This September, Sutton Trust published their first Elitist Britain report since 2019, tracking the educational backgrounds of the country’s top professionals.
The report found that ‘elites’ are over five times more likely to have attended a fee-paying school than the general population and 21 times more likely to have gone to Oxbridge.
Professions where private school alumni are still hugely over-represented include media, sports, law, armed forces and politics.
The report garnered much media attention, with The Stage focusing on the finding that almost one in three leading actors attended a private school, whilst Third Sector magazine ran with the headline ‘Top charity chiefs five times more likely to be privately educated’.
In his foreword to the report, Nick Harrison, the Trust’s chief executive, said: “Sutton Trust research has found time and again that young people from less well-off backgrounds miss out on opportunities in education and employment that more privileged youngsters take for granted.
“This is not only profoundly unfair; it is also a critical waste of talent, squeezed out by the elite education pipeline.
“This report lays bare the scale of the challenge, and in doing so calls for a Britain where opportunity is open to all.”
Since 2022, StateTalking has been working to level the playing field, one talk at a time.
Our mantra is simple: If you can’t see it, you can’t be it.
That’s why we match Greater Manchester state schools with inspirational, relatable role models and speakers from their local areas. StateTalking introduces primary, secondary and sixth form college students to high achievers who look and sound like them.
We also offer support with setting up alumni networks – because the most relatable role models are a schools’ own past pupils.
