If you didn’t go to a private school, what do you think about those who did?

[hanginds]

Do you feel they had an unfair advantage? Do you care? Do you think they don’t know about the real world?

I really struggle to connect with colleagues who were privately educated as they seem almost entitled to the job. They seem fearless about finding alternative work if needs be, yet I just don’t have that confidence. I assume it’s their background as it’s the only difference between us in the academic/work context.

Animosity sadly goes both ways. We were at a country music festival a few years back, and DC's choir won, beating the local private school. You should have heard the comments from parents - 'well they only won because they had the advantage of positive discrimination'.

This kind of attitude also very prevalent on mn every year on Oxbridge offers day.

But it's true for Oxford and Cambridge - if you're from private schools you have to get higher marks. Think of that what you will as to whether it's right or wrong. But it's a fact.

The reason I think it’s not worth the outlay is that there is literally no difference in
personality type or success depending on state or private in my experience anyway. Our friends are a pretty even split if anything the state ones are better off. Socially absolutely zero difference. People always think Dh and I are “posh” dh in particular is not! He is confident clever and well educated though. State.

But it's true for Oxford and Cambridge - if you're from private schools you have to get higher marks. Think of that what you will as to whether it's right or wrong. But it's a fact.

It's not positive discrimination to try and give everyone an equal chance, which is the point of contextual admissions. The universities want the best people and they use all the information they have to try and figure out who they are.

Private school students do not have to get higher marks, they all have to get the same grades. They look at everyone's achievement in the context of the performance of the school, not the sector. So high performing state schools are in the same position as high performing private schools.

Basically, there are loads more capable applicants than there are places, but they have to choose, so if you don't get in, there was someone they thought was better than you.

@Hoistupthemainsail not true. There are no contextual offers made by Oxbridge. It may be true that if they have two identical candidates grades and interview wise they may make the offer to the one from the lesser school. But that's surely fair enough and presumably shows a stronger candidate

It may be true that if they have two identical candidates grades and interview wise they may make the offer to the one from the lesser school.

Yes, the lesser school, the school with the worse performance. Which if one is state and one is private, could be either one of them.

ok so Oxford doesn't make systematic contextual offers, but it does look at contextual data when considering applicants to ensure that it is offering places to the candidates with the highest potential, regardless of background (which I think is right by the way!)

Whenever I've worked with privately educated people, boy have I known about it - a lot of them never seem to stop bragging about it and judging others on where they went!

Davesparedeckchair in which field do you work?

Re judging others on their schooling - well that works both ways. Have you read the comments on this thread by posters who actively avoid hiring privately educated people? Sneering and deriding and refusing to be friends with anyone who went to private school?

This thread is triggering me as two of dds inspirational a level teachers both decamped to local private schools citing the admin. Don’t blame them but makes it fairer that the admissions factors in the schools in the round - Dd will have more of an up hill struggle to get these top grades that are demanded now.

@Hoistupthemainsail

Looking at contextual information to find people with the highest potential regardless of background is not the same as "if you're from private schools you have to get higher marks" though, which is what you said before.

@Hoistupthemainsail I'm glad we agree!

This doesn’t even sound like it has the slightest ring of truth about it. If you are going to make up stories on the internet at least try a bit harder

'Why on earth do you interview anyone privately educated since you appear to have a grudge against them?'

It's not a grudge - it's a preference for people who grew up in the real world, and who can relate to our clients, most of whom are state educate educators or business people. Simple as that.
It's also an attempt to create a more diverse workforce, so that when we come up with or work on new products and programs we have the input and ideas of people who are informed by their own experiences. And if you hire identikit Oxbridge types, or majority MC + backgrounds, or all white people then you get identikit ideas.
It's why book publishers, for example, are finally running diversity programmes. If you want books that have good black protagonists then give black authors a chance, and if you want more books by WC people of colour, hire non-white WC commissioning editors because they're more likely to commission those books or find those authors.

And as for WHY we interview them at all - on paper they're qualified or look good, and the first sift of applicants is done by our 'HR business partners' - though of course we can guide who were looking for. So, for example, we've started to word job ads for certain 'male' heavy roles like sales or tech to appeal to women so they apply. One of the completely legal and practical things you can do to recruit is think about how words in an ad will appeal to men over women and vice versa.

Hilarious isn’t it? I work in banking (private school heaven, although I’m state educated), and no one has ever behaved like that in the 15 years I’ve worked in that environment. None of my colleagues have ever asked me where I went to school either. And my team are more than happy to ‘take orders’ from me, despite my state education 😂.

I think nothing. But i always laugh when somebody says "I worked so hard at my private school". Yeah, sure you did.

You think people from private school don’t work hard?

I'm sure they did to be honest, private schools actually have standards.

It's also an attempt to create a more diverse workforce

This is happening where I work also - privately educated (middle class in general) are over represented so everyone is looking for state educated people.

So them starting school at 8.30am and finishing at 4.30pm with then another hour of compulsory activities, getting home at 6pm to do then do another 1-2 hours of homework per day is NOT working hard?
You obviously have zero clue of the workload in private schools so in future don't comment on things you don't understand because it makes you look incredibly foolish.

My children go to a private school near Teddington. In my experience the private schools aren't full of children who live in the catchments for best state comps. Like us lots of the parents opted for private schools because the schools we were offered weren't great (RTS, Twickenham Accademy, sunbury Manor, etc) if I had been offered Teddington or Orleans I wouldn't have wasted my money. Unfortunately buying a house in those catchments was out of budget, however we can just about stretch for private fees.

Oh ok @3WildOnes
I just still know a lot of Teddington families who are very much in catchment who still go the LEH and Hampton Boys and Surbiton etc. I guess both things can be true.

'This is happening where I work also - privately educated (middle class in general) are over represented so everyone is looking for state educated people.'

Yup. And it's not like 'standards' are dropping in anyway. We're often still looking for graduates, and we KNOW that your average state educated Uni graduate had a harder route to Uni than the average privately educated one.
I don't care if you got a 1st at Durham or St Andrew's because you had the financial freedom just to study - I'll take the candidate who got a 2:1 at Manc Met instead but has a work history throughout Uni and learned how to time manage, and perform under other demands.

Ah but @twistyizzy my children had to do that work themselves, out of school hours. Well one did. The other seemed pretty miraculous tbh! Not quite sure how he magically absorbed what he needed with absent teachers and disruption!

To achieve high grades the work has to be done whether that's with the guidance of teachers or more or less alone

I get that but the poster I was replying was blatantly sating that they don't think kids at private school work hard. I was merely pointing out they obviously have no clue about the workload required. My DN both go to state school and sorry but the workload just osbt comparable: they get home at 3.30pm and don't even have homework every night.

'So them starting school at 8.30am and finishing at 4.30pm with then another hour of compulsory activities, getting home at 6pm to do then do another 1-2 hours of homework per day is NOT working hard?
You obviously have zero clue of the workload in private schools so in future don't comment on things you don't understand because it makes you look incredibly foolish.'

Is that a tough workload, or is that the school giving you wrap around care, and looking after the ectxa curriculars so parents don't have to? Scheduling a child's day like that is one of the reason we prefer state graduates - less scheduled, more independent.

My state educated kids start at 8.40am and finish at 3.30pm. Then they do their activities - which we have to get involved in - both play sports at a competitive level. Then they have homework.
Oh, and they're actually IN school longer than your children, as they don't get the same holidays. And it could be argued, you have to work harder to get the same benefit from a teacher in a class of 25 kids than one of 15.

Anyone arguing that private school kids work 'harder' in some way needs a good kick up the arse.