What do you think is the social class of a headteacher?

[franceslucia]

Discuss.

Headteacher doesn't tell you anything about their class, but it does tell you they have worked hard, are ambitious, and are willing to shoulder a lot of responsibility.

Yep

Yes unfortunately.
I agree the UK is too focused on class but some places can be equally class bound while being in denial about it. My American ex boyfriend was very unhappy at Yale because he had simply not expected the snobbery, coming from a less class conscious bit of the mid West, and part of the problem was the gaslighting because people there were convinced class prejudice wasn’t a thing in the US.

😆😄

In the U.K. class is not determined by occupation. We have working class millionaires and aristocrats working in minimum wage jobs.

I think that’s à completely different. Maybe government authorities need something to look at SES.
As opposed to people on here playing ‘What class am I ?’ every second day .

‘I shop in M and S , I like avocado on toast but I holiday in Butlin’s ……’What class am I’ and other such total nonsense.

Maybe the OP has an essay to write….

Middle.

Upper middle = trust fund but no title

I suspect a lot of the heads I had growing up would have been mc through and through.

Most of the heads I've known professionally tend to have had backgrounds like mine: wc parents; often first in family to go to uni, then teacher, then head often by accident rather than design. Think more heads these days tend to have arrived there through a career plan though.

I wonder will@franceslucia ever be back to mark our homework?

"Discuss"..... indeed 🙄

Oh why do people care! I wish we could be done with this class nonsense.
I'd say it's a middle class profession but at the same time if a cockney took the role they'd forever be seen as working class because of their accent. That's how ridiculous the class system is.

I agree wholeheartedly.

For those of us (most of us!) with a background interest in such things, class is a combination of:
Fungible wealth - money and financial assets
Non-fungible wealth - properties, artworks, businesses &co
Education
Employment status
Family background - titles & ranks
Intellectual capital - comes mainly from childhood environment
Social capital - who you know, security of relationships
Financial capital - what you own; includes depreciating assets like cars.

There are some other markers (I used to use these analyses in my work) such as where you live and what kind of holidays you have. In the UK at present, social mobility is very fluid. A growing number of socially-mobile people are in the precariat, regardless of class markers. Precarity is not a good thing but at least it mixes the traditional classes up a bit.

Very much depends on the school. A local comprehensive is very different to a public school or prestigious grammar.

Me too. It’s probably some journo.

This is a silly question and shows a misunderstanding of the British class system. Class isn't determined by job in the UK. The position maybe different elsewhere but not here.

If say Prince Edwards daughter took a job as a teacher it doesn't magic her into the working classes.

Do you mean class as defined by the textbook definition of SEG? If so, the background of the headteacher is irrelevant, as is the size and nature of the school.
SEG is determined by the occupation of the 'chief income earner in the household', so a HT married to an someone earning less than them would be classed as B (IIRC, I don't think HT are As), but a HT married to someone earning more than them might be A (if they're married to a company CEO), B (if they're married to another professional) or C (if they're married to an electrician, for example).

A quite ridiculous and antiquated system!

I know headteachers - in state education - who come from working and middle class backgrounds. In private education, I'd expect headteachers to vary from middle to upper middle.

Depends on their parentage, education institution, degree achieved and what school they work in. But tbh, doesn't matter to me as long as they are decent human.

Classes were defined by jobs back in the day because people tended to have a family trade or stay in a similar line of work to family. Now it is impossible to tell someone's class simply from a Job title. Anyone can be a teacher, doctor, banker, lorry driver, engineer, lifeguard, fireman etc. and you can be WC/MC/UC and do any of these. You'd have to look at someone's behaviours, values, accents, education and a number of other things to get a clue on class.

My FIL was a Headteacher- his pension is nowhere near 1.5 x minimum wage. That's laughable. And he paid a fortune into it.

Always this country that is so ridiculously obsessed with class - why would I want to discuss such dross

I beg your pardon?

I feel like class has more to do with your upbringing than the job you reach in adulthood. So could be anything. But their kids would likely be middle class.

What?? "Social class"? WHo the fuck thinks about things like this, Jesus.

I can't believe people are actually jumping to 'discuss' because a very rude OP has clicked their fingers.

Jeez, why encourage such rudeness?