A leaked email sent by the assistant headmaster of a top-flight public school reveals pupils were having sex in boarding houses so frequently that school nurses ran out of the morning after pill, the Mail on Sunday reports.
Stowe School, in Buckingham, boasts alumni including Sir Richard Branson, David Niven, Group Captain Lord Cheshire and Prince Harry's former girlfriends, Chelsy Davy and Cressida Bonas. Fees are £33,000 a year.
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The email says: "After this last weekend . . . the medical centre ran out of supplies of emergency contraception early this week. Not only is this worrying enough in itself, but it is also of great concern that some of the pupils … told the nurses that they were having sex in boarding houses over the weekend."
It continues: "Medical confidentiality means that I do not know which houses or which year groups are involved. Obviously sexual activity is a very serious pastoral concern for us as a school, and something we need to be constantly vigilant for.
"The school rules do, of course, state that no study, bedroom or dormitory may be entered by a student of the opposite sex." The email goes on to suggest that the school's supervision of boarding houses at the weekend "needs to be stepped up".
It adds: "If pupils are relaxed enough to have sex in a boarding house it is clear that there are either certain parts of the boarding house, or certain times of the day, when they are very confident that there will be no staff around."
The school was founded in 1923 with an ethos deliberately at odds with traditional public schools. 'Fagging' was always outlawed and an emphasis was placed on pupils appreciating art and music as well as achieving academically and at sports.