In contrast, nearly half of all the schools represented by the Scottish Council of Independent Schools offer straight-through schooling — some from as young as three years old. And they include many of the most prestigious institutions, such as George Watson’s and George Heriot’s in Edinburgh, and Hutchesons’, the High School, the Academy and Kelvinside in Glasgow.
So why is provision so different? And what are the advantages? Two factors have driven the creation of schools that provide for young people throughout their school career. The first is pressure from parents. Enthused by the education provided by secondary schools, many parents persuaded them to add a junior department. That helped fill a gap in provision. For though, in the state sector, primary schools tend to be close by children’s homes, in the independent sector they are more thinly spread.
Consolidation has been the other driving force. Scotland’s independent schools have achieved a remarkable trick in recent years, by increasing the number of children they teach while the overall number of independent schools has fallen significantly. In this process, however, several successful secondaries have taken over primary schools, in part to safeguard their own intake.
The advantages of straight-through schools are huge, according to Hugh Ouston, head of Robert Gordon’s College in Aberdeen — where youngsters can start as young as 3. “We can deploy academic resources throughout the school, so that even in primary, pupils get the benefit of specialist teachers,” says Ouston. “Our pastoral team are there for children at every stage of their school lives, so the care we provide is based on long acquaintance with a child. We are also able to deploy physical resources on a scale that is hard to imagine for a smaller school. For example, we have 40 acres of games fields.”
A larger school’s academic resources are considerable. Specialist arts and music teachers, as well as teachers with degrees in the subjects they teach, can spend time with primary children in a way that standalone primaries simply cannot match. The teachers themselves work in a more varied and interesting environment, which brings benefits to all.
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Ouston even boasts that, in Carole Nicoll, he has a nationally recognised innovator in French teaching. Nicoll came to prominence with such techniques as teaching seven-year-old Aberdonians how to rap in French.
“The children being mixed also brings benefits,” says Ouston. “Primary and secondary classes occupy different areas and use facilities at different times, but the younger children are familiar with the main school, so there is nothing too daunting when they move up. For the older children, many of them are involved in a scheme where they pair up with younger children and read with them.”
But what of the missed rites of passage? First days in new schools are the only training that most of us have for far scarier first days at distant universities or in new jobs.
Robert Tims is head of St Leonards, in St Andrews, which was recently named Scottish independent school of the year by The Sunday Times. “Each age group at St Leonards has its own clear identity,” says Tims. “From the early years to those at our junior school, right through to the sixth form, where they study for the international baccalaureate, which is quite different from the 12-16 curriculum.”
The effect, argues Tims, is there is no doubt in children’s minds they are passing milestones, but never have to arrive at a forbidding building filled with strangers.
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Like Ouston, Tims also points to the facilities available to children. “We have a big arts centre and specialist music facilities that are available to all children.”
Paradoxically, heads of straight-through schools also argue that pupils who don’t arrive until senior school don’t have the scary “first day” either, thanks to the quality of their pastoral systems.
True or not, it does not diminish the profound effect that straight-through schooling must have on those who stay the full 15 years in a single institution. At a time when the family itself is more volatile than ever, it is surely a good thing for children to have a single, supportive “family” to guide and shape their lives with such certainty over such a long period.