Teen who was left homeless when his mother fled domestic violence says he's 'pinching himself' after becoming head boy at £35,000-a-year boarding school
A teen who was left homeless when his mother fled an abusive home has told how he 'pinches himself all the time' after becoming head boy of a £35,000 a year boarding school.
Julian Andre ,17, from Roehampton, London was given the chance to attend the prestigious Kingham Hill School in the Cotswolds, thanks to charity Buttle UK - who alongside Oxfordshire county council - provided a grant for his school fees.
The student, who is in the last year of his A-Levels and hopes to attend Oxford University before becoming a barrister, appeared on This Morning today, where he told of the 'tough' relationship with his biological parents.
Julian also explained that there was a 'big culture shock' when he first joined the school, and admitted at first he was 'angered' by how privileged some of his fellow students were.
'A fresh pair of eyes': The private schools inspector
Tes profiles Independent Schools Inspectorate chief inspector Kate Richards, who has a curriculum replete with brave and challenging experiences
Kate Richards’ career at the Independent Schools Inspectorate, and indeed in the independent schools sector, started with an unexpected invitation.
“I got a phone call when I was on holiday saying that they were looking for somebody to join [the ISI] – was I interested?” the chief inspector recalls.
And was she? At that particular moment, no, not really.
“I was in my shorts and T-shirt on my way to the beach,” Richards laughs. “As I remember, I just asked them to call me back.”
She had been doing consultancy work for a few years – working with academy chains, for a national charity, and governors, among others – and had worked for her whole life in the state sector. She says she wasn’t really looking for a new job.
But they called again. The watchdog – which inspects the country's most prestigious independent schools – was looking for someone with a range of different experiences, Richards thinks.
“A pair of fresh eyes,” she says. “That’s what I had.”
She thought that a new challenge, and new sector, “would be fun”.
And so Richards joined the ISI in September 2016, first as head of inspection performance, then as acting chief inspector in January 2017. Later that year, she was appointed chief inspector.
Was this her dream job when she was a teenager? No, she thought she’d go into business. But one element was already clear: she loved being surrounded by children.
“I always gravitated towards summer jobs and holiday jobs which involved children. I was babysitting from a young age,” she says.
“Then I worked at English language colleges, and I was a children’s courier overseas for a while. I probably thought that it’d be going into business, even though everything I did was centred around children.”
But the certainty of what she wanted to do came only a few years later – in the middle of a trekking trip in Nepal, during one of several trips abroad.
Read more: https://www.tes.com/news/fresh-pair-eyes-private-schools-inspector