To think people have the wrong idea about the reason parents use private schools?

But a child WILL get better results at a private school than the same child would have got in a state school.
You can’t compare GCSE grades between private and state schools.
At my child’s state school it’s all about behaviour control not teaching or learning. The main aim of kids in my daughter’s English class was to smuggle a desk out of the classroom for some reason!

I think of it as buying an unfair advantage.

It’s beyond obvious that posts like yours are cropping up 10 a penny because of the VAT implementation and your disgruntlement over it. So yes, I repeat, pay your VAT and accept it.

I have commented on the substance of your post. I have said that I have never assumed people pay for private schools for exam results, but that they are paying for privilege.

I have also corrected you on your misuse of the word ‘luxury’.

And I fear I must correct you once again. ‘Bring everyone down to state level’ = eradicate the most significant providers of segregation in society.

Our local libraries are open for only 5 hours per day. Neither particularly accessible by public transport, one is in a high school in the middle of a housing estate. In the wealthy MC Hertfordshire town I lived in a few years ago, the library is open 7 days a week and is in the middle of town, on a bus route. It’s open for a total of 53 hours per week, the ones near me are open less than half of that time.

The leisure centre is better, open 7 days and until late apart from Sat/Sun.

Amenities you say? Join a leisure centre, get a library card and buy a violin.

There you go OP, I've just saved you £170,000.

You're welcome 🤗

I’m sooo glad you started this thread.

I’m sink comprehensive educated so I am too pig-shit-thick to realise y’all send your precious darlings to private schools because they have amazing facilities, fantastic opportunities, smaller classes and no disruptive chavs licking the windows and stinking the place up with their embarrassing poverty.

Well done you for having the bank balance to do this. It obviously makes you a superior human being in every single way.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

This thread is just a long-winded exercise in saying ‘privilege is nice’. Well, colour me shocked. Thankfully most of us can exist in a reality when drivel like this isn’t brought up again and again and again and again.

The bitterness is beyond loud on Mumsnet ever since the election was called. It really is time to give the topic a rest.

The schools round here are very rural multi acre sites with livery. It's a lifestyle and community, an experience just as much as an entrance into the best academic attainment possibilities.

I assume that private school parents are not a homogenous group and that their reasons vary widely. Ones I've met have said things like: to escape the low expectations of black boys, smaller class sizes, "it's what I'm used to", because my parents offered to pay etc.

State schools are not homogenous either, and neither are the kids that go to them. I was a free school meals child that went on to get a 2:1 at a good uni; my eldest likewise. My youngest, though, is the kind of child that some previous posters are definitely paying to keep their offspring away from. She has been massively let down by our broken CAMHS and post-adoption services and by the Govification of state education. I have no personal beef with private school parents, but we do urgently need to rebalance the public purse in favour of state schools and the needs of the children in them.

I went to one of the most academically selective private secondary schools in the country. My parents definitely wanted to buy good grades. They weren’t interested in contacts and it wasn’t something that ever had any impact on my life. I only kept in touch with 2 people who I went to school with and neither had any impact on my career.

I decided to send my DS to private school starting at 4. The reason was I want him to be in small classes with children of likeminded parents. By that I mean the assurance that 100% of the other parents are fully supportive of their children’s education. A class of 12 in such circumstances is very different to a state school class of 30 where even 2 or 3 disruptive pupils could ruin it for the rest.

The facilities and non academic opportunities are also far better which appeals to me. All in all it is just a far nicer environment in much the same way as buying a house in a nice suburb invariably delivers a better quality of life for your DC.

I’ll wait and see how he fares academically as he progresses before deciding what most appropriate for his senior years.

My DF wanted to send us private. He went to grammar but none left in our area by the time we were secondary age.

He wanted to avoid the disruption and low expectations of the local state comps (primary was OK). We were only in sets for maths, English, science and whichever language. Even some of those lessons were like the Wild West.

DF also couldn’t believe (still can’t) that you weren’t allowed to ‘read around’ a subject. His favourite is History and we studied both world wars for GCSE. I’d tell him what our essay was and he’d always say “And you could add that Churchill did xxxx which meant that….” Couldn’t believe it when I said we’d been told it doesn’t get you any extra marks, just answer the question e.g. “Who was Prime Minister 1940-45?” Answering ‘Winston Churchill’ would get you the same marks as saying which party he represented or who his parents were.

Unfortunately for all of us, he never had enough money.

Maybe some people do have the wrong idea but maybe some people don’t.

That makes your idea no more ideal than theirs.

It’s your opinion.

You might send your child private for one reason and I might send my child for another reason.

You don’t hold the monopoly on the reasons why people make their decisions.

Soooo ….🤫

Well, duh. I assumed that, to be honest. Or they'd be asking for their money back.

When you look at how utterly thick people like Jamie Laing are. I assume his parents didn't spend massive amounts to actually 'educate' him. I understand it took him 70 attempts to pass his driving theory test, for a start. And that he failed his A levels.

Having the money to pay for education doesn't necessarily mean they can work miracles if you have a child who isn't academic.

I'm abroad. There are no private schools apart from International ones that cost a bomb and are mostly paid for by employers as part of a package. And are not generally held in such high regard. The Royal Family's children went to state school. Everyone normally gets a place in a local one. And to assist with postcode lottery, disadvantaged areas get more funding than richer ones. So schools could actually be better/provide more services as was the case with my dd's first primary school. They do fall down with SEN provision though.

Not another bloody one. I don't think people are that interested. Mumsnet seems to be obsessed with the topic though!

So you’re basically letting everyone know that those wealthy enough to pay for private schools have lots of lovely reasons to enjoy that privilege?

What a tone deaf, grossly entitled thread.

Surprise, money buys better opportunities!

Precisely- often not based on private or state. Choice is a good thing and we live in a free country (thank God!)

Well the IFS is suggesting it will raise £1.6bn which is absolute chicken feed. Anyone that knows anything about tax will tell you this is utterly minuscule. AddVAT if you like, but fgs up income tax too to help
pay for much, much better state schooling. Because until we do people are always going to need a private schooling option (unless of course they are in the catchment of the sort of schools that Tony Blair / Keir Starmer used).

I know there are parents like this as I've met them. They already have several houses for their kids (in London), contacts in banking, business, medicine so it's almost guaranteed their kids get lucrative jobs and places in these fields if they want it. No student debt. Or they can afford for the children to pursue 'hobby jobs'. Genuinely no need to be really academic or especially talented as they'll do well anyway so they can just sit back and enjoy school. It was ever thus.

@newmummycwharf1 "Being able to choose a school where most parents are likely (never guaranteed) to have your values is a privilege and we chose private schools for this."

Interestingly, one of the reasons I chose not to send my children to private school is that many of the parents did not share my values. The same applies to many of the private school parents on here.....

What has that got to do with VAT?

I went to a village school where there were three people in my year at school. State school in the UK. The smallest class size. We basically spent the entire time out in nature doing art or sports, I loved it.

If you wanted small class sizes or a school with a good culture/extracurriculars you'd choose a state school with those things.

Private schools generally foster a horribly competitive culture (imo) so the only tangible benefit I see is that they make not very bright kids get better results.

PS - I also come from a family of people who went to private day & boarding schools. Not one of them enjoyed their school days as much as I did. There's seemed to be lots of competitiveness and bullying