To think State education is really poor?

Or any lot stay in power.

Because if state schools are like private schools...what would private schools then charge for?

You get what you pay for....same with everything in life. It will never be equitable.

@overthehill5 what is the relevance of this line of questioning? I don't understand why it matters?

How insulting to teachers in the state sector! My children are in state schools and are having a wonderful experience so far! Their teachers work damned hard!

Apart from the 16 per class I can't see how any of that is so superior. So they can play football on wet grass? Wow great... Our state school has specialists teaching most subjects.
I personally think my kids are getting a great education at their state schools. We couldn't be happier.

Longer than the usual! So 2 days they finish at 4.10 rather than 3.10. 6 lessons those days instead of 5.

State education is incredibly poor. We have no money at all.

What an daft post. OP your small village state school in a wealthy area can't be a bench mark for all state schools lol, if small it's prob even more underfunded than bigger schools. The private school has sold you the marketing lines full on!
You can have all that as long as you pay £25-20k a year. The two year line is tosh. Maybe your child just isn't very bright

@overthehill5 I don't know the definite answer to that because she has left the school and I have no access to the timetable.

I have just asked her however and she reckons she had 25 lessons a week. 5 lessons a day (3 of them being 1 hour long and 2 being 50 mins long). Then in year 10 and 11 they had the 2 extra lessons per week, so in those years there'd be 27 lessons a week.

I work in state primary. Chn are welcome to bring wellies and waterproofs in.

Obviously private school is better in lots of ways. But don’t drive yourself into the ground earning enough to send your kids there thinking it’s the key to their happiness.

Small class sizes and wellie walks are great if your child gets on well with the other kids. But small class sizes also mean less choice of friends. My DC was much happier in a larger state class than a smaller private class.

Do you think that all the middle and upper class people who became doctors and lawyers “wanted something badly enough they’d work for it” to the same extent?

A child willing to learn will likely get the same results regardless of what school they attend.

My children attend state schools and it's a brilliant school. There is lots extra curricular activities for them to choose from all paid for by the school and it is actively encouraged.

They also have forestry school, not limited to KS1 and not that it makes it an outstanding school, they also have wellies and waterproofs so they can play on the grass when wet.

Sounds like your private school doesn't offer anything that our state school does not provide, except a lighter wallet!

I think if you get lucky in state then it can be really good. Even with the lower per pupil £, of course they’ll be differences but cohort is a big part of it and there are plenty of invested state parents (in many areas)

I know this isn't the point of the thread but I would have absolutely hated having to do PE everyday. Especially in the rain!

I mean, what do you expect for the 💰 💰💰?

Other Dd has a bf that went to private school and some of his friends are such arrogant wankers. Anecdotal I know but never come across so many in a small sample. So glad my girls mixed with normal people.

Money. State schools do a bloody good job with the pittance they have.

The private school reckon DS is 2 years behind their curriculum. We've been told in state that he's meeting expectations. How is this remotely acceptable?

But there will be lots of children in state schools who are doing much more than just "meeting expectations", and there will be plenty of kids at your ds's school who are probably working at similar levels to the private school.

Private schools tend to be selective. Even those that are not explicitly selective will be selective to a significant degree because of the kind of families that can afford private education and choose to pay for it. Many are also quite good at moving children on when they can't keep up.

So if the majority of kids in a particular private school are mostly working ahead of age-related expectations, that doesn't necessarily mean that the school is doing a better job of teaching them, or indeed that any individual child transferring to that school will suddenly start doing better. The chances are, most of the kids with similar demographic characteristics in state schools are also performing significantly above age-related expectations.

Of course, some kids will benefit from slightly smaller class sizes/pushier academic environments. I think this is particularly the case for those kids who hover just above average academically (ie fairly bright but not high fliers) and/or the ones who lack drive/self motivation. Private schools may well offer more support to help those kids succeed. A smaller number of private schools may also offer great support for kids with SEN (though this really depends on the school... sometimes, they will get much better support in the state sector.) For the kind of kids who are likely to excel anywhere, I think it's a waste of money, personally.

And of course, some people are happy to pay for fancy buildings/one-stop-shop extracurricular activities so that they don't have to facilitate these out of school etc. Fair enough if you think it's worth it. I didn't really care about buildings and preferred dd to do extracurricular stuff outside of school in any case, so those things weren't really selling points for me.

Ultimately, I think it depends on the schools in question, your individual child(ren) and what you're looking for from a school. I think you're working on seriously flawed logic though, if you're forming an opinion that private = good and state = bad on the basis of a one-day marketing exercise carried out by one single school. Hats off to them though, as they've obviously got the marketing just right for their target audience!

Oh and among her peers at Durhum, she and her fellow state school friend had the highest A level grades of all of her private school friends.

DD went to a state primary that was in special measures for a few of the years she was there. Then went to a state secondary that was outstanding. Then to Durham uni with three A*s and graduated with a 1st. Yeah , state schools are shit! 🙄

As I've already said, some of us don't measure educational value on results alone. I'm paying for a broad and varied education rather than a narrow and limiting curriculum. The results are almost immaterial because it is about the journey not the destination.

My son attends a private school, which on their marketing pages of their website, seems very appealing. It is so diabolical in reality that I cannot wait for him to leave after he sits his exams in 2024. I pay for private tutors and teach subject gaps. Staff turnover is incredible. Five teachers left last summer. Head teacher is condescending and interested in money only. He teaches an extra two subjects on top of his degree subject to save his wages bill and then struggles to manage/ mentor staff. I refuse to send my younger child there as a result as this is not good value. I wanted my son to go to a good school as the local state offer is very poor, and has poor outcomes. I went to a very bad state school and worked extra hard to catch up at college. The perception that private is better quality does not pan out in reality based on my own experience and other parents feel the same who are trapped in the school contract.

@overthehill5 not sure quite what you mean, but they put on one hour extra a week in Maths and one hour extra a week in English at the end of the school day. So the school day was one hour longer on the days they ran the extra lessons.