To think private education probably isn't worth it?

I’m never going to feel ashamed about the money I’ve earned. I’m not rolling in it either!

@Summerhillsquare what's wrong with being in the so called elite? If you work hard at a job you get paid for it, and these high paying jobs come with certain responsibilities and risk. Is that a crime?

It's not about grades. I got 5 As at A level at a mediocre state comprehensive. I don't think the experience did me any good in other ways. I would have liked to enjoy my school years, felt safe, enjoyed learning, had opportunities to do different activities. Instead it was a case of keeping a low profile, strategically skipping the lessons with the worst bullies. My parents didn't give me a house deposit either though. Maybe if they had I would think it was worth it?

If you can afford school fees you are in the richest 7% of the population, very much the elite. Why pretend otherwise?

I got a government assisted place in the 90s and it was incredible. It was a completely different environment where everyone wanted to learn and took pride in it. I loved every moment.

Depends on the child, the alternative options (and whether you can get in) and the quality of the private school.

This. We failed to get a state place at a decent school. So DD1 is going private for secondary (yr 7-11). DD2 will be better served in state and we have more chance to get her in - so she’ll be state.

it all depends on what you have available.

Because almost no private school parents are paying just for the extra curriculars? Both my kids have SEN, it’s unlikely they’ll ever access the after school clubs etc, they struggle enough to do the core subjects. I don’t care. I’m paying for the small class sizes and teachers that have time to know my kids and actually teach them.

More briefly, they must think it's worth it or they're not being very rational, are they?

Round here a fair few customers of private primary schools are dual income couples working in medicine/finance/law/corporate roles. The attraction is the schools cover from nursery age to 11, are open early to late and after school activities are within that, so for example your child could do martial arts or cooking or whatever and then go to after school club. All on the same site. Organised by the school. While they get on with earning the money to pay the fees...

Plus the schools prepare for 11+ and the entrance exams for private senior schools.

Basically they fulfil a need that the state sector does not, because it doesn't need to as its purpose is education, not education + childcare and state primaries don't prepare for entrance exams.

Maybe some of these parents think about "return on investment" but I think it's more likely they want to keep their jobs without being subject to the vagaries of state wraparound provision. Holiday clubs are easier to find than wraparound.

For us yes. We only do primary level. The schools near us are over subscribed and not very good. So for us it gives/gave our dds a solid foundation in their learning, attitude towards learning, homework capability, faster paced reading development, much smaller classes ect..

I actually spent sometime with the local primary schools pre dc because of my work and even though the teachers were fab there was just too many children. Too much time was taken up organising the kids to achieve any real bums on seats learning. it must be beyond frustrating for the teachers.

I don’t see it as an investment as such just being fortunate enough to give them the best start we could in their education.

Why spend £500 a week for extracurriculars? You could enrol your kids in music lessons and clubs every evening and weekend and pay a lot less than that.

£500 a week. That's a huge amount of money just to play a bit of hockey and do some acting.

It wasn't horrific or anything. It was just not worth paying for, in my opinion. Very old-fashioned, extremely sporty but academically mediocre, poor staff retention, not great behaviour. Bloody freezing old buildings. Beautiful location though!

This is very true. There are definitely private schools I wouldn’t spend my money on.

What was the 'worst'?

My colleague (whos in his 50s) regularly bemoans what he spent privately educating his three.

One's an eternal student living at home

One's never really committed to a career (late 20s) and cycles through poorly paid temp jobs interspersed with going backpacking

One went to uni for years, left with a pile of debt & a 2.2 and became an estate agent

It's never occurred to me to measure the value of private education in terms of financial output.

We sent our children private as we wanted them to go somewhere where they were happy and engaged every day, that was well funded, where there was a full staff of teachers, where they were safe, where there was a good range of extra curricular activities at a high level including multiple sports fixtures, music and drama, where they could choose which language they studied at GCSE (including more than one if they so wished or indeed none if they so wished), where classes were small enough that teachers knew and understood them personally, where teachers had enough time and capacity to do their job well. Whilst, of course, some state schools do manage to offer that, sadly the only state school we would have been offered (massive shortage of schools in our area - nearest school is the only one that we'd have got into) wasn't able to offer any of those things.

We chose the school we thought would best meet our children's needs and which would give them the happiest and most fulfilled school years. Future earnings didn't come into it.

Do people really consider future earnings as the most important measure of success?

No. Absolutely not so. I was simply looking for somewhere safe. That's all.

When Ofsted, the govt inspector, announces publicly that the school your child has been offered, isn't safe, that the younger pupils are at serious risk, the 'social network' wasn't even on my radar.

All I cared about was finding somewhere where my ds would be happy. I didn't even worry about grades. I just wanted him to be safe.

Most private school parents see education as much more than a financial return on investment. Do I think that my children being happy to go into school every morning, not be disrupted by poor behaviour, be inspired by happy teachers, find their strengths in subjects they might not have had exposure to elsewhere, have endless sports and other extra curricular activities where they can discover their true passions is worth it? Yes, every single penny.

If you have those opportunities in your local state schools, all well and good. However, our choice of private schools are poles apart from the state alternative.

With regards to the possibility of gifting them a large sum of money for university/a house deposit etc instead, the following proverb is apt: give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime

You need to give more details.

If the private school is for children with SEN so small classes and gentle in pace then probably well worth it.

If it’s a non-selective in an area with great state schools then probably not.

It depends what you want from your child’s school. If you want them to get top exam grades and move onto top unis then there’s plenty of private schools that will increase the odds of that happening. If you want your child to do more sport, art, theatre etc there will be private schools that can cater to this too.

Money doesn’t bring guarantees but it can improve your child’s odds and may be a much easier journey than going state because they aren’t constrained by things like budget issues. I was privately educated and never saw a child flip out in class. My kids went to comprehensives and saw that kind of incident regularly. Private schools can expel where as state schools have no where to send children with behavioural issues so state school kids have to suck up behaviour like that.

It's not the education that makes it worth it, it's the connections and social circles it provides that you are paying for imo.

I’m not looking for a ‘return on my investment’ 🙄 I just want DC to have an enjoyable time at school, somewhere where they get the chance to try out lots of things. Mine are both very sporty, so we chose a school that’s very sports orientated. Neither have any clue what they want to do work wise and I’m not at all bothered by the job they end up with, as long as it’s something that makes them happy.

(Although perhaps Rishi's parents would say it was absolutely worth it?!)"

😂

Agree with this. If you can easily and comfortably afford it, then crack on. If you have to scrimp and save and sacrifice (no Sky TV?!) then no.

(Although perhaps Rishi's parents would say it was absolutely worth it?!)

We're about to start on this journey with DS as we think he'll do better with his dyslexia. So many people have said wouldn't you rather give him a house deposit. I honestly don't understand the comparison. Giving him a house deposit in 15 years time won't solve the issues he's having now as a 10 year old. For us we're not looking at it on a 'financial return' basis.

If anyone does care about the vat issue, read more about it and sign here :

https://www.change.org/p/stop-labour-from-adding-20-vat-to-private-school-fees-and-forcing-kids-to-change-schools/u/32672954?cs_tk=An7Iy1Sp4okMBb7UcWYAAXicyyvNyQEABF8BvE7huEk9vVrX8Yg0wNRkMX8%3D&utm_campaign=d2ae502bce934219954a5d593e74cfe7&utm_content=initial_v0_7_1&utm_medium=email&utm_source=petition_update&utm_term=cs