To think that going comprehensive is an exit from the middle class?

[VolvoMo]

There may be a few minor exceptions (due to wealth or ideology) but doesn't going comp take away your middle class badge and worse, give your kids the chance to carry a big chip on their shoulder for their adult life.

lumpy you have just described me too - perhaps we're related?

Who are the upper middle class?

At a guess I would say people like the Middletons?

Or am I just clueless?

OP, my husband has tattoos & is currently studying for a degree in Town Planning whilst working full time as a Civil Servant. Does that make him WC?! I thought we had all kinda moved on from the whole WC/MC segregation or am I just dreaming in a Utopia here?!

volvo going independent is not 'the norm' where you live. It may be the norm among your status-conscious and probably rather insecure circle of acquaintances but only 7% of children nationwide are educated independently and wherever you live will hardly deviate from this.

Oh, and self-identifying as UMC means you are probably no such thing, more likely nouveau riche - you don't aspire to one of those ghastly Range Rover Sports do you?

Oh FFS! Now I am confused again. I had just established that I was MC - just last week! And now you're saying I'm not.

I have tattoos because I'm a rocker, not because I'm working class :/

My dad and Grandad went to Cambridge, my great grandfather was a GP, all my mum's family are teachers and mum was privately educated...sounding middle class enough so far? I went to a comprehensive and so do/will my dc and we have excellent results at our local ones. You are not very well-informed. (Sorry does that sound chippy?)

So if the Middletons, for example, thought they were Upper Middle Class they wouldn't be?

A vague guess for upper middle class would be - large house in the country, flat in London, professional, children at elite public school etc..

Ha Ha.

DS is the son of a Headteacher. his best mates are sons of lawyer, university lecturer, airline pilot. he walks to school with the doctor's son from the year above.

comp scum

The joke is on anyone who pisses away tens of thousands on private fees when there is an outstanding comp in the town. Idiots.

Funnily enough my mum's private school was in Hull!

Wow. We're going to be in trouble then- dh went comprehensive all the way to a Russell group university- I didn't go to school at all til I was 14 - Russell group ditto. Dd is in a state grammar school aiming for Oxford, and ds will be going to a high school in September- and a high school is one step down from a comprehensive!

Shall I start teaching him to hold his knife like a pen, eat his dinner at mid day and talk about lounges, couches and garridges now????? Or do they have special lessons in year 7?

Middletons upper class ?????? Don't you have to have 50 generations of titles, a crumbling seat to qualify? Although what do I know, I'm dead common, and have no class, whatsoever.

Who said the Middletons are upper class? Really??????

Class is nothing to do with money. You can be as rich as Croesus and still be working class. And as poor as...a very poor person and still be middle or upper class.

Seeker spot on. Most of the upper class are broke because their ancestors pissed away the family fortune at cards and signed the house over to the NT (with apologies to all minted uppers with industrious ancestors and thifty house keeping)

thifty???? wtf

thrifty

Middletons - Upper MIDDLE class - not upper class.

Interesting to see so many scrambling to set out their middle class credentials...It clearly matters a hell of a lot to some.

Mind you, the upper classes do have a slightly different definition of "broke"............

What's upper class then? Lords and earls and stuff?

Very true seeker.
They always seem to have enough spare change to send their DC to public school don't they. None of your four grand a term day school.

Ha ha, you should see our local comp.
No grammar schools in this area and only very £££ private schools. It's a fantastic school. God I'm so sick of comp bashing.
It's hardly a drop in class. how ridiculous.