71% of 'top people' went to private school, or grammar school

[joanbyers]

Link:
www.suttontrust.com/research/the-educational-backgrounds-of-the-nations-leading-people/leading-people-report.pdf

"Ten leading independent schools accounted for 12% of the leading people for which schools data was available. These are: Eton College; Winchester College; Charterhouse School; Rugby School; Westminster School; Marlborough College; Dulwich College; Harrow School; St Paul?s Boys? School; Wellington College (see table 1 for top 100 schools). "

It's interesting that these leading schools are pretty much ALL boarding schools, the significance of which is that the fees tend to be around £30k/year (so I reckon this is as much about parental connections as anything else)

Wellington does not have a glittering academic reputation, sending handfuls to Oxford. Charterhouse, on £32k/year, has a fraction of the Oxbridge admissions of the nearby Royal Grammar School, Guildford (fees only £13k/year) - which is present in the list, at #58, but behind schools for the rich but dim such as Bradfield

The leading independent schools that aren't exclusively boarding schools (and therefore implying super-rich parents) are all in London, which is home of the elite.

The leading comps are Holland Park School, where lefties send their kids for ideological reasons and which has had £10s of millions lavished on it, and Haverstock School, which is likewise a popular choice with the left-wing elite.

Just 10% of 'top people' attended a comprehensive.

Of course these figures are calculated many years in arrears, so not the best guide for the future, but the 44% of leading people who attended private schools I guess will increase, as the 27% who went to grammars die off (i.e. most of the grammar schools listed are now comps)

[TheOriginalSteamingNit]

I think all the middle class people I know worry a lot and try very hard. Some of them would send their children privately if they could afford it, and some wouldn't entertain the idea. I don't know any who take their children's place in the world for granted, either way.

[losingtrust]

Arrogance and complacency - don't believe it. I know my kids will do well because they have me as their mother - is that enough to prove it or could it be the hours of reading, times tables, driving to drama lessons, music lessons, coaching them when standing for class rep, speaking to them in other languages, telling them about history, politics, economics, going to open their first bank, library accounts with them, taking museums and above all spending time with them but does all that not count because I don't pay school fees. Boy I am so complacent and arrogant,

[dapplegrey]

Themottledlizard - maybe in normal circs Prince Harry wouldn't have got into Eton. However, his mother had recently died in tragic circumstances, with every detail true or not plastered over the world's press.
Surely considering all that, it was reasonable to let him go to the same school as his brother.
Unless of course you think he should be punished for being born into the Royal family.

[joanbyers]

Prince Harry, five years later, got two A Levels, B in Art and D in Geography.

He's thick.

Highly selective schools tend not to have sibling policies.

[dapplegrey]

I didn't say they did have sibling policies. I said given what those boys had been through it seems reasonable and humane to let Prince Harry join his brother.

[BoulevardOfBrokenSleep]

Prince Charles, though, got into Cambridge solely on his towering intellectual ability of course, so that was OK.

[TheOriginalSteamingNit]

I expect the extend to same policy to all younger brothers whose family have recently undergone a tragic event. They're all about the being 'reasonable and humane'!

[Xenia]

Harry did not get to university because he would not have got in or not to anywhere decent. Prince WIlliam did. That is fair. In Prince Charles' day Oxbridge was different from now and he's fairly intelligent whatever his grades actually and I think it was fine he went then but perhaps right Harry didn't today nor did of course William get pushed into Oxbridge. It was entirely up to Eton to let Harry in. It is nto easy to get into Eton however rich you are and I thnk they made Harry do a repeat of the last year at prep school.

Compared to many nations particularly all these Chinese on really really low state salaries with millions of pounds in banks we do not do too badly int he worst corruption leagues. I coudl lot leave Lagos airport last year without having to give a bribe.

[NigellasGuest]

My nephew is at a well known, top public school. Coincidentally, his father also went there, and his younger brother was accepted as well. Do they all happen to be amazingly bright and just what the school is looking for or do family connections count for something?

[LettyAshton]

Actually I wouldn't like to be the admissions person who had to ring up Prince Charles and say, "Er, Sir, your son's not in." So perhaps they gave Harry a place because no one had the bottle to call the palace

Wordfactory - bizarre attitude. Are we middle classes all supposed to say, "Ah, we're fucked" and sit with our head in our hands and weep? No one knows what the future may hold. Our dcs may be economic refugees camped on the borders of China desperate to get in for the chance of cleaning a corporation's toilets, but shall we tell them that? Tell them to give in because we can't confer the requisite advantages on them?

[Elibean]

I am either lucky or in denial, because I don't know too many hugely complacent middle class people (where kids' futures are concerned) - my girls are at a local state school, in leafy suburb, and most of the 'middle class' (still not sure what the definition is) parents there are hugely anxious about futures, and most of them couldn't afford local private schools.

I don't know many complacent people of any sort, come to think of it. Everyone seems terribly worried, regardless of background

[Elibean]

annlopes: congratulations! But I think you are posting on the wrong thread/section?

Have a look at the Nannies section

[TheOriginalSteamingNit]

Damnit, elibean, you have now opened the way for satisfaction with state schools to be designated as the sole province of those in 'leafy suburbs' . Which means you complacently assume all state schools are fine, when in fact the important thing to remember is that most are awful, and people who are happy with the ones their own children are actually (and I struggle with this, too) doing more of a disservice to less advantaged children than those who use private schools.

[poozlepants]

I think the way to success is due to who you know - it was always thus. The people I know that are successful politicians and lawyers got where they are due to their connections though not due to their schooling.
I went to Edinburgh and did a subject full of very posh people. Those I knew that had gone to Stowe, Harrow, Eton etc all were leaving to go to jobs arranged by their parents in lots of different areas- banking, land management, engineering, politics. economics. They weren't the brightest but they got some of the best jobs. No milk round for them. Whether they thrived in them is another matter but it does make life easier.
The rest of the bog standard private school children and the state educated had to fight it out for what few jobs were available 20 years ago. I was talking to my cousin who went to another university with lots of posh people. He graduated a few years ago and said things haven't changed. Those from top public schools were sorted, the academically bright (him) went on to do pHD's and the rest were left fighting for a few jobs.
There are plenty of careers out there that are mainly exempt- medicine, dentistry, veterinary, academia but I bet connections work there too.

[Xenia]

The professions are better as there are strict application procedures for doctors etc although even there you need to get some work experience. Big companies recruiting graduates via the milkround are still looking for the best graduates. My daughter (Bristol U) - I don't think most of her friends even the Eton ones got jobs through a parent at all. In fact I cannot think of one which is surprising.

Also some people just very very good people skills or put themselves in the right place thinking of one girl now who got a job serving on the counter at a posh club in London so every day she was meeting loads and loads of people in hedge funds and the like who chatted to her (pretty slim clever posh educated high exam results her) and she got a proper job offer. if you stay in your bed room in Hull and just go to your local job centre it will be harder. It is one reason parents should not move children to the wilds of Cornwall where there is no work because the parents want to look at cows. If the parent instead slums it out in Watford or Croydon the graduate child can commute in for internships etc

[BlissfullyIgnorant]

Sorry people, but I get really pissed off with people who insist Prince Harry is thick.

1. He is a member of Her Majesty's Armed Forces and is bloody good at what he does. The forces do not take thick people.
   
2. He's dyslexic, so anyone who offers up arsewipe about his abilities based on his exam results wants dragging round the streets. And before anyone gets on their high horse about that one, dyslexia is much more than a reading problem
   

Back to topic...

[TalkinPeace2]

The forces do not take thick people
ROTFLMAOPMPL

I take it you've met Harry and seen his school reports to know so much that does not come across from his public persona.

[JakeBullet]

My brother has worked with Prince Harry and describes him as a really good soldier and a thoroughly nice man. No airs and graces and more than happy to muck in.


I know nothing about his educational status, only what my brother (an Army Officer) has to say from his experience.

[grovel]

What I can tell you, TalkinPeace, is that no thick officer would be allowed anywhere near an Apache helicopter - let alone fly one.

[BlissfullyIgnorant]

You wouldn't happen to be anything to do with Browns Bar in Coventry, would you TalkinPeace?

[TalkinPeace2]

The forces do not just take officers you know ....
be careful about your generalisations

and as anybody who has an excellent mechanic knows, academic prowess and high levels of competence at handling machines are not codependent

Jake
That does not surprise me at all. The accident of his birth has made him a news story that he would rather not be.

More to the point about bodging results to get people into top schools - do we actually believe that the children of oligarchs and Chinese communist party officials are really brighter than anybody else?

[BlissfullyIgnorant]

...people in the public eye should not be judged by their public persona, Talkin. Jimmy Savile, anyone???

[dapplegrey]

TalkinPeace - there are oligarch children at less academic schools such as Stowe. Stowe may of course have been their first choice, but they may have gone there because they were turned down by more academically selective schools.
I'm shocked if the children of Chinese communist party officials go to expensive selective schools! That's so hypocritical - like Diane Abbott with knobs on!

[TalkinPeace2]

Dapplegrey
Read the news.
The family of the just retired leader have amassed a family fortune of $2.3 BILLION
Bo Xilai - whose wife has gone down for murdering a UK businessman - has a son who went to Harrow and Oxford
LOTS of them have their kids at school here.

Blissfully
Not sure what you mean about Jimmy Saville. He was a creep. And people in the 70's and 80's covered up for him, but he was always creepy.