To ask why you send your children to private school?

If Labour does get it, they are going to go ahead with the 20%

It's too much for us and a lot of our friends. When you have two children, it's no joke

well I’ll be voting Labour at the next election

but in the meantime parents taking some kids out of the state system to pay for their education privately surely helps the state system? It’s not like there’s room for the extra 5%!

Oh and that children go from a 1-8 ratio (I think) at pre school to 1-30 at reception. The private school had a teacher and TA for a class of between 16-20 (and that still looked like hard work).

Covid- local state school was occasionally sending homeschool twinkl sheets to be done but very little input. Private school did full timetable of lessons even 1-1 reading over zoom!

@Futb0l Why would they care about the current crisis in state schools when they have the money to pay to pay for a private education their kids? Not their problem is it?

People's opinions of state schools on mumsnet are disgusting and full of entitlement.

95% of british children are educated in our state schools.

Your children are not special, they don't deserve better than everyone else because you can drum up thousands of pounds to pay. If you truly think state schools are SO bad, change how you vote so all our children get something better.

Agree with PP re: better/more feedback and communication from school to parents, both formal and informal. My friends with children at the local state school are disappointed by how little feedback they get from the teachers and some have even had parent/teacher meetings scrapped altogether. We get regular and hoc communication, in the form of photos, feedback on class work and homework, as well as termly reports and meetings. It makes a difference.

Class sizes. That’s pretty much all it comes down to for me, DS does much, much better in smaller groups both socially and academically. That in turn makes him do better and feel more confident.

It’s certainly nothing to do with facilities, demographic, location or peer group.

Something I see a benefit from is how often his school reports back to parents. We get a report or sorts every half term, short form at the end of a half term and long form at the end of a term. I don’t think the oversubscribed state schools local to us do this (understandably), and I find it very helpful.

The extra curricular offering. Clubs every lunchtime, and the ability to play in music groups, which are extremely limited at our local state school.

Also modern language provision - our local comp offers one, vs three on offer in the private school.

And finally, because we can afford it. If we couldn’t, we’d have moved into catchment for better schools instead. Like good middle class people.

By the way, to the poster who thinks it’s to avoid the riff-raff - I am the riff-raff - grew up one of the poorest families on a council estate, and got out because I was lucky enough to have a fantastic state education so I take education very seriously. I wish state education was more consistent across the country, but there is literally a postcode lottery. I hope Labour are serious about investment in the sector - it’s badly needed round here.

Smaller class sizes. Better teacher student ratio. More one on one attention. Better resources and more emphasis on extra curricular education. Ethos of school was well rounded and supportive.

@NotGoingToLie to add @AbsentCause put another argument far more eloquently than I can rewrite!

@NotGoingToLie diversity comes in all different forms. But for us he will be exposed to different cultures, religions and beliefs and be accepting that everyone is unique. Far cry from his current school where there is one black child and some of the parents weren't happy he was at the school - shocking. The school can't help the lack of diversity but I don't want my son in an environment about that.

In response to your comment about "riff raff" I want my son to go to school to learn, be the best he can be and have the best experiences. I want him to experience all walks of life and understand that he is privileged to be able to go to the school we're sending him to, it's nothing about the riff raff....in fact we probably are the riff raff! Why should I be ashamed that my husband and I have worked bloody hard to be able to be in a position to do this and want the best for our son?
What would you do? Leave your child in a crap school to just about scrape by or do all you can for them to have the best?

I'm not in the UK. But my DC are in private secondary as it was the only school place my eldest was offered. And it's smaller and co-ed which isn't a mix otherwise available in my town.

But not in the UK and annual fees are under £4k pa. Which wouldn't have covered one term of the local private secondary where we lived in England.

My kids aren’t school age yet but in the late 90s:

-I was sent to private secondary due to my catchment school being in special measures, a terrible impression on the open day, and physical bullying by boys in my state primary.

-My DH was moved to a primary as the state primary was really holding him back academically, especially with reading.

I agree with the PP that said for one child, it may be affordable as it is similar to nursery fees.

I probably won’t be able to afford it but ideally i’d also want my kids to have a single-sex education from secondary.

My son did not get in to the nearest four state schools due to oversubscription. He was offered a place across the borough in a huge council estate. So from A rated schools he was offered one way down the scale no where near where we lived. My husband was a high earner and we decided to send him to an 'alternative' independent (actually the choice was not really up to us as that was the only school with places available). Having no experience with private schools or the education system in this country I had no idea you didn't just go to your nearest school. Or just how alternative the school they went to was. Anyway after my husband died I had to move to a cheaper area and looked at schools - all were poor but there was a co ed non selective private school that went through A levels and got good results do they went there until sixth form - my son went to a vocational college and my DD and I moved when it was her time back to London where she went to a selective all girls school. I don't regret the expense one bit.

I sent mine because they didn't pass the 11 plus and the other school in catchment was dire. She went into a class of ten pupils and had a great time and a brilliant education.

Because my SEN kid was physically attacked by a group of kids at his outstanding state school. Huge amounts of time and money spent on helping him to recover (it will take years) and now huge amounts of money spent on giving him a safe environment in which to learn. The teachers at his old school cared, but they were too stretched and the school too big for them to support him or any other child going through it. And there were many other children going through it. Moved other DC out of the school soon afterwards. They both say they feel sad for the children who are still there and enduring it every day. Essentially the school is too big, too underfunded and the teachers too stressed to be able to provide the environment they desperately want to. And this is an outstanding "leafy comp" in a wealthy area that people move to get their children into. Makes me so angry.

I applied for my daughter but she was not accepted to the two I applied for. So she will be going to a state school.

my reasoning is because I am in London and work in secondaries in the area. Her current primary school struggle to meet her needs and in secondary it will be even tougher on her.

Teachers struggle to meet the needs of children. This is absolutely not an attack on teachers. The current pressures on teachers are ridiculous and it only trickles down to the children.

children and teachers are no longer given the support needed.

There seems to be ridiculous consequences and sanctions for unnecessary reasons, for example not wearing your blazer during 30 degree heat and being forced into isolation.

Due to the lower class numbers in private education, teachers can focus more on individuals and parent/teacher communication seems to be far more effective.

The counter argument to this is that it’s definitely a good thing to learn to be able to muck along with everyone (eg in a state). At the end of the day unless you’re in the extremely privileged category you’re going to have to learn to work with people from all walks of life, not just the rich ones.

Not yet but we are considering the local private for secondary. Putting cost factors aside the main advantages we see are

-extra curricular activities (not just sport). The school day is somewhat longer to incorporate them and we feel the DCs will just get a more rounded experience

-DCs are bright and would likely do fine at state but having been to both state and private myself I believe they would be more academically pushed at private- and would respond well to this

-local state options are ok but underfunded and teachers clearly overworked and underpaid. I don’t think that sort of environment is going to be the best for learning

I am a Labour voter and fairly morally opposed to the idea that we have a two tier system tbh. But at the end of the day it’s natural to want the best for your dc if you are lucky enough to be able to afford private.

I love it that my sociable teen has friends from the two extreme ends of the social spectrum. That’s proper diversity.

I don’t think anybody’s criticising state schools for their (lack of) ethnic diversity, it’s just the way catchments work. But it is noticeable that privates are usually more ethnically diverse.

Obviously at least at primary level they are not economically diverse - once you get to secondary you start getting kids on bursaries so there’s a bit more of a range.

But even state schools aren’t always economically diverse - I grew up in an area where the affluent areas had much better state schools and the poorer areas were much worse. There was a massive economic divide between the kids in those schools.

Anyway, there are many different types of diversity. For us the school’s ability to handle neuro-diversity was the biggest issue.

Avoiding DC from different backgrounds isn’t a driver. I see the lack of socioeconomic diversity as a disadvantage, and donate to the bursary fund to try and help improve it.

Or do you mean avoiding bad behaviour and disrupted classrooms? Yes, that is a driver. I’ve seen parents on MN argue that it’s good for DC to experience this, as it’s the real world and toughens them up. I understand the argument, but disagree.

I don’t think it’s really fair to criticise a state school in a non diverse area for not having a diverse intake?! What are they supposed to do!

Also it’s not diverse as it’s segregated by wealth. I worked in the City in an international team and my colleagues were like the United Nations in terms of ethnic diversity but everyone was private school educated (except me ha) / wealthy families /intelligent/ qualified as lawyers. Most of them were in an international wealthy social set l. So were actually really similar demographic despite different nationalities. They were all similar to each other but were all world away from the people I went to school with.

We were really happy with our local infant school but when our DS moved into the junior school things weren't so good.
He was bright and easily reaching their targets but they had no interest in giving him work at his level.
Once you are in the private system you can get carried along into private secondary too as all their friends are going there.