Working class? Don't think that Oxbridge is for you.

paddyann54

Grandma70's " we cant claim to be working class"
So you or your family never got paid and depended on wages to live ?
Regardless of what your jobs were IF you worked for pay and to pay your bills..your working class!
Honestly the snobbery of the class system is ridiculous .

It was the term used in the quotation and the title of this thread. I imagine you know approximately what it indicates.

Oops phone came up with Newham, meant Newnham!!

DD went to Royal Holloway which always has some very posh students
He he, me too, and most of the girls on my course came from Cheltenham Ladies' College or the French Lycée. I was from an inner London comprehensive, cockney accent, brought up by a single parent. I hated every minute, not the other students, but the stuffiness and snobbery of it all. My schoolfriend at Newham Cambridge had a far more down to earth experience.

Germanshepherdsmum

I agree NittWitt. Her message is about so much more than disadvantaged kids going to Oxbridge. Whatever is right for a particular pupil to progress beyond their disadvantaged background is surely what should be aimed for. Maybe it's training to become a hairdresser or a plumber. Maybe it's going to university. Are Oxford and Cambridge the only good universities to aim for? No.

Oxford and Cambridge aren’t the only good universities to aim for, but they are the most prestigious from a career perspective. Academic capability is what should determine which universities are best for which young people, and all young people who are capable enough academically should be encouraged to try for Oxbridge - background should be irrelevant.

What is "Working Class"?

Exactly, GG

DD went to Royal Holloway which always has some very posh students because it's in Surrey darling and it's so easy to pop up to London for the weekend! I won't say she had a disadvantaged background but by national standards we were pretty hard up and by the time she went to university we had lost our house and been rehoused by the council. Nearly 30 years later she is still there, leading a research team and being a constant thorn in the side of the university admin

I think it’s time to realise that all jobs are worthwhile, whether it’s a degree needed, apprenticeship, or in job training .

Snobbery regarding degrees from Oxbridge seem to be reaching fever pitch.

Germany has a very good system of vocational training which the UK would do well to look at, in my view.

Grandma70's " we cant claim to be working class"
So you or your family never got paid and depended on wages to live ?
Regardless of what your jobs were IF you worked for pay and to pay your bills..your working class!
Honestly the snobbery of the class system is ridiculous .

I agree NittWitt. Her message is about so much more than disadvantaged kids going to Oxbridge. Whatever is right for a particular pupil to progress beyond their disadvantaged background is surely what should be aimed for. Maybe it's training to become a hairdresser or a plumber. Maybe it's going to university. Are Oxford and Cambridge the only good universities to aim for? No.

Giving out the message that Oxbridge isn't the right place for poorer children is just so wrong.

The message sounds to me to be that there is too much concentration on statistics of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds getting into university and there should be more focus on education and training that helps pupils towards good careers that may not require university.

Perhaps, but I don't think any of us are meant to be the social mobility tsar, advise the government and have a seat in the HoL in our sights.

Ms Birbalsingh must be on GN, sounds a familiar modus operandi

Baggs

Could you support that with some evidence, please, V?

Which bit? The bit about Birbalsingh not knowing what she's talking about?

Well, there's this.

www.iop.org/about/news/work-together-to-encourage-girls-to-study-physics#gref

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-10845937/Britains-strictest-headmistress-slammed-online-critics-suggest-pupils-need-therapy.html (Daily Mail!!)

www.newstatesman.com/culture/2022/05/is-britains-strictest-headmistress-a-visionary-or-a-tyrant

The New Stateman one is mainly about how she approaches people who criticise her and her methods. TL:DR; she belittles them and plays the victim.

Meanwhile, I was making cauliflower cheese just now and recalled something I read this morning about political discussions (others too but that was what the writer was talking about mainly). He said he thinks we "have lost the ability to argue in a spirit of charity."

I'm making a renewed resolution to try and do that.

Could you support that with some evidence, please, V?

Oh? And some people think its plain that Birbalsingh knows what she's talking about.

They're wrong too.

No, just chose to misinterpret it, I think
It seemed plain enough.

No, just chose to misinterpret it, I think.

I'd mention a good broad based Scottish education, but the thread might explode.

Isn't her school in a deprived area?
I thought she encouraged her pupils to achieve the best they possibly can?
Or have I got that wrong?

Not that I agree with her methods, particularly.

Not so much WPIS, more having had a proper education unlike anything that MissSnuffy can imagine, as a result of which it became possible to identify BS when I see it.
I don't think I misread that

You can bet your life she'll be reported telling us that's not what she said or meant, and all the big bad lefties are getting at her and she will not be cowed.

She is so transparent.

Yes.

Giving out the message that Oxbridge isn't the right place for poorer children is just so wrong.
But is she?