Private school pupils banned from work experience in hospitals

[beelegal]

“Pupils who want to be doctors 'barred' from vital work experience at NHS hospitals - because they go to private school”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15007121/amp/doctors-work-experience-NHS-hospitals-private-school.html

This will be extended to all civil service jobs.
Bridgitte Philipson is a nasty bully. What next, private school pupils to sit on certain sections on buses? I cannot wait until the next general election, this shower need a wipeout.

@twistyizzy local Classical Associations usually do not discriminate between state/indie/grammar they are interested in the person. Do you have a local CA?

List here if it helps
https://classicalassociation.org/branches/

No but I have direct experience of helping children access these courses and I know their profiles.

I don't begrudge anyone but by appliting restrictions by school you are ruling out the kids in independent schools who are fee assistance whilst simultaneously allowing kids from wealthy state families

That's why they should do these schemes on basis of FSM/SEND etc. That would be fairer

I don’t begrudge them at all. I begrudge someone who is wealthy but sends their children state to have access. Using state/ private is divisive in society- it should be irrelevant. It is easy to target specific groups through things like FSM or school recommendations rather than a blunt instrument like school type.

I don't think FSM would be a terribly fair or broadening way of doing this as loads of ordinary working families are not on benefits/FSM.

If you have chosen the right school for your DD, she should be getting all the help she needs from within and not need to access such programmes.

Your anecdotal knowledge isn't data though unless you help all children on to all schemes.
I am in no doubt that some FSM/disadvantaged children come through on these schemes but I hazard a guess that the majority are from MC families. That's why data is important.

How can she when she's at an independent school and majority of programmes exclude her on this basis? That's not the fault of the school is it? Or within their power to change.
So she's taken the initiative herself, with no "contacts/old boys network" and secured herself a series of work experience within the Classics dept at a university. That waw through her own initiative and research once she realised she didn't fit criteria of any of the summer school programmes. We can't afford JACT etc.

So we don't have figures for FSM.. However, the reality is that if a child is from a middle class background with a lot of social capital, the programme really won't help them that much. The main purpose of them is to demystify and if the programmes can do that for a number of poor DC, then they are working. I have direct experience of this having worked for a number of DC I have helped and that's enough for me. If some middle class children slip through and they don't get much advantage from it, so what.

That's effectively what has been happening throughout history. The schools I've worked at and with have not been able to get WEX placements for their most able kids, but at the same time, the aspirational employers have seemingly found it possible for the higher net worth parents' children to get experience through relatives, friends from school (both the parents' and the children's schools), alumni and frankly, mates at the golf club/cycling club/colleagues.

Well yes because it's connections that matter, not the type of school. And as I've said before, you can't seriously tell me that the 1 million parents of independent school children have all got better connections than the 18 million parents of state school children? Because that would be ridiculous.

So @beelegal are you going to come back and apologise For your goady and highly Inaccurate op and title?

If this isn’t the Daily Mail at it’s absolute mendacious worst I don’t know what is

Coming from another country, I’m still perplexed as to why people in the UK are so emotional about private schools, with a good amount of people expressing a clear dislike of privately educated children.
In other countries, it is just a choice each family makes for their DC, nobody would judge either way.

The other thing I don’t get is how on all threads about state schools everybody agrees that teachers are on their knees, no time to help students who need to be stretched (or even just the average quiet students), etc etc. But then people are mad at parents for sending their kids to private. Basically, if our DC have a sub-par education then so should yours.
Seems a bit odd - do something about it if you are unhappy, don’t just blame people who managed to find another option.

I’ve honestly never understood it either. People should be fighting the government to increase funding for each school child to £20k per year to match private schooling, rather than arguing that private schools should be abolished and every child should be subject to the lower level of funding. It makes no sense whatsoever. Without private schools, state schools will only get worse as there will be nothing for schools to aspire to and the tutoring industry will just grow crazy thus massively widening the divide.

Because Labour are stoking class warfare from 1970s. Seemingly all the ills in society are the fault of independent schools. They won't fund state sector properly so instead stir hatred and prejudice to pull down independent schools and the children who attend them.

I don't think there is widespread hatred of DC in private schools at all. Most people really don't care that much and believe that people can spend their money how they like. Maybe on here there are some against but I don't believe for a minute that MN is a microcosm of the real world. Maybe politicians and the media try to stir up divides but I would hope that most are free thinking enough not to fall for it.

I think a lot of people do dislike private schools.

I have had to distance myself from friends who were gleeful over the 20% being added to fees.

There is a lot of jealousy and bitterness.

The definition of SEN, as set out in law, isn’t a diagnosed medical condition. CYP don’t require a diagnosis in order to be coded as having SEN or for an EHCP.

While any CYP can have SEN, DC with SEN are more likely to be eligible for FSM. You can see that via the national statistics. In January 2025, the most recent statistics, 43.8% of pupils with an EHCP and 39.3% of pupils with school level SEN support were eligible for FSM. Compared to 22.2% of all pupils in schools without SEN.

Well considering my child was called a cunt and i was called a tat on here just because of the type of school I sens her to......then I beg to differ. If you aren't on the receiving end of such hate then I appreciate you don't see it, but trust me it exists and Labour have magnified and stirred it up through the divisive language they use.

Have you experienced it in real life?

Yes in terms of losing friends over it. Admittedly they were "mum friends" rather than proper friends. Oh and now being practically estranged from mu highly privileged champagne socialist parents.

Does hate only matter if it's in person?

Look at the first comment on this thread. Then imagine if the same was said about people with other advantages: we need more plain doctors and less beautiful ones / we need more doctors with divorced parents / we need more doctors who don’t go on fancy holidays. Obviously these don’t make sense, but then IMO saying we need less state educated doctors doesn’t make sense either: I want qualified doctors, I don’t care where they went to school!

Basically, if our DC have a sub-par education then so should yours.

Yes this, 💯. Says a lot about a lot of people.

And as mentioned above in the chat more than once, private school parents are starting to pull up the drawbridge. And it’s because of labours’ disastrous / unsuccessful social engineering.

Work experience in areas relating to medicine are usually available in care homes, pharmacies and similar. Possibly GP practices. Interviewers are often happy with any combination.