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Original poster

looking down on state school kids......

73 replies

brimfull · 09/05/2007 19:56

dd who is 15 attended a conference in Paris this past weekend.It explains it \link{http://www.roundsquare.org/here}.Theirs was the only state school in attendance.
Despite having a wonderful time and meeting loads of new friends from all over the place she was quite shocked at the way some of the kids looked down on them because they were from state schools.
She was also extremely shocked with the way the girls from girls only schools were throwing themselves at the boys.

I have been reassuring her that it was the lack of maturity in the particular students and the petty name calling would more than likely be towards the privately educated if the tables were turned.They were the odd ones out ,so ripe for the picking so to speak.

No advice wanted ,just a bit sad that she's come away feeling like they are better than her for some reason.

OP posts:
Original poster
brimfull · 09/05/2007 19:57

here

OP posts:
Hulababy · 09/05/2007 20:03

How sad for your DD.

I agree with you that had the private ed children been in the minority it would have been them getting the flack. Sadly it is just what some teenagers do.

pointydog · 09/05/2007 20:05

Just as many state kids will see private school pupils as posh snobs, so many private kids will see state school pupils as scuzzy Kevins and Sharons (or today's equivalent).

It's as well your dd becomes aware of that, can consider it, and decide on her own opinions in a more mature way. Might set her up well for uni if she's planning on going.

DominiConnor · 09/05/2007 20:10

Kids are very clannish, if there wasn't a "class" divide they probably would have picked on the school with the most accent, or the colour of their uniform.
The thing about girls schools has been well known to blokes for decades, and is a good argument for mixed schools, if not a complete one.

Original poster
brimfull · 09/05/2007 20:10

yes agree it has been a good life lesson for her.She has a few friends who attend boarding school but has obviously never encountered the piss taking .

OP posts:
beckybrastraps · 09/05/2007 20:16

Agree with the clannish thing. Sadly.

I went to a Catholic comprehensive in a town with 4 single sex grammar schools. I did a languages programme, and was the only pupil there who was not from one of the grammars. I was amazed at how dismissive many of them were (about the Catholic thing and the comprehensive thing), considering we had all had to reach the same standard to get on the course.

It influenced my political views for quite some time...

Judy1234 · 09/05/2007 20:37

Teenagers can be a bit like that though in any school just one group of girls against another group in all schools.

What made her think they looked down on the state school pupils?

The Round Square which contains my old school is made up of schools where the pupils are fairly thick and tend not to get very good A level results particularly in the UK. They are certainly not in any sense the cream of English schools. So she can comfort herself with that.

frogs · 10/05/2007 15:44

Dd1 gets this from her privately-educated cousins and distant relatives' and friends' children.

It usually goes something like: "Ohmigod, you go to a state school?! But don't they all smoke and take drugs??"

Dd1 has learnt to just roll her eyes and is biding her time till GCSE and A-level.

Greensleeves · 10/05/2007 15:46

LOL, I went to a Round Square School

KathyMCMLXXII · 10/05/2007 16:01

Anyone else been watching that school exchange programme on Channel 5 between Wells Cathedral School and an (outstanding-rated) Wembley comp?

Happily the kids all seem to be coming to the conclusion that actually despite the disparity in backgrounds they are all the same underneath.... but they started off with the most outrageous assumptions, particularly the boarding school ones - eg that the state school kids would not be bright enough to manage their lessons - and they still persist in referring to them as 'chavs'

MaloryTowers · 10/05/2007 16:03

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

geekgrrl · 10/05/2007 16:08

I have the same experience as Malory

I went to mixed boarding school and the girls from all-girls schools we came across were like bitches on heat

MaloryTowers · 10/05/2007 16:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Twiglett · 10/05/2007 16:13

it comes from the parents as well as the schools IMHO .. you only need to see some of the private school threads on here .. 'you're all jealous because your children go to state schools' .. pathetic snobbery, perpetuating through the generations

wish people would think

Twiglett · 10/05/2007 16:13

I went to a co-ed school we were slappers there too .. but less pent up

nogoes · 10/05/2007 16:16

I overheard a conversation between two public school boys in costa the other day.

Boy 1 - "I feel really sorry for my cousin because he failed his 11+ and my uncle can't afford to send him to a private school so he will be going to a comprehensive".

Boy 2 - "Oh no, poor thing will he have to mix with the chav's and everything"?

Boy 1 - "Yes, can you imagine and he will find it too easy because Chav's are all really thick. I have got to spend more time with him at weekends because my aunt doesn't want him to get chavvy because he will end up unemployed or working in a shop or something".

I very nearly poured my latte all over his poncey empty little head.

Twiglett · 10/05/2007 16:20

quote of the week "I very nearly poured my latte all over his poncey empty little head."

expatinscotland · 10/05/2007 16:22

Rise above, ggirl's daughter, rise above!

Take the words of Coco Chanel to heart:
'There are people with money and there are people who are rich.'

GameGirly · 10/05/2007 16:26

Er, excusez-moi, but I went to an all-girls private boarding school, and I ain't no mingin' slapper, bruv. In fact, I met my first boyfriend at 18 and married him! (I confess some of my contemporaries were a little, errr, free with their favours, though!).

BibiThree · 10/05/2007 16:28

I went to Oxford Uni's open day and got asked by another potential student who was in my group being shown around,

"WHAT is a comprehensive school?"

Judy1234 · 10/05/2007 16:54

boy 1 is in a sense right though isn't he - a child from a comp with a bad accent is more likely to end up with a worse job than a boy with a better accent and who went to a private school.

Greensleeves · 10/05/2007 16:56

Yes, but you can change your accent/job prospects/social position through hard work and self-belief.

Being a jumped-up selfish spoiled snotty bigoted sheltered little twillop - that's much harder to shift IME

Blandmum · 10/05/2007 16:59

Bibithree, that would be student would meet quite a few people from comps at Oxford. I went to a comp and I went to Oxford. Dh was the child of a single mother, he went to a comp. We met at Oxford.

It isn't all Brideshead

NKF · 10/05/2007 17:00

Boy 1 is a twerp, Xenia.

twinsetandpearls · 10/05/2007 17:02

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