The most Socially Selective schools in England.

[smokepole]

Here is a list of the most socially selective state schools in England , total no of pupils entitled to free school meals over the last six years. Dept Of Education Characteristics

1. Cranbrook School Kent 5
2. Borlase Grammar Bucks 5
3. Bishop Words Wilts 7
4. Pate's Grammar Gloucs 8
5. Colchester Royal Essex 10
6. Caistor Grammar Lincs 10
7. King Edward Louth Lincs 10
8. Adams Grammar Shrop 11
9. Colchester High Essex 12
10. Kendrick Grammar Berks 12
11. Dr Challinor High Bucks 12

12. Alyesbury Gram Bucks 13 12. Beaconsfield High Bucks 13 12. Newport High Shrop 13 15. Stratford Gram Warks 14 15.Skinners Sch Kent 14 17.Chelmsford High Essex 15 17. Judd Sch Kent 15 17. St Olaves Kent 15 20. Alcester Gram Warks 16 21. Tonbridge Gram Kent 17 22. Kegs Chelms Essex 19 22. Lancaster Girls Lancs 19 24. Skipton High Yorks 20 24. Tunbridge W Gir Kent 20 26 Hockerill Anglo Essex 21 27. Ripon Gram Yorks 22 27. Ermysteds Yorks 22 29. Altrincham Boys Ches 23 30. St Bernards Slough Berks 24

Not all sports include all pupils.
What state schools should do is try to find sports that between them include all the pupils

No, but all sports offered should be accessible to all.

Besides the cost implications of equestrian facilities are a bit worrying on a state school budget, aren't they?

No, but all sports offered should be accessible to all.
Mens netball?

smoke If I could find the link I'd show you two school boys (not from affluent homes) from the north who some years ago trained an arab racing horse having saved up the money to purchase it by doing sore rounds and did jobs they keep it "hidden" on their fathers allotment, they did more paper rounds/odd jobs to pay for the cost of keeping it, they rode him themselves in races and went on to beat the big names including the Arabs themselves. The horse was awarded the most successful arab racehorse of the year.
Sadly plenty of horses are kept in inadequate conditions with owners who are doing it on a shoe string, but as I've said many farmers can keep horses and ponies relatively They certainly aren't paying 100-150k PA there isn't a farmer in the UK who'll channel that kind if money into a horse/pony!

'Sore rounds' sound sore.

Is it like Billy Elliot 'cept with 'orses?

"Jesus" things have changed , not so long ago it used to be a sign of "privilege" if you went to a state school that taught Latin .....

smokepole
You are being disingenuous.
A hacking pony costs a couple of thousand, lives in a shed in a paddock and goes to local shows in a shared horse box, or just goes out on common land at weekends.
There are ponies in back gardens of semis round here.
Pop up to Walmer way and see the cheap end of the pony market.

I doubt many state school have equestrian facilities they probably rent or borrow them if necessary. But it is not uncommon in the world of equestrianism for riders to train separately, often with their own methods trainers etc and just come together when in a team event because there is less requirement to work together as a team than in other sports.

A hacking pony costs a couple of thousand,

That isn't inclusive Talk

Horses of course can be expensive to purchase but many aren't in fact I can speak from personal experience I couldn't give some of mine away.
Secondly many people have horses but don't ride them much if at all (for some weird reason) and would happily let someone ride/compete on them for free, again I couldn't even pay someone to help me exercise my lot. I would have happily let a keen child ride and compete on some of mine for free.

"Panicking devotees of the magazine can nonetheless rest easy that little Rupert or Hermione are not being asked to rough it in the playgrounds of Peckham or Slough."

No more rougher than your nice and beautiful Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield or Glasgow, littleducks. And I haven’t even mentioned London, Paris or New York here!

Yes, but owning a pony and riding it in a field, allowing your mates to come over and help for a ride is much different than shelling out thousands of pounds for an elite sport.
Of course there are more children with ponies in rural areas, although as i stated above there weren't any in my ds's schools. The kids that did surprisingly enough went to private schools.

However, you could say its all relative anyway. In my ds school up here a couple were chosen to play tennis and have lessons which were offered free because the dc had good coordination, don't know how they judged them better than the others though. After the free lessons the parents couldn't afford to keep up with the lessons and the kids had to stop, it was such a shame. I often thought they'd have been better not to have done it at all.

Talkin. I went to the Farnborough Air show in July Guess what we had Marling/Stroud High Building Aeroplanes and flying in them.

That is not an opportunity open to anyone from where MoreThan lives. People talk about these opportunities on here in a very "casual" manner, unaware that any of them are unavailable to the vast majority of families or children in the U.K.

I have very little knowledge of matters equestrian but I did notice when DS moved from a state primary school to a prep school (only one mile away) that the pony-riding quota in his class shot right up.

If equestrianism was truly egalitarian, there would have to be members of the hoi polloi getting into the British Olympic team from time to time - but does that ever happen?

Unaware that not any of them are available to the vast majority of children in the Uk.

It costs more for a family of four to have season tickets for a premiership football team than it does to own livestock
www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29520299
and yet football does not get slagged off as exclusive

TBH its the skiing trips / teams that get my goat as that is a hobby that involves international travel so is even more exclusive

There are hardly any FSM pupils at dd's school. But - this is not because it is in a particularly wealthy area - it's just that most parents are employed. I get annoyed that people hold up the FSM pupil as somehow being more deserving, more worthy even than the pupil whose parents are trundling off every day to ordinary middling jobs.

Agree as well with Bonsoir - to afford to live in some of the OP's list's catchments you would have to be a seriously high earner. Viz this pile of shite that someone has actually bought in the catchment of Dr Challoner's in Amersham, Bucks:

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-30981189.html

I think you find most families don't have four season tickets to a premiership ground. The reality is most families don't even have 1 season ticket and will borrow their friends (probably paying for its use) to attend 1 or 2 games a season if lucky . When their friend/s can't make the game.

It costs more for a family of four to have season tickets for a premiership football team than it does to own livestock

What's that got to do with school sports?

No one has said that top level equestrianism is egalitarian because to compete at the top you do need considerable wealth, but I used to own a very nice pony who would have done well in school level competitions and I would have happily put a keen child on him and given free coaching. As he wasn't a potential Olympic Games horse and was primarily a companion for my competition horse he cost peanuts to keep.
Looking after ponies teaches children very useful life lessons as they require massive input and time in all weathers all the year round the time spent riding them is actually less than the time spent looking after them properly. Horses require enormous tact, and patience they are unpredictable, become ill at the drop of a hat and as any race horse trainer will tell you they are never a dead cert when it comes to competitions. They are also a great therapy, as anyone working for riding for the disabled will tell you. It's hardly surprising then that there are various organisations around the UK offering riding for very disadvantaged youngsters.
In the ideal world perhaps more disadvantaged children should have access to horses.

Smokepole

Is so correct, you can't imagine some of the disadvantaged people in the country who don't have the same opportunities as many.
We are very lucky to be able to afford the private tuition we have for dd due to the fact we are old timers and come from a time when it was easier to scrimp, save and have a mortgage, even on a low income.
If we were starting out now we wouldn't be accepted for a mortgage on our house now, how on earth is that right?

One school here offers a skiing trip it was the school ds2 attended. The same half dozen kids from each year went every year, it certainly wasn't inclusive.

I do have to say that our music service is fantastic and children unable to afford lessons, instruments and residentials are subsidised the whole lot if they are fsm. A couple of these dc every so often gain places at Chethams which offers them specialised music education on a similar footing. This is what I call inclusive.
I think it is quite rare and haven't heard of many more like this. The teachers are amazing for encouraging children and as soon as they can play anything half decent they are in a county group. There are never enough to form school orchestras and unfortunately there isn't alot of parental support here neither.

Ds1's state High School has an Equestrian Team but you do have to supply your own horse. They are very successful I believe.

Brenda

Sometimes I wave my dh off knowing he is busting a gut for the small income we have, knowing that we have to pay for everything whereas some people who don't have an earner in the family get services and facilities for free and as much in benefits as we have from an income.

Never once would I think or suggest that they are less deserving or even more deserving of the help.
I don't know what it is like to worry where my next meal is coming from, how I will feed and clothe my children, how I will afford utilities.

Of course people living in poverty are more deserving.

DS1 old state comp offered various trips to a China, South Africa etc all were well in excess of £2500. DS2 (Win Coll) has never been offered a trip costing more than £700, 1 was significantly cheaper than that, I get the impression the dons try to keep costs as low as possible.

Where I grew up it was quite common for DC to have a pony. Not all cobby types. Lots of other native breeds though. The kids came from all different back grounds. Yes some lived in rented council houses. Some in suburban semi. I'm sure they and me given the opportunity would love to have represented our School. Girls who didn't have their own pony or horse use to borrow other peoples for local shows (as I guess they would for a school team too) a lot of the ponys cost very little to buy or were loaned to them as the previous owner out grew them. Not many fields rented or shared, had facilities. We just use to make jumps out of what ever we could. I found a girl a pony to ride (she was on fsm) because I had noticed a pony sitting in a field doing nothing. We went and asked about the pony and asked if my friend could spend some time with it. The lady was very happy with that as her daughter had gone to uni and lost interest a year or so earlier. It didn't cost my friend anything but time.
So if a state school in a rural area offers an equestrian team why not?

There is another thing to understand , even if these opportunities are affordable and attainable (which I doubt very much) they would not cross the mind of parents or teachers from any socially mixed area to offer them . The reason being Equestrian teams , Aeroplane building, trips to South Africa,China E.T.C are just not on the scope of anybody outside a very small section of society ,either of affluent means or those families who have large amounts of "Cultural capital"..