Public schools face uncertain future

The closure of Douai School is symptomatic of a crisis in confidence at leading Catholic independent schools, writes Bess Twiston Davies, while Andrew M Brown reports on Ampleforth's move towards co-educational status AT THE GREAT Benedictine boarding schools they tell a joke about a headmaster's conference. "We prepare our boys for life," boasts the head of Eton. "We prepare our boys for death," replies the Benedictine headmaster.
But the fate of the major Catholic boys' boarding schools appears to rest with their financial viability rather than their pastoral capabilities. The Benedictines of Douai announced on Saturday that Douai School will shut at the end of this summer term due to falling numbers and a growing financial deficit.
Doaui, with its illustrious Catholic tradition, is openly ecumenical. "When parents want to send their children here, and I ask them why, the Catholicity of the school is rarely mentioned," says Dr Peter McLaughlin, the lay headmaster. Day pupils account for 50 per cent of all pupils.
Is Douai's closure a bad omen for Catholic boarding schools? Mr Dermot Gogarty, Head of the Catholic Independent Schools Conference, insists Douai is an exception. "This is not something which happened overnight," he says. "And it is certainly not symptomatic of Catholic schools in the country. Numbers at all the big boys' boarding schools have risen."
Likewise, Fr Christopher Jamison, Headmaster of Worth School, claims that there is no cause for alarm. "Some Catholic schools," he says, "have been pruned out but those of us still standing in the orchard are hardy trees."
But like Douai, most of the major Catholic boys boarding schools have been forced to dilute their ethos, discreetly welcoming girls, day-pupils and ecumenism.
Ampleforth now takes girls and Worth has an Anglican chaplain for its Anglican pupils who account for roughly a quarter of their total intake. This ecumenical admissions policy is in keeping with Vatican II, according to Mr Gogarty. "Catholic schools are in a proper state of evolution which began at Vatican IL Accepting pupils whose parents want them to be educated in a Catholic environment is part of this," he says.
Non-Catholics may be storming the portals of the great Catholic boarding schools, but Catholic parents show muted enthusiasm for their alma tnaters, frequently sending their children to schools like Eton which have Catholic chaplains.
"The days of old-fashioned loyalty to your father's school have gone," says Dermot Gogarty. "Parents now decide to send their children to a Catholic school because they are good in every way," he adds, bullishly. But Fr Antony Sutch, Headmaster of Downside School, says that the loyalty of Catholic parents to Catholic schools is "not always obvious", but Catholic parents were "beginning to realise that principles are more important than success".
Downside refuses to accept girls, day-boys or Protestants, "apart from exceptional cases," says Fr Sutch.
"We believe we have a real purpose as a Catholic boys' boarding school." AMPLEFORTH COLLEGE, alma mater of Cardinal Hume, is formally to admit girls into the sixth form for the first time at the start of the next academic year, writes Andrew M Brawn.
The Benedictine public school has for some time accepted a handful of female pupils with connections to the school, such as the daughters of teachers, but from September girls from the area will be able to apply for day places.
The presence of girls, it is hoped, will improve the the academic perfor
mance of the school. "I'm sure girls will change the atmosphere,"Hugh Codrington, the Director of' Admissions at the Yorkshire school, told the Catholic Herald.
He said the main reason for the move was demand from local parents, who are not well served for independent Catholic schools. "It's a natural development," he said.
Asked whether the admission of girls at the moment there are none at the school would alter the school's reputedly robust atmosphere, Mr Codrington said: "Ampleforth is sporty and robust for those who are interested in those things, but there's also a strong theatrical and musical tradition."
As for girls being a distraction for the boys, "whether they're a distraction depends on the personality of the girl, and we'll be looking at that very carefully indeed," Mr Codrington said.
Old Amplefordians have welcomed the move. The Duke of Norfolk said that admitting girls sounded "excellent". Piers Paul Read, who left the school at 16, said he thought it was "unnatural to keep young men cooped up in the middle oldie countryside with no female company".