why they seemed to believe that if their children were to be successful, financially, they needed to get a good education.
It is interesting to see how condemnatory the students were of schools which pushed pupils to breaking point. They represented a shift in what was of value with regards to education; a niche point marketed by the Head Master, which spread quite widely to those parents who lived around the area. As the pupils above mentioned, there can be pressures put on young people who come from certain socioeconomic backgrounds as there might be high expectations of them. As Luthar and Becker (2002) found in their study of affluent youth, there were signs of high distress among those who had high socioeconomic status.
High achievement pressures, both from parental expectations and their own maladaptive perfectionistic strivings, meant that young people suffered from stress and were prone to substance abuse or other issues. Parents who I talked to at Open Days seemed increasingly worried about issues such as mental health and general well-being of teenagers.
London is a difficult place to live at to begin with. There is a lack of community in the areas and for teenagers it is good to have a gang, you know, walk to school together, come back together, be able to talk about their days. And there is this community at school. They have this support of the community. I don't want them to be isolated and buried in books. Yeah, I would like them to go to university and be academically excellent but there is more to it. I don't want them to be all stressed. It is not what this is about. (Carole at an Open Day, asked why she was considering St Aber’s)
Remarkably, Carole used the word ‘gang’ to describe how her child would be part of this community of the school. The word in any other context would have much more negative connotations, but it somehow sounded normal when she said it. Perhaps because the pupils of St Aber’s were not seen as the kind of pupils who could join a gang. Even though the word community was mentioned a lot in the school, as part of their ethos, I believe the kind of community they promoted was rather one-dimensional. Community cohesion was achieved through the connections of those already similar to each other, where frictions, because of structural differences, might be less likely. This was mainly evident through the fact that the school was very homogeneous. However, pupils were disapproving of this homogeneity. Emily, an Upper Sixth student, for example, was asked whether the school should be doing anything differently to enhance their experience.
Maybe off campus stuff, maybe if we go out more, which is a bit difficult, where would we go like what should they do. Maybe primary schools. I don't know. Like I don't understand why we don't play state schools in sport at all. Which is like, not, because all schools round here, they are all pretty much the same. It’s not huge amount of difference between them, but I think the more interaction we could have with people that aren’t necessarily on the pedestal as it were, would be probably, I don't know how they would do it.
I asked Emily to elaborate on what she did not like about this situation and what she meant by the above.
The bubble. When I was going round unis a big thing for me was that it wasn't a bubble. So I went to Exeter. So it is basically replicated what it is here. It was everyone basically the same thing, looked the same, behaved the same, and I hated it, it is not what I am looking for at all. So, I think it is probably my biggest criticism of it, but we cannot really avoid it, but you know (laughs) we all wear the same thing, we all do the same thing, we can talk the same way, we all live in the same area pretty much. And I think this is a shame because if you go to a school other people should have the opportunity to come and we don't interact with a range, like I do, I don't… in social life.
Emily disapproved of the fact that there was limited interaction with other schools or areas, where everyone is not like them, which indirectly implied white and middle-class. The idea of the community, therefore, was somewhat limited to those who subscribed to certain demographics. Higher education was
mentioned both by students and staff as the place where St Aber’s pupils would be able to interact with a wider range of people. However, the formative years of most pupils included minimal contact with people who were not like them. Hugo, a rather quite boy in Upper Sixth , provided a similar account on how integration with different groups of people was not being achieved. This was his response when I asked him to describe the ethos of the school.
Hugo: Yeah, I’m trying to think what to say, not to sound too confusing…erm…I think they do try and promote kind of a multicultural environment, having a good education, making friends and stuff like that.
Iro: When you say they are trying to be multicultural, they are not succeeding massively.
Hugo: No, no they are not succeeding, because of the people that apply and giving places to them. But I think…
Iro: But do you think they are trying to be inclusive and tolerant towards other people?
Hugo: Yeah yeah definitely. I mean the very least they do is promote things against racism and stuff like that. Which is not the best response. But… yeah under the circumstances I think it is difficult, without being any races of most people.
It was difficult to understand why most responses mentioned that it was difficult to engage with people from different backgrounds. I raised the point with senior staff and tried to understand what was meant by that I never really received a response to that. Perhaps, admitting that there were clear divisions between classes and ethnicities, was something the school would not like to be associated with.