The most Socially Selective schools in England.

There are hardly any FSM pupils at dd's school. But - this is not because it is in a particularly wealthy area - it's just that most parents are employed. I get annoyed that people hold up the FSM pupil as somehow being more deserving, more worthy even than the pupil whose parents are trundling off every day to ordinary middling jobs.

Agree as well with Bonsoir - to afford to live in some of the OP's list's catchments you would have to be a seriously high earner. Viz this pile of shite that someone has actually bought in the catchment of Dr Challoner's in Amersham, Bucks:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-30981189.html

It costs more for a family of four to have season tickets for a premiership football team than it does to own livestock
www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29520299
and yet football does not get slagged off as exclusive

TBH its the skiing trips / teams that get my goat as that is a hobby that involves international travel so is even more exclusive

I have very little knowledge of matters equestrian but I did notice when DS moved from a state primary school to a prep school (only one mile away) that the pony-riding quota in his class shot right up.

If equestrianism was truly egalitarian, there would have to be members of the hoi polloi getting into the British Olympic team from time to time - but does that ever happen?

Yes, but owning a pony and riding it in a field, allowing your mates to come over and help for a ride is much different than shelling out thousands of pounds for an elite sport.
Of course there are more children with ponies in rural areas, although as i stated above there weren't any in my ds's schools. The kids that did surprisingly enough went to private schools.

However, you could say its all relative anyway. In my ds school up here a couple were chosen to play tennis and have lessons which were offered free because the dc had good coordination, don't know how they judged them better than the others though. After the free lessons the parents couldn't afford to keep up with the lessons and the kids had to stop, it was such a shame. I often thought they'd have been better not to have done it at all.

"Panicking devotees of the magazine can nonetheless rest easy that little Rupert or Hermione are not being asked to rough it in the playgrounds of Peckham or Slough."

No more rougher than your nice and beautiful Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield or Glasgow, littleducks. And I haven’t even mentioned London, Paris or New York here!

Horses of course can be expensive to purchase but many aren't in fact I can speak from personal experience I couldn't give some of mine away.
Secondly many people have horses but don't ride them much if at all (for some weird reason) and would happily let someone ride/compete on them for free, again I couldn't even pay someone to help me exercise my lot. I would have happily let a keen child ride and compete on some of mine for free.

A hacking pony costs a couple of thousand,

That isn't inclusive Talk

I doubt many state school have equestrian facilities they probably rent or borrow them if necessary. But it is not uncommon in the world of equestrianism for riders to train separately, often with their own methods trainers etc and just come together when in a team event because there is less requirement to work together as a team than in other sports.

smokepole
You are being disingenuous.
A hacking pony costs a couple of thousand, lives in a shed in a paddock and goes to local shows in a shared horse box, or just goes out on common land at weekends.
There are ponies in back gardens of semis round here.
Pop up to Walmer way and see the cheap end of the pony market.

'Sore rounds' sound sore.

Is it like Billy Elliot 'cept with 'orses?

smoke If I could find the link I'd show you two school boys (not from affluent homes) from the north who some years ago trained an arab racing horse having saved up the money to purchase it by doing sore rounds and did jobs they keep it "hidden" on their fathers allotment, they did more paper rounds/odd jobs to pay for the cost of keeping it, they rode him themselves in races and went on to beat the big names including the Arabs themselves. The horse was awarded the most successful arab racehorse of the year.
Sadly plenty of horses are kept in inadequate conditions with owners who are doing it on a shoe string, but as I've said many farmers can keep horses and ponies relatively They certainly aren't paying 100-150k PA there isn't a farmer in the UK who'll channel that kind if money into a horse/pony!

No, but all sports offered should be accessible to all.
Mens netball?

Not all sports include all pupils.
What state schools should do is try to find sports that between them include all the pupils

No, but all sports offered should be accessible to all.

Besides the cost implications of equestrian facilities are a bit worrying on a state school budget, aren't they?

I can't comment on where you live arsenic but where I live which is a big farming area, primarily livestock many farmers children have ponies. Farmers children go to school and if there is enough of them to form an equestrian team representing the school what is wrong with that? Maybe they have like me when at school they have at best little and realistically no interest in hockey rounders or netball and thus feel excluded and on the edge and being part of a school equestrian team would make them feel more included. I very much doubt the school is financially contributing to the equestrian team so what's the problem with it?

I think that smokepole has a very valid point though and living in rural areas for 12 years and knowing the areas very well didn't know any working class/poor kids to have ponies or horses.
It was the middle classes and farmers with much land who could afford this for their dc.
So whilst it may not be rich pony club type you still had to have land and money to keep a pony.

Arsenic
Not all sports include all pupils.
What state schools should do is try to find sports that between them include all the pupils
which is why comps go for rock wall and trampolining and basketball : sports that can be enjoyed by the non sporty

if its a rural school in an agricultural area, ponies are as inclusive as swimming for example, and smell better than beef cattle

smoke you are letting your uniformed prejudices get the better of you. As talkin said in rural farming areas ponies and horses are common and relatively cheap to keep. Would you say the same thing if a school in a rural community had a cattle showing team? I doubt it. Cattle can be as equally expensive to purchase as an average child's pony and like horses require land to graze of, and relatively expensive feed.

Huh? I lived in a village where the traveller DC were as likely to ride as the DC of the upper middles. That doesn't make it an accessible 'open to all' activity. It is a minority an activity and not a desperately cheap one. Most people are not land-owners or even small-paddock-owners, even in rural areas

It's ot an inclusive sport by any stretch of the imagination and I absolutely agree that state education should aim for inclusivity.

smoke you are letting your uniformed prejudices get the better of you. As talkin said in rural farming areas ponies and horses are common and relatively cheap to keep. Would you say the same thing if a school in a rural community had a cattle showing team? I doubt it. Cattle can be as equally expensive to purchase as an average child's pony and like horses require land to graze of, and relatively expensive feed.
Also the sort of mega expensive competition horses/ponies your think of with associated with facilities etc are I can tell you from experience are unlikely to lower themselves to being part of the schools equestrian team.

smokepole
But if the school was in a rural area, where half the kids had paddocks and ponies of the scruffy little cob variety, not pony club then engaging with an activity that the kids do out of school makes sense.

as happy rightly said, owning horses is by no means the preserve of the rich - many of the breeders of the ponies are on below average incomes.