GOOD JOB, JO!

Guess what – Joli, age 10, after a grueling session of exams and interviews, has won the scholarship that enables her to attend her adored private school, at a cost of £18,000 per year, for seven years FOR FREE.

Bless her little cotton socks.

She worked really hard, but the best thing was that when she came back after the exam, she said, “Mummy, that was fun!” (cracks me up to hear my kids being so veddy veddy British!)

This whole experiment comes out of my work, which is teaching executives to communicate with a group called Stand & Deliver.  I got the idea to contact this eye-wateringly expensive private school, which is on a par with Eton and Harrow, after I listened to my boss talk in a training about the fact that communication was better than cash.

I’m going to test it out, I thought. If that’s true, it should work anywhere. I got on the website for the school, found the address and name of the Warden who runs it and wrote him a letter, telling him our story – stranded and living hand-to -mouth in a foreign country, single mom, smart kid, etc. (This was before I met Rich, obviously.)

He wrote me a letter back on heavily engraved letterhead, inviting me to come in for an interview.  I put on my best suit, drove in, drank tea out of the china cup he handed me, looked him in the eye and said, “The assets we have in this family are other than financial. But I’m not too proud to put my hand out for my daughter. She’s as talented as anyone who does have rich parents, and she deserves a chance.”

He coughed, hummed and hawed, and said that the school was, among other things, a registered charity and that they might be able to help.   

They assessed Joli and offered her a scholarship for one year, (unheard of!) during which they would prepare her to sit the exam for the formal scholarship. This fiercely competitive scholarship provides for the entire 7 years of a child’s education.

Joli in her posh school uniform

Long story short – she sat the exam and won through to the short list, which narrowed the contestants to 6. These six went in to interview with the warden, who chose three. And two days ago, he called us into the map room of the college, complete with stained glass windows, leather sofas and a log fire, to tell us that Joli had won the scholarship that will change her life forever.

Go figure. Even in winter,  miracles happen…