Latest news with #socialmobility
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Barbara Ferris obituary
It was once said of the actor Barbara Ferris, who has died aged 85, that she was the only one of Joan Littlewood's girls at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, in London, who started out working-class and ended up middle-class. Her father had a milk round in Soho after the second world war. Barbara progressed from training at the Italia Conti stage school, to fashion modelling and dancing – in Cole Porter's Can-Can and The Pajama Game, Bob Fosse's first show as a choreographer – at the London Coliseum in 1954-55, to important roles in plays by Edward Bond and David Hare at the Royal Court. In 1966, she was in a starring role opposite Donald Sinden in Terence Frisby's West End long-runner There's a Girl in My Soup (her role in the subsequent film was taken by Goldie Hawn). Along the way, she transformed herself from a blond, beehive hair-styled cockney 'dolly bird' to an actor of real emotional and technical command, notably in John Boorman's first feature film, Catch Us If You Can (1965) with the Dave Clark Five, a much-underrated movie, and in Interlude (1968), Kevin Billington's remake of a US Douglas Sirk film, in which, as an arts reporter, she conducted a disruptive affair with a married maestro played by Oskar Werner. The social mobility tag was applied when she married, in 1960, the film director and producer, John Quested, while appearing in cabaret at Winston's Club, Mayfair. Her honeymoon was just one night in the Dorchester hotel, as she was about to make her professional stage debut with Littlewood in Stephen Lewis's Sparrers Can't Sing. The show transferred to the West End. She was up and running. By the early 90s, Quested was both the owner and chairman of Goldcrest Films. Ferris's career did not dry up exactly, but she retired by choice, to raise the couple's family, and travel extensively with her husband's work. They had houses in Ireland and Zurich and, in London, a Chelsea apartment. The second of four children, Barbara was born in London, to Dorothy (nee Roth) and Roy Ferris. While at Italia Conti, she was already working as a teenager in TV commercials and pantomime, supplementing Roy's income. Her younger sister, Liz, became a springboard diving champion, who won a bronze medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics, before going on to be a doctor. Barbara's early television work included the groundbreaking pop music show Cool for Cats (1956), alongside Amanda Barrie and Una Stubbs, and a cockney barmaid, Nona Willis, at the Rovers Return in Coronation Street (1961); Nona left the Street after 10 episodes, because she didn't understand the Lancastrian accents. There was nothing cosy about her performance as Pam in Bond's Saved (given under club conditions in 1965 – the Lord Chamberlain had censored it): an unaffectionate mother, glued to the television, of the baby stoned to death in a notorious scene; nor as the effervescent, spirited Moll, defying an 'arranged marriage' in the teeming Jacobean comedy, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, in 1966. Both plays were at the Royal Court and directed by William Gaskill. After There's a Girl in My Soup, in which she managed a sort of beady frivolity, she was one of three liberated female teachers – the others were Anna Massey and Lynn Redgrave – in Hare's first major success, Slag (1971); Mrs Elvsted in John Osborne's adaptation of Hedda Gabler (with Jill Bennett and Brian Cox); and the hilarious spirit of a 'new broom' in a chaotic pre-internet library in Michael Frayn's Alphabetical Order (1975), playing opposite Billie Whitelaw's humane confusion as a much-loved resident librarian. The director of the Frayn play, Michael Rudman, took her into his Lyttelton-based National Theatre company for revivals of Somerset Maugham and JB Priestley before she returned to the West End as the boozy actor sister of Penelope Keith in Stanley Price's Moving (1981); and as a sexually treacherous sister in Alan Ayckbourn's Season's Greetings (1982) – having sex with said sister's obtuse novelist husband (Nigel Havers) under a Christmas tree laden with presents and thereby setting off a gift-wrapped, loudly drumming teddy bear. Her last major London appearances were as Mavis, a dance teacher, in Richard Harris's suburban Chorus Line-type hit, Stepping Out (1984), in which she skilfully projected an uneasy blend of personal insecurity and dull professional competence, and in Neil Simon's Broadway Bound at the Greenwich Theatre in 1991, a rueful family comedy. She was twice married to Richard Briers on screen: as a vicar's wife in 18 episodes of the 1985 television sitcom All in Good Faith, and as Enid Washbrook in Michael Winner's so-so movie based on Ayckbourn's wonderful am-dram comedy, A Chorus of Disapproval (1989), featuring before-they-were-movie-stars super-suave Jeremy Irons and a sweaty, obsessive Anthony Hopkins. Her last film, which she did because her old friend from Littlewood days, Victor Spinetti, was in it, was Peter Medak's The Krays (1990). And she dabbled in fringe theatre, producing and financing two glorious little compilation shows at the King's Head in Islington in 2002: Call Me Merman and Dorothy Fields Forever, paying tribute to the great Ethel and the unjustly forgotten lyricist Dorothy, both magically recreated by her friend Angela Richards. Ferris, who loved playing golf, is survived by her husband and their children, Nicholas, Christopher and Catherine. Barbara Gillian Ferris, actor, born 27 July 1939; died 23 May 2025
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Oldham's relationship with Manchester makes things more complex'
He's one of the country's most influential voices urging our political leaders to do more on social mobility: the all-important issue of ensuring everyone has a chance to succeed in life regardless of their background. And Alun Francis, the current chair of the Social Mobility Commission (SMC), can trace back his passion for the subject to his time as Principal of Oldham College, where he realised the debate was leaving out many of the young people studying there. As a typical further education college, the majority of students will come with lower school grades and are unlikely to end up at Oxbridge but can still be trained and prepared for important, interesting occupations which will improve their lives. READ MORE: Liverpool FC parade crash press conference: All the key points READ MORE: Liverpool parade incident LIVE as 27 - including four children - in hospital after car drives into crowd Mr Francis, who grew up in north Wales, tells The Northern Agenda podcast about his work to help these young people in Oldham and his new role as Principal and Chief Executive of Blackpool and The Fylde College. Listen to the full episode here: "I felt too much of the debate about social mobility had become a bit narrow," he says. "It was very much focused on what we've recently called the lucky few. "Those are the academically very able, but poorer members of the community. I'm not saying they don't need some help, I'm not criticising that, but I think that can be a very narrow way of doing social mobility. "Particularly if you start to think of it in terms of the shape of our economy, because it does tend to then lead to 'well let's find people with the talent to go to elite universities and then to professional jobs'. "Those elite universities often means leaving home, leaving the place you grew up in and for professional jobs the epicentre has been London and the South East. "And if you follow that route then it becomes 'well we've strengthened London, we know London's economy is very strong you can see the pipeline of talent going into those areas, that's absolutely fine'. "Except that the reality is we look out the window and we can see huge regional disparities. We can see significant differences in terms of economic opportunity." He advocated this new way of looking at the problem when applying for a role at the SMC, the body that promotes social mobility in England and assesses whether progress is being made on the commission. This year is the 15th anniversary of the Child Poverty Act, the legislation that brought the commission into being. And there remain huge disparities in the life opportunities young people enjoy depending on where they're born. A recent report by the Sutton Trust charity revealed the top 20 constituencies for opportunity are all in London, with the North East and North West in England over-represented among the lowest ranked areas. Mr Francis says education isn't a magic bullet to bridge the gap and that the state of the economy - and a lack of higher-paid professional jobs in some parts of the country - is at the heart of the issue. "We've also got some issues around opportunity for those at the bottom end," he says. "An inability to move out of what might be described as an opportunity bottleneck. "That's where there's a mixture of low paid, low qualification work, welfare, family breakdown, a range of interconnected problems which actually mean that instead of having a trampoline those who grow up in those areas end up having a bit of a swamp which holds them back rather than projects them forward." Mr Francis joined Blackpool and The Fylde College in 2023 after 13 years at Oldham College, and says the Greater Manchester borough and the Lancashire coast have a number of similar challenges. And he says in one respect, Blackpool has more economic opportunities than Oldham because of the resort's strong tourism economy and recent successful regeneration work. The Blackpool Multiversity scheme will see some of the country's worst housing stock knocked down and replaced with a centre for learning that offers a variety of ways to acquire higher level skills, rather than just one route to university. Oldham's relationship to the booming city of Manchester "makes things more complex", he says, though praises the Atom Valley development zone to the north of the city bringing world-class research, manufacturing and materials together. Mr Francis says: "Manchester has boomed incredibly quickly but the vast majority of the jobs have tended to be south side of the city region. For a long time, people thought it was just about transport, but the Metrolink gives people access into the city centre. "It doesn't allow you to get across Greater Manchester that easily. If you're looking for a job in the airport, but live in the north side of Greater Manchester, that's quite difficult. However, the Metrolink hasn't proved to be the solution." So what are the solutions to improving social mobility? Mr Francis tells me an approach that adapts to the varying needs of different places is the way forward. But what hasn't helped is the constant churn of policies and decision-makers, with more than 20 Ministers for skills coming and going over the course of the last three or four Westminster administrations. And he says governments need to stop doing things that are very expensive but not necessarily effective. Perhaps surprisingly he cites New Labour's flagship policy of Sure Start centres as an example of this. The centres did "definitely achieve some good outcomes", he says, but only improved education achievement by one GCSE grade for people living nearby. "When you consider how much it cost, there may be other ways of achieving that improvement in grades which would be more effective." He adds: "We need to come up with better solutions that are more affordable, but also start to have a better track record in terms of effectiveness. "And that's why we've moved down the direction of the place-based approaches, because quite honestly, there's not a great toolkit of things that we can say 'do these things and everything will be fine'."
The Sun
24-05-2025
- General
- The Sun
Students in South nearly TWICE as likely to get three A* A-level grades than those in North
STUDENTS in the South of England are nearly twice as likely to get three A* A-level grades than those in the North, data reveals. Just 5,800 of the 258,000 who sat the exams last year came away with three or more top grades. Of those, 3,779 were from the South and 2,021 in the North. Nine out of ten of the best areas for A-levels were in the South. Pupils in reading, in Berks, came out top — with seven per cent hitting the highest grades. Dozens in London suburbs Kingston, Newham, Sutton and Barnet also got top marks. The Government stats show Salford, Gtr Manchester, fared the worst, with a single set of three A* grades. Social mobility expert Professor Lee Elliot Major called it a national scandal, saying: 'These figures lay bare a brutal truth — your chances of the highest academic success at school are still shaped more by where you live than what you're capable of. 'This A-star divide highlights the vast differences in support offered to today's children and young people both outside and inside the classroom. 'Increasingly A-level grades are as much a sign of how much support young people have had as much as their academic capability. 'This isn't just a North-South education divide. It's a London and South East versus the rest Divide.' The Department for Education said: 'We are taking measures to tackle baked-in inequalities.'
Times
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Times
Trans children more likely to be white and privileged, says head
Transgender children tend to be 'white and privileged', Britain's so-called strictest head teacher has claimed. Katharine Birbalsingh, head of the Michaela Community School in Wembley, northwest London, said her school was unlikely to have any trans pupils because of its mainly ethnic-minority intake. Birbalsingh, who previously worked as the government's social mobility tsar, told The London Standard: 'If one actually did a survey on this sort of thing nationally, I think you would find that white privileged kids would be more likely to be doing that. No question.' • Birbalsingh: Gentle middle-class parenting can be harmful She added: 'Our society is such that victimhood is admired. And if you feel that you're white and privileged, then you don't have much of a victimhood narrative to
Telegraph
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Trans children more likely to be ‘white and privileged', says Katharine Birbalsingh
Transgender children are more likely to be 'white and privileged', Britain's so-called strictest head teacher has claimed. Katharine Birbalsingh, 52, also said that they are searching for 'victimhood narratives', which she claims are 'admired' in modern society. The former government social mobility tsar, who is head teacher at the Michaela Community School in north west London, suggested she was 'unlikely' to have any transgender pupils because of the school's heavy ethnic minority intake. 'I think if one actually did a survey on this sort of thing nationally, I think you would find that white privileged kids would be more likely to be doing that,' she told The Standard. 'No question. 'Our society is such that victimhood is admired. And if you feel that you're white and privileged, then you don't have much of a victimhood narrative to embrace. 'So then you need to find something to embrace to be respected by your peers.' Ms Birbalsingh said she did not expect to be welcoming a trans pupil soon because much of the Michaela intake is from the inner city. 'That plays a huge part,' she continued. 'I think they'd be less inclined.' She added that she would want to support any child identifying as trans at the school and 'make sure they weren't just participating in a fad'. The head teacher said her school discourages children from doing anything 'performative'. 'Of course there are obstacles – racism, transphobia, homophobia, misogyny, all that exists clearly,' she added. 'But how you react to that obstacle is up to you. We reject victimhood and embrace agency and personal responsibility.' 157 children under 10 await gender care New figures show 157 children awaiting gender care in England and Wales are aged 10 or under. The data, obtained following the Supreme Court's ruling on the definition of a woman last month, also show there were 6,225 children on the national waiting list at the end of March – up from 5,560 at the same point a year earlier. Although the court ruling does not directly affect pupils, as gender recognition certificates are only available to people aged 18 or over, experts have said it will have consequences for the school admission policies of single-sex schools. The Telegraph has previously revealed that the NHS is treating nursery school-age children who believe they are transgender after watering down its own guidance. Ms Birbalsingh, who is known for her strict, uncompromising rule, said her school's values 'encourage the kids to seek the truth'. She has already banned phones entirely at Michaela and encourages parents not to buy them for under-16s at all. In April last year, the High Court upheld her ban on Muslim prayers taking place during the learning day. A pupil claimed the policy was discriminatory and infringed her right to religious freedom. However, the court sided with Ms Birbalsingh who had argued the ban was vital to ensure 'children of all races and religions can thrive'.
