Jeez, I'd have lamped them one if they did such a thing to me.Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
It does vary, my highlights of school were generally that we did nothing, there was no actually school uniform (I'd go in a shirt/hoodie/trousers/adidas classics and a nike hat), and half of the teachers could barely string together a sentence of English. Still some of the best years of my life that being said.
Test.
That's exactly what mine were at a (shit) state school.
We had to wear blazers/suits in sixth form and caps were technically uniform but only the Preps wore them.
Opportunities abound though: music, sport, travel (I went to three different countries on school trips without even trying and got watched by rugged scouts who wouldn't be seen dead at a club colts game).
There was quite a lot of sport, music and trips (and drama) at my school too. I suppose it was a grammar though. But I didn't get involved in much of it as I didn't have the middle class parents pushing me into it. And we couldn't afford the trips. I remember there being a Russian history one I really wanted to go on but the cost was something ridiclous. Are these sorts of extra-curricular activities really that uncommon at state schools/comps in England?
They were at mine. We did nothing.
My cousin goes to private school, and, since he isn't particularly intelligent, the difference seems to be the school trips (he's skiing in America at the minute) and the amount of Asians. My brother cites him as the reason he won't privately educate his own children, but it's not like the school made him a spoiled soft-lad.
I've no idea why anyone would go skiing in America. It must cost a fortune and sounds fairly shit by comparison to what is on our doorstep in the Alps. I guess if you have to ski at this time of year.
I didn't go to a private school and don't have any friends that did so I'm speaking without any real insight here... but is there much truth to the idea that people who've been to private schools struggle to integrate into 'normal' life, jobs, society etc?
Jimmy seems to be well integrated in his workplace.
I know a couple of tarts that went to private school who have a stick up their arse about having a job with the normals. Most people I met at uni were pretty sound though.
I'm a bit proud of going to a comprehensive really. That I'm doing alright without having been given a leg-up is nice. I always knew people to get chipped games and knock off DVDs from too.
Only school trip we had was a visit to Drayton Manor because it was close, beyond that it was a look around the factories that most of us were expected to end up working in.
Was a lad in my year who's old man used to make him bring in copied dvds/games to sell, Hammer.
Most people were fine in my year, I've admittedly been one of the successful ones in terms of actually having GCSE/degree and so forth. Three are currently serving 10+ year prison sentences and another lad from year got done a couple months back for a double stabbing. That being said, it means that I have no fears of walking into any pub/place/area because someone remembers me from when we were younger. Has it's perks.
Test.
There were fuck all good trips at my school but I think that's changing in state schools now. One of the run of the mill Nuneaton schools has organised a geography trip to Iceland and a skiing trip to the U.S. in the past year. We got a week in Wales and a lucky few managed to get as far as northern France.
At State School, we went to Stevenage for our Geography trip, where we weren't allowed to watch England v Argentina in 98 but were woken up by the teacher who was listening to it on the radio that we'd lost. This was the late 90s and there wasn't a TV with signal and now I could be posting this to a bunch of people hundreds of miles apart on a mobile telephone. I'm not sure what's more shocking, that or the fact that the bloke who ran the hostel we stayed at was outed by the local news as a paedophile a couple of years later.
There may be trips at state schools but there are absolute fuckloads of them at private schools and they go everywhere. I wasn't all that into trips but I went to Paris, Seville, Munich and for some reason Armentieres just in my two sixth form years. If I'd been particularly good at any sport I'd have comfortably doubled that tally.
I don't see it as relevant once you get past the age of about 21 and start fending for yourself. People won't employ you unless you're good at whatever the job is, where you went to school has no bearing. I'm lucky to have had the education I did but to see it as a 'leg up' is a massive overstatement I think. People just assume everyone in the 7% (actually 12%, little known fact) is an Etonian with a top hat and tails.
You get funny looks when you ask who your fag is but other than that it's fine.
I agree on the "it doesn't really matter where you went" statement. That's overstating things a little but if you have a brain and work hard to be good at what you do, as well as catching some breaks, you'll do just fine. I went to a council estate state school and a university with a shit reputation but I'll do better than those peers of mine who went to private school and/or Oxbridge.
You're probably right, 'leg up' isn't the best way to describe it. I meant that in private schools you're more likely to have a culture which is supportive of learning and doing well, rather than at some comps where you risk getting your head kicked in if you're too clever. You're swimming against the stream to a much greater extent if you want to get your head down and learn.
My niece is 15 and goes to the high school I went to... A very shit comprehensive. She has just brought a letter home asking her mum weather she could go to Kenya for 3 weeks for just £3,500...
My sister couldn't afford £350, let alone £3,500.
I found out after the fact that the least able mathematician I tutored at Oxford was an Etonion. I have no idea how he got in.
People get into Oxbridge via connections in the colleges, usually. I knew of someone who was quite literally thick, and yet because his (rich) father went to a certain college he magically got in too.
Public schools build character at a relatively young age, whilst private schools are filled with raging ponces who prance about playing soggy sandwich and fucking dead pigs, ergo we win.
Is this entire line of subjective experience and thinking not going completely against the real world data of who hires who from private schooling?
No bumming in state school though so swings and roundabouts.
So I'm very inclined to believe that in some cases, but it never came up when I was interviewing.
I'm not sure how it would happen, though. Nobody was breathing down our necks when we were interviewing candidates, but I suppose it could vary from discipline to discipline.
Still, private schools are better than 'faith schools'. Was once suspended for taking a piss on a jumper from our nearest rivals, which preached this shit. Was forced to go there and apologise - nearly got lynched. Can't buy those kind of experiences whilst playing croquet.
I would guess that those people are not going for maths or science. They're going for sit about and ponce degrees like English.
Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, or, failing that, history of art.
Is it time to close the door to foreign buyers of British property?
Guardian article but this actually being proposed by the Bow Group, a Tory thinktank. I think it's a good idea.
What about the stuff they already own?
There's probably not much you can do about that but you could at least stop the situation becoming worse.
Funny how they went quiet on the register of foreign/offshore landowners that was supposed to be happening.
Soft-lad cousin was telling me that his school rugby team (which they have to play in or they get detentions on training/match days) is the second best in the area, so to become the best the school have hired a full time strength and conditioning coach. The teams do go up to A-level ages (he's fifteen), but that still seems a bit serious.
I suggested he call the bloke a nonce and take the detentions, but he won't.
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