I've got / had three children at "good" universities and they like me and indeed my siblings all were private educated from 5. But we are all also fairly clever genetically, also had helpful parents at home and most of us also work incredibly hard. All those factors led to the reasonable academic results (my siblings went to Oxford and Cambridge).

Most children go to staet schools - about 93% and about 50% or 60% at the better universities are from state schools. The more interseting issue is that posh state schools and academic state schools and state schools in areas with high house prices "steal" universities places from the poor. Perhaps that's the biggest inequality.

The better univerisities try very hard to recruit from sink schools but they also need to ensure they have clever enough pupils. It's no use learning to read age 19. It's too late to make up for bad teaching then.

As for showing off about children most people realise it's how they are as people that counts, how they treat others and those sorts of things that really matter not whether they get As at A level. My elder daughter who was probably a very rare thing - a girl with dyslexia going through Haberdashers - she did so well because of her hard work (and got AAB which for her was really good results) and she's got the job she starts in September because of her personal efforts in large part and probably also because she's an eldest child and they tend to succeed the most. Some of those aspects you might feel is due to the child - the hard work etc and others random . Like most English people I would always tend not to mention what my children achieve and highlight their failures. It's how the English are made, a national characteristic not to show off and for us to look with disdain on those who do.

Someone noticed a picture of my island last week when I was away on business. I don't then say - wow look I iown a private island because I have worked so hard and am so brilliant - I would say - it has no house on it and they cost less than French cottages etc.

lilymaid - I am informed by DD that the green wellie brigade are now known as 'rahs'

The point about children's results though is that they cannot be compared with each other, because they have not all had the same schooling, opportunities etc. So although it isn't actually 'bragging', it is a slight degree of oneupmanship in some cases (not all).

That's the whole point of this thread really. I am sure scienceteacher's child will get exemplary results, I think that is a foregone conclusion, because that is why people pay for education.

No doubt mine will too, as he is at a state GS where they ALL get excellent results. I wouldn't compare his or my other DCs results with those gained from a crap school though. There would be no comparison. The same grades achieved from a crap school would speak volumes.

Having said that, I don't really see anything wrong with shouting from the rooftops about one's DCs marvellous results on an anonymous forum, saves annoying everyone else at dinner parties, university open days etc.

You are utterly shameless Rusty. I only got a 2:2 from Exeter (also back in the days of green wellies) but I am redeemed and can become shameless by publicising by DS1's 2.1 from a Russell Group university last year.

Good on yer rustybear.

I love a good brag too

I couldn't wait to tell my friends and of course the rellies when dd got her AS and A2 results. It was great that they could share our pleasure and pride. The only person who I felt was slightly less than ecstatic was one friend whose dd at got very similar results from a private school - but then I think she was just a bit that our dd achieved just as well and we'd saved our money too!

As long as he didn't get a first, your last post was fine, rusty

Well, as someone who has 'publicised' her children's results on this very thread, you presumably mean me, violethill

I did try to disguise my boasting put DS's 2:1 from a Russell Group University (oops, there I go again) into context, in that he was a state school pupil who not only got in to a RG university, but encountered more state school pupils than private there, and proved successful in getting a good degree.

However, it was a pretty flimsy device & you've obviously seen through me; it was shameless appropriation of my child's achievements, probably due to the fact that my own 2:1 at Exeter was not from a Russell Group university. (Of course, the Russell Group didn't even exist when I graduated in 1977....)

People post on MN for a variety of reasons, probably the main one being to debate a wide range of issues which are broadly connected to parenting. It's perfectly possible to be interested in the issues, rather than feeling the need to know details of the lives of some posters children. I do actually have personal contact with a small number of MNers, and we email eachother, so if I wanted to share personal infomation with them I'd use personal email.
And I don't think debating issues is a 'waste of time' as you put it, at all. MN is a public forum and open to all.

Come back in August and you will see a bit of a bragfest here about examination successes.

This is an anonymous forum for the majority of members here, so posting examination results is not that much of a violation of privacy - no one knows who the DCs are either!

I think that this is a fine place to discuss results, given that it is frowned upon in the coffee morning circuit.

I am quite amazed by your attitude, Violet. I really don't get it at all. I think it is sad that you can't share the celebration with mums who have supported their DCs through the years and nagged encouraged them to do their very best (whatever the result).

I am also dismayed that you feel the need to look down on those who have different values to you, or who express their emotions more openly.

MN may be anonymous but there are real people behind most postings. Some people may be hairy-handed truckers or trolls but if someone has been posting consistent information for several years about their DC then I take them at face value.
If you are not interested in their lives then why on earth are you wasting time posting here?