old school tie

Related to old school tie: Bognor Regis

the old school tie

A bond of kinship between people who graduated from the same private school and help each other in the professional world. The old school tie is still very influential in the firm, with the majority of upper management coming from the same university.
See also: old, school, tie
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

the old school tie

BRITISH
The old school tie is the way in which men who have been to the most famous British private schools use their positions of power to help improve the careers of other men who went to the same school. Networking is a major part of male culture — whether through the old school tie, the pub, the club or the sports field. Note: You can use the old school tie before a noun. So does the old school tie network still exist?
See also: old, school, tie
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

the old school tie

the attitudes of group loyalty and traditionalism associated with wearing the tie of a particular public school. British
See also: old, school, tie
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

the ˌold school ˈtie

(British English) an informal system in which upper class men educated at the same private school help each other with jobs, contracts, etc. in their adult lives: People say that the bank is run on the old school tie system.
See also: old, school, tie
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

old school tie

A social or business network of graduates of a secondary school, college, or university in which the members help each other because of their common bond. Among the sartorial details of the Harry Potter movies were the distinctive striped neckties that represented each house. The ties echoed those worn by students at real-life British boarding schools and universities and at American prep schools and colleges. Many alumni continue to sport the neckwear for the rest of their lives to show their academic heritage and to allow themselves to be recognized by fellow graduates. Small wonder, then, that this feeling of pride and sense of community makes these alumni kindly disposed to their colleagues, willing if not eager to help them find employment or membership and to gain advancement. In that sense, “tie” refers both to the cravat and to the interpersonal relationship. A similar expression, “old boy network,” comes from the British expression for a graduate of certain upper-crust boarding schools: As a graduate of Eton, James Bond was an Eton old boy.
See also: old, school, tie
Endangered Phrases by Steven D. Price
See also:
  • the old school tie
  • let out of
  • let out of (something or some place)
  • How do you like school?
  • alight from
  • teach school
  • new school
  • school
  • dropout factory
  • alma mater
References in periodicals archive
But it will be some time yet before the old school tie can be told to get knotted.
"In most businesses the old school tie, or even the degree scroll are not as valuable as practical experience and the right attitude.
YOUR article "Old School Tie for Star Gareth Bale" (Echo, March 28) celebrated the achievements and inclusive approach of Eglwys Newydd Primary School towards developing football.
The other side of the coin is that when Brown is evicted from No 10, he is likely to be offered bank directorships by the old boy network, the old school tie brigade and a certain secret society for looking after them.
Oxford and Cambridge were told yesterday they will merely reinforce their elitist, "old school tie" image by refusing to take part in a national survey of students.
Kate Winslet just about got away with her satin suit but Jude Law clearly couldn't afford a collar in the same colour as his shirt and thought his old school tie would be just the thing to wow the ladies.
What, then, about buck-toothed, inbred chinless wonders who only get by because of the old school tie network?
Spokesman John Hipkin said: "It's the old school tie thing - a lot of the officers were from good families and ex-Etonians.
And, as for my old school tie, that was eventually ceremonially destroyed to the sound of Alice Cooper singing School's Out.
One graduate who has just been taken on by a City firm admitted: "I did fairly poorly at university but the old school tie opened a few doors.
Not which old school tie they wear with their trainers.
Seems to me that what we are seeing is that tax fraud is OK because it's the boys in the old school tie at it, while benefit fraud is about the sink estates and single mums.
OLD SCHOOL TIE: Six-year-oldElizabeth Taylor tries a Mosspits tie for size on Lord Goldsmith; Pictures: EDDIE BARFORD; HAPPY RETURNS: Lord and Lady Goldsmith and local MP Jane Kennedy surrounded by eager pupils; FOND MEMORIES: Lord Goldsmith chats to two girls in the cloakroom at his old primary school
The study, carried out by The Economist magazine, claims the age of an 'old school tie' establishment, drawn from public schools and Oxford and Cambridge, is over and anyone with ability can now reach the top in industry and politics.
If only they could decide what makes them English, without reference to the Queen, the Army, the Old School tie, the Falklands, Maggie Thatcher, the Bulldog Breed and Land of Hope and Glory.