‘Private school pupils are using our state sixth-form to get to Oxbridge – it’s cynical’
A state school teacher is riled by parents who think going to a comprehensive for A-levels will tick the diversity box
The University of Cambridge says that it currently admits 69 per cent of students from non-private schools, and is planning to drop admission targets for undergraduates that were taught in the state sector.
Robin*, 42, who teaches A-Level maths in a Hertfordshire state school which is rated outstanding, talks about the recent increase in parents moving their children from private to state school at the age of 16, and whether it is true that this move would give a pupil a better chance at getting into a top university.
“Ihave been at my state school for eight years, and I’ve seen a noticeable increase in private school children coming to us for sixth form. Staff who have been here for 15 or 20 years say the number has quadrupled since they first began working here. We have fewer than 15 places for students who don’t already study at our school, and we get at least 90 applications for those places, half of which are from children from private schools.
“As well as teaching maths, I’m also form tutor to a class of pupils who I help to prepare and advise for university applications, or whatever they want to do when they leave.
“Parents usually tell me that they’re moving out of the private system to our school for A-levels for various reasons; some say they cannot afford private school any more, but the main reasons they give are that they want their child to mix with a greater range of children, and also that, actually, comprehensives like ours provide just as good as, if not better, education than lots of fee-paying institutions.
“But I suspect that some of the private school parents are also moving their children believing they’ll have a better chance of getting into a Russell group university, Oxford or Cambridge.
“This isn’t something they tend to admit, though. It’s not only cynical, it’s based on a myth. This idea that Oxbridge will look more favourably on you if you went to a state sixthform is not a new one.
“I believe it comes from the fact that Cambridge colleges were, a few years ago, given the shared responsibility of getting a certain percentage of state school kids into their college.
“This target was about 69 per cent, and it did make the system fairer – private school pupils no longer had a total monopoly on the university.
“But people tend to forget that even if Cambridge has admitted 69 per cent of state school pupils, that is still entirely unrepresentative of the number of students who attend state schools.
“The numbers are still wildly in favour of the tiny minority of private school kids. The share of pupils at state-funded academies getting into Oxbridge increased between 2015 and 2020 from 1.3 per cent to 1.5 per cent. We’re not talking colossal numbers here.
“Moving your child to a sixthform comprehensive, when you have sent them to a private school until then, is not a genuine trick that works. Admissions panels are smarter than that.
“Our pupils who have gone to
Oxbridge would have done so whether they had been privately educated or not, because they have a genuine passion for their subject, and we have taught them well, and shown them that Oxbridge is not somewhere only private school children can go.
“There are plenty of private school kids who come to us for A-levels, and don’t get into Oxbridge because they simply are not the right candidates.
“Most parents are supportive, but there have been some private school parents who arrive and expect that we will work miracles on their child and that, because they’re at a state sixth-form now, Oxbridge will hoover them up.
“A couple of times, parents seem to blame us when it has not happened. In those cases, I wonder whether their entire reason for coming to us was purely because they believed a state school would tick a diversity box on the Oxbridge application form – not so that we could give them a great education.
“I understand why parents might panic that an anti-private school agenda at Oxbridge could mean they have wasted a vast amount of money, and their child will be penalised for their privilege.
“I don’t believe that ever happens, and advise parents thinking of pulling kids out of private school at the last minute, with the sole aim of getting them a better shot at a top university, not to do it. Do it for other reasons, but not for that one.
“Socially privileged children are still more likely to get into Oxbridge; the kids we need to worry about are those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. They need to know that universities are for them, too.
“Cambridge’s quotas for state school admissions have been important, because the odds of getting into top universities have for so long favoured private schools.
“But I also understand why Cambridge is talking about scrapping them. It would be easy to feel this might leave state school kids in a bad situation again, but if Cambridge proceeds very carefully, and focuses more on increasing student numbers from deprived and under-represented backgrounds, this could be good.
“Inequality isn’t just about whether you went to private or state school, it’s about so much more than that.
“Parents can try to ‘game’ the system all they want, but it’s the genuinely worse-off children at failing, under-resourced schools who end up really missing out.”