David and Samantha Cameron look to send daughter to inner city comp

David Cameron considers inner city comprehensive for his elder daughter Nancy in contrast to his own privileged education at Eton College

David Cameron, who was famously educated at Eton College, is considering sending his elder daughter to an ethnically diverse, inner city comprehensive.

Mr Cameron is understood to have visited the school - a Church of England all-girls’ comprehensive close to Downing Street - in the search for a place next September for his 10-year-old daughter Nancy.

It is understood Mr Cameron and his wife Samantha, who studied at Marlborough College - the same school as the Duchess of Cambridge - have decided to spurn a fee-paying school for Nancy.

In doing so, Mr Cameron is set to become the first Conservative Prime Minister to have entrusted his children’s education to the state sector while still in office.

Mr and Mrs Cameron are looking at a number of options including The Grey Coat Hospital Church of England comprehensive school for girls, which is said to be high on their preferred list. Mr Cameron was given a tour of Grey Coat last week and invited to look in on lessons. 

The school, which was founded in 1698, was chosen last year by Michael Gove for his daughter Beatrice when Mr Gove was still Education Secretary. It is understood Mr Cameron has discussed Nancy’s education with Mr Gove, now the Government’s chief whip, and is likely to take advice from him on where to send Nancy. Mr Cameron and Mr Gove remain very close friends and speak daily while Beatrice Gove and Nancy Cameron attended the same state primary school in Kensington in central London.

Nancy will enter the secondary school system in September, by which time she will have turned 11.
Grey Coat is far removed from Eton, which costs almost £34,500-a-year and which is primarily responsible for the elitist and out of touch label pinned on Mr Cameron by his critics.

Although only three quarters of a mile from Downing Street, Grey Coat is ethnically diverse and takes children from some of London’s most deprived boroughs.

In its latest Ofsted report, which ranked the school as ‘outstanding’, Grey Coat is described as being “diverse with two thirds of students from a wide range of minority ethnic groups, of which the largest are groups with Black African or Black Caribbean heritage. One third of students speak a first language other than English”.

The school operates a complex admissions policy in choosing 151 girls for its Year 7 intake.
Up to 15 places are offered to children, who show an aptitude for languages, with a further 88 coming from a Church of England background, 28 from another church and a further 20 open to all, regardless of religion.

The school further places pupils in three bands based on their academic performance and chooses from those groups, ensuring a mixed ability across the school. Parents must demonstrate they are regular church goers while distance from the school is another factor. Given Grey Coat’s proximity to Downing Street, Nancy should earn a place in the event her parents put it down as a first choice.

Mrs Cameron has told friends she is keen to ensure Nancy receives a “normal education”. A friend has said: “Her children’s lives are abnormal enough. They have a strange existence as it is. Being in a state school is a nice antidote to that. You get to meet normal children from normal houses whose fathers don’t go off and spend the weekend with Angela Merkel. The children can be socially fluid.”

While Mr Cameron studied at Eton and Oxford, Mrs Cameron is just as privileged. She is the daughter of Sir Reginald Sheffield, who also went to Eton, while Mrs Cameron studied A-levels at Marlborough College in Wiltshire, which charges £33,000-a-year.

If the Camerons decide against Grey Coat, other options are understood to include St Marylebone School in central London and Lady Margaret School in Fulham.

Downing Street yesterday refused to comment but have let it be known the Prime Minister is still to decide which school but is committed to a state education for his children.

Nancy last made the news in her own right two years ago, when Mr and Mrs Cameron inadvertently left her behind in a pub in Buckinghamshire after going out for Sunday lunch. Each thought Nancy, then aged eight, was with the other parent and the mistake was only discovered when Mr and Mrs Cameron, travelling in separate cars, reached Chequers, the prime minister’s country residence.

Choosing the right school can be a thorny issue for prime ministers. Tony Blair infuriated Labour traditionalists by choosing a then controversial grant-maintained school - the London Oratory - for two of his children.