The rise of the state-private pupil

When is a state school pupil not a state school pupil? When he has a private tutor. That’s when he becomes a state-private hybrid. So, when parents pore over the university admissions and the A-level grades of state secondary schools, they should ask themselves whether all those results are attributable to the school or whether there may have been outside help. Not that anyone’s going to tell you. In a fee-paying school you don’t normally need to go outside; that’s why you pay those whopping fees.

Granted, exams are overrated but the world being what it is – obsessed with top universities – lots of parents will do whatever it takes to get their child into one. And so they hire a private tutor. It doesn’t guarantee success – if you’re thick, you’re thick – but it almost certainly helps.

You know what that means? All those Russell Group universities which go out of their way to give preference to state school pupils are often getting a different candidate than they think.