cariad wrote:My favourite god son has just started at St James senior school and I came across this board when googling his new school.
Hello Cariad and welcome to the board,
It is very difficult to tell what the schools are like today but I think many of us remain concerned about whether the schools have significantly changed.
When I was at St James boys senior school until 1994, bullying was rife. When bullies were caught they would be punished but not necessarily consistently. Also at the time corporal punishment was retained and it would not be uncommon for someone caught bullying to be caned. I have no idea what St James have in place regarding anti-bullying policies of the current school. I would hope however that they have put something robust in place and I would hope also that your friends have investigated this thoroughly if this is a concern for your godson.
The punishment regime has been changed and as I understand it they use a yellow and red card system. It sounds good but of course I have no specific experience of it. Basically any kid that is misbehaving will get a yellow card warning that should inform the kid clearly of the bahaviour that is unacceptable and that there will be consequences if they continue. If they continue they get a red card which means that they will be receiving a punishment. The punishment will be decided by a teacher other than the teacher who issued the red card, which I believe is a very good safeguard against punishments being meted out in extreme form because of a teacher's emotional reaction. This was a process that I understand was adopted around the time of the inquiry and instigated by David Boddy as the new head. How it works in practice I do not know but in theory this sounds good.
The remaining concerns are about the generally the oppressive nature of the way the philosophy of the SES is imposed and taught in St James and St James's relationship to the SES. I have no idea of how the culture and ethos of St James has changed since Boddy took over as head from Debenham, but I personally have real concerns about Boddy in this role. Firstly he is a long time member of the SES at the highest level. He was considered at the time of the Secret Cult a press spokesman for the organisation and I think it is fair to say the SES has yet to address much of the criticism levelled at it during the 70's and 80's. Boddy is not a teacher and I do not know what qualifies him to be headmaster of a secondary school. His first teaching role is that of headmaster at this school; a most unconventional career path and I'd have thought raises concern. Given his relative seniority in the SES relative to governors of St James, this raises questions,in my mind, both about his appointment and about the governors ability to provide effective oversight of the running of the school.
Boddy very much claims that the inquiry was the start of a process of reconciliation (based on the South African Truth & Reconciliation Commission) however there are a few points that should be recognised. Firstly there has been very little evidence of any real reconciliation taking place. St James hasn't even made it appear that it's taking place with the inquiry website (
http://www.iirep.com/page10.htm) still displaying the same status of followup actions that it did in 2006. Secondly, whilst all of us are delighted that so much was documented and uncovered by Mr Townend in the inquiry report, I think most of us feel that this only represents the tip of the iceberg rather than a full and complete account of all the attrocities that occurred during the formative years of the school. Thirdly, three teacher named in the inquiry report (names have never been disclosed publicly) still teach at St James and have merely had written warnings added to their record. This sounds to me like they've gotten away with it scot free and rather undermines any idea that this is based on the South African model. It is extremely important to recognise that during the South African reconciliation process, amnesty for attrocities committed was only granted on the basis of the fullest and frankest accounts being given by the perpetrators. Only a very small minority of those who requested amnesty were ultimately granted it. It shows a grave disrespect to those affected by their time at St James and the fact that they came forward to participate in the inquiry that there has been little saction against the teachers implicated in the report. Similarly the fact that there is little evidence of reconciliation suggests that it was never St James's intention to reconcile, rather it had to be seen to be doing something to address the criticism that was most probably concerning friends and parents of current and potential pupils.
I find it impossible to reconcile the fact that St James with the SES philosophy, which claims to be about unity and that we are all of the same human family, can fail to just do right by those who have been greatly affected by their times at the school. In this regard I will never trust them. They have to do so much more to earn that trust back not that they really care about whether I trust them or not.
Things do appear to have changed regarding meditation and pausing. There does seem to be less persausion that pupils must do this, however there is the drip drip effect of all these things being constantly repeated and practiced every day. My sister left St James three years ago and there is little to suggest that the quantity of SES philosophy incorporated into the curriculum has been reduced. I think the St James will be a different place to what I went through simply for the fact that the majority of pupils are no longer from SES families and I hope that most pupils receive a healthy dose of skepticism from their parents regarding the philosophical/spiritual/religious aspects of the curriculum. I also think that pupils in their own rebellious way do tend to take a skeptical approach and do find great ways of undermining and hijacking philosophy lessons.
Diet has improved considerably and was changing towards the end of my time there. There was cooked food for example and there is certainly plenty of it. There is a little too much cheese and milk based food than I would consider healthy or balanced but I believe things have significantly improved on this front from the early days that perhaps Clara describes in her book where you'd not even be allowed to spread honey on your bread.
From my own experiences at St James, I believe that the type of philosophy and belief system they teach has no place in a school education system. The results are not particularly spectacular compared against other independent schools or the best state schools and I would certainly never send any of my kids there.
I would suggest that you and your godson's parents endeavour to find out as much as you can about the philosophy as you can and just ask yourselves whether this is what you want your godson to be influenced by. Check out the SES website,
http://www.schooleconomicscience.org. Check out the audio recordings which will give you and idea of the philosophy that is taught and the sorts of arguments used to back it up.
Also I would read the 1996 report by Marco Goldschmied, then governor and member of the SES, and his letter to Mr Townend's inquiry that is incredibly revealing about the way St James and the SES interact and how they can never be truely separate organisations. You can find these documents here,
http://reference.ses-forums.org/?p=201.
I hope this all helps
Bonsai