WIDENING OUR PERSPECTIVE
THE PERSPECTIVE OF GIRL PUPILS WOULD BE ENORMOUSLY VALUABLE IN SIXTH BOOK CLASSES .
on the Arts side in Div and not enough Science — one angry argument centred upon whether it was acceptable for a pupil to leave the school without having ever studied Newton ’ s Second Law , but knowing a lot about Arthur Miller or the Epic of Gilgamesh .
His own conclusion from sitting in on a number of div hours in the last few years has been that in some areas , such as the discussion of ‘ the meaning of life ’, the perspective of girl pupils would be enormously valuable in Sixth Book classes . ‘ There are different perceptions of upbringing from mothers and fathers and so on , which would come into a discussion like that ’, he goes on , and points to his own experience from kitchen table chats as the father of two sons and a daughter about the value of gender diversity in education .
Let ’ s wind back a little to hear how the overall plan came into being . Ferguson argues the decision to admit girls in the sixth form was rooted in a much wider discussion .
‘ We believe the school should be slightly bigger . We are the smallest of the major public schools and being slightly larger helps in all sorts of areas from sports , to drama and to the full use of our facilities — which have been greatly improved with the new Sports Centre . Obviously there will be additional revenues from having more pupils , but there will be additional costs too . And we want to make sure we have the best possible bursary scheme to broaden our intake .’
These headline changes are rooted in a wider expansion of the College ’ s bursary scheme , to allow it to raise the number and value of bursaries , including a close connection with pupils coming from local schools . The money for bursaries comes from returns on the College ’ s own investments , and also from increased philanthropic giving . So what encourages people to want to give ?
‘ I find that the concept of people who benefited from Winchester giving so that others can go there , who couldn ’ t otherwise afford it , is a very persuasive one , and I ’ ve never found people saying that ’ s a silly idea ,’ he says .
So far so healthy — the College ’ s own investments , including some divestments of land , are in good health and making
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