Help me understand Brighton College

[4U2]

Please help me understand Brighton College, as it continues to remain an enigma in our books. Its ethos tends to be similar to that of Wellington, with a strong PR push and very good GCSE and A-levels and Oxbridge rates.

Normally there is a good correlation between a given school's performance at inter-school competitions and Oxbridge/Ivy/medical school acceptance rates, as one would expect that these universities would look beyond grades only. E.g. Winchester gathers around two dozen medals at science olympiads, and medics are around 9% of leavers, Merchant Taylors and Sevenoaks around a dozen medals in science olympiads, and medics are around 6-7% of leavers. A similar pattern holds in Model UN results, which tends to translate well into Oxbridge/Ivy acceptance rates in humanities.

I am not aware of BC getting any special recognition at these large inter-school competitions like Model UN and math or science olympiads, or at least they don't seem to advertise it (and I am sure that if they had they would🙂). The pupils we have seen at BC don't seem to come across any better than those at other the top schools, and seem to be more in league with Wellington than Eton. How it is possible then for BC to beat most of the top schools in terms of Oxbridge and medical school acceptance rates is a mystery to me.

It makes sense that if a school focuses strictly on the curriculum, then there will be stellar results in the GCSE and A-levels league tables. But surely Oxbridge/Ivy and medical schools will be looking for more in a candidate than just top A-levels?

OP is going to be so, so upset if she makes these “sacrifices” to buy her a place in Oxford and her child ends up deciding to study fashion at Bournemouth.

😂 Well, you make your bets in life and then you live with them

BC’s head has some ideas on how to develop widening participation at Oxbridge to change the “state v independent” narrative to “disadvantaged v advantaged”.

Interesting coming from someone who deals with the most privileged in the UK education system.

He is absolutely spot on. Around a third of the kids at super-selective independents are on bursaries. Mostly pupils whose parents were priced out of the catchment areas of a selective state grammar. And children of returning diplomats.

Yeah … I think it’s unlikely that those are the 15% of kids he is thinking about.

”kids at super-selective independents that are priced out of catchment areas” ≠ deprived.

What I meant is that his main message of changing the narrative from “state v independent” to “disadvantaged v advantaged” is spot on. Even if he has a different take on the details.

He recognises that attending an independent school bestows vast levels of advantage to the kids attending them. That’s a large part of what you pay for - £250k per child of after tax money in many cases. It’s still just another way of saying that independent schools provide advantages that state schools do not, and kids in deprived areas get a raw deal.

Personally I am not so sure. A good state school will give you similar opportunities for academic progress. Whether the class size is 22 or 28 is not a massive difference. What makes a huge difference is whether that school is academically selective or not. Whether it is a selective grammar or super-selective independent makes very little difference in terms of opportunities when it comes to academics only.

But the point is that kids in areas of deprivation may well not have selective schools as an option (grammar schools only cover limited parts of the country - and don’t exist in Scotland) and independent schools without a full bursary are out of reach.

A “good state school” is often not available either. Take Middlesbrough, for example, one of the most deprived areas in England - and not a grammar area. Ofsted data shows that many of its secondary schools are well below average in terms of performance.

I really don’t think you have a clue.

Yes, I do. We live in a similar area, thereby independent route and bursary candidate, so thank you but no I don't need a lecture from you.

And as a result of living in a massively deprived area you’re just looking at schools where annual boarding fees are more than the median UK income?

Riiiiiight.

Not a selective school in sight around here. Like the vast majority of the country.

Actually, shouldn't the real question be what will packing your child off to boarding school do to your family relationships & your son's mental health. Far more pertinent than a place at Model UN.

Oh, I can think of plenty of deprived areas that have selective schools. I’ll list them here:

🤦‍♀️

Not forgetting the Olympiads.

Hmm. The majority of bursaries are for a reduction in fees, not a free or even affordable place for the vast majority of people. A 60% reduction in Eton’s annual fee still makes you comparatively extremely wealthy if you can rustle up the remaining 40% every year. What proportion of children on bursaries are actually there on free places?

Following with interest and shamelessly place-marking.

I think he is absolutely right to talk about advantaged and disadvantaged children but I doubt he shares my definitions of those terms.

Top Universities are full of students from homes where the parents are stable, value education, read books and sit down to family meals together. Many of the mothers are on mumsnet threads about private education. Not all of these families are rich financially - but to my mind these are “advantaged” children.

Some of those students are from new immigrant families where mum and dad skrimped and saved to get their kids into nearby grammars (think non English speaking taxi drivers from Keighley tutoring kids to get into the Skipton and Halifax grammars, or parents in London whose kids go to Tiffin or the Kent grammars). Some are from canny middle class families whose kids go to high performing religious ethos schools or comps in wealthy areas - and increasingly many come from the huge, highly selective state sixth form colleges. All of those children are advantaged.

There are few if any students from the increasing number of second/third generation struggling families with parent (usually single mother) and other family members struggling with unemployment/zero hours contract low paid jobs, mental health problems etc. If we are serious about diversity these are the kids we need to be targetting. None of these children are in contention for scholarships and bursaries at private schools because their parents have never heard of these schools, and would in any case feel completely out of place there. And if truth be told these are not the families these schools want. If they are offering a free place they want a very clever child from a supportive family who will get a string of top grades the school can boast about.

If we are serious about diversity and improving educational opportunity for the disadvantaged we need to be focussing on improving the local pre school and primary school offer in the areas where these children live. We then need to focus on the local state school secondary provision. Places at private schools are an irrelevance.

Following the BC head's announcement (with a few months delay:) I was curious whether perhaps BC's competitive advantage is in the thesis that they are a true charity not just in words but also in deeds and that they must have an outstanding support system in place for disadvantaged pupils of the BC head is so confident about changing the narrative. My first thought was that this might help to explain why they are a new Oxbridge favourite.

Here is a breakdown of pupils on partial or full bursaries (mostly) pre-Covid based on the annual accounts available via https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk. The brackets after the school's name indicate number of pupils receiving substantial support amounting to at least 2/3 of school fees or more.

*Eton (107/1300 full boarding = 8.2%): total 181 pupils worth £6.9m or £5308pp
*WinColl (81 out of 690 full boarding = 11.7%) total 176 pupils worth £3.3m or £4728pp
*SPS (103/1444 day = 7.1%) total 129p in receipt worth £1.0m or £1084pp
*Sevenoaks (48/1064 day = 4.5%): total 48 pupils worth £1.2mio or £1128pp
*Wellington (23/1034 day = 2,2%): total 352 pupils worth £2.3m or £2224pp
Brighton C (N/A day = eee): total 684p worth £1.38m or £854pp
*substantial remissions have been negligible, and offered only to locals and refugees

So you are most likely to find disadvantaged children at Eton and even more likely at WinColl, while you are the least likely to find disadvantaged children at Brighton College and Wellington. So I think it is fairly safe to conclude that BC's success is definitely NOT down to its preference for disadvantaged pupils.

I'd hardly call them disadvantaged OP! 🤣
Do you live in a bubble?

Some (not all) of the students on full bursaries will be very low income, free school meal eligibe, in care, refugees etc. Obviously they are then getting the advantage of a private school education, but that doesn't stop them being disadvantaged families.

Exactly, the published cutoffs vary between schools (some publish 66%+, 75%+ 90%+ or 100%+) but this is substantial support, bringing the schools within reach for hard-working (lower) middle-class families.

Most of the bursaries at Eton and WinColl, and to some extent also at SPS and Sevenoaks, are offered to families on a lower income. Wellington and Brighton College seems to offer a lot of small bursaries "for the show" which are unlikely to bring down the barriers for hard working families let alone disadvantaged pupils.

The point is that this certainly doesn't explain Oxbridge's recent obsession with Brighton College. It is clear that BC has hired a lot of teachers from Oxbridge recently, and that they tend to focus on bringing up the rear (=exam factory) but I wouldn't think that box-ticking topped by nepotism would really go that far.

The WinCol figure cited above was actually 50%+ (which I don't think is reasonable for a hard-working middle class family) and the next step above was 80%, so this is a better proxy:

*Eton (107/1300 full boarding = 8.2%): total 181 pupils worth £6.9m or £5308pp
*WinColl (61 out of 690 full boarding = 9.0%) total 176 pupils worth £3.3m or £4728pp
*SPS (103/1444 day = 7.1%) total 129p in receipt worth £1.0m or £1084pp
*Sevenoaks (48/1064 day = 4.5%): total 48 pupils worth £1.2mio or £1128pp
*Wellington (23/1034 day = 2,2%): total 352 pupils worth £2.3m or £2224pp
*Brighton Coll (N/A day = eee): total 684p worth £1.38m or £854pp.

In case of Brighton College, substantial remissions have been negligible, and even those few were only offered to locals/refugees.

only offered to locals and refugees.