Top private school holds ‘Austerity Day’ where students eat baked potatoes and beans
St Paul’s Girls’ School widely criticised for appearing to downplay the significance of austerity
A prestigious private school in West London has been heavily criticised after holding an “Austerity Day” where students dined on a lunch of baked potatoes, beans and coleslaw.
St Paul’s Girls’ School in Hammersmith tweeted about the buffet accompanying the message with “a picture of a fine-dining waiter displaying a silver plate with three peas on it”, says HuffPost.
The charity fundraiser “saw staff and students eating ‘simple food’ in place of the fare they are normally served”, adds The Independent.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The school said the money saved on the dinners would go towards the school’s charities.
St Paul’s deleted the original tweet, however it circulated widely on Twitter today after a former pupil Henna Shah shared it having screen-grabbed the original.
Castigating the school’s decision to publicise the event with the name “Austerity Day”, Shah tweeted again: “How offensive do you have to be? This is not austerity. If you want to know what real austerity looks like, speak to one of your bursary students who you seem keen to erase out of existence.”
Using the term “Austerity lunch”, “suggests that the real problem faced by the underprivileged is that their lunch might be a bit bland”, says The New Statesman’s John Elledge. It promotes the idea that austerity “is not really that big a deal”.
“But to many families who aren’t spending £24,000 a year on school fees, plus text books and music lessons, austerity is rather a big deal, actually”, he concludes.
A St Paul’s Girls’ School spokesperson told The Independent: “For many years, along with many schools and places of worship in the country, St Paul’s has arranged regular lunches when simple food is served and the money saved given to local charities.”
“The aim is also to raise the awareness of our students to those less fortunate than themselves. We take our commitment to the wider community very seriously.”
“The choice of the word ‘austerity’ is to draw attention to the fact that others around them are facing significant economic difficulties.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
The RAAC concrete crisis: fears spread to hospitals, homes and theatres
feature Experts call for tens of thousands of buildings to undergo safety checks as crumbling schools scandal escalates
By Sorcha Bradley Last updated
-
Children trapped 900ft in the air in Pakistani cable car emergency
Speed Read A helicopter rescue effort has been launched to save the stranded group of eight
By Rebekah Evans Published
-
Andrew Tate and the radicalisation of teenage boys
Talking Point Teachers say male students are being sucked into former kickboxer’s ultra- macho world where they are exposed to his disturbing views
By The Week Staff Published
-
The power the Church of England has in the UK
feature Critics have questioned the relevancy of the Church’s influence in schools and politics
By Chas Newkey-Burden Published
-
The Week Unwrapped: Home-working pay cuts, Taiwan and Cinderella
podcast Should people who work from home earn 20% less? Is Taiwan at risk of a Chinese invasion? And what does the failure of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest production tell us about post-Covid theatre?
By The Week Staff Published
-
The Week Unwrapped: Schools, births and children’s appetites
podcast Do private schools make pupils happier? Is the NHS still failing British mothers? And when do we learn to be carnivores?
By The Week Staff Published
-
‘Teaching positives of colonialism brushes dead bodies under the carpet’
Instant Opinion Your digest of analysis from the British and international press
By The best columns Published
-
‘President Zelensky is in over his head’
Instant Opinion Your digest of analysis from the British and international press
By The best columns Published