The final callover for us at Shrewsbury School as our last daughter leaves, heading off to the Army with a scholarship. Shrewsbury, like so many private schools is hundreds of years old, steeped in tradition, like the callover here where all the pupils parade past the headmaster and praeposters (prefects),of which my daughter was one, to say goodbye at the end of the year. The Labour party wants to destroy this, not because they need the money, but out of pure spite. For the last few hundred years the majority of the worlds leaders, scientists, explorers, have all come from the private school system. Would Darwin have come up with the theory of evolution without the grounding of science at Shrewsbury school? Rather than destroy them out of spite they should turn their energies towards improving the state schools, reintroducing competitiveness, spend more time celebrating achievements rather than pissing money down the drain pursuing the latest woke agenda including those that go against basic biology. We have some good local schools in Herefordshire and I have some bright daughters, who I am sure would have done well anywhere, however our son was exceptionally ill when we moved to the county, prognosis of dead by 7/8, and the girls were struggling at the local primary so someone suggested talking to the local prep school. The headmaster was astounding, saw the trauma of what we were having to deal with and offered to take our two eldest as boarders. I have bust my balls paying the fees, we don't do holidays, new clothes, cars, etc. Everything has been for the education and even then we couldn't have done it without generous bursaries and scholarships, which is part of the reason these schools stay as charities. 15 years on my eldest starts as a doctor in the local hospital in August toying with going into the army after here foundation years. No 2 has a Biomedical Science degree and has just completed a self funded two year law conversion course and No3 is planning on working and then travelling for a couple of years before taking up her place at Sandhurst. Would they have achieved this through the state system, it's hard to tell, but the private schools have given them the self confidence that they stand out of the crowd locally which is probably the most important thing. As for Charlie? Early prognosis was wrong and 16 years later he is still with us. He has severe global developmental delay and is a slow processor, but a good looking lad and great fun to be with when not being a stroppy teenage boy at home 🤣 Labour should be ashamed of themselves attacking the private school system, it only highlights how petty they can be. They have already destroyed the university system insisting that it should be for all, created massive debts that will never be paid back, led to a massive shortage of apprentices for skilled trades. Well, at least the shelf stackers in Tesco's have degrees now🤦