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I was educated in the 1990s, first at a country prep school and then at Eton, and have a clear memory of how my schools communicated with my parents. Basically, they didn’t. They received a letter before the start of each term and some written reports at the end and that was it. If Eton sent your parents a letter in the middle of term it almost certainly meant you had suffered a mortal injury or been expelled. What Eton did do was publish a small pale-green pocket almanac called Fixtures which listed every sporting match in the calendar but also contained essential information such as the courtesy titles of any sons of dukes at the school and the colours of the 4th XV.
Like many people, no doubt, I was under the misapprehension that the expression ‘children should be seen and not heard’ was coined by the Victorians. In fact, it has been in currency since the 15th century. Be that as it may, a Victorian parent observing a group of children in 2026 would surely be delighted to note how little noise emanated from them. Unfortunately, as a 21st-century parent will know, that is almost certainly because they have been struck dumb by their devices and not because they have learned to keep quiet in adult company.
