I've just been to visit friends south of the Humber.
Wandering around the small market town near their house DH, DD, DS and I were watching the scooter kids.
So i looked up the secondary school and surprise, surprise its not great on getting kids to Russell Group Universities.
Why?
Because there is NOBODY round there to give them a role model to do so.
The rich people are hereditary farmers, hereditary fishing captains, hereditary owners of amusement parks and a few incoming executives in the energy industry.
Nothing that the child of a shop worker or farm labourerer or fishing crew can even relate to.
I cannot think of how to see if those kids actually have the academic potential to escape their circumstances without moving to the South East and adding to the brain drain.
But hopefully somebody on here will be more optimistic for the area than I?