Education

Dr Anthony Seldon has called for pupils in state schools to be taught manners and self-control
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Wellington College head says state schools should teach manners and self-control

By Julie Spencer
January 25, 2013

State schools should teach manners and self-control, according to the head of one of the country’s leading public schools.

Dr Anthony Seldon, master of Wellington College in Crowthorne, believes character development is more important than academic results for students today.

Dr Seldon wants all schoolchildren to take a General Certificate of Character Education (GCCE) exam alongside traditional GCSEs.

He said: “All schools must offer this qualification and all students must take this qualification which will be prized by future employers, and even by Higher Education, as highly as GCSE.”

Dr Seldon was set to give his views today at the annual Priestley Lecture at the University of Birmingham.

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Most recent user comments 8 of 8

I do apologise - Gideon was rejected to train as a journalist, not failed to get rejected.

Fenton that last Amontillado was a bit stiff!

Mme. Madeline Vegas, Hanworth, Bracknell
25/01/2013 at 12:10

Gideon's story is awfully similar to Dave's, isn't it?

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
25/01/2013 at 11:58

Indeed DT - take our Chancellor, who is doing a sterling job steering our economy into calmer waters.

Notoriously failed to get rejected to train as a journalist, sitting on a whopping great trust fund courtesy of Mum and Dad the wallpaper magnates, and a Baronetcy to boot.

I'm just glad he found his true calling in life as a saviour of British economic prosperity or his life may have faced a very uncertain outcome.

Madeline Vegas BA (Hon) PPE, Hanworth, Bracknell
25/01/2013 at 11:53

Millicent,

that's a great point. Although the only quote we have to go on is "All schools must offer this qualification", so maybe he has been miss-represented by the title.

Then again, the focus of the statement is on employment, and I don't think pupils of public schools have as much of an issue finding employment.

Damiano_Tommassi, Wokingham
25/01/2013 at 11:24

Is the suggestion that public schools don't need to teach manners and self-control?

That's arrogant in the extreme.

Some of the rudest and most self-obsessed children I meet are products of public and private schools

Millicent Reeves, Charvil
25/01/2013 at 11:18

Doesn't make this guy wrong, though, does it... I think many of us would agree that manners are a little lacking these days, and make some young people unemployable.