Privately educated boys disadvantaged

[Streetwalker]

Ah no they don't which is the whole point of this thread. The Cambridge Don in the OP admitted that Oxbridge is weighted towards State school entrants with a goal of 75%. Eton for one has been questioning the dropped numbers of their boys getting into Oxbridge for several years. I am not saying that able boys from the State sector should be overlooked but it's unfair to penalise gifted lads just because of their parent's choices.

I stand corrected if that is actually the case but given Etons own website you will forgive me for believing that the road to higher education has not  been pre planed . 

If that fails no amount of social engineering can beat a brown envelope 

After Eton - Eton College

[T00ts]

Your talking about the top end of private education there  Toots . If your family can afford what must be 80-. £90K a year in school fees good luck to them but those schools will always have an advantage in their choice of further education . Those kids get to Oxbridge before the application forms  are even sent out .

Ah no they don't which is the whole point of this thread. The Cambridge Don in the OP admitted that Oxbridge is weighted towards State school entrants with a goal of 75%. Eton for one has been questioning the dropped numbers of their boys getting into Oxbridge for several years. I am not saying that able boys from the State sector should be overlooked but it's unfair to penalise gifted lads just because of their parent's choices.

[Streetwalker]

The difference is though that parents vet private schools and if they are sensible put their child into one that provides what they feel will be of most benefit to them. In the State system no-one actually cares as long as they live in the catchment and keep the teachers in jobs. I have one grandson at Eton, but they vetted several other schools as well before entering him for assessment. My grand-daughter has done the same. She is actually brighter than her brother in many ways, yet he is in the top sets, and turned down possibly the most academic girls boarding school, in favour of one where music was also strong and had the right social environment for her. It's horses for courses whereas the State sector tries to fit all, or rather tries to make all children fit. If they don't they simply exclude them and parents are often quite alienated.

Your talking about the top end of private education there  Toots . If your family can afford what must be 80-. £90K a year in school fees good luck to them but those schools will always have an advantage in their choice of further education . Those kids get to Oxbridge before the application forms  are even sent out .

[T00ts]

Parental involvement is important for sure but paying for an education is no guarentee it just increases the odds that you will get one .
From my experiance of private schools anyone saying we are paying for results would be told  to take little Mowgli elswhere , no school can gaurentee anything .

The difference is though that parents vet private schools and if they are sensible put their child into one that provides what they feel will be of most benefit to them. In the State system no-one actually cares as long as they live in the catchment and keep the teachers in jobs. I have one grandson at Eton, but they vetted several other schools as well before entering him for assessment. My grand-daughter has done the same. She is actually brighter than her brother in many ways, yet he is in the top sets, and turned down possibly the most academic girls boarding school, in favour of one where music was also strong and had the right social environment for her. It's horses for courses whereas the State sector tries to fit all, or rather tries to make all children fit. If they don't they simply exclude them and parents are often quite alienated.

[Streetwalker]

And most important of all is pushy parents. When the parents at state schools are told they the problem is that they don't have the resources to bring little Johnny on, they sympathise with the teachers. Try that in a private school and you are told to go away and get f**ked (the original version was told to me in Gujarati and a lot ruder), we are paying for results not excuses.

Parental involvement is important for sure but paying for an education is no guarentee it just increases the odds that you will get one .
From my experiance of private schools anyone saying we are paying for results would be told  to take little Mowgli elswhere , no school can gaurentee anything .

[Borchester]

Thats what Im saying Toots ,state education needs to up its game and recognise why private education is so much better ,smaller schools ,class sizes and  more resourses for starters  should be the norm for any kid  showing willing

And most important of all is pushy parents. When the parents at state schools are told they the problem is that they don't have the resources to bring little Johnny on, they sympathise with the teachers. Try that in a private school and you are told to go away and get fucked (the original version was told to me in Gujarati and a lot ruder), we are paying for results not excuses.

[Streetwalker]

I don't think they will ever be unnecessary. Private education provides far more than the State sector even recognises as education.

Thats what Im saying Toots ,state education needs to up its game and recognise why private education is so much better ,smaller schools ,class sizes and  more resourses for starters  should be the norm for any kid  showing willing 

[T00ts]

Yes I think they should be anonomous ,I also think we should have a state education system that makes private schools  unnecessary

I don't think they will ever be unnecessary. Private education provides far more than the State sector even recognises as education.

[Streetwalker]

Yes I think they should be anonomous ,I also think we should have a state education system that makes private schools  unnecessary 

[patman post]

Margaret Thatcher (nee Roberts) worked as an industrial chemist, then studied law and qualified as a barrister. No doubt finding a rich husband helped her on her way.

While lawyers are not unusual in politics, politicians with science degrees are — and Margaret Thatcher is the only PM so far to be so qualified...

[johnofgwent]

Margaret Roberts' father was a tobacconist and grocer and became Mayor of Grantham, but apart from those details, you're basically correct...

And she threw away her science degree and went into politics where she found a way to acquire a hundred times the wealth someone her age using her science degree to found her own pharmaceutical manufacturing business could manage.

Speaks volumes about this country's attitude to science, technology and the old school tie network

[Borchester]

Maggie was an Oxbridge student from a humble greengrocer family.

And when she won a school prize and her teacher told her how lucky she was, little Maggie rightly replied, go F@@@ yourself, I wasn't lucky, I deserved it.

Oxbridge was lucky to have the Divine Margaret

[T00ts]

This professor's suggestions sound more like an excuse. Sister and I were taken out of east London education system when we were eight and sent off for schooling elsewhere. We came back eight years later and sailed through our exams and got into our chosen unis on our chosen courses. This leads me to believe that teaching is more important than the student's name, or the name of the school...

An excuse for what?

[patman post]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10811679/Cambridge-academic-says-privately-educated-white-boys-disadvantaged-university-admissions.html

Go to a private school and the chances of getting into Oxbridge are diminishing fast. This professor suggests that the time has come for an applicant's school to be omitted from the application form so that the best would get places with no judgement on perceived 'privilege'. It's hardly fair to judge a boy on his parent's decisions. The upshot will be that once again choices will be made and possibly some of the best brains will go abroad.

This professor's suggestions sound more like an excuse. Sister and I were taken out of east London education system when we were eight and sent off for schooling elsewhere. We came back eight years later and sailed through our exams and got into our chosen unis on our chosen courses. This leads me to believe that teaching is more important than the student's name, or the name of the school...

[T00ts]

Margaret Roberts' father was a tobacconist and grocer and became Mayor of Grantham, but apart from those details, you're basically correct...

I don't see the relevance of what her parents did. I am not saying that a state school child should not go to Oxbridge but they should not be favoured over private school kids for the PC lobby. We owe it to them and the country that the best minds are encouraged regardless of the decisions made by their parents.