On Social Mobility

At a recent governors conference I suggested that one way of focusing on how to improve the school was to try and close the achievement gap between private and state schools. I had recently challenged our students in years 11 to 13 to not settle in life with the current status quo and highlighted that our top politicians, bankers and chief executives disproportionately come from a private education background. I suggested that the difference between our school's facilities and the quality of teaching was not significant enough to justify the gap. The gap, I proposed, exists because of what the students do out of the class. What happens between the hours of 4 and 10 in the life of a privately educated student and a state educated student?

I spent a week at Eton College as a sixth former, an eye-opening experience that added much to my fledgling views on social mobility. I was intrigued by their school day with formal lessons ending at 13.15 (12.25 on a Saturday). The afternoon and evening were far from free with activities and clubs running until supper at 19.40. The school absolutely consumed your every waking hour. Students were expected to focus on study in their time out of class with virtually all recreational activities planned, structured and supervised. Completion of prep (homework) was non-negotiable with expectations of both quality and quantity being high.

Privately educated students - study and sleep give them a foot up

What about state school children? Clearly there are vast differences between the out of class experiences of children across the country and these observations are based on my own experience which maybe clouded by dealing with the more problematic cases. I think it is quite common for my students to 'go out' as soon as they finish school. I sense this is a pastime that starts early in life, often before they start secondary school and that they often won't return home until 7 or 8 o'clock. When they get home they may hastily consume a meal that has been left for them or maybe they'll cook themselves some toast. Access to new technologies could mean that students have vast opportunities to study, but I propose this actually means that time is dominated by social media activity or game playing. I frequently hear students saying that they have been playing on their X Box until the early hours. Lights out at Eton is at 21.30.

My hunch is that a student at private school is engaged in between 2 to 4 hours worth of additional study per day compared to a state educated student between the hours of 16:00 and 21:00. Privately educated students are also receiving more sleep, perhaps an additional two hours per night. This additional study and additional sleep is going to add up in terms of their readiness to learn and ultimately their educational achievement. 

I have no doubt that this comes at some kind of social cost but would propose that action should be taken to redress the balance. Age-old attempts to engage students in independent learning should be accelerated through a combination of exploiting opportunities arising from new technology and initiating a greater engagement with parents, especially those that are the hardest to reach.