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Lily Allen has opened up about her decision to send her two children to private school in Brooklyn, despite her misgivings due to her own experiences.
The pop star, author and actor discussed education with her friend and podcast co-host, Miquita Oliver, on the latest episode of Miss Me?, during which she responded to a listener who was worried about sending her child to private school.
“I think there are great public schools and there are great private schools,” she began, “so I don’t think that it neccessarily is about one or the other, it’s about what is available to you in your area, in which you live.”
She said that her two daughters, Ethel, 12, and Marnie, 11, had been state educated while her family was living in London because they were close to a “really great” school, which Oliver also attended.
“When we moved to America they went to public school here until the end of elementary school, and then we switched them to private school,” she said.
“That was not because I disagreed with the public schooling system, it was because there is a lottery here in Brooklyn, where we live, and the school that was offered to Ethel was a) too far away for us to commute, and b) I didn’t like the school, I didn’t think it was a very good school.
“So that was the option that was afforded to her and we had the resources to do something else, and I made that decision.”
Allen emphasised that she believed there were “great and vital” public schools and, had there been one in the vicinty, her children would be attending it.
Oliver pointed out that both she and Allen attended a mix of state and private schools: “But I thought you hated private school?”
“Yes,” Allen responded. “I don’t really like being in and among people that have superiority complexes, and sometimes in private schools you find people who think that they are better than other people, and I don’t work well in that kind of an environment.
“I like to feel part of a community, and I don’t neccessarily think that a lot of private schools are very nurturing, in that sense.”
The “Smile” singer attended a total of 13 schools during her childhood, including King Charles III’s junior alma mater Hill House School. She was expelled from a number of them.
Earlier this month, Allen admitted that she still feels self-conscious about her lack of traditional education, having left school when she was 15.
“I’m not educated,” she said. “I left school when I was 15 and I don’t even have one GCSE, not one qualification, and I am ashamed of it.”
She later revealed: “I really wanted to go into midwifery or obstetrics because that was something that really interested me, but because I didn’t have any diplomas in GCSEs or A Levels it seemed too difficult, too much. I was too lazy.”
“And actually too embarrassed,” she continued. “I thought I’d have to go and do my A Levels with a bunch of 18 year olds and I was already in my mid-thirties. I didn’t wanna do that.”
In the latest episode, Allen also said she felt “incredibly lucky” to have encountered people from all walks of life: “It’s important to me, I don’t want to just surround myself by people who have the same sort of income as me and the same sort of house as I do.”
Miss Me? airs each week on Mondays and Thursdays and is available on BBC Sounds as well as all major streaming platforms.
