To wonder what the average family incomes are of pupils attending different types of schools.

[smokepole]

I wonder what the average family income is of Grammar , Modern, Comprehensive, Private and Public Schools are.

Obviously there are FSM indicators but this does not really show anything
regarding average family incomes. FSM percentage does not show the reasons for being on FSM, for instance a pupil at a grammar school could be on it for a short time due to a 'Family Crisis' where as a pupil from a modern school might be trapped for a long time.

What would be interesting if we could find out whether grammar school families on average have twice the income of comprehensive. The other thing that would be interesting would be to find out how much the average 'Public School' family earn.

But how much of that advantage is actually from the education. And how much of that is family connections?

kingfishers I think they are referring to public school in the strict sense of schools established by some act from a long long time ago.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_school_(United_Kingdom)

I would imagine the average salary of a parent at a grammar is quite close to the average salary of people in that area. Grammar schools tend to be in slightly more well off areas, don't they?

I would also imagine it's almost exactly the same salary as those in the top streams of comprehensives in comparable areas.

Yes OneLittle You're correct, the Scottish fee-paying schools are not "public". And as most of them take children from age 3 all the way through to 18 we don't really have prep schools either.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_independent_schools_in_Scotland

My eldest daughter, who has just completed her first year at university, went to a girls grammar school. She herself came from a state primary.

JohnFarley's point that grammar schools tend to be in better off (financially) areas is a fair one, but it is important to remember too that they quite often no longer operate on any form of "catchment area" basis. My daughter's school was a good 20 miles away from us. That said, I wouldn't actually say it was in a wealthy area. It was in a normal residential area with a mix of privately owned and local authority housing around it. It was adjacent to a council estate too.

Children can come from far and wide to take the 11+, so many who do get places do not live locally to the school and it matters less these days where the grammar is actually situated as long as it is well enough served for transport links.

With regard to size of family income, our experience of having a child at grammar school indicated that it had a much higher than average number of students from relatively wealthy backgrounds. Whilst a fair number did come from state primary schools, a fairly sizeable proportion had been privately educated up until they got their place at the grammar.

We were not one of its better off families. It was hard sometimes. You could tell from the demands the school made that it was (and remains) fairly used to families for whom money is no problem, thus not having a level playing field for the rest of us who might struggle to meet some of the costs at times. I am not in any way wishing to be discriminatory there. I am just stating the way things were.

I also have two younger daughters who have not gone to grammar. They are at the local catchment area comprehensive, which has been making great strides forward academically and in other ways over the last few years and has now completely turned itself around from what it used to be. Financially, it is easier for us too. Obviously it does have a mix of well off, average and poorer families, as well as children from a wider variety of differing backgrounds. For those of us on fairly limited budgets it is much more of a level playing field, more understanding and much less "in-your-face" with its requests for money.

I know this post has come out quite long. It is just my perspective, as a parent of limited financial means who has put children through both types of school.

The difference in the professions and the social economic make up, of DD2DS/ school friends family's to DD1s are startling. DD1 = Kent 'High School' DD2/Ds = Grammar .

However, DD2 has just been 'Horrible' to DD1 and very rude to me. DD2 started teasing DD1 about her school , she seized on her 'angst' about her A2 results. DD said " If you don't pass , don't worry you can start an OU Degree " in front of her GP daughter school friend, who nervously giggled.

DD1 is horrified and rightly upset and explained that is why, she refused to contemplate joining the grammar in year 9 or 12. It goes to show that some prejudice exists between 'grammar school' and normal schools.

I have told DD2 that DD1 is far more intelligent than you and it is a long way down especially if DD1 gets ABB. DD2 has said she is 'Sorry' and thought it was only a joke, this goes to show how out of touch some schools can make pupils. I intend telling her form teacher about this ' Unpleasant attitude' as well as her friends mum.

Getting back to the post most of the families from DD1s school are probably Skilled/Semi skilled workers. The difference is that at No2 and DS schools, there are almost made up of Teachers, Doctors ,Accountants E.T.C and small Business owners.

They are made up of Teachers, Doctors E.TC.

My experience of having one child in a comp and one child at a grammar doesn't match yours. There is no teasing between my dc about each of their schools, and both of them are equally intelligent, just very different with very different interests.

There are going to be more skilled and semi skilled workers at the comp, along with a few parents who don't work at all, but there are also many teachers, doctors, pilots, city workers, lawyers etc there too. Whereas I don't know of any parents at the GS who don't work at all. They may exist, but they would be in the minority, not much different to the comp really.