Private Schooling in the UK in the 21st Century: Participation and Outcomes
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Education, Practice & Society
Abstract
Private school pupils form a relatively small proportion of the pupil population, but their influence extends far more widely. British private schooling is quite unusual in international comparison, combining both very high fees and only a low level of public subsidy through tax reliefs. From earlier studies we know that private school alumni educated in the 20th century on average achieved well in public exams and had substantially greater success in the labour market, when compared with similar pupils who attended state schools.
In the last 30 years the private schools have changed enormously, as has the economy. School fees have risen by around three times in real terms. The pupil-teacher ratio has been halved, physical plant and equipment greatly improved, and a broader range of extra-curricular sport and cultural activities is supported, aiming to instil broader outcomes of cultural capital, more than just a high academic achievement. Systems of management have been modernised.
There have been no comprehensive studies, however, of changes in private school participation and of the value-added delivered by modernised private schooling in the 21st century. The aim of this project is to investigate two key related aspects of the role of private schools in Britain in the 21st century: the choice of a private school, and the association of private schooling with educational outcomes and with subsequent labour market and broader outcomes in early adulthood.
We will look at three sets of questions:
1. Participation:
Has participation in private schooling become more (or less) socially fluid? Specifically, we shall ask: has the relationship between family income and participation been changing over recent years? Has the inter-generational persistence been shifting? Does grammar school proximity make a difference? What reasons do parents give for choosing private schooling?
2. Educational outcomes:
What are the educational outcomes associated with private secondary schooling, compared with those from state schooling?
3. Early adulthood outcomes:
What are the labour market outcomes (employment, occupational status, pay), personal outcomes (physical activity, well-being) and external benefits (social trust, charitable activities) associated with private school participation at secondary level? To what extent are these outcomes accounted for by the educational outcomes, and how important are social networks?
To answer these questions, we will use two ESRC investments, the Millennium Cohort Survey (MCS) and the Next Steps survey. We will supplement these with data from the annual Living Costs and Food Survey (LCFS), and the British Social Attitudes Survey (BSAS). We will estimate the determinants of choosing private schooling at secondary level. Key explanatory factors will be parental income, family and pupil characteristics, and ease of access to a grammar school. Attention will be given to those who switch school-types at the transition between primary and secondary levels.
Building on this analysis of private school choice, we will then use statistical methods to estimate the association of private school attendance with educational outcomes from secondary school. We will compare outcomes for private and state educated persons from similar socio-economic backgrounds and with similar prior achievements. Finally, we shall produce estimates of the association of private education with labour market and broader outcomes at age 25.
Together, our findings will provide a scientific picture of the contemporary role of private schooling in Britain. We expect this picture to be useful, both to those involved with the private school sector (parents, advisers, and the schools themselves), and to scholars and policy-makers interested in the wider implications. There is ongoing debate about the schools' charitable status and the "public benefit" obligations that this brings, and about barriers to social mobility.
In the last 30 years the private schools have changed enormously, as has the economy. School fees have risen by around three times in real terms. The pupil-teacher ratio has been halved, physical plant and equipment greatly improved, and a broader range of extra-curricular sport and cultural activities is supported, aiming to instil broader outcomes of cultural capital, more than just a high academic achievement. Systems of management have been modernised.
There have been no comprehensive studies, however, of changes in private school participation and of the value-added delivered by modernised private schooling in the 21st century. The aim of this project is to investigate two key related aspects of the role of private schools in Britain in the 21st century: the choice of a private school, and the association of private schooling with educational outcomes and with subsequent labour market and broader outcomes in early adulthood.
We will look at three sets of questions:
1. Participation:
Has participation in private schooling become more (or less) socially fluid? Specifically, we shall ask: has the relationship between family income and participation been changing over recent years? Has the inter-generational persistence been shifting? Does grammar school proximity make a difference? What reasons do parents give for choosing private schooling?
2. Educational outcomes:
What are the educational outcomes associated with private secondary schooling, compared with those from state schooling?
3. Early adulthood outcomes:
What are the labour market outcomes (employment, occupational status, pay), personal outcomes (physical activity, well-being) and external benefits (social trust, charitable activities) associated with private school participation at secondary level? To what extent are these outcomes accounted for by the educational outcomes, and how important are social networks?
To answer these questions, we will use two ESRC investments, the Millennium Cohort Survey (MCS) and the Next Steps survey. We will supplement these with data from the annual Living Costs and Food Survey (LCFS), and the British Social Attitudes Survey (BSAS). We will estimate the determinants of choosing private schooling at secondary level. Key explanatory factors will be parental income, family and pupil characteristics, and ease of access to a grammar school. Attention will be given to those who switch school-types at the transition between primary and secondary levels.
Building on this analysis of private school choice, we will then use statistical methods to estimate the association of private school attendance with educational outcomes from secondary school. We will compare outcomes for private and state educated persons from similar socio-economic backgrounds and with similar prior achievements. Finally, we shall produce estimates of the association of private education with labour market and broader outcomes at age 25.
Together, our findings will provide a scientific picture of the contemporary role of private schooling in Britain. We expect this picture to be useful, both to those involved with the private school sector (parents, advisers, and the schools themselves), and to scholars and policy-makers interested in the wider implications. There is ongoing debate about the schools' charitable status and the "public benefit" obligations that this brings, and about barriers to social mobility.
Planned Impact
Debates around private schooling and social mobility continue to surface on both sides of the political centre, and they need to be supported by better, independent, evidence. Past studies have mainly referred to those educated a long time ago. We think that there remains much uncertainty about modern private schooling. While some are confident that a private, very highly resourced schooling helps pupils get better results, others question whether bright children, or those from affluent and supportive families, would succeed in any type of school. We would expect people outside academia to benefit from a clear exposition of our findings, helping them to arrive at their own conclusions about a topic that has for a long time been a highly charged political issue.
Our findings will provide new, independent, evidence about private school participation and effects for the generation going through schooling in the 21st century, and will thus have considerable policy and practical relevance.
In particular, we expect the findings to be of interest to three groups of non-academic stake-holders, as well as to academics from a range of disciplines:
a) Potential "customers" (parents) and their advisers.
These beneficiaries tend to be interested in evidence about the value of attending a private school, and our findings on both educational and later outcomes will be informative for them. Parents are interested because, for those not entitled to receive bursaries, the benefits of private schooling need to be substantial to make it worth the considerable outlay for the fees, which have increased by around a factor of three since the 1980s. We expect that parents and education advisers are interested in both the education and labour market outcomes and the broader outcomes from private schooling. They can benefit through more informed decision-taking about whether to choose private schooling for their children and at what stage in their school career.
b) Practitioners
We expect that the governors and leaders of private schools, and those who represent the sector, are likely to be interested in independent evidence about the outcomes for similar reasons because they must ensure that they deliver what parents want in order to survive and thrive in a competitive education environment. These governors and leaders should also benefit from knowledge of the trends in income sensitivity of their product, and evidence about the relevance of local competition from grammar schools. Among other benefits could be a more informed pricing strategy.
c) Policy-makers.
We are mainly thinking here of policy-makers (such Lords members debating the recent Charities Bill in 2015) and opinion-formers (eg Times columnist Matthew Parris, Guardian columnist Fiona Millar) -- on both sides of the political centre -- who are concerned to improve social mobility in Britain, and who might wish to have good evidence about the potential role of exclusive private schooling in limiting social mobility. However, we should also include members of the wider public, because of the topic's general interest among those concerned about social mobility. Policy-makers' need for independent evidence is especially apparent when considering potential policies for private schools, such as for example those surrounding partnerships, academy sponsorship, access schemes, public benefit and charitable status, which have figured prominently in public discourse for the last decade. The potential benefit is better policy-making.
d) Academics.
We expect our findings to be of considerable interest among a broad group of sociologists and economists who work in the areas of education and social mobility/inequality studies (see Academic Beneficiaries). We will aim especially to attract interest among PhD students and early career social scientists.
Our findings will provide new, independent, evidence about private school participation and effects for the generation going through schooling in the 21st century, and will thus have considerable policy and practical relevance.
In particular, we expect the findings to be of interest to three groups of non-academic stake-holders, as well as to academics from a range of disciplines:
a) Potential "customers" (parents) and their advisers.
These beneficiaries tend to be interested in evidence about the value of attending a private school, and our findings on both educational and later outcomes will be informative for them. Parents are interested because, for those not entitled to receive bursaries, the benefits of private schooling need to be substantial to make it worth the considerable outlay for the fees, which have increased by around a factor of three since the 1980s. We expect that parents and education advisers are interested in both the education and labour market outcomes and the broader outcomes from private schooling. They can benefit through more informed decision-taking about whether to choose private schooling for their children and at what stage in their school career.
b) Practitioners
We expect that the governors and leaders of private schools, and those who represent the sector, are likely to be interested in independent evidence about the outcomes for similar reasons because they must ensure that they deliver what parents want in order to survive and thrive in a competitive education environment. These governors and leaders should also benefit from knowledge of the trends in income sensitivity of their product, and evidence about the relevance of local competition from grammar schools. Among other benefits could be a more informed pricing strategy.
c) Policy-makers.
We are mainly thinking here of policy-makers (such Lords members debating the recent Charities Bill in 2015) and opinion-formers (eg Times columnist Matthew Parris, Guardian columnist Fiona Millar) -- on both sides of the political centre -- who are concerned to improve social mobility in Britain, and who might wish to have good evidence about the potential role of exclusive private schooling in limiting social mobility. However, we should also include members of the wider public, because of the topic's general interest among those concerned about social mobility. Policy-makers' need for independent evidence is especially apparent when considering potential policies for private schools, such as for example those surrounding partnerships, academy sponsorship, access schemes, public benefit and charitable status, which have figured prominently in public discourse for the last decade. The potential benefit is better policy-making.
d) Academics.
We expect our findings to be of considerable interest among a broad group of sociologists and economists who work in the areas of education and social mobility/inequality studies (see Academic Beneficiaries). We will aim especially to attract interest among PhD students and early career social scientists.
Organisations
Publications
Anders J
(2020)
Determinants of private school participation: All about the money?
in British Educational Research Journal
Anders J.
(2018)
Participation in British Private Schools
Bryson A
(2018)
"Do Private Schools Manage Better?"
Bryson A
(2018)
Do Private Schools Manage Better?
in National Institute Economic Review
Foliano F
(2019)
Away from home, better at school. The case of a British boarding school
in Economics of Education Review
Francis Green
(2022)
IFS Deaton Review
Green F
(2017)
Who Chooses Private Schooling in Britain and Why?
GREEN F
(2019)
Private Benefits? External Benefits? Outcomes of Private Schooling in 21 st Century Britain
in Journal of Social Policy
Green F
(2020)
The Economics of Education
| Description | For those who grew up in Britain in the latter half of the 20th century, there is known to be a strong association between social class or family income and attending a private school. However, increasing school fees in the private sector and promotion of school choice in the state sector potentially have implications for changing predictors of participation in private schooling. Our research finds that: • A £100 increase in permanent weekly income is associated with half a percentage point higher likelihood of private school enrolment. • Participation in private schooling remains especially skewed at the very top of the income distribution with no change since the 1990s. • We show also the importance of parental values and geographical proximity to high-quality state school alternatives, finding that higher levels of parental traditional values and increased travel time to 'Outstanding' state schools both increase demand for private schooling. • The participation of families in private education is affected significantly by their amount of housing wealth. This effect holds at all income levels, and helps to explain why some families with low current incomes can still afford private schooling despite the high fees. • Bursaries and scholarships have declined relative to fees, while becoming a little more progressive (i.e. directed more towards to low and middle income families). The findings thus do not support claims that the sector has become more socially fluid in recent decades. With approximately three times the resources per pupil in private compared with state schools, Britain's private sector presents an interesting case of what could be expected from schools that are extremely well resourced. We find evidence that, compared with otherwise observably similar state school students in upper secondary education and controlling for prior attainment, those at private school study more 'facilitating' subjects, which are known to be favoured by high-status universities. • They are placed 8 percentage points higher in the A level rankings and 11 percentage points higher in the rankings for 'facilitating' A levels. Taken together with studies of earlier stages of education, these modest gains at upper secondary level mean that a private schooling throughout childhood in England is associated with substantive cumulative educational advantage. • Associated with having attended at 13 a private school in England in the 21st century, there is an average weekly wage premium of 17 percent by age 25, and a 12 percentage point lower chance of downward social mobility. • By contrast, private schooling is not significantly associated with participation in local voluntary groups, unpaid voluntary work, charitable giving or interpersonal trust at age 25. |
| Exploitation Route | For practitioners, the findings suggest that very much more needs to be done to expand the provision of bursaries, without academic selection, if the exclusiveness of the social composition of the pupils of private schools is to be substantively reduced. For parents, the parameters are clearer as a result of our work: on average there are demostrable benefits in terms of better academic results and access to universities, especially high-ranking universities, from choosing a private school; we have not shown, however, whether this is economically advisable, as this depends on the fees relative to the benefits, and on the cost of (and access to) capital. For policy-makers, however, no particular social benefits from privately educated 25-year olds in the 21st century have been identified. This finding is relevant (though not decisive) in public policy debate surrounding charity status -- including in Scotland where the subsidy through reduction in business rates, hitherto available to Scottish private schools, was scheduled to be removed during 2020, though this implementation has been delayed as a consequence of the COVID pandemic. From the academic perspective, the findings about participation need to be kept updated, because there are good reasons for the pattern of participation to change as the distribution of wealth evolves, and as the independent schools enlarge their bursaries (which is their stated objective). Similarly, the effects of participation can be updated with later cohorts. The second Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE2) offers an opportunity for private schooling to be re-examined for a later cohort. There is also further work to be done surrounding the teacher workforce, not least because the quantity and characteristics of teachers are thought to be one of the main reasons for the good academic performance of private schools. |
| Sectors | Education |
| Description | Impact Narrative. We have now published seven journal papers directly from this project, and other papers discussion papers and reports besides. In addition, some findings from this award have been used in the 2019 book "Engines of Privilege. Britain's Private School Problem", co-authored by Francis Green and David Kynaston. Similarly, three further papers on the topic of private schools have been informed by the work done for this project. The publication of the book, and the research that is summarised within it, stimulated considerable debate with reviews in the media, and calls for reform. There is considerable interest from practitioners in the private school sector, and several meetings have been held with representatives of the sector to exchange views on potential reforms. The most important of these meetings have been with the Headmasters and Headmistresses Conference, with the Independent Schools Council, who wanted to discuss potential policy reforms, and with members of parliament. Professor Green also engaged in numerous public debates around the country: during the last year, 2022, the most notable was a public debate at the Cambridge Union. Private schools has been a topic of general interest for some time, especially since 2019. Consequently there has always been significant interest in our publications, for each of which we have endeavoured to secure publicity. Our research was incorporated into Professor Green's contribution to the Deaton-IFS enquiry into inequality in Britain. The latest publication (Henderson et al 2022) achieved wide publicity in the media both at home and abroad; for example, it gained the highest ever Altmetric score for a paper in the Cambridge Journal of Education. Ahead of the general election, an extreme policy reform - abolition of private schools - became the policy of the Labour Party though it was not included in its manifesto which, instead, contained a more loosely worded commitment to consider potential integrating reforms, as well as to impose VAT on school fees. None of this policy activity was a result of the work carried out in this project, but the project and the surrounding literature form a good part of the scientific (as opposed to the ideological) background to calls for reform - with studies of the trends in exclusiveness of private school participation and of its effects, the significance of parental values, and the role of bursaries. The project contributed indirectly to bringing evidence for the evaluation of potential policy reforms. The evidence contributed to the website of the thinktank 'Private Education Policy Forum', which is a site for the presentation of blogs on either side of the policy debate, for the repository of relevant research and of policy documents. Francis Green is one six founders of this thinktank. The forum has grown in the last year, and is expected to grow further and become influential in the public debate surrounding private schools in coming years. For the duration of the present government, it is anticipated that any changes to the private school system will be initiated, if at all, from within the system, as schools aim to increase bursary provision. During 2023 Francis Green engaged in dialogue with policy makers and practitioners on the issue of private schools, with particular reference to the public debate about the potential impact of the proposal by the main opposition party to levy VAT on private school fees, if elected. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Education |
| Impact Types | Societal Economic Policy & public services |
| Description | Private Education Policy Forum (PEPF) |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| URL | http://www.pepf.co.uk/research-and-publications |
| Title | Distances and 45 minute drive-times to high-performing and private schools in England (add-on to Millennium Cohort Study) |
| Description | The purpose of this dataset is to provide accurate distances (in miles) and drive times (based on 45 minutes by car) from MCS4 and MCS5 cohort members with addresses in England to six sets of high-performing schools. These distances are based on the UK road network, as it was in 2008 and 2012, and distances are calculated between the postcode centroid of each cohort member's reported address at interview, and the postcode centroid of the address of each school. The travel times are calculated based on the Ordnance Survey's Integrated Transport Network (ITN) product. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This dataset was funded as part of the "Private Schooling in the 21st Century: Participation and Outcomes" project and generated to allow for the testing of hypotheses following from the research questions set out in the case for support for this project. The dataset was generated for us by the data team at the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) based on our direction. The dataset has been used as part of academic outputs currently under preparation and presented as part of several engagement activities associated with this project. Furthermore, the CLS team will include this dataset as part of future releases of the Millennium Cohort Study (to which it is an add-on), which we anticipate having further research impact in the future. |
| Description | "Private schooling, subject choice and upper secondary academic attainment in England: Using the Next Steps Generation" was presented at the Private Schools Workshop on 17th December 2018, London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The paper presented explores Private Schooling in England. With approximately three times the resources per pupil in private, compared with state schools, Britain's private sector presents an interesting case of what could be expected from schools that are extremely well resourced. This paper studies the links between private schooling and educational performance in upper secondary school, as measured through their performance in 'A level', the main school-leaving assessment which determines access to universities. Using data from the Next Steps survey of pupils born in 1989/90, we find evidence that, compared with otherwise observably similar state school students in upper secondary education and controlling for prior attainment, those at private school study 27 percent more 'facilitating' subjects, which are known to be favoured by high-status universities; they are placed 8 percentage points higher in the A level rankings (this could be equivalent to the difference between a student with AAB to a student with AAA) and 11 percentage points higher in the rankings for 'facilitating' A levels (this could be equivalent to the difference between a student with ABB to a student with AAA). We find no evidence of a private school advantage for ever attending any university but some evidence of a private school advantage for attending an elite university. Taken together with earlier studies at primary and lower secondary education levels, our findings mean that private schooling in Britain is associated with modest but cumulative advantages at all stages of education from primary onwards. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | 'An Analysis of Trends in the Socioeconomic Concentration of Private School Attendance in Britain', presentation at the 2018 Annual Conference of the Society for Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies, Milan, July 9-11 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation sparked interest in the findings and theme of research on private education, which led to networking with international researchers who work on related topics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/df1448_4824417496ff40e3845f4fcc236693ee.pdf |
| Description | 'Private School Participation: All about the money?', presentation at the Private Schools Workshop on 17th December 2018, London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | For those who grew up in Britain in the latter half of the 20th century, there is known to be a strong association between social class or family income and attending a private school. However, increasing school fees in the private sector and promotion of school choice in the state sector potentially have implications for changing predictors of participation in private schooling. In this paper, through analysis of rich, longitudinal dataset from a recent, representative birth cohort study, we provide new evidence on the determinants of demand for private schooling. Given the high and rising fees required to send a child to private school, one might think that the decision is entirely connected with financial resources. However, while these remain an important factor, we argue that other determinants are also important. In particular, we highlight the importance of parental values and geographical proximity to high-quality state school alternatives, finding that higher levels of parental traditional values and increased travel time to `Outstanding' state schools both increase demand for private schooling. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/events/2018/dec/workshop-britains-private-schools-21st-century |
| Description | 'Socioeconomic Concentration of Private Schooling in Britain', presentation at the Private Schools Workshop on 17th December 2018, London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This paper studies whether there has been a change in recent decades in the income and wealth concentration of the children who attend Britain's private schools. We use repeated cross-sectional data from the Family Resources Survey and the Household Below Average Income programme. Unlike earlier studies, we model the association of permanent income and wealth with participation; and we distinguish families according to whether they can/cannot afford private schooling from their current income. We find that a £100 increase in permanent weekly income is associated with half a percentage point higher likelihood of private school enrolment. Participation remains especially skewed at the very top of the income distribution with no change since the 1990s. Bursaries and scholarships have neither expanded relative to fees, nor become more directed to low income families. Taken together, the findings reject claims that the sector has become more socially fluid in recent decades. Members of the audience voiced after the talk surprise at the extreme concentration of private schooling among the 1%. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/events/2018/dec/workshop-britains-private-schools-21st-century |
| Description | Balloon Debate |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Took part in Oxford Union balloon debate |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Begum |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Meeting with mp Apsana Begum |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Behavioural Insights Team talk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Talk given to the Behavioural Insights Team, London, entitled: "Engines of Privilege" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Big Issue |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A two-page article in the Big Issue for the week beginning 11/2/2019, covering arguments about the role of private schooling in Britain. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Blog for Conversation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This blog, for Conversation, covered some of the main findings from the private school project, and also the arguments put forward in Engines of Privilege, co-authored with David Kynaston. It attracted around 5,000 readers in the first few days after posting, and many shares and comments (to which I replied). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Blog post on private school access with J Anders |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Blog post on trends in private school access to reach professional drawing on the 2021-paper Golo Henseke, Jake Anders, Francis Green & Morag Henderson (2021) Income, housing wealth, and private school access in Britain, Education Economics, DOI: 10.1080/09645292.2021.1874878 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/cepeo/2021/02/04/housing-wealth-not-bursaries-explains-much-of-private-schoo... |
| Description | CEPEO podcast |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Took part in a podcast discussing the findings of the project, to be hosted on the website of the Centre for Education Policy and Equal Opportunities (CEPEO). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Cambridge Union Debate |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Opposed motion in a Cambridge Union Debate. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | David Mclellan Lentils Seminar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Francis Green presented a talk entitled: "Britain's private school problem and what to do about it". The David Mclellan 'Lentils Seminar', Canterbury, Kent. 11/12/2019 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | DfE talk 24/5/2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation to a group of researchers and policy analysts at the Department for Education: Discussion of "Engines of Privilege" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Discussion at Quaker meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | About 30 people attended for a Quaker meeting to discuss issues surrounding private schools, especially Quaker private schools, which sparked extensive debate and discussion. The facilitator produced an extended report of the meeting and a blog which was later published. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Documentary |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Private School documentary interview |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Eton |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Professor Francis Green was one of three presenters to the Board of Governors at Eton on the need for reform within the private school system, based on our findings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Institute of Education Blog |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Drs Anders and Henseke wrote a blog presenting and summarising the findings of their academic paper: Henseke, G., J. Anders, F. Green and M. Henderson (2021). "Income, housing wealth, and private school access in Britain." Education Economics (online). The blog was also placed on the website of the Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/2021/02/08/housing-wealth-not-bursaries-explains-much-of-private-school-... |
| Description | Interviews on LBC |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Regularly asked to comment on LBC on issues that occur in public discourse surrounding private schooling in Britain. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | LSE Launch |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Launch of Engines of Privilege, with illustrated presentation, discussion and Q&A |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/engines-of-privilege-9781526601261/ |
| Description | Lunchtime Lecture |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | UCL Lunchtime Lecture: What Do Private Schools Do? |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Meeting with journalists |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | I met with Guardian journalists concerned with commissioning articles surrounding the proposed reform of charity status of private schools. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Next Steps 31 Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 14/1/2020. Scientific Development for Labour Market Experiences, Education, Income and Assets. Next Steps Conference |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Observer |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was an adapted extract from our book: F.Green and D. Kynaston 'Engines of Privilege. Britain's Private School Problem.' It attracted a very large number of online comments, and published letters in the newspaper, to which we responded with a further letter, also published two weeks later. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | PSPR engagement with policy makers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | PSPR is a think-tank that researches and platforms discussion about private school policy reform. It hosts blogs, produces new evidence-supported research, reviews existing academic research about the effects of private schooling and making this available in digestible form for the general public, organises events, and engages directly with policy-makers. The activity entails writing for this outlet, arranging and attending meetings with members of parliament (e.g. members of the education select committee) and other policy-makers, and attending planning meetings for the think-tank's work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019,2020 |
| URL | https://www.privateschoolreform.co.uk/ |
| Description | Potsdam symposium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | 26/9/2019. Private benefits? External benefits? Outcomes from private schooling in 21st Century. SLLS Annual Conference, Potsdam, Germany. Part of a symposium organised around the several outputs of this Award. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Presentation at Department of Education |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The aim of the presentation was to bring policymakers in the Dept for Education up to date with recent research on the participation in, and effects of private schooling in Britain. The presentation generated considerable interest, and the role of private schooling was considered important to understand, by those engaged with analysis for policy-making in respect of England's state education system. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Presentation of "Participation in British Private Schools" to British Sociological Association Annual Conference 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Private school has played an important role in sociology's literature surrounding the role of education in structuring the reproduction of social class. Through their social exclusivity, Britain's private schools are held to have contributed negatively to social mobility among older generations educated in the 20th century. But with huge fee rises, much increased income inequality, increased wealth-income ratios, fluctuating public and private means-tested support for fees, and a greater policy emphasis on school choice, there may have been changes in the distribution of participation in private schooling. Moreover, while many children use the private sector exclusively, many parents use it selectively at different education stages. But little is known about the characteristics and motives of families who mix and match their choice of school-type. This paper studies whether there has been a notable evolution since the 1980s in the social and economic composition of private school children, using data from multiple surveys, reviews of qualitative sources, and aggregate census information. We report aggregate participation trends, parental motivations, estimates of social exclusivity (in terms of income and social class) and estimates of the determinants of switching between school-type part way through an education. Overall we find no evidence that private school access has become more open in the course of recent decades. We conclude that the effect of real-terms increased fees ahead of incomes has outweighed any offsetting impact from bursaries, scholarships and other attempts to open up to a wider public, or from increased attention to school choice. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.britsoc.co.uk/media/24644/ac2018_programme.pdf |
| Description | Presentation with education policy makers and practitioners |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Presentation and discussion of issues surrounding private schools |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Response to Bristol Cable |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Response to Bristol journalist on the Bristol Cable, with quotation on the role of private schools. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Response to El Pais |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Responded to El Pais' request for expertise/quotation on the role of private schools in Europe. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | TES Response |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | This was our response to the antagonistic review of our book, written by the head teacher of Westminster School. The review was so bad and antagonistic and ill-informed, that we requested an immediate right of reply, which was accepted by the TES editor. Week beginning 11/2/2019. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Talk To Residents Association |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A talk with a residents association about the role of private education in the neighbourhood and in general in Britain on the basis of my research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Talk to political party members |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A talk surrounding the politics of private education reform movements, past and present. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Tv appearance |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Fronted as expert on BBC's 'The Big Questions', on 27/1/2019 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Voice of Islam |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Interview with Voice of Islam radio, based in Birmingham. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Westminster Education Forum |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Panel discussion with representatives of independent schools and other commentators. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Workshop on private schools |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | This workshop discussed findings from the ESRC project Private Schooling in the 21st Century, in front of and among a diverse audience. We used the LLAKES mailing list which brought in a number of people from outside academia, mainly those involved directly or indirectly with education, both private and state. The findings were linked with those from a related, earlier but still ongoing project, Schooling and Unequal Outcomes in Youth and Adulthood, also discussed at this event. Altogether, seven papers were presented to this diverse audience, and the debate was led by two discussants from outside the project. The event took place in late December 2018. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.llakes.ac.uk/research-project/337/private-schooling-uk-21st-century-participation-and-ou... |
| Description | XXVIII Meeting of the Economics of Education Association Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | 28/6/2019 Private benefits? External benefits? Outcomes from private schooling in 21st Century Britain. XXVIII Meeting of the Economics of Education Association Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | pspr Fact Check |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Online webinar in which media reports about private schools were tested against the facts. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |