Can you tell if someone is privately educated?

[bye2020]

Without knowing what school they went to?

Is it important @bye2020? If schooling ever comes up people always think I went to private school. I went to the local comprehensive. I am not convinced that schooling is so obvious especially when school days are well behind us. I do think it’s more obvious if someone has been to one of the first division public schools that have a very definite type but that’s not necessarily an advantage these days. I’ve got lots of friends that were privately educated and I don’t think it’s generally speaking obvious or important.

No. I've worked with the same people for 10 years and they have no idea. It helps that the name of my school is a lie so no one would have a clue.

DH was privately educated.He didn't realise himself until he was an adult. All he knew was he went to school

Did he carry a pomander? Did his parents call him the little master

Really? I’m Struggling to believe someone is so insular and unaware of external life that they genuinely didn’t twig they were at a private school which is not the norm.
I knew I went to school, I know what the general opinion was of the schools I attended & its pupils was. It is really exceptional to be so insular that he genuinely didnt have an external construct of school

I don't think you can with DH but then he says he had most of the private school twattery knocked out of him by meeting a really good bunch of people at university.

Conversely a lot of people have assumed I did whereas I'm fundamentally opposed to the idea, as where my parents.

I think I usually can with about 80-90% of people. It's a particular air of self confidence (or more a sort of tendency to dismiss any limitations in their abilities), together with generally better grammar, usually having done Latin GCSE, reminiscing about DofE or CCF are another giveaway.

DP maybe but that's because he had a lot of extra support that wasn't cheap to help with his dyslexia.

SIL1 no probably not

SIL2 you might think she did but you'd be wrong

SIL2s ex fuck yeah, Eton.

No. There's such a variation in private schools, and reasons people go to them. Some have great results, others are just there for parents who are avoiding their catchment state school.

But is it about attending the school, or being brought up in a family who can afford to use private schools?

Usually yes. Where I live (Ireland) the privately educated kids all seem to have the same accent. The Dublin ones anyway.

I think so, but like everything else, not always. I find it harder to tell with people who have good jobs than with drop outs. I can spot a private school waster a mile off with my eyes shut and my fingers in my ears. I must have mixed in some odd circles.

No and I've worked with a few that have been. I'm generally surprised when I find out.

What I mean is, if a child attended Eton on a 100% bursary, would they turn out the same as someone from Eton who went home to a super rich family?

Yes, a lot of the time because of the way they speak. Especially if they have lived in this area all their lives, the regional dialect is trained out of them.

Many of my colleagues have assumed I was, because I come from a place with a very strong regional accent that I don't have. Neither of my parents had that accent either though, and I went to a sink comprehensive school.
People make so many assumptions on speech and dress, without realising that sometimes what appear to be class markers are actually simply family shibboleths.

I do think the air of entitlement is a total myth

I went to one and really you wouldn’t tell.

I’m clearly In the “too posh to wash” camp

😂😂

Teaching undergraduates, I can tell. Confidence and being able to look you in the eye. (State school students write better essays, though!) Just my experience.

After a short conversation I can usually tell and I usually like them as well.

Yes generally they have a veneer of confidence non privately educated people don't have.

I think you can tell for those with the distinctly posh accents.

The rest is a mix. Sometimes I tell by sports e.g. rugby = private, football = state. Also sailing and skiing or well travelled as a child. Or profession, e.g. hospital doctor, front office finance, magic circle lawyer - usually grammar or private. Or people who can afford gap years.

Mostly it will inevitably come up at some point if you socialise.

I've met a number of people through work, who sound as if they've been privately educated, but being nosey, i did some digging on one of them, and it turns out this person was educated privately without their parents paying for it, as their father was in the Armed Forces. My exH also knows someone who went to a so called Army school, his father was in the Army and my exH's colleague and his sibling sound as if they went to Marlborough ! Things are not always as they seem.

My dh went to private school. I think he spent more time outside the HM’s office than in lessons.
Besides, every time he mentions where he went to school everyone we meet is stupidly impressed. I knew someone who went there that was as thick as. It’s all about the money and connections. Though, that’s depending on which school.

No: there isn't much difference between top grammars and private day schools. It's not an easy distinction of private Vs state.

@How2Help

Everyone who has found out that I did has been utterly disbelieving and thinks I’m joking. It isn’t something that comes up much.

Same

Interesting. I work in a profession with a lot of private school educated colleagues
Tbh schooling rarely comes up. We do however discuss where we trained

P.S. I believe Camilla Parker Bowles went to an exclusive girls' school, and do you know she's never worked? It's on her 1st and 2nd marriage certificate: Bride's occupation= blank space. I thought this type of aristo belonged to the 18th century. Surely we should all have done a job of work, meaning a paid job of some kind, no matter what background we are from?
No gags, now, no gags !