Tosif’s story

I grew up in Wakefield and went to Wakefield City Academy, which is a state school. I quite enjoyed school and it’s something I look back on with fondness. The teachers for the most part were good at what they did and took pride in the grades students got.

At our school, our year group was split into five ‘sets’ depending on academic ability – I was in the higher sets and most of my friends were also. We were frequently encouraged to go to university and throughout my time in school there were various school trips to the University of Leeds. Going to university wasn’t a given, but was almost expected for those in my set. There were various schemes at that point such as ‘Aimhigher’ that encouraged Higher Education. However, had I been in a different set, I think this would have been vastly different, I think there would be more barriers for those in lower sets and less encouragement to continue in education.

I loved maths at school but got put off when letters got involved, and realised it was the problem solving side that I enjoyed. My A level law tutor was really engaging, and I decided I wanted to pursue law after two weeks of studying it in college. Things may have been different had I had a different tutor! I studied A level law at college and loved criminal law and continued onto law at university.

I really enjoyed the culture at Gordons and the responsibility given to juniors, who are able to feel like part of the team, rather than just someone in the corner. I did the vacation scheme in 2023 and got offered a training contract, and was lucky enough to be able to paralegal for a year before that.

I think my experience made it fairly straightforward due to my grades, but there is still a gap between the opportunities for those at state school and those at private school. In state school, it is potentially more difficult for those to get the best grades and unfortunately, we are still in a system that values grades above everything else. The environment itself is then a barrier, through no fault of the individual, which has a trickle down effect and impacts on what university an individual gets the grades to attend etc. I think state schools have a responsibility to encourage further education / professional careers to more students, not only the higher achievers. Law firms and similar can also play a part by contextualising grades, for example, not automatically disregarding a CV that got BBB for one with AAA and assuming they are the better candidate.