In this chapter I focus internally on the workings of the educational system, and what these have meant for working-class educational experiences. The key points of the chapter are illustrated through a number of case studies, mainly from young people whom I interviewed between 2000 and 2016 for a range of different research projects, but also from a working-class parent, Josie, whom I interviewed six times over a period of 20 years. But before I look at the lived experiences of working-class students and their parents I want to present an up-to-date snapshot of the social class attainment gap. Over the three years 2011/12 to 2013/14 disadvantaged students (those on FSM, in receipt of pupil premium and nearly all working class) were 27% less likely to achieve five or more GCSE grades A*–C including English and Maths (Table 3.1).

The most recent statistics from the DfE (April 2017) present a bleak contrast between the poorest children on FSM and those from families with incomes of £78,000 and above: an attainment gap of 47% (Figure 3.1).

If we then consider how this compares with other nations across the globe we find that in 2009 England was bottom of the league table for the percentage of working-class children achieving high academic levels (Figure 3.2).

This is the scale of the problem confronted by those concerned with the class gap in educational attainment; and it is this gap that the new diversity in educational provision – academies, free schools and now super grammar schools – is intended to address.

Academies: working miracles in deprived areas?

The hype surrounding academies is that they will address the social class attainment gap displayed in Table 3.1. They have been heavily promoted as a means of pulling up working-class achievement. In 2008, six years after the first academies were opened, Andrew Adonis claimed that academies were ‘establishing a culture of ambition to replace the poverty of aspiration’. In 2012 the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, claimed that they were ‘working miracles in some of the most deprived parts of our country’. So, the political rhetoric is all about improving both working-class achievement and working-class experiences of education. Yet the reality is much murkier.