Honest question, why do people pay 50-70k a year for school? If it was higher education, I presume that's worth it for the connections you get there, maybe, but this is high school. Isn't it possible to get into the best unis from a good state school?
this post was submitted on 25 May 2025
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Probably for the experiences. The sort of things kids do in these schools seem more lavish, I mean, as much as I enjoyed my school trip to a farm I'm not sure if that's the sort of thing they'd consider.
Although David Cameron did shag a pig, so not sure if that's true for all of those schools.
It's quite possible, and quite common, to get into the best universities in the UK from state school. More than 67% of undergraduates at Oxford University come from state schools.
Only if your kids have excellent grades or are star athletes or otherwise exceptional. Most of this ends up as networking, where the rich parents meet other rich parents and eventually someone with connections is involved when it’s time for the kids to go to university, and because rich people like it when other rich people succeed, because they want “the right kind of people” at the universities they send their kids to, (sometimes) they’ll help grease the right palms.
You make it sound like it's rare to get into good universities in the UK from state schools. But most of the students at the UK's top universities come from state schools.
You're right about networking though. Even if you go to Oxford, for example, you can find that there are exclusive cliques and clubs there that are only open to the "right kind" of people. These will be wealthy kids who went to a few expensive public (that is, private) schools. The networking begins long before they even get to university.
That’s true, I didn’t mean getting in a prestigious university was rare from a state school, but rather those are certainly the “exceptional students” considering the stringent acceptance requirements. I only explained why rich parents would spend the money on private schools to give their child an edge. There are certainly cases where admissions are allowed because of family lineage or sizeable donations.
As far as I know you can only apply to Oxford or Cambridge, and furthermore you can’t apply to more than five universities in the UK except for rare occasions.
Honestly, this is why I'm always peeved when I hear parents telling their kids that school isn't a social club. I followed that advice, only to find out that the real world cares more about networking than test scores. Whoops.
In a non-STEM field, sure.
You would be shocked by the homogeneousness of even employers who are hiring STEM. Tribalism is real. They just chalk up the je ne sais qois to "fit"... But you take a step back and suddenly...
Even in STEM. Who gets the Blue Origin job, the person with a 4.0 and zero references, or the person with a 3.5 that partied with Bezos in college?
This sounds like satire.
Yeah, this feels like it sbould be on "Not the Onion", wtf
I don't think The Telegraph are capable of that
I smell a rat.
The image for this article, and the same family in slightly different poses, can be found across multiple websites.
The image held within the archived Telegraph article seems to be a generic library image yet there appears to be no reference of this. The footnote of the image implies this is the "hard up" family.
I don't think it matters too much because what the family looks like isn't important, but I agree that it seems intended to imply that that is a photo of the family
It is pretty funny that they chose the most stock-photo-looking stock photo ever taken though
Maybe they had to sell their photos to an agency so they could afford that 5th holiday. Times are hard.
There is at least a real Telegraph article, but it's odd that they seem to have used a stock photo, as you point out.
“Almost overnight, the school fees went up from £55,000 per year to £70,000. The increase was shocking, but not entirely unexpected,” Moy says. “Ultimately, I believe, the education provided and the sacrifices we will have to make are worth it.”
So they readily admit it's a fair price, but still felt the need to complain to the media?
This is real? Holy crap….
That's so sad... I almost feel sorry for them. Almost.
Wish they had to live with 10% of that money each year.
Holy crap. Some people are hit so hard.
I actually know a couple of teachers at private schools and they say the people being hit hardest aren’t the rich twats but the families who scrimp and save just enough to try and give their kids the best opportunities.
Georgina should stop sucking rich people's dick, its never honorable.
Want to save a lot of money? Send them to a public school.
"state school" in UK terminology. Public school in the UK means private school. Weird I know.
Not all of the UK for bonus confusion
Guessing your not from the UK. It means something different in England and Wales https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_school_(United_Kingdom)