Content area
Full text
Backers defend elite Eton College's move into state sector.
Over the centuries, Eton College has educated the children of wealthy families from all over the world. But the prestigious private boarding school has come under fire for turning its attention closer to home, backing a government-funded boarding school moulded in its own image.
The historic move attracted the ire of teaching unions, which complained that the new school would cater for an elite, rather than the majority of local families. But one of the key players behind the project has now hit back.
Simon Dudley, banker and deputy leader of Conservative-led Windsor and Maidenhead Council, insists that it will be "a comprehensive school and it's going to have a very broad social mix".
"You could have a millionaire's child next to a child whose parents are on benefits," he said.
Mr Dudley, whose son recently left Eton, said the new school, Holyport College, would "actively target" local primary schools in areas of deprivation. The social mix has been "hardwired" into the admissions policy, he said, as 20 per cent of children have to be...