Top private school plans to drop 'sir' and 'miss'

Top private school whose former pupils include Nick Clegg, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Helena Bonham Carter plans to drop ‘sir’ and ‘miss’ to address teachers after the titles are deemed politically incorrect

• London Westminster School will drop the terms ‘sir’ and ‘miss’ from September 

A top private school has become the latest to ditch the terms ‘sir’ and ‘miss’ to address teachers after the titles were deemed politically incorrect.

London’s Westminster School, whose alumni include composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, actress Helena Bonham Carter and former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, is said to be dropping the formalities from September in the hope of becoming ‘more egalitarian’.

It comes after nearby state school Harris Westminster Academy announced it was planning on dropping the terms last week. 

‘The policy was announced by a senior teacher at a Westminster Abbey service for the school several days ago,’ a former pupil of Westminster School told the Daily Mail. ‘It appears to have been adopted without consultation.’

They added: ‘The intention appears to be to make the school more egalitarian. Teachers will now only be addressed as ‘Mr Smith’ or ‘Mrs Jones’.’

London’s Westminster School will ditch the terms ‘sir’ and ‘miss’ to address teachers after the titles were deemed politically incorrect

The school’s alumni include composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, actress Helena Bonham Carter and former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg

The 700-year-old school charges £45,432 per year for those who board and £31,464 for day pupils. The school admits female pupils in its sixth form but it is planning to become fully co-educational by 2030.

Yesterday, a spokesman told the Daily Mail: ‘There was no policy announced at [the] Abbey, just a brief mention of something that we will progress next school year, within a wider address talking about language and forms of address.

‘Pupils addressing teachers as ‘sir’ and ‘miss’ has not been a formal requirement. Instead it is more a matter of convention, as in most schools. We know and respect that forms of address are a very important matter to some.’

They added: ‘The school is entirely content for individual staff to ask pupils to address them as they prefer.’

Staff working for London Mayor Sadiq Khan have been banned from using the phrase ‘ladies and gentlemen’ as part of an inclusivity drive branded woke ‘nonsense’ by MPs. A new leaked guide for City Hall urges staff to use ‘people’, ‘Londoners’ or ‘something that doesn’t exclude non-binary people’.

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