Tatler Schools Guide Entry 2007

The quiet revolution brought about by the impressive Barnaby Lenon has taken this iconic school from 0 to 60 in a jet-propelled whoosh.  As one parent put it: “Harrow had lost its way, but the head understands the product and he also understands the customers.”  And what his customers want is an unashamedly all-boarding, all-boys school.  Though exam results have shot up the league tables, Harrow still manages with equal finesse to cater to the slightly struggling, the above-average and the outstandingly clever.  Surrounded by a sea of north London suburbia, Harrow is a picture-postcard on a leafy hilltop, with boys in straw boaters scurrying up and down its historic high street in the wake of begowned masters.  The education is traditional but with a thoroughly modern slant, and there’s nothing boys can’t try or do – from polo to Portuguese.  A very strong house system is in place.  The school is truly cosmopolitan and reasonably socially comprehensive with a sizeable sprinkling of first-time buyers fitting in happily alongside the scions of the aristocracy and landed gentry.