To think it’s hard for a middle class child to attend a working class school?

[emoliant]

I mean a predominantly working class state school in a deprived area like an ex mining town. Where the child is one of the only middle class ones and gets bullied for being different or posh.

Is this off the back of your other thread, leaving for central London?

What has degree of poshness to do with anything! A friend of mine was bullied at his north wales comprehensive just for being middle class & clever. Beaten up, hair set on fire etc. He’s very successful now though.

Their accent (not that it's necessarily posh but it isn't exactly the same as everyone else).

It may surprise some of you to learn that a lot of WC kids are just as clever as MC kids. Imagine that. There's also a fair amount of WC kids who go to university. Now I know some of you would like to keep university for your MC kids but they even let WC kids in these days,

Yes, it can be hard. Teenagers want to be like each other so it's easier to be with similar people. Someone confident could be fine but someone of a more shy disposition less so

It doesn’t surprise me. I just don’t think any of them went to my comp.

WC or MC, going to university is not an indicator of intelligence any more, if it ever was. Attendance has expanded massively since the 1950s. That’s not the same as saying people have got cleverer.

I went to a predominantly working class state school in a deprived area which is an ex mining town. I still live in the town.

We aren’t aliens. We aren’t hostile. Life in our town isn’t hard for “middle class” children or adults. Far from it!

& I can imagine a lot more bullying happens in private schools than it does state schools.

It's not about being clever though . It's about aspiration and valuing education, the effect of deprivation and multiple other factors. The postcode areas with highest university attendance send 75% of young people to university. In the lowest regions it's 15%. Clearly there's some major differences. The truth is very few young people from deprived backgrounds attend university and those that do it's likely to be a less academic university. Whereas for middle class kids it's assumed they will go to university and unusual if they don't.

I can imagine a lot more bullying happens in private schools than it does state schools.

You can imagine anything you like, but unless you have actual evidence from a reliable source to back it up this statement is meaningless.

The assumption on this thread is WC kids are thick. And MC kids are clever. That is not true. But that's MN for you.

Middle class isn't posh though?

Sounds like something else is triggering the bullying.

Who has said that WC kids can’t be clever?

Just from reading a lot of threads on here from parents with kids in private and “good” schools. Seems to be a lot of elitism in private schools. “My dad earns £5M and your dad only earns £100K” sort of thing. A lot of competition between parents. - which you don’t really get in the slums of the pit towns.

The underlying tone of this thread is WC kids are not as clever as MC kids.

I taught in a very working class high school. Just a handful of middle class children. One was very popular; most were bullied. And yes, I know that's something the school should stop, but I was a brand new teacher and fairly ineffective to do much in the face of a wholly ineffective senior management team.

I then taught in an independent school full of middle class children. A very small number of working class children. They weren't bullied at school (although it's relevant that bullying was dealt with very effectively at this school).

One however was horribly bullied on his way home by the kids in his estate. He lived in the roughest estate of a notorious town. Thankfully the Head eventually conceded that he didn't have to wear his blazer all the way home - ridiculous that this needed permission!

That’s one perception of it, I guess.

Yes my DC have been teased a lot, we’re in Scotland in a deprived WC area, both DH and I came from a deprived WC area, both moved away to go to uni (I was the first person in my family to stay on at school past 16, go to uni), we moved to London got professional jobs, had one DC then moved back home.

We live in a mixed area but my DC have been teased for not talking slang but more polite, for eating around a dinner table at night and for the kind of car DH drives.

During Covid DS still believed in Santa Claus and he asked for a PS5 it was the year they were so rare but as we had had a rubbish year, cancelled holiday, covid bereavement and all the covid stuff DH said sod it im going to get him one. His best friend didn’t get one and his Mum told him not to play with DS anymore (because of that and because of the fact DS had pets and he didn’t). Which I felt was unfair as they were our choices nothing to do with DS.

There's no such thing as class anymore. I find it ridiculous that people think their children are middle class!

My DC has a friend who goes to a local private school who says everyone they know at the school gets extra time in exams. My DC knows a few people who get extra time at their own school (high levels of deprivation) but says the vast majority don’t. DC was astonished by the conversation.

This is MN. Of course they think their kids are MC.

It's better than being bullied for being poor. If anything it'll make them a better person

Have you been watching The Inbetweeners?

@Jk987 I kind of see what you're getting at, but generally speaking there would be a noticeable difference between the children of a single teenage mum in temporary accommodation in Haringey and children being brought up by married parents in their 30s in Godalming.

We moved to a predominantly wc, fishing port when I was a child and I was teased mercilessly for not having the same accent (I was called posh, even though we weren’t). My dad was a librarian and my mum a nurse. Other kids thought that was hilarious…

It happens!

Is it even legal?

That poor child must be terrified!

How will they communicate?