The Dragon is the only Prep School to feature in a new piece of research looking at which UK schools have the most successful alumni and identifying some key trends over time.
Keystone considered the traditional guides ‘Who’s Who’ and ‘Who Was Who’ but also compared the number of former pupils who have appeared on that well-recognised barometer of success – Desert Island Discs.
Desert Island Discs is a programme on BBC Radio 4 in which the guest is asked to choose the eight music tracks, book and luxury which would sustain them as a castaway on a desert island. It has been a fixture of British life since 1942 and guests have been successful in a wide variety of walks of life. The Dragon was ranked sixth behind Eton, Westminster, Harrow, Charterhouse and St. Paul’s and the author speculates as to the reasons why:
‘There is no denying the fact that The Dragon produces a great number of high profile successful alumni in a wide range of fields, from writers (including Sir John Betjeman and Alain de Botton), to politicians (Rory Stewart and Baroness Young), to a remarkable number of well-known actors (Emma Watson, Tom Hiddleston, Max Irons… the list goes on). This is just touching the surface; a review of Notable Old Dragons reflects the variety of fields old boys and girls succeed in. It is worth asking what the school provides that drives this success – is it confidence, early independence through boarding, quality teaching, or access to a wide range of extra-curricular activities – or a combination?!’
The full report is entitled Does Alma Still Matter?
