AIBU to think Private School isn’t worth the expense?

That just says a lot about your personal primary school, my primary school was great and my closest friends are doctor, a dentist, senior management. Private school obviously results in better contacts in many cases but it's just ignored to say state school results in benefits and rubbish jobs.

Depends on your financial situation, money no object then private buys a good education but it's not good enough to get into financial problems for. Mostly what a private education buys you is the right friends, the contacts for the future - dp's classmates are senior figures in government, industry, banking etc. whereas my state school classmates are on benefits (stereotyping but true) minimum wage jobs, and at best middle management from my knowledge.

Sorry OP but this is pointless.
Most parents who send their kids to indy will say it is good.
Most who send their kids to state will say its good.
There are a some who are extremely anti-indy and some who are extremely anti-state.
So the whole thing descends into a bun fight.

Do, or don't, do it but make your own mind up rather than biased (on both sides) responses.

Depends what you want from a private school?

Better educational attainment - really depends on your local options and school funding. I'm guessing state schools in Bristol probably do better for funds than very rural or schools in deprived areas? Not all private schools are created equal
Better SEN resources - school and disability dependent. Not all private schools are created equal
Better sporting or music facilities
Longer school days and holidays.
More wrap around care
Some sort of old boys/girls network - think this really only applies to the uber rich private schools.
An air of privilege and entitlement. Not to be goady but one thing private schools are very good at generally is building confidence and a level of self belief. Again, it's not guaranteed.

Ultimately, you could spend [from prep] £250k on your childs education and the outcome could still be a middle to lower income job. If you are paying simply for results, then you would probably get a safer return investing those sort of sums into an investment vehicle in trust for their first home or similar financial security.

Lots of good state secondary options in and around Bristol these days op, I wouldn't go for private.

My DH and a previous long term partner both went to private school from 8 years old to A levels. They are both medics. Obviously, they don't know any different but neither of them thought it seemed worth the money. Classes were smaller and some of the teaching would have been better (but not all, they both said they had some rubbish teachers) but neither of them feel it gave them any long term benefit.