Summary
One day in October 1970, 12-year-old Wesley Kerr put his hand up in school assembly and gestured his assent to the question: "Who wants to apply for the Hampshire County bursary exam?" It was the start of a journey that would take him to Winchester College, one of Britain's most prestigious public schools, and onto the pages of the national newspapers. "Coloured boy from foster home wins free place at Winchester" gushed a headline in the Sunday Express.
In When Wesley Went To Winchester (BBC Radio 4, Monday, 11am), Kerr tells the story of that journey, his experiences at the school and the political machinations that lay behind him getting a place there: Winston Churchill's request that a quarter of all public school places in the UK be awarded to children from state schools. The scheme ran for 30 years but only a few counties ever took it up and fewer than 300 children won places at public schools through it.See the full content of this document
Extract
Radio: Going Back to School with Glee
Returning to the school 40 years on, Kerr meets some of these bursary ...
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