Yes I was surprised my sons had Edinburgh offers (and one has picked Edinburgh for his back up place for this September if he does not get first choice). We live in England.
I remember that Gov initiative to try to help in particular 100,000 core problem families who have a massive range of difficulties. I don't think it worked too well. I was not just help in school. It was supposed to help them at home and with drug issues and other things. It was well meaning however.
My parents were lifted out of poverty by university education (or in my mother's case teacher training college which for her was two years living in so not too different from university although led to a Cert. Ed). My father almost could not do medicine at univeristy - he did a physics degree first as his father had had to wait until he was 49 to have my father (no money) so was too old to pay for a longer degree. Then grants came out after WWII and secondly my mother's wages could help support him. My parents put off children for ten years and bought a house before having babies and it took that long to be able to have us and get qualified and save and earn. Education was the key to that. My mother's grandfather mined coal.