A school for vip kids

An MN reporter was the first to visit an elite educational establishment for the offspring of Russia’s most wealthy

I have been looking for this school for years, using high-level connections and acquaintanceships, all to no avail. A super-secret educational facility, used by, among others, the children of the Moscow mayor and his inner circle, was hidden and protected like your regular nuclear test site. Yet one day, a large white-on-blue poster appeared on a roadside utility pole advertising for a Moscow private school. I had no way of knowing, but an old friend who knew what I’d been looking for, said: It’s the school.

So I dialled the contact number and said that I had a couple of nippers at home, and wanted to take a look at the school. I gave my name and car license numbers (to be allowed through a heavily guarded checkpoint), and asked a friend to lend me his brand-new Toyota for a day. After a 40-minute drive down the Novorizhskoye highway northwest of Moscow, I presented my passport to a guard at what appears to be Russia’s most expensive private school.

A tall wall of solid brick, protecting some of Russia’s VIP children from unwanted intrusion, is heavily wired and alarmed. The perimeter fence/fortress is guard­ed by reinforced OMON special task police unit officers. The pine-wood abutting the unique architectural ensemble on the opposite side is also off-limits to any intruder: It is guarded around the clock by dogs and armed police patrols.

The sprawling protected compound with immaculate lawns and incredibly clean parks is home to Generation Next. There is a kindergarten, an indoor swimming pool, an outdoor cycling track, a sports complex with all manner of exercise machines, soccer and other facilities, a tennis court, a music school, a cafeteria, a theatre studio, a dormitory, etc., etc. What else does it take to organize a normal life for your children? Two school buildings (one for younger kids and the other for teenagers) are connected by an elegant gallery with a winter garden. Very convenient: The children do not have to get into their overcoats to go to the adjacent building and then change again. In short, the facility is up to the finest Western standards.

The academic year here is not nine but a whole 10 months, September through July. Sure enough, this is more convenient for the kids’ parents. For the same reason, teachers here work from 8.30 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week. Saturdays are given over to sports and games.

As for the classes themselves, it seems that this school is impervious to reformers’ innovative zeal: Religious instruction is openly ignored here, to say nothing of Preliminary Military Training.

Nor are there any Unified State Tests. All the indications are that the children of high-ranking parents are well protected against any educational experimentation. Only proven, time tested techniques are used at these breeding grounds for the future political elite.

All teachers here understand very well that the full school-day model that is hastily being introduced in Moscow as a pilot scheme is, at best, a parody of the Western standard that has long become reality here. It was presumably their desire to set the record straight that prompted some of my interlocutors to break the gag rule that they formally pledged to observe as part of their employment contract. “The more high-profile a name, the less pretentious the person bearing that name,” Valentina P., shared her impressions on condition of strict anonymity. “On the other hand, I am surprised that they’ve let you in here so easily. They don’t admit just anyone here. Every child that gets into this school has to go through several screens and filters. Preference is given to people of the same milieu, with excellent “pedigrees” and unblemished reputations. This is well in line with the parents’ wish to give their offspring a good pool of contacts and connections for the future.”

‘Did you notice? There are video cameras everywhere, monitoring the situation on the premises around the clock,” Yelena T., another teacher, says. “This is an extra psychological strain. Every moment I feel the unseen presence of parents who - should something happen to their kid - can easily bury you to­ge­ther with your car.”

Counting in the service staff, there is one adult per school student: cooks, gardeners, doctors, massage therapists, psychologists, dentists, etc. Incidentally, a children’s clinic occupies an entire floor. A $100,000 facility to simulate a high-mountain environment staggers the imagination. Next to it is the dream of all parents - a diagnostic and therapeutic complex that helps avoid eye strain.

One distinguishing feature of the school curriculum is the study of three compulsory European languages, not counting Latin. English is taught from the first grade by native speakers, Britons David, Julia, and Robert.

Anton Zverev

The Moscow News 16/09/ 2007

MN FACT BOX

The school’s founder: Yelena Baturina (the wife of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov).

Tuition fees: $2,100 a month

Admission fee (non-refundable): $20,000.

There are four meals a day; an overnight facility is available, which is regularly used by some 20 percent of schoolchildren.

There are 80 students, 35 teachers, and 10 leaders of hobby groups – from aerobics to karate to chess to drama. Hobby group activities are charged for separately. As a result, teachers make five to eight times what their ordinary Moscow colleagues make. The private school hosts its own site on the Internet, giving a visitor an opportunity to visit its classes and study rooms and to take a close look at any instrument, exercise machine, or element of the decor.