Is this a typical primary school day / experience?

Here are my responses from our fairly standard Scottish primary:

• starts 8.20am, senior teacher always waiting by the gate to greet each child by name, and expects to be greeted back by the child Start time is 8:45 but they can be dropped off at breakfast club from 8am. Breakfast club is free for all children. The head teacher greets them all by name at breakfast club. For playground drop off it is a teaching assistant who greets them at the gate.
• writing, maths, phonics etc in his class of 12 children that has 1 teacher and part time TA My son is in a class of 13 with a full time teacher and a classroom assistant who is split between his class and the other class in his year. Writing, maths and phonics all form part of the curriculum and are taught daily.
• calm class environment, no disruption I'm not sure there is never any disruption ever, but generally it is a calm and pleasant environment. Lovely big classrooms which the teachers have decorated beautifully.
• forest school once per week, including things like making a campfire Sadly not, sounds great.
• learns to read with actual paper books! No tablets. The teacher or TA reads with him most days Tablets are available for use but plenty of paper books too. He has reading practice most days.
• sports 3x per week, including swimming, dance and PE No swimming, but he does PE twice a week.
• club until 4.30 every day, things like art or sports Yes, there are regular after school clubs (art, lego, coding etc)
• after school care til 5.35 if you want it. Colouring etc We have to pay for after school club separately. They are picked up from school, taken to a community centre, given a snack and activities.
• a lot of contact with the teacher. If I ever have a question I can email her and she replies within a day, or can meet with her, or she will proactively email me to check something or make an observation (eg she wrote to suggest he might be ambidextrous) I can't email the teacher directly, I have to email the office and messages are passed on to her, or I can arrange a meeting. The school is responsive.
• lots of outside space so the children help occasionally in the vegetable garden etc No veg garden but nice big playgrounds and a huge field.
• good quality food, cooked on site Food is fine but not brilliant. We do packed lunches.
• 3 school trips this year 2 trips this year

I think we're lucky about several things - small class sizes, very good and responsive teachers, nice village feel. We're going to go private for secondary but decided the benefits didn't justify the costs for us for primary. A lot will depend on what your local primaries are like. There is a lot of variation.

I’m not in a 50+ hour role any more. I found that as I got more senior in my career the flexibility increased and I can fit it all into a normal working week whereas a couple of steps below where I am now I worked the longer hours.

The flexibility is the key thing for me, my company is genuinely great at not caring how or when I work so long as I get the job done and am available for teams and customers when they need me. The trade off for them is that I wouldn’t risk a move until DS is maybe in year 9 and needs me to be available a lot less.

Apart from swimming and class size, you’ve described my DC’s CoE VA primary school.

@iniati I do get what you are saying but I think these elements are so marginal. 3.5 hrs a day would still cost a minimum of £10k pa. I accept there is economy of scale for multiple children, should the stars align scheduling wise. But a nanny is still a significant cost depending on fees and age of the children (pre prep is about this figure in fees). That's before you even get into the convenience of everything being in one place and the value that has. I think you're right about music tuition being additional and take your points.

I just think there's likey a very good reason a lot of working professional families pick private school and it is because state school doesn't cater to their needs.

My child competes at private schools in one of his sports. As fantastic as his primary is, and as invested as we are with his extra curricular, what the private school children have in terms of training and facilities just doesn't even compare and they generally place higher than the state school kids.

On paper it would seem my child's primary experience is very similar as they offer loads. But in reality it really isn't.

A few things :

The OP references her school's after school club finishes at 5:30 - so I was assuming that she/her DH are able to pick up then. So she wouldn't need until 7pm covering.

Usually not all extracurriculars are included in school fees anyway - e.g. instrument lessons are all extra charge usually, so I think you might be double counting?

Yes, multiple children is where you would really see the savings. You would need to think through the logistics - but depending on what clubs your kids want to do and their timings, a nanny might be able to do multiple drop offs/pick ups in an evening

Mine both went to state primary and eldest is at private secondary and they are worlds apart, especially in terms of class size, availability of teachers (due to lower pupil numbers per staff member, not better teaching), sport and extra curricular. However, my youngest is at a state secondary (different needs) and able to fill most of these gaps with money save.

I do forest schools weekly, I cook with my class each week and we go out and about weekly. Could be a walk to the park, could be the library.
Some of my class swim weekly, they are in ks2- cost covered by school, other year groups can opt in and would pay. I teach PE weekly and offer horse riding- this is at extra cost. I have some who have a trampoline session.
Phonics daily, 1:1 reading 3 times a week. Always books.
Clubs are at lunchtime: we offer one most days.
I update parents daily with photos and commentary linked to learning targets. I email at least two parents per day as needed. I know them all by name and they all know me.
SLT meet and greet and support going home.
Holiday club will run for three weeks over the summer.
Class size of 10, there are 5 adults including me.
We are a state specialist school for children with severe learning disabilities. I honestly don’t know what if costs to fund my children, but it is (mainly) free to each child who needs us.

Class size is the main difference. My daughter is year 5 now but in reception she:

was greeted by the teacher before entering the class
did maths phonics etc in the mornings with one class teacher, one full time TA and a class size of 25
did have some disruption. Some children had behaviour/learning issues. School dealt with them as best they could-doesn’t seem to have negatively impacted her. She understands some children have different needs and need extra support.
They learnt to read with paper books.
PE twice a week. Swimming is a term block from year 3 plus. They need extra swimming lessons outside of school to learn to swim really.
no extra curricular in reception. More in year 1/2 onwards. In juniors she’s had things like football, netball, gardening, crafts etc but they’re on rotation.
after school club available till 6
food is not cooked on site but delivered from somewhere central. It’s free for all primary age children and she seems to like it
school is responsive to emails. They send photos etc home in the infants using an app
her school has a large yard and huge field but we are not in a massively built up town so there’s loads of space. It has a forest school area and they have forest school sessions for every year group.
they do school trips- residentials from year 3 onwards. Otherwise maybe 2 a year to local places with things happening at the weekend too ok occasion (performing and sports)

A lot of that is standard in state school. My DC is in Reception, he is greeted by his teacher every morning, she is very responsive to emails, they are doing phonics, literacy and maths. They are learning to read with paper books. They have a nature area and do forest school. There's also a large field and 2 large playgrounds with climbing frames. There is after school care.
The only things not available are class sizes of 12 and swimming. My DCs class is 25, the neighboring state school we looked at had class sizes of 20.

This is literally exactly the same as my school. However I work in a tiny rural school so this experience will be rare.

My son's state school:

• Starts at 8:40, headteacher greets everyone at gate
• Class of 22, 1 teacher and 2 TAs. Mixed aged classes except reception and year 6 - DC is in a mixed y3/y4 class
• Some class disruption from 2-3 children, seems to be handled reasonably well
• No forest school, beach school once a week for one term a year
• Reading from books not tablets, now reads once a week at school was more in KS1
• Sports 2x a week, swimming from Y3
• After school care only until 4:30 - paid. Sports after school once a week - free. Breakfast club from 7:45 - free, Inc food.

• Teachers are responsive via Dojo or at pick up. Will flag problems etc
• yes to outdoor space and lots of eco activities
• reasonable food cooked onsite
• Lots of trips, at least 5 this year, some paid some free

Like others have said there is so much variation though

No she implied you’d have an extra 20k to play with by choosing state over indie, not that the extras would cost that much

To everyone saying a nanny would be cheaper, is this something you've tried? I cannot make the maths stack up?

IF I worked FT and needed the school pick up, drop off, after school and into the evening for clubs covering (most finish after 7pm but would start before I could get back to take them) I'd pretty much be needing 5 hours a day/25hrs a week minimum. Which over term time alone, would cost £15k pa. Then there's the cost of the clubs (ours come to about 4k) plus covering fuel cost for a nanny. When you factor all that in, private school does seem to compare more favourably.

Thanks
no
she said
you will have £20k a year to make up for …..all the stuff not in Indi
ie
£20k saved because she’s not paying for Indi

The poster I replied to claimed that it would cost £20k a year to involve her child in sports, music and art if sending to state school and wanting to make up for the shortfall in those subjects.

Pre preps ie the age OP is talking about are very rarely that expensive
They are, on average, between £10k and £22k
only the very rare ones are at the higher end and some less that £10k

Someone upthread ( not using a Indi ) mentioned £20k and I don’t know why everyone keeps saying that ??

£20k a year to make up for music, sports and art? What?

My twins both learn an instrument weekly, plus both do weekly hockey, tennis and karate. It’s around £6k.

I will also add depends on your child. I'm abroad with DS in an international private school. And he has ASD. So we benefit from having a psychologist and occupational therapist on site, small class sizes, lots of space, inclusive environment. The state schools here seem to have small class sizes also and if my son had a different profile we would have sent him to the state school.
I don't think the quality of teaching in this school is great but I think the pastoral care is excellent and for us that was important because the environment has to be right for DS for him to be able to learn. They also are really positive and inclusive around neurodiversity and the school goes all the way up to senior school

I don't think you're getting value for money in my personal opinion. My daughter's school does all of these things including forest school . Her class is a little larger but plenty of teaching assistants. I don't even live in a nice area. I think private high school may be worth the money but I wouldn't pay private for primary.

For music lessons, our state school had music teachers who would come into the school during the school day, and who set up in a small side room, and if you signed up and paid for it, your child would nip off for 20 mins once a week, and have a 1:1 guitar / piano / etc lesson. I think that’s not a particularly unusual set up, though of course it’s dependant on the school / private teachers.

So music lessons were covered during the school day. Swimming we either did at weekend or in the one after school slot where DH was part time and didn’t work that day. Normal PE lessons at school and sports club at the weekend / cricket club in the summer. Once they’re a bit older it’s easier to do things in the evening. But all those 4.30pm weekday clubs were off limits for us until DH dropped a day at work.

@MexicanDaisythe extra curricular is a job in itself! Especially if you live rurally or have activities out of town.

Between fees and fuel cost, I think we shell out £6k per year. So that saving is still significant factoring in what you need to earn gross etc. to be able to pay for annual private fees.

But it is still very hard when you take the pay with your time route! I'd be amazed if I could find a nanny that would cover my son's schedule and logistics for any reasonable amount of money. Especially on a harsh winter January night in freezing temps (outside sports). You're either time poor or cash poor as a parent and you're lucky if you aren't both!

My DC go to a tiny rural state primary school - there are less than 50 children in the entire school; two classes split by Key Stage. I know for some people that would be a dealbreaker, but has worked fine for us. So in answer to your question re the school day, this is what we get:

Starts 8.50am, both class teachers & sometimes the head always waiting by the gate to greet each child by name, and expects to be greeted back by the child
writing, maths, phonics etc in his class of 27 children that has 1 teacher and 2 full time general TAs
class environment, there can be some disruption but it’s quickly dealt with
forest school once per week in KS1; a couple of times a term in KS2, including things like making a campfire
learns to read with actual paper books too
There are a couple of tablets & a desktop computer but these are only used for specific tasks like research
The teacher or TA reads with them each week
sports 2x per week, including swimming and a PE subject which changes each term
After school care only on certain days until 4.15
After school clubs are minimal - usually only one per term on one day - could be sport of craft related
Teachers can spoken to at the beginning & end of the day or via DoJo or email
Main areas around the school as asphalt playgrounds, but they use the school field, village green, welly walks around the village, cricket club regularly
Food is ok, but brought in as kitchen is too small
1-2 school trips per term - this year they’ve visited a community farm, a Roman fort; pantomime; a science museum; 4-day residential; theme park & next week they’re going to a local excavation of a Roman villa to take part.
It has its limitations - particularly around sports; but most people have their kids in extracurricular activities. The school day ends at 3.15pm. I work part-time in a very flexible job; I know a lot of other parents draft in grandparents to help with pickup.

This helps me feel better. I work part time in a professional role that doesn’t allow me to switch off outside work hours, so I do extra work in the evenings. Partner full time. Between us we manage swimming and 3 extra curricular activities across 3 weekdays and a weekend day - for two kids. So whilst one has an activity, the other parent is home with the other child. Sometimes I think I am failing as I still find this really hard along with the usual mental load, despite working part time. Your post has helped me to realise this is the only way.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. It would be near impossible to have two large careers and facilitate enrichment and extra curricular that isn't included at state school. This is why many select private.

We're in state. Do all the extra running around for swimming and training for 2 sports and music lessons. We can do this because I finish work at 3pm. I do not have a career so to speak. But I also do not have the £30kpa the privates here charge. So it was a case of making a choice somewhere. I'd love to be wrong, but you might be hoping/looking for something that just isn't realistic. It does sound like private suits your needs well..... despite the cost!