The Confessions of a Private School Student.

So, I attended a private boarding school for over 5 years of my life.

And oh boy did I hate it.

Only did I realise how closed off I was from the world when I moved to my local sixth form college and met people who weren’t products of pure money and instead had real personalties, interesting backgrounds and even a variety of interests other than how much your annual household income is. It was almost rather intimidating attending a ‘normal’ school and actually feeling like I fitted in nicely somewhere, and not having to worry about annunciating all of my letters properly, because in reality, nobody cared.

I remember vividly in one Chemistry lesson being mocked by the teacher for achieving a B in my GCSE exam because mostly everybody else had got an A*. Funny that, it doesn’t seem to abide by ‘Building Confidence for Life’, which happened to be the school’s motto. (Hi Sir, if you’re reading, I managed perfectly fine without taking Chemistry at A-Level, that you told me was ‘essential’.)

The particular school I attended even had a Charitable Status, meaning people could donate money to them. This bit really annoys me. My parents paid an unspeakable amount of money per year, just like everybody else, and yet the school needs more money?! In my time there I did not see one single improvement to the boarding house I stayed in.

Essentially, the only thing my parents paid for was the permission for me to say ‘I went to private school’, not to receive ‘a good education’ as the myth states.

Usually I would apologise about being so controversial, but this time I refuse. I always hear people saying how ‘cool’ it would be to go to boarding school, and it’s important to educate them about the horrors of the money-making machine that is private school.

It would be interesting to hear other people’s opinions, so if you disagree, or agree, tweet me @lleacunningham.

Also, I’m looking to start up a project, so if any keen young people with big voices want to get involved then e-mail me at laurenleacunningham@gmail.com

Thanks! 🙂