Dr Francesca McCarthy is an Honourary Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society. Her PhD examined the lived experiences of secondary school pupils who attended a non-academically selective school within an academically selective area. Francesca’s research draws upon the sociology of education to explore the intersectional social inequalities related to academically selective education. As a former secondary school teacher, Francesca also has a strong interest in methodological approaches that research with rather than on young people.