White working class children failed by the system?

[Vintlet]

Big news story this morning showing that white working class children have been failed by the education system in the UK.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq51j10q601o
I cannot remember a time in the last fifty years when national data did not show this. White working class boys particularly are the bottom achieving group in educational terms. There have been very few initiatives aimed at supporting this group. Wes Streeting has done his best to highlight this issue but compared to other traditionally disadvantaged groups little has been done to support them.
I have had intense discussions on MN with people who refuse to believe that white children from poor backgrounds are not privileged. I am impressed that Baroness Morris recognises the need for recognition that the state is failing this group and that steps have to be taken to remedy this and to support children from this background of deprivation.

This chimes with my thoughts too. If it is the case that non-white poorer kids with the same basic opportunities as white poorer kids are generally doing better than the white poorer kids, then maybe that's because the non-whites are going about things better and making the most of the opportunity as opposed to 'the system' being geared against the whites. It sort of stands to reason really - if your parents had the gumption to move halfway across the world for a better life then they're also more likely to encourage their kids to make the most of the opportunities that are presented to them, and to not take things for granted. Of course, that won't stop all sorts of nasty bastards saying that this is just evidence of anti-white racism, or thick lazy people agreeing with them.

People who get FSM are a tiny, tiny subsection of people on benefits and people who are working class. It’s people with basically no income.

Where did I mention FSM?

Some of the anti teacher / ridiculous complaints on here also set their children up to fail.

The study defines 'white working class children' as White British children on free school meals. Which is 1.5M children.

From what I see, it’s isn’t ’the Education system’ that ‘fails’ these boys, it’s the parents and the boys themselves. Anecdotally, they are the most disruptive group in primary and are given the most help. They are so privileged that they fail to help themselves. That’s what I see.

I was replying to Just married Becca comment. She didn't mention FSM . I

It's a bit bad to state " working class" kids if they mean benefits kids.

I was a working class kid Parents were postman and shop worker. We got no benefits.

We’re agreeing with you.

Ok, so I'm late 40's, grew up in a South Wales mining village, high unemployment after the mines closed, a lot of poverty, a lot of people who were surrounded by their extended family (we were relative outsiders so no family in the area).

There was absolutely a lack of commitment to education, a lack of support with reading - my friends houses had no books that I ever saw, reading wasn't something most people did for pleasure.

But the school did nothing to challenge that, no effort was made to inspire ambition. And it's sad, it's sad to see little kids who at nursery did have dreams of being firefighters and nurses (and I know those things change over the years) be funneled into factory work and hair and beauty courses as if there was nothing else, no other choice, while their peers from better off homes had far higher expectations from their teachers. They weren't going to let me join the sixth form to do A Levels until my English teacher stepped in and insisted - it was only our postcode that was seen, not our ability.

@Friendlygingercat I work in HE and fail to comprehend why some academics would judge you for being working class. Many of the academics I know never stop whingeing about being skint and overworked and wanting to lead the revolution with a strike. Many times a professor has droned on to me about how their phd qualified ECRs are skint and struggling and the system is badly skewed. Many a time, I've bitten my tongue not to say, how fascinating, I didn't go to uni but have never been skint.

This touches on the misalignment of education being about the provision of skills people need and the inherent attitude from reception to Y13, that the trades are something to snobbily despise rather than to value. Most young people do not need to master quadratic equations or Austin/Keats. They need to be functionally literate and able to translate good functional literacy and numeracy to practical matters: the electrician needs a practical knowledge of physics, a curtain maker needs to be able to accuately measure and calculate, not just the volume of the fabric but the number of pleats, the gardener to quote and maintain their tools. They all need to be able to submit a tax return. They are all vital to each and every one of us: electricians, builders, carpenters, dry cleaners, hairdressers, mechanics, builders, sewer workers, bus drivers, train dirivers.

The educational establishment needs to value, prioritise and support the vocational trades. Society needs to accept that not everyone, or even 50%, should be at university, some realism needs to be reintroduced and an acceptance that not everyone can have everything and that even in communist states, those in charge have far far more.

I think us British Indians do better wealth wise

Hmm not sure about that. DH's grandad was a miner, the eldest of 9. His teacher begged for him to stay at school post 14. He couldn't, dinner had to be put on the table. He joined the army on his 18th birthday. He made sure every one of his children stayed for 6th form (50s), two became teachers, two went to uni and became professionally qualified, two joined the forces.

Raw pay favours some Asian groups, especially Chinese and Indian

From page 11 of the report:

Defining ‘white working class’ within education research is challenging. For the
purposes of analysing national educational outcomes data, the Inquiry primarily uses white British pupils eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) as the best available pupil-level proxy for identifying white working class disadvantage within national datasets.

You do apparently! IRRC you have well above average property wealth and savings overal. Cannot remember if more than white british or on par.

I wonder what happened to working-class ambition?
Pit communities in the South Wales valleys often had Miners’ Institutes which had reading rooms and night classes etc. Even my father who had to leave school at 14 (1946) because his own father had died, worked and studied at the same time and qualified as a civil engineer. I was the first to go to university.
We have a free education system and yet some fail to take advantage of it, won’t move away to get a job, won’t encourage their children to do better than they did.
What happened to working hard and bettering yourself?

But if they get FSM then they aren't strictly working class as no one does much actual work if they qualify.

So the headline should've been " kids on FSM ,don't do as well"

Just giving my experience of secondary school - a snapshot of a particular place in the late 80s to mid 90s.

I know of a few people who went to a school in Plaistow in the 80/90s.

The 80s they told them to find yts schemes . One girl asked about going to the community college for a levels ( no 6th form) to be told " you don't need them to get a job in Tesco"

So that attitude did happen v

I don't blame teachers I blame the lack of work ethic and the "grades don't matter" approach

In my opinion and experience, the people failing these children are the parents. We went from a predominantly white WC school to a mainly mixed multicultural school. SO much better. Work being done, pride in the school! The teachers are able to teach! The only bad part are some of the white kids and their parents that are there. My child is one of three white kids in his class and the other two are absolute terrors.
The parents bring drama and violence if anything is challenged, those poor staff that have to deal with them.
Similar in a lot of the classes. One of the families rented a house in our street. Police there all the time and they absolutely trashed the place. It was a lovely quiet street until they got here. The kids barely made it to school. You can hardly blame 'the system' for how they are going to turn out? What can ANYONE do if that is how they are raised? Obviously the outcomes are going to be worse if the parents aren't parenting.

+1000.
Parent better if you want your kids to do well.

The title of the article is "White working-class children failed by education system, says inquiry". And that is indeed what the enquiry said.

Having skim read the report it seems like fair and accurate reporting of it.

You might not agree with the conclusions of the report, but the press has a responsibility to accurately report what a government-sponsored report say surely?

But it says they have defined working class by children on free school meals. That’s unreasonable as a definition.

Who gets better GCSEs