To ask why you send your children to private school?

Reasons:

1. Smaller class size so more individual attention which my child needs, amazing extracurricular, good wrap around care,
2. no charts peg charts on the wall that put kids in the “naughty” zone right away etc. which I saw in the outstanding state schools near us - that’s not an approach I can get behind.
3. We are a very academic family - DH and I met at Oxford, my anticipation/hope is that our child (likely an only) has this potential too and we want to give him the best opportunity to fulfill it.
4. We can afford it - though do need to sacrifice posh cars and flash holidays etc - but I wouldn’t enjoy them knowing that they had come at the expense of DC’s opportunities.
5. I went to private school from age 8, academic scholarship covering most of the fees the whole way through. My brothers also went but this was because they both had SEN and weren’t coping in state systems - so this system has worked well for my family and I want the same for my DC
6. I feel huge guilt about it as it’s not the “morally correct choice”, but I met a few people at university that had been sent to state schools by privately educated parents as a “moral act” and they were all so odd - the leaders of the Baby Conservatives types - think Jacob Rees Mog. I don’t want that outcome for our DC.

SEN that wouldn’t be even partially met in a state school, but not severe enough for one of the extremely limited spaces in a special school, now at an independent specialist school and thriving.

My ex-SIL sent her kids private because she didn't want to teach them to read herself and also because the wide range of before and after-school clubs meant she had more time at home without them.

Bright child with dyslexia, was getting no support at primary level. Hasn't looked back in an all through school with an excellent provision.
Second child has no sen requirements but didn't feel right to treat them differently. They are very different children but thriving in their own way.

It's crippling cost wise though and we're very much in the lower end of the market fees wise - between £5500 and £6k per term. I don't know how people manage in London / SE where it's closer to £8k.
I don't know what we'll do if 20% car gets slapped on.

I didn't go to private school and have no issue with state at all if my kids get what they need. They enjoy a lot of frills at private school they could easily do without and frankly would be good for them. I'm not comfortable with the level of privilege they enjoy but they're too young to really appreciate their world is massively different to most.

I'll still vote labour though. Couldn't bring myself to vote for Boris last time around, his replacement(s) have been no more honourable if less clownish.

My kids both have SEN and the private provision works a thousand times better for them.

Oh, and wraparound care is a common reason too.

I don't have children but I am a teacher 8n a prep school and the most common reasons parents use us are:

1. they have children with neurodiversity or learning needs that mean they haven't been coping in the state system.
2. broader/better curricular and co curricular oppirtunitues.
3. smaller class sizes and more individual attention for them and their children.
4. family tradition/lots of money/just what they 'do' (this mindset just wouldn't have state schools on their radar).

Our local state schools are pretty good, but we've been financially fortunate and have enough surplus money that we don't need for any other specific purpose. So thinking about the things that I'd want to splurge on most, and I felt that education was most important to me. DCs would have been fine at state school, but the private school is just nicer, with small class sizes, extracurriculars, sport, facilities, excellent food and specialist teachers. It takes their breadth and knowledge up a notch beyond good English and maths skills (which I think most state schools do well on). We aren't sacrificing anything to go private and still have holidays and days out, a nice house etc.

This makes me sad. All the things listed sound fab. Such a shame my child and most others won’t have these opportunities. The bit about ‘enjoying’ school rather than ‘enduring’ really hit a nerve.

Our DC started school in the independent sector because he was very prem and very young in year. It seemed much simpler to send him to a private school and defer a year.

However, despite the school being a large, well established and well regarded school, we were totally disillusioned with it by Yr4 and left to go to local primary. There was really nothing there for the academic child. The amount of sport was absurd. The curriculum was stale having been endlessly regurgitated for decades.

'Touring the state schools near me was horrifying' - how very mumsnet

One of mine goes because it’s named on her EHCP and suits her. Another will probably be the same before too long.

We live in a grammar school area. I have 4 children. 3 very high achieving academically. My eldest has autism and dyspraxia and literally everything is hard for him. But he loves a rule and has a great sense of authority and as such never puts a foot wrong at school. He struggles a bit academically but does sit within his cohort. So in short significant impact of his asd and DcD but not a profile that would get an echp or much additional support.

I could not bring myself to send him to one of the other schools locally for secondary, I really felt he wouldn't cope. Thankfully my wonderful mil gave us some early inheritance and he goes to a small independent secondary school. The class sizes enable him to cope better but it still isn't perfect. I have alot of guilt that we can only do this for one, especially as the others would make much better use of the extra curriculars, but the playing field is already so uneven for him and it felt like the only way to sort it out a bit.

JungsWordTest
It isn’t tougher for the privately education to get into the top unis, it’s quite the reverse. They are massively over represented even though the percentage of privately educated students are so low. We’re talking about students with the same exam results.

“Across all definitions of top university, students from private schools are over-represented. For example, several universities in the Russell Group have very low proportions of students from state-funded secondary schools.” Sutton Trust

Outstanding state school didn’t stretch her - fine; that’s our job to pick up at home. However, then it degraded to behaviour in class being so poor teachers couldn’t manage and class locked down regularly ending up with them just managing to (barely) get through maths and English each day and nothing else at all. On top of that my child being so bullied and teachers and head ignoring for months - my child wanted to harm themselves and tried to run away to escape the school. We tried to engage with school but they wouldn’t do anything meaningful to change it. So we left and our child thrived in a small, nurturing - private as no other state had places mid year - environment again. Then got into a selective private secondary so we’re just going with private - wasn’t the plan but we can definitely see the benefits!

Felt like the state system was broken. Had seen first hand how it had failed my nephew. Felt more confident about private. Have just one child so whilst the fees are felt it is doable. Gives more certainty with before and after school care which is essential as we both work full time.

Hands down, my child gets a better education (he has friends in the equivalent state school and they simply don't have the teachers, nor the resources, to offer anything remotely similar). But he also gets the huge benefit of extracurricular activities and opportunities.

What I've noticed in the last year or so, though, is that it is far tougher to get into Oxbridge and Russell Group unis, which is as it should be - though at times the reverse discrimination is jarring.

It cost the same as nursery fees which was affordable for us (one child). It provided much better wrap around care. It's much more ethnically diverse.

Op, that won"t be all the children at the school, just some

Secondary school near us is a massive academy chain. Bad behaviour, huge site, dispiriting paint-by-numbers curriculum. Everything is corporate, dictated by their central directors and teachers have zero freedom to teach interesting and creative lessons.

Private school is a tiny rural one, not fancy, no particular focus on sports or extra-curriculars but a real nurturing approach. Teachers can teach, and they can get to know the pupils. The pastoral care was what my shy, anxious child needed.

Check if they have passed an account of these incidents to the council - they have to have done by law. If not report them. If they have, then they need to have recorded the outcome as well

Because an independent school was the only one within 50 miles that could meet my child's needs.

I don't pay the fees though, it's funded via his EHCP.

DD will be starting at private reception in September. Touring the state primaries near me was horrifying. There’s no money for TAs, so 30 four year olds (many with undiagnosed SEN, no English at home, myriad social problems) share a single teacher. I don’t believe they can actually teach much in those circumstances.

Because they have learning needs that the local state school cannot meet. We did try for a few years to stay put but they were falling further and further behind. Moved age 7.