Rich kids in a poor school

Very interesting research reported by the BBC on why some middle class parents actively choose to send their kids to an average or below average school. It is normal and expected for a middle class parent to do everything and anything to get wee Tarquin into the best performing local state school-  eg. buy or rent a house in the catchment area, play the admission system or even rediscover God or gods depending the religious criteria of the school.

The reported study looked at 124 kids from middle class backgrounds and was based on 248 in-depth interviews with those parents and children.

In summary, it found that -

(a) the middle class kids in these poorly performing schools still did very well and indeed 15% of them went onto Oxbridge,
(b) there was little social mixing going on- i.e. the rich kids all hung out together,
(c) the parents were more likely to be governors and involved in the running of the school and,
(d) the middle class kids often got special attention from the teachers because these kids were more likely to do well and improve the school’s results.

So for the other poor children, having a bunch of out of place middle class kids in their school meant-

(1) Their school went up the league tables but it was only the rich kids who were getting the good grades,
(2) They could hear about Tarquin’s skiing holiday but not get to see the pictures,
(3) Their own parents were less likely to have influence with the running of the school and,
(4) The teacher were spending all their time with the rich kids to the detriment of the poor kids’ education.