Education superclass?

[Amber2]

blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/iainmartin1/100245274/it-is-much-worse-than-sir-john-major-says-a-new-superclass-is-being-created-in-london/

This is interesting coming from John Major ...sounds like more lobbying along the lines of the Sutton Trust but do people really think it's much worse than it ever has been..? and this is do with with the inexorable rise of London...and the global money flowing in there...and so to creating an elite superclass of private schools also ...not just any old private school but a small handful of elite ones, applications to which have reached record numbers, presumably more and more from London and from overseas with over inflation rises in fees pricing out the traditional middle classes that used to be able to afford these schools.

Downing College Cambridge actually runs an outreach programme specific to the South West (England, not London!!) because they have so few successful applicants from SW schools. Children here are not more stupid than any other children, the schools aren't inherently more shit, they simply don't have the same access to experiences that children in the SE have. Many people here live in very restricted circumstances on low incomes but in houses that have been made very expensive by people from the SE buying them as second homes. Many people live in fuel poverty as a result of living in a rural area in difficult to heat houses. A lot more money per capita is spent on the arts in London than anywhere else in the country. If a family from the SW wants to go to the (free) museums in London after travel and accommodation they won't have much change from £1000. It's prohibitive for most here.

If that's not a negative effect of London on the "ghastly provinces" I don't know what is. And your only solution is for everyone to move to London- really?? Do we really want 64 million people living in London? Don't be ridiculous! as my grandmother used to say.

I understand that schooling is little better for poor children from the SE, or even middle class ones now. My FIL born in 1926 was an internationally respected research scientist and academic, the child of internationally respected scientists, the grandchild of an academic. His children went to private schools, my Dh is an internationally respected scientist. Our children went to private schools here in the SW. But on the salaries of those professions now, none of these people would be able to attend the schools that allowed them to reach their full academic potential. My FIL was taking equivalent of A levels at 14 and working at degree level maths by age 15. Nowadays on his parents' salaries he would never be able to attend the school that made that possible (Tonbridge).

Yup, slipshodsybil - the sort of rural idyll propped up by urban monies so that there isn't any nastiness.

duchesse - they don't want 64 million people living in London. They want to drain the provinces of those most likely to improve the fortunes of the provinces.

:www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/facts_and_figures/undergraduate_admissions_statistics/uk_new_section.html

Here are the specific regional differences for Oxford.

I can see the 'blue remembered hills' from my bedroom window.
and

But eli it is a very temporary insanity that affects some parents for a few months, and you can inoculate yourself against it with a touch of reason (and Valium in the water wouldn't go amiss ). I promise you that once the other side you wonder what it was all about since there really are enough places to go around in the private sector, if not in the state sector though all looking good on the reinvigoration of your local . The mix you get, even you know where, reassures you that it really is a process that recognises national talent (if not would be playboy bunnies )

I hear similar stories from all places with selective schools, not just Kent and Berkshire but even, actually especially, the blue hills I yearn for oop north where there are no decent private options. My relatives are thankfully cool about it but it is something that has crept in over ten years since they moved away from teacher assessment to the dreaded rubbish VR/NVR tests, and the equally dreaded tutors have spotted their chance. The end result has been a complete shift in the social mix in the grammar school

And there really is no chance of returning to my blue remembered smoky chimneys because even my alma mater, along with most employers, has shut it's doors.

It's a bit like a multinational corporation growing too big for its own or anyone else's good and attempting to swallow up its competitors.

Slopsod I don't actually agree with much of the ridiculously over romantic view of rural idyl portrayed in so many poems and paintings over the centuries. I've worked on farms much of my life mainly small family farms it's far from a romantic life it bloody tough. Gainsborough et al has a lot to answer for. The reality is that many rural dwellers here are poor, jobs are hard to find outside of the established professions, and transport is non existent and in particular a big problem for older teenagers desperate for work but unable to afford to run a car.
But it's beautiful even today in the grey and the rain, the trees yesterday were breath taking in the sun, we live in and are surrounded by listed buildings, built in the characteristic local stone, an amazing 86% of our land is still farmed and it is the 2nd largest protected landscape in England. We've a very low crime rate, our local state schools are nearly all rated "ofstead outstanding" and most importantly for me is the peace you can find here.
Yes I like going into London but most of all I love leaving at the end of the day.
Shockingly the train fare for a trip to London the other day nearly £130 it is worth I suppose; just.

Natural talent (bloody ipad has a mind of its own )

Shooting weren't the blue remembered hills Shropshire? I accept it's north of Hampstead but I'm not sure even I would call that "oop north".

Do you what's nice about this thread? So little unpleasantness, even when we don't agree it's not being turned into an aggressive slanging match. I can't decide whether it's because that some of the main protagonists are not here which is rather surprising as the topic is controversial or of there's some other reason.

I wonder whether some Londoners actually want the country to be like China - a wealthy country largely full of poor people.

Just thought I'd up the slanging, happy.

I think Shooting's memories should be a bit more Blakean maybe, if we are going to stick to our stereotypes - dark, satanic mills perhaps?

duchesse I'd don't suppose anyone considers it an ideal state of affairs. But things are as they are. Best not peddle untruths to our young people.

Yep, my artificially rural fourth generation dairy farmer neighbours produce milk for Tesco- utterly made-up country life. All around the parish are passionate food producers. This is RuralLand all right, all adapted to Londoners visiting at weekends with their boots full of the M&S shopping they took pains to bring with them.

Now I know you don't want to live in China, Rabbit but give it ten years while it converts its coal stations into gas and you might be pouring over your Mandarin primer after all.

Yes hg the Shropshire hills. Housman, who lived in the neighbouring county, had his imagination fired by the distant view of them.

But duchesse what is to be done about this? The reality is that the economic sucking up of capital and big cities from rural areas is a global economic phenomenon. Perhaps we should be grateful we have a capital that is up there in the global rankings? If you feel badly done by try being one of the 100m rural migrants in China who have no rights, not to any schools, let alone good ones, or healthcare in the cities, and who leave their children with their grandparents and see them once a year if lucky. Often they are sending money home to pay for school, any sort of school, to give them chances they never had. I actually don't think you can regard it as an entirely London centric problem. Cities like Leeds, Birmingham, Manchester are also regenerating and providing opportunity and have brilliant schools.

To be honest when we returned from overseas what struck me about the UK was how entitled everyone felt and how miserable resentful and bitter it made them (especially manifested in the Daily Mail) It really isn't the way to make sure we succeed in the changing world economy. The ret of the world most definitely do not owe us a living.

Is London really sucking up public money out of all proportion to the money it generates for the economy, including, yes in the financial sector. Genuine question? I haven't seen any evidence to that effect. Initiatives like the London challenge were long overdue because inner city London schools had been allowed to sink so low in terms of funding and resources. It didn't cost a huge amount because the secrets of it's success, effective leadership and processes, sharing best practise are not expensive. Oxford and Cambridge colleges tell me they are impressed with the improvement in the way that candidates are equipped now both to get in and succeed when they arrive. And now what was learned is being rolled out to schools in the leafy provinces where you are right poor pupils are not now achieving the same outcomes as those in London. Good.

Indeed. I sadly see too many parents who refuse to engage with the realities their DC will encounter because they find them unpalatable. Maybe middle-aged people are in a position to retreat from the world and live a quiet life but very few of their DC will be able to avoid competition for jobs and houses. And even partners.

Duchesse, dairy farmers are going out of business at an alarming rate. I don't know what they are paid per litre just now but often it is below the cost of production. Diversification is encouraged but it takes money, appetite for risk, energy and vision.

Don't take it for granted and don't assume it will remain a similar lifestyle for the next generation.

Come now rabbit don't spoil it!
We could become like China or maybe we already are with so much wealth concentrated into one small area. The French attempted in the 80's and 90's to move the wealth away from Paris as it was considered to be draining the rest of the country of everything from employment to culture and employment to decentralise. They created metropoles e.g. Bordeaux Marseille Lille and poured money into them, improved infra structure especially fast trains to attract industry and further investment big companies were encouraged to relocate and there was some degree of success but I understand they are now trying to reverse this and centralise everything back into Paris because this is what is happening in other major countries around the world.

Slip, I know- most of the dairy farmers around here are keeping a family on £15,000 a year. They are producing a high quality product with proven provenance for pin money simply because they are born to it. I'd be amazed if any of their children stayed in it. Soon all milk will be coming from Eastern Europe where quality is harder to ensure. I think I'll stick to getting mine directly from our other (organic) dairy farmer neighbours thank you very much.

hg Shropshire? Nope. Blake is right. I am actually, with absolutely no word of a lie, a mill owners daughter. The genuine article I had it tough........

X post there.