To think the demographics of families using Grammar schools, are the ones that used private schools in the 80s and 90s.

[mountford100]

I look at my DDs grammar schools and notice many of the parents driving mid range Mercedes and Bmw and Volvo's. Whereas The private school families can be seen to picking up their kids in thier 'Betaganya's and Cayanne's ' (Bentley's and Porsche's).

This is a culture and wealth difference that has developed over the last 30 years or so . I can remember my father having an aforementioned Bmw 7 Series.

This was the 'best car' at my grammar school and was equal to what my friends families with children at private schools had.

It seems today that £60k cars are the norm of grammar schools and £150k cars are normal at private schools.

This i think explains why Private schools have become the domain of the Wealthy. Private schools have removed if not by fees than socially even the offspring of Doctors ,Accountants and other professional people.

30 years ago were able to attend Private schools because their mother took a part time job up to pay the fees.

This is no longer available !

Cue lots of people saying how THEY were poor and got in and it was amazing for them

Yes that was a generation ago though

Few poor/working class get in now

My parents weren’t poor. They don’t give a stuff about cars. They live in the country and cars get muddy and scratched. Far from poor. But is a car a sign of wealth? My friend has three brand new cars on her drive. I guess they are expensive, they look that way. All top car makes. But tiny house, no garden and the cars are leased.

I was not trolling just expressing an opinion , after a few drinks , So maybe i was being a bit blunt.

I found it very unfortunate that they are lots of children that don't get the chance of being at a school, where the 'raisin detre' is success !

Instead the school culture is didn't we do 'considering'....

Two totally different concepts and meanings.

As mentioned earlier 'the peninsula'; i.e the Wirral is another area like Trafford where good grammar schools and secondary schools co exist.

Just save the money you would have sent, and treat your DC to a house when they get older :)

One thing has jumped out at me on this thread - I think a couple of posters have said that fees for boarding were only about £14k in the 80s. That was a huge amount of money then. My dad (a university lecturer) didn’t earn that to begin with and their house (bought in the mid 80s) was £40k (now worth a bit over £600k).

Cars are very unreliable indicators of people's wealth

What bollocks. My daughter is starting grammar school this year and our cars are a 51 reg and a 53 reg (17 years old? I think) Who even looks at what people drive? Strange post.

Depends on the schools I suppose
Dd is at a Private School and while there are a few flash cars there are a lot of ordinary ones too.

I'm genuinely really happy for the poor, hardworking families on here who have got their kids into grammar schools.

HOWEVER, can we please be honest about the fact that this is statistically NOT the norm? (Cue standard comment about how Uncle Archie smoked 40 a day and lived till he was 98...). Very few kids on FSM get into grammar schools. The evidence shows very clearly that poor kids, in general, do worse in grammar school areas.

"So we need grammar schools more than ever"

No, what we need are really good comprehensives for everyone.

Cars are always brought up by people trying to prove that you get "all sorts of people" at private schools though. "Beat up old Volvos" and white vans being a common indicator of poverty.

All three of mine walk to their G school.

The headmaster was telling me that a local multi, multi millionaire was more than a little miffed that he couldn't buy a place at the school.

Absolutely, Kokeshi. If you live in a selective area it's just glaringly obvious. And deeply depressing.

Well I went to a scruffy comp which was featured on one of those ‘Educating Yorkshire’ type programmes but I could have told you that there are numerous studies which indicate that school fees have risen faster than wages by a significant margin.

Cars are a really poor indicator of someone’s wealth what with hp etc.

Yes cars are a poor indicator of wealth, but that was what the OP was suggesting, that you could judge wealth by the car. So I will add another voice to the chorus of 10+year old Honda's with kids at private schools. The fees are only just affordable for us because we used DH's gratuity after 20 years of military service. Despite both of us being high earners.

We know our life is privileged. But if you just saw us driving around in our old bangers, you wouldn't!

Oh, and to another poster, we don't vote Conservative either.

People who buy cars that indicate their wealth are materialistic, status-conscious and typically insecure.

BMW drivers are the worst.

FACT

The grammar school parents are wriggling out if paying £15-35k per child per year. Of course they can afford flashy cars. I can't say the same for a lot of private school parents I know.

The grammar school parents are wriggling out if paying £15-35k per child per year

We didn't "wriggle out" of paying anything. Paying that kind of money was never going to be an option for us.

Um I'm not. 20 year old battered car here. Could never in a million years afford private.

Please can nobody talk about the "sacrifices" private school parents make? I beg you........

www.verdict.co.uk/private-school-cost-earn/ www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-charts-that-shows-how-private-school-fees-have-exploded-a7023056.html

Quick google shows you are right, but do all carry on making random judgements about people’s cars.

So... at the risk of annoying some people with preconceptions about private schools and how wonderful people are who send their kids to grammars....

Grammar school - as outymcoutface says no fees and at £20k a child a year not paying those means, as I put it to my boys, I can buy a £40k car every year and throw it away if they didn't go private. No wonder you see nice cars at grammar but note that those who pay school fees on the same income are driving ten year old cars.

Private schools - there are plenty at my boys school to whom the fees are a rounding error. One kid at the recent 13+ was dropped off for interview in a new Merc AMG GT which doesn't come cheap but represents >12 years fees. Seeking my car would pay for a term. Other kids in Bentleys etc were not rare. Many others though in 10-15 year old cars (like us!). One kid in my son's class has his bodyguards drive behind in a Merc AMG G wagon thing. His father never turns up for parents evening though although his mother does. (And kid does get treated exactly the same by school as far as we can tell). Massive wealth range though and it certainly isn't everyone who has buckets of cash.

Whilst BeetrandRussel will hate me it is a sacrifice we make willingly (whilst they continue to do well....). So it might not appear to be a sacrifice to someone earning £20k I think taking >40k post tax out of our income makes a massive difference to us.

Oh and cars don't show wealth. They might be company cars, or leased, or financed or owned outright. You only know how wealthy someone really is when they die...

" I think taking >40k post tax out of our income makes a massive difference to us"

Making a difference is not the same as making a sacrifice.

We have 2 horses. Their costs make a difference to what we can spend on other things. We are not making sacrifices so we can keep horses. We are making a choice.