It is not a universal truth that you meet a wider range of people in a state school

[DiversityQuestion]

Ended up sending DS to an international school (independent) in year 9 due to bullying in his state school.

In his former state school, he met a wide variety of people from different economic backgrounds, which was obviously good. However, as a school in a rural area, it was virtually 100% white with no cultural diversity whatsoever. Openly expressed racist views were depressingly common.

New International school, DS meets people from all over world /many different cultures. It is a much broader experience and great for students to realise that we live in a global world and life is not limited to our small rural town. The students at his international school are so accepting of cultural differences because everyone is from different backgrounds.

Many independent schools have a lot of international students and I imagine students gain immensely from students being exposed to cultural diversity.

Think it just depends on the school to be honest. My state school had no diversity in it, everyone was the same pretty much. A few small differences in economic diversity I guess, but nothing that really made someone stand out.

Agree op to a degree.
I've found our state cohort very narrow really. I had a mix of my own schooling and found it all good and bad for different reasons.
I was put into a private for a few years and classmates came from all over the area, near towns, countryside, so going to their houses was fun. Also many pupils came for a short or longer time due to dp work so we had a girl whose dad worked in oil Nairobi, another from the States, Saudi, etc and I loved it when there was a presentation about where they were from.
In terms of intelligence diversity, it wasn't selective at all so we had students that struggled, and those that didn't.
4 girls in my small class had some sort of sen. One I remember definitely dyslexia but not sure about the others.

In terms of wealth, a few had 6 bedroom homes. But nothing like helicopters 😂.
Also many were there funded by different means, at least one scholarship, divorce, lived with mum in very teeny house, dad paid school, same with other pupils, whose maybe gp paid the fees but their own dp were low earners in modest homes.

Also and I'm not sure how to phrase this... All sorts of people make money... People who have little experience of private schools do seem think they are full of hooray Henry's with pink corded dad's and rings on their pinkies...

In eton, perhaps but my school we had a wealth of characters who could pay for their dc to attend. One rumour was dc from crime family! I guess not everyone there (including me) was posh posh?

I remember one poor girl in year above, her mum was h addict, she had a nightmare time of it. Dad not around but v wealthy, in music...

So yes, I do think there is or can be much more diversity in not too expensive, local private schools.

I think once you get to the enormous sums that eton require, whilst I imagine they do get cultural diversity... Probably not so much access to economic diversity.

Not for me. I went to a very white state school (apart from a few Asian kids) everyone was working class, the same political views, parents did the same types of jobs etc. That could have just been the geographical area though.

State schools do vary so much in cultural diversity. Both my DC attended a city primary school, which was significantly more ethnically diverse than the rural secondary school they attended when we moved house. I never heard anyone openly express racist views at the city primary school. The kids just seemed to get along regardless of background.

"Ethnically diverse but not economically diverse is spot on."

No, it isn't. With bursaries and charities funding places, not all the children at a private school are well off.

Here's a link to one of the largest bursary charities:
www.royalspringboard.org.uk

It depends where you live my son goes to a Catholic school ,I would say at least 50% are not white British ,quite a lot of children have Indian and Pakistani heritage and many have African and quite a few due to where the school is located have family from the Philippines.

Bright, the stats are here:

demos.co.uk/press-release/61-of-ethnic-minority-kids-in-england-and-90-in-london-begin-year-1-in-schools-where-ethnic-minorities-are-the-majority-of-the-student-body/

@MitziK
I suspect the local state school that the op talks has a mix of lower and middle class children. It's ridiculous to think that this doesn't cause division and different groups of children who gravitate towards one another. Going to a state school doesn't make you more virtuous.

I didn’t meet people from a diverse range of ethnic / racial backgrounds at state school as it was in the countryside in the 80s and 90s. Probably would be a bit better now.

Also was a Catholic school, so didn’t meet many people from other religions. this was more problematic I think as I had no idea about the way people did things in different religions and cultures.

‘ Going to a state school doesn't make you more virtuous.’

Many people do believe it makes you more virtuous because they think private education is morally wrong.

There are all kinds of divisions in the U.K. You could move fifty miles and find that you don’t fit in well with the local community. States school teach you how to interact with people in your local area; it isn’t necessarily transferable to a new location. Top private schools generally teach you how to interact with other people who went to the same group of schools. That was the original purpose of many of them - to create a British upper middle class to run an Empire with one identity. They no longer identify with their local community, customs and accent but with a broader Britishness.

Ok Stripesgalore thanks I read that several times over before I saw what you were say .

Sorry bright!

[quote Binswangers]@MitziK
I suspect the local state school that the op talks has a mix of lower and middle class children. It's ridiculous to think that this doesn't cause division and different groups of children who gravitate towards one another. Going to a state school doesn't make you more virtuous.[/quote]
I know. I was too academic to fit in with the poor kids, but too poor to fit in with the academic kids.

My sister got it at Grammar (when they were around) and I'm sure had I been allowed to take up the offered scholarship to a private school, I'd have had it in spades there as well.

From friends who did attend private schools and experiences of other people at my comprehensive, I'm sure that racism and other prejudices are widespread as well - one friend described how he'd find swastikas drawn on his work, another that because their father was a lowly civil engineer that he was poor compared to the others, our rugby team had the opposing team (private school) making monkey sounds and complaining that there was 'a n*gro on the pitch'.

If anybody thinks that diverse schools don't have issues with racism, they're wrong, though - the difference is that, by and large, it's known that saying anything out loud will result in a battering from the other kids. At private schools, out and out fist fights are less likely. So it looks as though everybody gets along. It's the training, articulacy and confidence that gets it past the radar of staff.

I don’t know about virtuous but personally would admire someone who got to Cambridge from a state school where no one had ever got in before, with blue collar worker parents who weren’t educated beyond 16 themselves more than a pupil from supportive educated upper middle home and public school. But that’s just me as Dh the former.

He and I met in a City law firm there were only a tiny number of us that had been to state school tbh. I don’t think you could tell! It was awkward as occasionally colleagues would make sweeping statements about state schools and were horrified when we admitted we had gone!

I agree it probably depends where you live, our 2 nearest state primary schools both have fairly middle class intakes, the Catholic school is much more ethnically diverse though (DS1 is mixed race and goes to the Catholic school). Low birth rate year so not everyone is Christian.

I was "poor but clever", I always felt a bit awkward friend wise until we got set for our GCSEs...my new group of friends was mainly first generation immigrants (including myself)...all equally poor in the UK but expected to go to university by our parents. (We all have degrees and are still good friends now).