Headteacher's Blog #10

I think that because I am a comprehensive schoolboy, with a chip on my shoulder about the unfairness of the English education system, I always assume that fee-paying schools are going to have advantages that those in the state system are always going to struggle to overcome. At LSA, I have found a school that is challenging this assumption. Increasingly our school is competing with, and beating, fee paying schools in a range of sports. Not only in football, which has traditionally been the sport of the state school, but in hockey, rugby and netball, sports that have often been bossed by the 7%.  We have been nominated for the Fylde Sports School of the Year and I hope that, given our continued excellence, we will bring home another much deserved trophy.

 

The fact is that, regardless of our success in sports, the fee-paying sector still supercharges success in life chances for young people. I have spent my life and career challenging this and LSA is a school with the potential to use its size, resources and experienced staff to give its young people the very same advantages garnered by those who pay. What is often missed in the debate on school inequality is that the best fee-paying schools instil discipline, routine and ambition in their students from the minute they enter the school. These expectations permeate the school's culture and make success an inevitable destination, not an uphill struggle. All young people deserve these opportunities and although there are reasons for state school often lagging behind, as our sporting success shows, there are no excuses. It is only when we all share the highest expectations of what our young people can achieve that these lofty ambitions can be met. Our sports teams have thrown down the gauntlet; we must all raise the bar.

 

Have a good weekend