Jonathan Todd

Matthew Taylor argues with good sense and strong social conviction:

“It would be better both for schools and for wider society if middle class parents put less energy in trying to get into ‘good’ schools and more in supporting their children and being active parents in more socially mixed schools (which, as it happens, is what I have done with my two boys). There is a marginally greater risk of a child failing in a more mixed school but people (and media comment) exaggerate this danger hugely; as I pointed out, 90% of the performance of children can be predicted from the resources and support they get at home. But, while going to a mixed school is a small risk for the well-off there is clear evidence that greater social mixing and a wider range of ability in a school are most definitely good for children from poorer backgrounds”.

However, as Fiona Millar and Melissa Benn have well illustrated the truth about state schools is twisted by journalists who educate their children privately.

Decisions about the schooling of children are always best made by the parents concerned but we should all try to see beyond the media froth that Millar and Benn highlight towards the truth that Taylor speaks.  If the left leaning middle classes, who are rightly concerned about social mobility, were all to do this then they would truly be the change that they want to see in the world.