To marvel at privately educated Keir Starmer's hypocrisy?

[Bursarysadness]

Both Kier Starmer and his wife are privately educated. Kier's senior school converted into a private school in the second year of his attendance and he has received a generous full bursary up until his A levels. He has built his life and his success on this education, supported to the end by the bursary funded by the same schools and parents he is now trying to destroy. It pains me as my children receive 50% bursaries from a brilliant local school. We've worked incredibly hard to cover the remaining 50% but it has been worth it, seeing how my children blossomed. We had a very different experience in their primary state schools, including bullying and racism. We don't live in a great area. We have just been told that the school will probably reduce all their bursaries to be able to lower the fees for the non bursary parents who are now struggling because of the VAT introduction. I don't know what the future for my children is now and they have so many close friends where they are. They are both academically brilliant and work very hard - hence the bursaries were granted. I feel so depressed that, from what is becoming obvious, they won't be able to benefit from the generosity of bursaries the same way Kier Starmer did when he was a child ..

I admire him for not letting his private school chums sway his decision

Sorry @Izzymoon -that wasn't meant for you! It was meant for @Clavinova, who often says such things.

You have my sympathy, OP. But you alienate people by thinking your children are somehow special. We all think our kids are special you see.

Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim) did. Cook was in the same year group as Starmer and left the school at 16 for the recently opened sixth form college in the town. Starmer joined the East Surrey Young Socialists at age 16.

My mum taught in a private school because she couldn’t cope in the state sector. She was sacked from every state job she had.
Private kept her for 15 years.
They never did any professional development.
As an aside, if you can barely afford private now you definitely couldn’t if they weren’t charities.

@VJBR why do you think Victoria Starmer became a governor at her nearest school? Please share!

At private school excellent behaviour is expected and mostly backed up by decent karentibg and expectations. State school sadly have the poorly behaved to contend with.

Really? I've heard some horrendous tales of bullying and awful behaviour at the private schools some of my colleagues kids went to, things that just didn't happen at my dd's state school, and weren't dealt with at all. I couldn't believe people were actually paying to send their kids there.

"Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim) did. Cook was in the same year group as Starmer and left the school at 16 for the recently opened sixth form college"

It's unlikely he did it for political reasons- I suspect he was a much cooler 17 year old than Starmer was!

It was already private by that point so I’m not sure the relevance of that fact or what your point it?

That’s not what I said though is it?

As a child he would have had no say in his parents' choice of school.

I doubt any child had a say in where their parents chose to educate them but one never hears that excuse being levelled at non-Labour PMs, I wonder why?

@Allthisdrama is the problem not private Vs state but Comprehensive education per se? In the old Grammar / Tech system, those who wanted to learn academic things were able to do so without disruption because those who wanted to learn more vocational things were also able to do so. Nobody was a square peg in a round hole, and all aptitudes were catered for. Comprehensive education forces all children through the same curriculum, regardless of aptitude, interest or relevance to aspiration.

The main problem with the old system was a lack of mobility after the age of 11, but you could easily conceive of a state system that filtered for academic vs non-academic inclinations, whilst allowing mobility between the two tracks as children developed. That's what we need really and I agree that no amount of money will fix the structural problems that the comprehensive system enshrines, so the VAT on private fees will simply not improve anything.

One minute these threads are saying that private schooling is a massive privilege and telling people they'll have to "slum it" with everyone else - the next minute everyone is saying how awful private schools and the teachers at private schools are - which is it?!

Well I tell you what, the private school that my DC attends is far, far more diverse than my local catchment comp. And it takes racism very seriously. A pupil has just been expelled for racism with no second chance. That’s the thing, it’s very easy to get rid of a pupil from a private school, completely different to state schools. At the last parents evening that I attended, the head teacher gave a presentation and made it absolutely clear that racism would not be tolerated. One strike and your child is out.

Of course he had a say in where he went for sixth form - he was already 17 when he started his sixth form studies.

If private schools did not exist, they couldn’t take the pick of teachers out of the state school pool and those state schools would be better. That’s the point.

Not sure what point you're trying to make. Norman Cook's children have always gone to very expensive private schools so he's obviously not against it. Can't believe people think Starmer should have just left the school he was at.

I doubt it was kier starmers choice though, you can't very well hold it against him

What absolute nonsense.

My partner went to that school - he was in the year above Keir. It was the school kids went to if they passed the 11+. My partner actually passed the exam in Cumbria before his parents moved so it wasn't even one of those where only the select few top "passers" went.

As for "parents" being destroyed by their children having to go to the same schools as the 93% - that's just insulting.

As for him "owing his success" to the school how on earth do you know that? My partner liked the school but there was nothing particularly amazing about it.After sixth form Keir went to Leeds University - where my brother went from a comprehensive just a couple of years later. There is NOTHING to suggest Keir would not have done equally well at a comprehensive.

I do have sympathy for parents whose children have particular needs. The private schools would have done better to focus their campaign on these rather than some of the absurd sob stories we've been treated to.

Are you actually suggesting only state schools experience racism?

Corvidmango

OK then, it is the aim of all left leaning centrists to level the playing field to the lowest possible standard. Better? And the point is it doesn’t benefit anyone. They are not out to benefit anyone. It’s the ideology that counts not the benefit to ordinary people.

1. You have no idea what he would have accomplished if he had a different educational background.
2. How can it be hypocrisy to make different decisions than your parents made? If he sent his kids to public schools (hello, Diane) but advocated for only state, that would be one thing. But he cant be held accountable for his parents choices. YABU.

A state school that requires the purchase of a £1m+ house…

@Clavinova Why do you think Starmer should have chosen to move schools at 16/17?

@punnedout "A state school that requires the purchase of a £1m+ house…"

A house he bought 20 years ago...