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It's encouraging to see AFIS's work to promote fairer representation of independent school families and more evidence-led debate featured in School Management Plus.
We have taken up this cause because of what we have been hearing directly from AFIS members and supporters who have shared a growing number of serious, disappointing and sometimes deeply upsetting examples of children being profiled, labelled and treated differently because of the type of school they attend.
The evidence we have gathered includes:
• Children being refused specialist NHS support.
• Children excluded from sporting opportunities.
• Young people denied access to educational programmes.
• Young people disadvantaged in job recruitment processes.
• Children charged higher prices for identical activities.
𝙅𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙙, 𝙤𝙧 𝙤𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙙, 𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙨𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙡.
We knew this was a problem. We did not realise how widespread it had become.
Parents are telling us something else too.
They fear school type is becoming a sticky label attached to their children:
A shorthand for privilege.
An assumption about wealth.
A judgement about what opportunities their children deserve, simply because they attended an independent school.
Something that follows them into university, careers and adult life.
Many of these "two-tier" policies were created with good intentions and a genuine desire to improve social mobility for disadvantaged children.
But somewhere along the way, school type became a proxy for privilege.
AFIS analysis highlights there are nearly four times as many children from Britain's wealthiest households in state schools as in independent schools.
For too long, these issues have been treated as isolated incidents:
A single case study emerges.
People express concern.
The news cycle moves on.
Nothing changes.
AFIS believes it is time for a different approach to ensure children and families are represented fairly in policy and public debate.
Today, AFIS formally launches:
𝘽𝙀𝙔𝙊𝙉𝘿 𝙎𝘾𝙃𝙊𝙊𝙇 𝙇𝘼𝘽𝙀𝙇𝙎.
𝘽𝙀𝙔𝙊𝙉𝘿 𝘼𝙎𝙎𝙐𝙈𝙋𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉𝙎.
A campaign to:
• Challenge stereotypes.
• Improve representation.
• Gather evidence.
• Develop solutions.
• Inform policymakers.
• Engage with institutions and the media.
• Promote a more balanced conversation about children, families, education and what genuinely drives opportunity.
If you have experienced these issues, please comment below or get in touch (we are sensitive to the need for anonymity in some cases). Your experiences will strengthen our evidence base and support positive change.
Please also support our petition calling for an end to profiling and two-tier treatment based on school type. This can be found on the AFIS website.
The article below explains why this work matters.
