In 2014 the Church of England was caught out when it had invested in the payday loans company, Wonga. This caused a huge uproar and a media storm, forcing the Church to rethink its investment strategy.
Yesterday, Jay Rayner wrote about his local convenience store having to close down, during the middle of a pandemic, due to the landlord asking for an unstainable rent increase.
The beneficiaries of this increase include; Dulwich College, JAGs and Alleyns. As Rayner highlights ‘all three schools claim to teach social responsibility and how to be good neighbours to their pupils’ – you question what kind of message this promotes?
In a similar vein, a well known all-girls boarding school set their parent/teacher meeting during the middle of the afternoon, giving little thought to working parents. Concerns were raised particularly when the School ethos and mantra is to encourage girls to be independent and to be empowered in the workplace.
If these institutions are going to thrive and uphold their reputation then they might need to learn to ‘practise what you preach’.
By Harry Cobb, Director at Bonas MacFarlane