Bolton Kings Leadership teacher on changing accent at Oxford

Ben Jones, 28, is now a senior leader at Kings Leadership Academy  in Great Leverbut admits that his path hasn’t always been easy thanks to accent-influenced prejudice.

Stockport-born Mr Jones told the Sutton Trust’s Speaking Up report, which examines the impact that someone’s accent has on their journey through education and the workplace, about his experience at university.

He said: “I was hyper-aware of my accent at university.

"It is certainly something that people judge you on, they assume that it means you are not well-educated or cultured.

Ben Jones, 28, is now a school leader at King's Leadership Academy in Bolton (Image: PA)

“The minute you open your mouth, literally, you have a disadvantage.

“Someone I had just met once asked me whether my hometown was one of those desolate wastelands where the factories used to be.

“All this ultimately led me to modify the way I spoke at university to fit in.”

The Sutton Trust’s report found that public attitudes to different accents have remained largely unchanged over time.

The standard received pronunciation accent, French-accented English, and “national” standard varieties, such as Scottish, American and Irish, all ranked highly.

But accents associated with industrial cities of England, such as Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham, commonly stereotyped as ‘working class accents’, and ethnic minority accents, such as African-Caribbean and Indian, are the lowest ranked.

Another case study who spoke to the Sutton Trust researchers was  Katie Zacharczuk, 26, a solicitor who was born and raised in Liverpool.

Katie Zacharczuk, 26 from Liverpool, is now a solicitor (Image: PA)

She said it was quite a ‘culture shock’ when she went to university as she had never been around people who did not talk like her.

She said she was worried about judged as being ‘less intelligent’ or ‘not as valuable to an organisation’.

ALSO READ: Multi-million pound school build takes shape and young people put their mark on it

ALSO READ: Opening of new 900-pupil Bolton secondary school delayed for at least 12 months due to ‘delays in construction’

But she says she has never changed her accent and has never felt like she needed to, adding that she feels accepted for the way she speaks.

Ms Zacharczuk said: “I would encourage students to not change the way they speak because that’s an integral part of who you are as a person, the journey you’ve been on and the experiences that you’ve had.”