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.
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 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.
-
August 9 editorial cartoonsCartoons Saturday's political cartoons include snake oil salesmen, Ghislaine Maxwell's new residence, and more
-
5 hastily redrawn cartoons about redistrictingCartoons Artists take on Donald Trump's draughtsmanship, the White House ballroom, and more
-
Bonnie Blue: taking clickbait to extremesTalking Point Channel 4 claims documentary on the adult performer's attention-grabbing sex stunts is opening up a debate
-
English literature: is it doomed?Speed Read Arts and humanities courses are under attack thanks to a shift to ‘skills-led’ learning
-
Are UK classrooms a new political battleground?Speed Read Government has issued new guidance on political neutrality in schools
-
Kathleen Stock resigns: the ‘hounding’ of an academic on the front line of transgender rights debateSpeed Read Sussex University students claim ‘trans and non-binary students are safer and happier for it’
-
How 100,000 ‘lost children’ disappeared from UK school systemSpeed Read Experts warn that vulnerable pupils may be recruited by gangs after failing to return to education post-lockdown
-
Why is the government planning to cut arts education funding by 50%?Speed Read Proposal described by critics as ‘catastrophic’ and ‘an attack on the future of UK arts’
-
Schools do not spread Covid-19, multiple studies findSpeed Read Reports from Germany, Norway and the WHO conclude schoolchildren are not vector of infection
-
Universities must consider refunding students hit by Covid disruption, regulator warnsSpeed Read Institutions under investigation as thousands of undergraduates remain locked down amid coronavirus outbreaks
-
Coronavirus: will UK schools have to close again?Speed Read Thousands of teachers are self-isolating - but the government is determined not to order new closures
