Spectator Schools: spring 2026

In this week’s Spectator Schools supplement, the Revd Fergus Butler-Gallie writes about the undervalued beauty of school chapels. ‘They are so often architectural gems,’ he says, ‘masterpieces that stand alongside some of the nation’s finest buildings.’ You can judge a private school by how it cares for its chapel – those that still do should be commended and celebrated. Philip Womack would no doubt agree. He writes that his time as a school chorister was the making of him. 

Elsewhere in the supplement, Sophie Winkleman and David James push back against the pernicious rise of ‘screen in schools’ in their defence of textbooks, the conductor Ralph Allwood speaks to Ysenda Maxtone Graham about why music matters for children and Maggie Fergusson recalls her unusual time as a girl at Eton. 

Teacher Matthew Wilson defends art history from the accusations that it’s a ‘soft’ subject’, Minoo Dinshaw reveals the cut-throat world of school magazines and Lara Brown gives a guide on how to beat Oxbridge’s positive discrimination.

To download a PDF copy, click here.