Students at state sixth forms will receive an Eton-style education after the elite £14,000-a-term private school proposed £100m investment to help disadvantaged children
- Eton to invest £100m into educated disadvantaged children outside of London
- Their head wants private schools to be on the right side of history after the crisis
- Headmaster Simon Henderson thinks efforts should extend to northern schools
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
Eton is in talks with the Department of Education to invest £100million into teaching disadvantaged children in East Anglia, the Midlands and northern England.
Eton’s headmaster, Simon Henderson, thinks the coronavirus pandemic would ‘trigger a profound change’ like the two world wars did and Eton wants to ‘be on the right side of history’ by sponsoring underprivileged sixth-forms.
Mr Henderson said: ‘Every institution will be judged by what they did during the pandemic.
‘That’s particularly true in education where there’s no doubt that inequality is widening.’
Headmaster Simon Henderson (pictured) wants Eton to invest £100million into educating disadvantaged sixth-form children in East Anglia, the Midlands and northern England
The elite private school’s headmaster said that fight against inequality in education needs to be widened to outside of London where most of Eton and other private schools have partnered with state schools.
Mr Henderson is looking for state and private sector partners to join the five-year project currently funded by Eton’s charitable endowment and fundraising.
He told the Times: ‘We want to create a wider network with as many as 50 schools and youth clubs, particularly in disadvantaged areas.
Mr Henderson wants this project to help change people’s association of Eton, which has educated 20 prime ministers including Boris Johnson, with elitism.
General secretary of the head teachers’ union ASCL, Geoff Barton, said: ‘We support any initiative which creates excellent educational provision but we would urge Eton — and the government — to ensure that any state-funded selective sixth form college does not simply cream off the most able students from existing institutions.’
Pictured: Boris Johnson, 15 years old at the time, with some friends at Eton in 1979. The school has educated 20 prime ministers and its pupils often go on to study at Oxford or Cambridge