I had a work experience student when i worked at the francis crick institute in london. We had to take students from the local borough which i believe is the poorest area in the country.

This kid was smart but didn’t seem very interested. At the end of the week j would always sit them down and talk about what they had learned and how they could put that in cover letters or uni applications.

In the end it came out that his mum had basically told him he has to go to Cambridge or its worthless. That seems to be the rhetoric given to the poor. If you are amazing you will go to oxbridge if you arent you will go nowhere.

This kid was easily capable or getting into good unis such as kent, southhampton etc but just had lost all motivation because his mum didn’t care unless he met an unattainable goal.