Eton opens its doors in jolly fine gesture

LONDON - One school has educated 19 British Prime Ministers. The other nestles below the flight path into Heathrow and takes in the children of asylum-seekers at short notice.

One has a glowing academic reputation dating back hundreds of years; up to 80 of its pupils a year go to Oxford or Cambridge and only one paper taken by its 210 pupils sitting their GCSEs failed to record an A+ to C grade pass this northern summer.

The other school is an academy that was formerly a state secondary school that twice failed inspections by Ofsted, the British education standards watchdog. Last year less than a third of the pupils got five top-grade passes at GCSE, including maths and English.

Now Eton College has gone into partnership with Langley Academy near Slough. It is sharing its superb facilities with its less privileged neighbour - and bringing benefits, including the joys of rowing, to hundreds of state-school pupils for the first time.

As a result of the deal, Langley pupils will have access not only to Eton's Dornay boating lake and its 180ha of parkland near the school, but also to the college's 27 cricket pitches.

So Langley pupils' sporting skills will be honed on the playing fields where the Battle of Waterloo was reputedly won.

They will also, quite possibly, hear the strains of Jolly Boating Weather, the opening line of the Eton boating song devised in 1863, as they strive to prove rowing is not just an elite sport for those at independent schools.

Langley serves a very mixed catchment area and the children speak 28 different home languages. Principal Chris Bowler reckons the Eton deal means it now offers the broadest range of opportunities of any state-financed school with a comprehensive intake.

The academies programme seeks to replace struggling state secondary schools with privately sponsored schools.

Eton's decision means it has joined a growing line of independent schools supporting academies. Its involvement stops short of sponsoring the academy, which is being sponsored by millionaire philanthropist Sir Martin Arbib. This year, 520 parents applied to put their children in for the 180 places on offer at Langley.

- INDEPENDENT