To think the schools should've accepted this?

[bingbangbing]

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/snubbed-donor-offers-his-bursaries-for-poor-white-boys-to-state-schools-5h7hzbbn9

In a way, I can see why they refused. It would take one boy of colour applying and they would be in trouble.

However, there is very definitely a problem with the attainment of white working class boys on low incomes.

I get the impression that he was almost trying to recreate the old assisted places scheme on a small scale.

Ideally, state schools would all be really good and private schools totally unnecessary. Sadly that isn't the case.

I have a son and I'm worried for his future in the local schools.

the equalities act which would prohibit (for example) a school doing a similar sort of targeted scholarship

Actually the EO prohibits no such thing.

When you dig into bursaries it gives some interesting info. Only one percent of all children who get one get a full ride, and over 50 percent are to those who pay more than half fees.

It looks like the school refuses all bursaries linked to ethnicity or nationality, so they were right to say no.

White British boys from poorer backgrounds are the most likely to underperform, so not surprising that someone wants to offer a bursary.

I received a bursary while at university, the bursary was only available to people of my ethnicity studying select courses. Due to not having any form of family support attending university would not have been possible without that support. It enabled me to land a good career and I have been able to pledge money back so others can afford an education.

Actually the benefactor did not specify the donation on race just for the sake of it but because it was looking at the most failing "cohort" in education and reasoning from that point of view. However, Winchester in their tardy response has implied he is saying the request is based on skin colour alone.

Too much looking for persecution here.

I find the reply of Winchester particularly galling on this news story. They have implied to this dear old generous man that they will not judge by "colour of skin". In no way did the benefactor suggest that. He began by wishing to help the most disadvantaged and from that scientific reasoning asked the money to be spent on poor white kids. Winchester's reply is outrageous by making a false representation on the benefactor and its a good warning to others who may wish to make a bequest to Winchester to watch out - their PR has fangs!

Hypocrisy

But there is more to this story than the snooty reply of Winchester. Dulwich has said it wishes to represent the society (London) they exist in. I yearn to see the day when they decide to run a charity event at a working mens social club of which there are many a stone's throw from the school in west Norwood for example. But of course that will not garner the type of "agreeable poor" they wish to appear with in brochure pictures.

As one poster on another blog wrote earlier about Winchester's reply (don't agree myself but for wit its a good riposte):

"If there are any traveller groups in Hampshire do us a favour and set up camp in the grounds of Winchester College whilst everyone is still away on holiday. Then when the remainer-elites return they can mingle with the “deplorable” white working class they despise."

No one has said they despise the white working class.

Far too much looking for reasons for victimisation here

Also, I'd make a bet that white boys from lower income backgrounds already receive the majority of full scholarships, and in Dulwich get far more than is proportional to the ethnic make up of Southwark.

I have been thinking about it from the point of view of these "poor white boys" he wants to help.

I would rather almost anything, I think, than be the token poor white boy in a school where the fees are £40,000 per year and there is not a single other person in the place who knows the least thing about how my life outside school is lived. Bad enough being an adult woman in a "gentleman's" club or bar, perpetually being made aware of not fitting in; worse for someone of thirteen.

It wouldn't be whether or not they attended the classes; it would be all the many, many things that everyone else in their class had and they had not. New shoes when wanted springs to mind, and not just any shoes but the Right (expensive) trainers, the rugby boots that cost over a hundred quid instead of under thirty, and so on. School uniform I would assume to be part of the bursary, but coats to go over it? The sort of case you carry your books in can make or break you at school, and adolescents are cruel.

@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

The benefactor was a poor boy who went to one of these schools.

For independent schools, the Telegraph reported that the majority of bursaries (scholarships) go to the middle class, not working class:

“He said a large proportion of bursaries were handed out to the “squeezed middle” - children of doctors, lawyers and owners of small businesses – who can no longer afford to pay fees in full.

“The majority of means tested bursaries will be topping up the squeezed middle who can’t afford £40,000-a-year fees,” he told The Daily Telegraph....

Last year there were 5,657 children whose places were fully funded by bursaries, which is one per cent of the total number of children at private schools, according to figures published by the Independent Schools Council (ISC).

Meanwhile 22,757 pupils (four per cent) were handed bursaries that paid for up to half of the fees, and 66,327 bursaries (12 per cent) went to children of staff, clergy or armed forces.” [the per cents are % of total pupils not bursaries]

So in the U.K. we have
5,675 full ride bursaries
22,757 were up to half the fees (so parents on average still paying £20k/yr)
66,327 to clergy, staff and military also top ups.

That’s 94,759 bursaries, of which only 6% of all bursaries are full ride bursaries going to the working class.

There’s no ethnicity break out, so can’t say if disproportionate by ethnicity or not. But it’s definitely disproportionate against working class and favouring middle class.

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2019/01/25/private-school-bursaries-used-top-fees-middleclass-children/

I used the same data earlier. The independent schools council data also shows that of all the bursaries given more than half go to students who pay half or more of the fee.

Maylis- yes, it’s good we are seeing the same data.

So, 94% of bursaries are going to the middle class.
Over 50% of bursaries are going to families that can afford and pay at least £20k per year per child. In terms of income, these are most likely families earning at ~£80k/yr or in the top 10% of household income.

50% of bursaries going to the top 10% income bracket...honestly it’s a mockery of the whole if you’re bright and hardworking you can get into an independent school on a bursary myth sold to the poor kid on a council estate. It’s as rare as a golden ticket to willy wonkas chocolate factory.

I think the scholarship was rejected because the schools wanted to be able to give the usual £940k to a dozen middle class students and £60k to one token working class student. Having the full £1m earmarked for working class...well that would be opening the floodgates to the undesirables.

bingbangbing
@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime
The benefactor was a poor boy who went to one of these schools.

I thought he had been to both of them. That article says "Sir Bryan, who attended both schools on scholarships".

Which leaves me pointing out that they did actually have scholarships even back in 1936 or so. And he probably knew my father, an immigrant at the same school, if it was Dulwich; my not-as-rich-as-most father hated the place with a terrible loathing because he was not accepted by the other pupils, so they might even have been friends.

A million quid divided by £41,577 is a little under 25 boy-years at Dulwich, or five boys; £41,709 per year is slightly fewer boy-years at Winchester College. A million is not so much when you are thinking in sums like that, really. Five boys benefit. Give it to a school with five hundred pupils and do more good overall would be my advice.

I don't think its that at all. Its that it was connected to them being white. They won't allow people to specify on ethnicity or religion who gets the bursaries.

As an individual he is not subject to the equalities act which would prohibit (for example) a school doing a similar sort of targeted scholarship

Sir Bryan's proposal was certainly not illegal under current equality legislation. As one of the authors of the 2010 Equality Act in my then role as head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, I can state categorically that in circumstances where a racial group suffering disadvantage is white, then there is no bar on doing for them exactly what we would do for black and ethnic minority groups.

• Trevor Phillips

He can fund it, whilst he is living, but he cannot leave the money to the school to administer as a charity in his will with these conditions (or at least that is my reading of it).

The benefactor was a poor boy who went to one of these schools.

How poor was he? While too poor to pay school fees, particularly for a top public school, his family income may not have been as low as those he thinks he can target. He was also a clever boy to win the scholarship and his family sufficiently aspirational to apply for it. Not really part of the target group.

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-7838439/Schools-afraid-help-white-boys-lunacy-helps-no-one-writes-TREVOR-PHILLIPS.html

I know it is the Daily Mail, but also covered in Telegraph and Times - but a really well considered article from Trevor Phillips about this, and also the Lake District Diversity issue.

Just for your information, Oxford rejected Stormzy’s scholarship because they said it wouldn’t be fair to non black students.

I agree with your comments @PlanDeRaccordement.

It is much easier to give bursaries to well-spoken middle class children with nice manners and educated, supportive parents than to grant them to under achieving unsupported children with potential.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/newsbeat-46137674

Oxford say they didn't turn down scholarship at all.

No comment about it not being fair to non black students. The universities do accept bursaries with religious or ethnic conditions on them.

Even when I retired fifteen years ago there was an acknowledgment that the average working class white boys were losing out, they fell between so many initiatives regarding minorities and girls. Personally I would like to see something done for them, if they were encouraged to achieve their potential so many other probelms regarding race and gender would begin to be solved.

I think the schools acted correctly. Had it been just for low income families, regardless of ethnicity, race or indeed creed, it should have been accepted.

I've just read that the Stormzy scholarship is for people who have been accepted to Cambridge where as this scholarship won't require the boy to have reached the pass mark for Dulwich College.

Maybe he could fund tutoring and bursary advice for poor white boys so they stand a chance at passing the 13+?