Has your secondary modern school, like Shropshire's Millichope Hall, got a lake and lawns and rugger and borders and prefects? And a waiting list?
THE public schools of England drowse in the holiday sun. But, over one boarding school the most unusual "public school" of them all hangs a dark cloud of uncertainty.
Millichope Hall, near Craven Arms in Shropshire, has an aristocratic air that Eton might envy. Its parklands, its classical portico, its sporting prowess, its coat-of-arms and Latin motto, its assemblage of parental motor cars on important occasions, suggest the really exclusive educational establishment.
And so it is. It is almost unique. Millichope Hall is a secondary modern boarding school. Its 60 boys are Shropshire lads who didn't manage to pass the 11 plus hurdle for grammar schools. They are all getting free education just as if they were at an ordinary secondary modern school but their parents, graded by income, are paying between £175 and £200 a year boarding costs.
This remarkable experiment is threatened by the coming expiration of the county council's lease on Millichope Hall and by the background problem of whether to continue or expand the school elsewhere.
Mr. E. C. Shults, the headmaster, was just about to go trout fishing when I arrived. We talked about rugger, character building and similar subjects dear to public school tradition.
Astonishing
Yet Mr. Shults told me that he himself was an ex-grammar school boy and an emergency trained teacher, with no public school fixations to colour his views about education.
That is the really astonishing thing about this extraordinary secondary modern school. If it looks and feels like an *** MISSING TEXT *** and has, then it has arrived at that state under its own steam and by its own highly original route.
For instance, I gather it would have been the easiest thing in the world to fill Millichope Hall with the "cream" of secondary modern children in Shropshire, particularly the sons of rich, disappointed parents. But ability in school work is not the basis. Nor is snob value. With a large waiting list to choose from, boys are deliberately selected from all secondary modern levels "top, middle and bottom" says Mr. Shults.
Some boys are picked as potential leaders. Others because they need leading. One important factor is common. Somebody has to be prepared to pay the boarding fees. Subjects taught officially are those at any ordinary secondary modern school. But that is only the start. The school has a strong rural bias, owns its own tractor, stock and implements, and sends between 60 and 70 per cent, of its boys to agricultural jobs. But there is growing emphasis on mathematics and English and a trend towards industry. Hobby education, out of official school hours, covers a fantastic range, photography, drama, radio-equipped model aircraft and ships, camping, canoeing, printing, country dancing, foreign travel. Sporting success is marked, particularly at Rugger and athletics.
What makes it tick? One might suggest the strong dash of Outward Bound enthusiasm at the school. Work begins at 7 a.m. with a run down the long drive in PT kit, followed by a cold shower.
New guise
One might suggest an unconscious imitation of the "public school spirit." The prefect system of boy authority is strongly developed under a new guise. Millichope's head boy is "Prime Minister" and under him are a "Foreign Secretary" responsible for welcoming visitors, a "Home Secretary" responsible for discipline, and so on. "Cabinet meetings" of "Ministers" wield minor disciplinary power under supervision.
I asked Mr. Shults how his boys, who must have gone through an ordinary secondary modern school before reaching Millichope, reacted to the challenge. "They are sometimes surprised on arrival to discover that they really have to do what they are told," he, said. "But they soon settle down". Having only 15 boys in a class makes a wonderful difference, and having them full time means that half their education counts as fun.
I imagine that Harrow, Eton and Winchester could manage a sympathetic smile for Millichope. *** MISSING TEXT ***