To wonder if you are against private schools…

I’m against their existence in principle but I privately educate my child. Yes that makes me a massive hypocrite and I will take that on the chin.

The standard of secondary education around me is very poor and I am lucky enough to be able to afford it which I recognise makes me very privileged.

I am not prepared to sacrifice my child’s standard of education for an ideological principle. That’s the bottom line for a lot of parents. It’s shit and it embeds privilege and division but it takes a brave and very ideologically determined person to say they will put a general notion of the greater good above their child’s future.

I realise it isn’t as black and white a choice as this and in some areas the state secondary options are on a par with or better than the private sector and in other areas I would happily have sent her to a state secondary. And, let’s be honest, there are ways parents can game the state system too, through catchment gerrymandering etc.

If state education standards were higher across the board private education wouldn’t be necessary. But as long as the state system remains as under resourced as it currently is parents like me who can pay will continue to pay.

Yes and a lot of people are against grammar schools too. I am. In theory they're a brilliant idea if they took the truly cleverest children rather than the ones with sharp elbowed parents and the most money for tutoring.

Although, grammar schools aside, you will always have the issue of people buying their way into catchments for the best state schools. There's not much you can do about that but it's not a reason for accepting all the inequalities of private and grammar schools.

This.

Also academies are effectively state schools owned by businesses. I feel like the gap between rich and poor is being made wider and wider. The aspirational generation are being priced out of everything.

It's more than than the education in my opinion. It's about learning life skills.

It was quite clear to work out in the first weeks of university which students had been to private school as some of them were more than hopeless.

I'll start by saying state schools generally are vastly under funded and those who allowed this should be bloody ashamed of themselves
Private schools unfortunately are routes for dumb rich kids to get an excellent education, far more qualifications than they would achieve alone, and rubbing shoulders with people they'll use latterly in jobs ... hence the numbers of clowns have in the Tory party etc. Of course this is a huge generalisation and I'm sure there are loads of kids who have made
A success of themselves and brought good to the world from both public and private

I loathe the entitlement attitude eg at university 'what school are you from' then looked down at if it's a state school - even if are intellectually better
Private gets you through your exams, state unfortunately just isn't good enough to help all those clever people achieve better (obviously not always!) and often not so clever / supported at home, leave with insufficient motivation or qualifications .... again a huge generalisation but there's truth in it.
The whole thing needs a complete overhaul

Children should all have the same opportunities, outside their parents wealth.

They are morally wrong.

Because the standard of education a child receives should not be predicated on how much money their parents have.

Says it better than i can

Life opportunities and the chance of places at top universities, and the best jobs,
should not depend on the financial circumstances of your parents. It makes an uneven playing field even more uneven.

Even the brightest of state educated children will not have to the facilities, networks, alumni, and experience of a private school.

As a society we should be providing a great eduction for all young people, with an equality of opportunity….

I wouldn’t mind private schools so much, if the advantages weren’t so clear later. I used to work at the BBC, one one year ALL of our apprentices went to private schools. I’m on the Civil Service now and ALL of our top leadership went to private school. I’ve worked a lot with investment banks, and all the interns / career starters were from private school, and got thier jobs because of who their fathers were, and “old boys network”

It’s exhausting

But the inequality is there regardless of whether you are paying for the education. You get parents cramming their children's way into grammar schools, or moving to the catchment area of a good school, because they have the means to do so. The state system suffers as a result.

I agree....I know a lot of people from my school who are totally oblivious to anyone who lives a life different to them and their ilk

It’s a very good question. I’m not against them at all, but they are a luxury, as, for the vast majority of children (I appreciate the issues with SEND provision) there will be a perfectly reasonable, state-funded, education.

And as a business (definitely not with charitable status) they should be taxed accordingly.

But I don’t think they should be abolished.

I'm not understanding the logic.
Of course each child should be walking into an educational place of excellence but they are not.

Isn't that where people's ire should be, rather than agaisnt the establishments that are mostly getting it right??

I am against them as a matter of principle,even though we could have afforded to send our DC
All our DC did very well at school
I would support banning them and find all the furore on VAT laughable

Michaela has the best progress 8 in the country and incredible results, its in a poorer area and non selective - and yet they get a lot of hate for their behaviour policy.

I am against them because I believe it’s really important for children to spend time with others from all walks of life and all backgrounds. Anecdotally everyone I know who has been private schooled does believe to some extent that they are better than. I wouldn’t necessarily even say it’s confidence, more aloof and disconnected. Just my opinion.

DH and I were both privately educated. Our children go to state school. Probably the first generation in our family to be wholly state educated actually!

I think education should be open to all.

No not against them at all. My DC grew up in an area with a really good choice in state and grammar schools, not that we could've afforded it anyway. DD is now at a top Uni and 4 out of 6 of her house mates last year went to private school yet they have all ended up at the same Uni. Maybe some of them had different needs and so private was the best place for them - you do you.

I object to the inequality.

Yes. It’s really not that hard to fathom.

A good education delivered by great schools should be a right for all children in the UK, irrespective of parental income. A 2-tier system which only benefits the rich just entrenches inequality in education.

It's about a lot more than money,
If you live in a deprived area, in a low-income, cramped household, to uninterested parents, your chances are going to be low.

I didn't hate it. I was quite happy there. I just think it's wrong to buy an advantage like that ..it does not help create a meritocracy imo which is what society should be striving for.

I can afford private health care and private education for my children and I still believe that access to decent health and education are a fundamental right for children and shouldn’t be related to how much your parents earn.

Same here, hated it and that was a very long long time ago.