Growing up, I was top of the class. It was not an issue at primary school, as kids that age did not seem to care about that sort of thing. I then went to a rough secondary school on a council estate, that students called 'The Reject Bin', because it was the school you were sent to, not one you chose to go to. I then became a huge target for doing well in school and wanting to learn. It led to me keeping my head down for the rest of secondary school for fear of being bullied. It then led to me being ashamed of being academic until I went to sixth form at a different school.
I find that anti-intellectualism seems to be an all too common experience in the UK, even amongst adults.