Chris Blackhurst writes about the private-state school divide, citing the Sutton Trust/SMF research at The Independent.

After my parents dropped me off at university, my very first meeting with one of my year group, went like this.

I was walking towards the Porters’ Lodge when a tall bloke was coming towards me. He held out his hand, told me his name, and then said, “Who are you?” When I said my name, he asked: “Where are you from, Chris?” I replied “Barrow”, as in Barrow-in-Furness, in Cumbria.

He looked puzzled and inquired: “Which house?” I started to say my parents’ address, and he laughed. “I thought you said Harrow. I went to Harrow and didn’t recognise you.” With that, he moved on.

I offer this tale because it brought home to me the gulf that existed between my background and his. I went to a state grammar (now a comprehensive) in the north; he’d been to Harrow School. He was just about the first public schoolboy I’d ever met. It was the way he oozed self-confidence that got me. My school in Barrow simply did not produce people like him.

Read the full article here…

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