June 20, 2014

Dear Sir,

Over a number of years now I have had my child attend what was once our flagship private school on the Island. I am concerned that it is failing to provide the education that Bermudians dream and pay through the nose for, but is also failing to provide the level of education that UK expats supporting our international business sector merely expect for their children.

I am not quite sure how it has happened, but the Board of Directors of that school seem to have lost their way.

Somehow they have been bamboozled into hiring consultants and inspectors who provide services, not to the highly successful and respected schools in the UK independent schools sector, but rather to underperforming schools in the UK state schools sector.

This poor decision-making seems to have permeated the senior leadership team as well, to the point that there seems now to be no one at that school who actually has previous experience in working in, leading or even consulting to any of top UK 100 independent schools. Does this seem ludicrous to anyone else?

When highly qualified UK expats come to the Island with their children and wish to invest in business in Bermuda, they may soon come to realise that there isn’t an academic experience available for their children here on the Island. Our schools need to remain competitive on the international stage.

And what’s worse is the longer they stay here, the less chance their children will have to get into one of good independent schools back in the UK, where they might receive such an education.

So they start planning their exit from Bermuda almost immediately, taking their skills and potentially their foreign investment with them. This is a very sad state of affairs for Bermuda and the Bermudian economy as we have come to witness.

Perhaps the Board of our once flagship private school might consider doing what they should have done in the first place — invest in a leadership team and consultants who have actual, proven experience in working in or with only steadily improving schools listed the top 100 independent schools in the UK.

And for goodness sake, if they intend to use the services of an ex-schools inspector, use one from the Independent Schools Inspectorate, not one from Ofsted. I mean really, they should know better!

I am a very concerned parent, who would prefer not to have to send their child to boarding school in order for them to remain competitive on the international stage.

A VERY CONCERNED PARENT