Private school pupils should be taught how lucky they are, says London headteacher

Parents of privately educated children must teach their offspring the value of money and ensure they realise how privileged they are, the deputy head of an £18,000-a-year London school said.

Loren Macallister, of Shrewsbury House School in Surbiton, said schools themselves also have a duty to instil in children a “healthy” perspective on wealth and not encourage them to pursue material things above all else.

Writing in Attain, a magazine for the independent schools sector, she said: “The challenge is for parents to keep children grounded — to value money — and not fit the stereotype the media sometimes associates with children in private schooling.”

She urged parents to be aware that they could be subconsciously fuelling in their children an “inexorable pursuit of the material, above all else” if they concentrate solely on the financial aspect of wealth.

She said: “There are so many different forms of wealth, yet we concentrate immediately on the financial... We can have all the money in the world but be spiritually poor, time poor, health poor.

“Does our philosophy in life — what we teach our children, what they identify as success and wealth, how we contribute to their world view — give them a healthy perspective?”

Shrewsbury House, a prep school for boys aged seven to 13, runs a number of schemes that expose pupils to children from less fortunate backgrounds.

Shrewsbury boys are encouraged to send their old trainers to children in Laos, and they watch their gifts being handed over via video link in assemblies. The school also runs trips to South Africa, during which pupils visit townships.

“They have never seen children in conditions like that and it gives them pause to reflect: not everyone has access to running water; not everyone has the kinds of hopes and dreams we have,” said Mrs Macallister. The deputy head, who teaches English, also challenges her pupils to think about what is really important in life by asking them to write a speech they imagine someone will give about them at their own 80th birthday celebrations.

She said: “They write, more often than not, about giving back, about making a real difference in society. They don’t write about working themselves to death or their net worth or how many hours they spend at the office. They write about values.”