Lichfield Cathedral School (private schools) accents?

[Foresthealing]

Do private schools in Staffordshire tech Received Pronunciation ?

I don’t want our child to have a “street” style accent which is what most kids tend to do in London now and moving to Staffordshire I’m hoping they teach RP to keep it more neutral. Later on in life accents can sometimes matter or at least having a good vocabulary.

any experiences?

Thanks all

Thank you all for your comments. All completely valid!

I do apologise if I offended anyone that wasn’t my intention. I didn’t have the best education myself, so I apologise for any grammar errors or sounding probably a bit off.

My partner is extremely educated and we want the best for our children. His school life, education etc was vastly better than mine so that’s why we are looking at private. (I grew up in the midlands)

It does start from home and whilst my accent and education wasn’t and isn’t the strongest. I am doing my best and I just want the best for them. I did RP at uni and it helped me personally as I had an extremely strong midlands accent but that wasn’t the issue my pronunciation was!

I’ve been in London 20 years now and moving back to the midlands for a better life is our goal and better schooling.

You all gave me plenty of good feedback and I appreciate that 🩷

I live near A Well Known Boys Private School in London. The kids use street slang on the bus to each other, proper London urban patois, then when they need to allow an adult to pass to sit down or get off, they revert to a posher tone! 🤣 There’s nothing wrong with having a local accent, and I think Staffs has a nice one.

Reminds me of that YouTube video that was doing the rounds a while ago with the dog with the sarcastic woof!

Do you really mean RP? Because practically nobody speaks RP any more. Or do you mean Srandard Southern English?

Basically, I had a pretty crappy education and I was bought up in the midlands with TERRIBLE pronunciation and I did RP at uni (be it a 100 years ago) it helped my pronunciation and vocabulary a lot and I wondered if this was taught in private school. It’s less about the accent for me and more about pronunciation and kids pick things up at schools so I’m wondering if it’s something that is taught though I understand it’s probably very old-fashioned way of thinking now

If you are well spoken at home and send them to a school where a good proportion are also well spoken (in whatever accent) that should be sufficient. My DC were born and raised in London and went to a normal London state school. There was a huge range of accents, and sure, they can do a "street " one but they have their well spoken one as their default. As a PP said, they understand context.

The son of the poshest, whitest family I know speaks like a Jamaican road man so really there’s not much you can do.

I bet he doesn't when he goes for a university or job interview though.

Exactly. People codeswitch. It’s normal.

Ooh, choices, choices OP. Is it worse to have kids who sound like Stormzy or Ozzy Osbourne? 🤣

Kids do this at school to fit in. My 8 year old is all “brah! Dat ting is sick!” with his mates (all of whom are very middle class too 🤣).

I have to pull him up on his “th” sounds, partly because he has no front teeth at the moment, but he otherwise has a very neutral southern English accent.

Amusingly I am northern and he code-switches with me and DH - “bath” and “path” with me, “barf” and “parf” with DH. “Castle” with me, “carsul” with DH.

My DC grew up in London and don't have accents like that. They did go to independent schools but the dc there who were fair posh got ribbed. It comes from home as well. My DC gauge their audiences. DS likes to think of himself as cool, his peers in an early job, to his disgusting, labelled him as "posh boy". DD is pretty mainstream but again when teaching in a rough, mainstream school was occasionally called out "ere, Miss, you's posh innit".

I think we all vary a bit. I tone it down but am inherently quite RP. I get posher if I have ea few drinks or if I am very cross.

DH is northern but you'd hardly know day to day but if he's had one too many or is very tired he reverts into Yorkshire.

Middle of the road works. Schools don't ime teach it, it's picked up from peers.

This made me laugh so much because it is so true 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I’d go with either over George Osborne.

very witty 🤣 👏🏻

I live in Lichfield and I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone with a RP accent ! More likely to be Walsall !! 😂

Every person on the planet has an accent.

Assuming that yours is neutral or absent completely is egocentric and something I find only among Americans or Southern English people.

I have family whose children have been through this school and I have consequently got to know many of their friends and their families. They pretty much all have Brummie accents, with a few sounding slightly posher, but still noticeably Brummie. In my experience, and this will make me sound like a raving snob, there’s a lot of new money in the school. Quite a few business owners who’ve done well.

Look at Abbotsholme, Denstone feeder schools if you want something more traditional

Not sure about RP - but as a parent of a child at a very good midlands grammar type school I am amazed at how well spoken the kids are so they must do something!

I live near private schools in Ldn and the pupils go through a mockney then a drill accent
They code switch from NW3 To Wagwan and glottal stop. Then in 6th form the accentless accent returns

YES I’m in NW3 and all the kids go through the wagwan phase or the Stormzy accent. It’s a ghetto up here they have it tough I mean sometimes the shop runs out of aged balsamic. causing the kids to seek their mandem.

I second Denstone in the Staffordshire Moorlands. You're out of the Potteries sphere of influence in terms of accent, so it's very neutral and the intake is very well to do.

I didnt go there sadly but have met plenty who did and who now send their children there.

I ended up with one who can switch seamlessly from Stormzy to Marley to icily irate great grandmother via a hefty wodge of East Midlands. It's what comes of leaving the council flat for university and then staying for a career in academia.

The other one went from council flat to fitting in with the Harrovians (with a short lived Moss Side survival accent due to her father's then-girlfriend and an annual recurrence of North Norfolk from holidays with her grandmother).

It's what people do, adapt their accent for their surroundings; just like you're meant to when speaking another language.

My kids watched far too much Charlie and Lola and are beautifully spoken!

I guess, it isn’t the case I want my kids to sound “posh” but I have good diction and pronunciation
Schools don't ime teach it, it's picked up from peers.
I beg to differ from "schools don't teach it". There is an organisation called the English Speaking Board which teaches speaking and listening skills (though I'm having trouble pinning it down for detail, it may be a Junior School thing). Some schools will have good drama departments and/or debating societies.
Investigate which schools run extracurriculars like these; I'll bet that the speaking skills filter down. As said above, the children will probably adopt all sorts of lingo but, as long as they have the oral knowledge, they will be able to code-switch.