Private or Public School

[annaclark]

It is a very controversial topic for me since my daughter was born. We can afford to pay for the private school, but Im not sure if we need it. We have moved to the Czech Republic and the schools are so different here. If it is a public one - it looks quite poor in quality and the overall atmosphere could be better than it is. On the other hand, the private ones look too posh. Children from the rich families, all with the iPhone X in their hands already lol! I don't want my daughter to be cynical and judgemental, cuz that's exactly how all people look there. On the other hand, I want her to get a better education in a better atmosphere. What do you think about it?

[user1495443009]

In the UK you will say state school instead of Public. I believe public in the UK means top private schools.

Sorry not much help as I don't know what schools are like there but perhaps you should look at more schools as not all the states and privates will be the same.

[annaclark]

well, when it comes to UK, i absolutely agree with you. but its absolutely the opposite here in Europe. I mean in many countries of the EU. But you are right, i should consider all of them, i guess.. argh, hard times!

[platey]

Hi Annaclark -

We were in the same mindset when DD reached school age. Both of us are from state-school-as-a-rule countries. We changed out minds re private vs state when DS (3 yrs younger) ended up in a highly academic private school (a long story there) at 5yo. We saw what a good private school can do for a child and, with a few minor reasons, DD sat 11+ and gotten into a great private girl school. She's thriving and loving it. Obviously the operative word here is 'good', which for us means academic and pastoral care.
It's a very personal decision, and to a large extend also depends on where you live - whether there are good state schools near you. Unfortunately near us the schools, particularly secondary, are of fairly poor academical quality, and the couple of good grammars are waaay to tough/pushy imo. Not to mention incredibly difficult to get in. So we ended up the private way.
DS will sit his 2nd school tests soon and we have made the decision to only apply to private schools, as he's no where mentally mature enough (ie. studying super hard) to sit the very challenging tests to get into the strongly academic grammar schools.
Good luck with your decision. Not easy, when our children's futures are dependent, in part, on it.

[TeenTimesTwo]

I think it is very unlikely anyone on here will be able to advise you on schools in the Czech Republic.

With a poor state school, you can to some extent mitigate by providing educational back up at home.
With a snooty private school, you can to some extent mitigate attitudes by your attitude at home and other social occasions.

[Lily2007]

I would look round the schools and look at the results, how happy the kids seem etc. I don't know about schools in the Czech Republic but people I know who have gone abroad to live have used international schools. If there are any of those maybe worth looking at. Lots of kids at my daughter's state primary had very expensive phones, some were around £600, seems crazy to me. The average was about £250. So you get that in some state schools here too.

[Ttbb]

If you lived in the UK I would absolutely say private but I don't know how stuff works over there. Is there actually a difference in teaching quality? Or it is just a showy status thing? Then what would the other children be like? Are the private school kids the ones on drugs or the state school ones? If it's both then who does the dealing/is involved in criminal gags? What are the other parents like? How about extra curriculars? Etc.

[Mirkobaba]

Having come from EAstern Europe I'd suggest private school! State schools in that area tend to be underfinanced and teachers overworked. Also, the benefit of learning the language is not that big as only a handful of ppl will speak it in the whole world.

[JoJoSM2]

Presumably in any country you go to, there's something extra you pay for in a private school. Generally much smaller classes, better resources and more activities, longer school day so childcare is less of an issue etc

State education i Czech and Eastern Europe is very good overall so it's a case of deciding if the extras are worth the money to you.

It's also worth checking out how much the school would actually cost. For example, in some countries you can offset the fees against tax. In some other countries the state will still pay their funding per child to the school so you only pay the top up. I don't know how it works in Czech, though.