At my kid’s school, a fee needs to be paid with the application for NHS. As soon as I saw that, I told her she could not be in it - and assured her it would be ok.
I guess if you’re poor you don’t deserve to be in NHS either, at D’s school anyway. (Not that we are low-income, we could afford the fee with no problem, it was the principle… I found requesting a free very unsavory.)
In my own high school, back in the day, it was pretty much what #13 said.
I think if your kid has plenty of ECs and/or a part-time job, and gets decent grades, that’s enough for most colleges - and from what I hear, the top colleges don’t care about NHS…