To feel so fed up that the only way to get a good education seems to be privately?

This gets trotted out every time. It's increasingly rare for teachers not to be qualified in the private sector and those that are are usually training alongside. Academies (state) can equally employ non QTS staff.

DS went to a rough as a badgers arse comp, he is in his early twenties and got all A grades at A level and then a place on a very competitive degree apprenticeship. I think mYbe a couple of thousand people applied for 25/30 places.

Your children will have a level of natural intelligence, plus your enthusiasms, their peer group and then their education. A good indicator of outcome educationally is level of Mothers education. I also went to a shitty comp, I think when league tables were first published which was after I left, my old schoolhad a 20% pass rate for maths and English. I went to an RG University.

Hey OP you won’t ever get a reasonable discussion here unfortunately. I’m home schooling my 4yo because the school options are awful, inner city ldn. Just think of the posts you see here everyday- schools crumbling, primary age children being assaulted etc. I can’t put mine through that. You are right to be concerned.

It’s not that your children are disadvantaged OP, they are the same as the vast majority. It’s more that they aren’t unfairly advantaged.
Students from private schools have an elevation in grades compared to if they had gone to state schools (if a private school parent asked themselves honestly if their child would have got the same grades/level of confidence if they had gone to the local bog-standard comp, they would admit they wouldn’t have).
Hopefully universities will make adjustments for state school students when it comes to grades/interviews/personal statements/supra-curricular.

My DD is moving to middle school soon, the building is in a pretty shabby state and yes, the class sizes will be big. However, it has a great reputation locally, kids love it, parents glad to send them there, staff are happy and incredibly hard working, loads of extra curricular. It may initially look less than great but try to go on the opinions of people who send their kids there, this will tell you a lot more than just having a look around.
DD is currently in a great first school with 30 to a class, she’s exceeding in everything and loves school.

There are good state schools, there are good independent schools.
There are crap state schools, there are crap independent schools.

It all comes down to a postcode lottery. For me choosing indy, all I'm choosing is smaller class sizes, a more engaged cohort and less disruption in the classroom. Because that suits my child better. She went to state primary and will go to state 6th form, if we had good secondary schools then she would have e gone state for secondary too, but we don't.

Please don’t worry about this at all. We had our dc in both state and private at secondary and if we had our time again I would choose state every time. Larger classes and year groups are way more beneficial in terms of friendships and again if any fall outs, no-one is particularly invested in it because such a large pool of children. Teachers are no better at private and our private offered no after school revision sessions for GCSE whereas the local state did. No brainer!

There are great state schools - but you may have to move house to access them.

"They will enjoy their classes more, but become exposed to a massive drugs culture"

Bollocks. There equally as many drugs in state schools as private.

"They will enjoy their classes more, but become exposed to a massive drugs culture"

Bollocks. There equally as many drugs in state schools as private.

My daughters both had a great education and have come away with firsts in their degrees STEM/English respectively, at good unis.
One went to a pretty average comp, the other went to a grammar.

My 3 DCs are state educated, and often don't recognise other people's descriptions of the State sector on here, so it's clearly area dependent.

We're in a rural part of North Yorkshire, and the DCs went to village primary schools with smaller class sizes (16-20ish).

Similarly, the classes are smaller at their State Secondary school (around 25).
DS is 17, got four 9s and five 8s at GCSE, and is applying to Edinburgh, Manchester, and Oxford to study Astrophysics and Maths.
So, no shortage of aspiration. He has a fantastic peer group of equally motivated and well behaved peers.

His school has decent sports facilities although, granted, not on a par with what the Private Sector will have.
But, he's loving school and is doing well, so we're happy.

You don't need to be qualified to teach in a state academy FYI

Love all the answers to this.

Our DC are state-educated unlike their cousins. Their cousins have turbo public school accents, but ours have more diverse friends, and are more confident dealing with people across the social spectrum. We are lucky - our local state school is incredible. (I went to v smart boarding school so I am familiar with both sides of the coin).

How do they select by behaviour? What are the criteria and how is it evidenced? Never heard of this!

Is that in the U.K.?

I teach in a state primary school. Our class sizes are huge- over 34 in KS2. I have a massive hole in the ceiling in my class, I use a massive plastic storage box to collect the rain.
We have few resources, often children are sharing pencils. However, we have a fantastic head, as a staff team we are passionate and have high expectations of all our children.
The biggest difference you can make to your child’s education is reading with them EVERY day and supporting your child’s teacher.

My DDs go to our local comp, it is massive and probably should have been rebuilt a decade ago (DD says it is leaking everywhere). There’s a wide range of kids, from all sorts of families. We could afford private if we made some sacrifices, but I don’t think it would be worth the money.

Anecdotally, as another poster has said, if teens round here want drugs then the kids at the nearest private school are the likely suppliers. Yes, it gets good results, but it is a selective school so of course it should.

My DDs are on course for at least as good results as I got in my GCSEs at a state grammar school (and I got the best results in my year), and are happy. What would spending £15k a year plus VAT each add to that?

I believe you need QTS to teach in a LA school? Anyone with a degree can work in a private school with no prior teaching experience.

@FatFiatMultiplaWhopper across the country. In deprived areas it's more like 2%; in certain London boroughs it's 60-70%. And if you look at where successful people come from, it generally isn't deprived areas (which is why they stay deprived).

93% of children go to state school.

Depends on the school. In my younger son's secondary intake was based on grades and behaviour. So only well-behaved, good students have access. According to my son everyone is nice so so far so good.

There are some crap private schools too.

My cousins went to a private school from the age of 5 and finished at 16 with mediocre GCSEs and a lack of passion for any subjects so neither did A levels. Their careers are due to extra curricular stuff they did with their parents.

I went to a state school in quite a deprived area and came out with straight As at GCSE and studied at a top university.

What's important is what YOU do with your child. The time you spend with them. That's what will define them.

@arcticpandas there's a big difference between a grade 7 and a grade 9, though. If DS turns out to be academically able (he's only two), I want him to be somewhere where he's being pushed to achieve 8s and 9s along with a sizeable percentage of his peers, not congratulated for getting a 7 and pushed no further.

Both my DDs go to the local grammar school: more than 30 in a class, crumbling buildings and no money but they've had a fantastic education.