Private schools - what are the long term benefits?

Have one in London Independent Day School (Boy). Pluses: three separate sciences, French (English Lang and Lit, Maths, RS, (then two to three of: German, Latin, Greek, Mandarin, Spanish, Italian, Russian, History, Geography, Art, History of Art, D&T, IT, Music, PE). Incredible art, music and science facilities and super sports facilities with: rugby, football, hockey, tennis, cricket, rowing, squash, golf, athletics, swimming, fencing, etc., all on offer. DS went at 9 and we have never had a moments worry, the communication is superb - have all the staff e-mails and have emailed perhaps five times in 8 years and only once for something fundamentally important, the staff are helpful and polite and on the one occasion we had a problem it was sorted effortlessly. The downside is 18K per annum plus expenses.

Have one in a small girls London comprehensive. Pluses: it's free and the staff by and large and the quality of the teaching has been OK. The communication is dreadful - inept and inadequate, behaviour management is poor, expectations are not high enough, the curriculum is narrower than we were led to believe, there is constant disruption. Front of house is sloppy, rude and unhelpful - a brilliant face for the school. Concerns are not dealt with and the tone is patronising. There is a total denial that a minority of children are bullies and intimidating and are a problem - I am the only parent who has complained about it according to the head. There is a growing group of Y7 and 8 mothers now sharing correspondence with each other that has been addressed to the Head. This is an oversubscribed school with super results and an excellent reputation. Fortunately our DD has only one more week to go and then she is free and off to the other sector from September.

Ultimately, it's about communication and one's confidence in the establishment. These may be two extreme examples but goodness we researched it carefully. Whilst I accept that hands are tied in the state sector in relation to exclusions etc., that is the real difference. The utterly dysfunctional and disruptive would simply not stay elsewhere.

wow propatria all that money on education and yet not enough to teach you any manners...

Just a little stat for you which I've always been fond of:

the correlation between amount of money spent on schooling and achievement as university is directly inversely proportional

bitsy that's interesting and the complete opposite of our area (uber middle class, commuter belt to the City).

It has some of the highest achieving state schools in the country and yet the independent schools are full to busting too, especially the highly selective ones where the non-academic siblings you speak of couldn't get a place.

Day schools near us are mainly about £4-5000a term, about £15000 a year.

In my area of good state schools and no grammars there is a trend that if your child is above average in school they stay in the state section, their less able siblings go to the private schools. This is a generalisation as some kids go to private schools because they were going off the rails and other parents only have one child and just choose private because they can afford it but not many are preconditioned to private but it is a middle class areas and I case parents have chosen to live in the area to save on private school costs but it does explain somewhat why all the state schools do so well in the leagues.

Yes, Pag is right depends on the child and the school.

My criteria are:
Is my child pushed too hard, feeling inadequate, unhappy with her experience during the day and struggling?
Is my child bored shitless all day and sitting around idling her day away because the work is easy for her?

If you answer "yes" to either question your child is at the wrong school.

DD started in state, she is currently in private, we may move her back to state depending on her needs. Right now the local private meets her needs better than the local state. This could change.

Not many of the schools near us are over £9000 a year but that is for day schools.

It always makes me laugh to see the snobbery between private school users - you thought you were buying your way into privilege, but there's still someone like Propatria there to sneer at your provincialism and your paltry £9k education. Send them to state and then you won't have to worry about that sort of person.

Will your child be happy, have a great experience, hopefully get the results they need for whatever they want to do next (and do remember that's as much down to the child as the school) and get everything they can out of school? Those are the questions. WHICHEVER school, after you have visited, researched, talked to students etc, is going to achieve that is the one to go for, be it private, if you can afford it, or state.

No school can provide you with a long term insurance policy.

I see this thread has diverted a bit from the Op's original question, but I just wanted to agree with what Pagwatch said to start with - it really depends on the child and the school. When we moved out of central London we could finally afford to send the DCs to private school and they have loved their first year there. Small class sizes, loads of sport, lots of trips and other ways of making learning more interesting rather than being stuck in class all day where the teaching was combined with "crowd control" plus of course the loooong summer holidays (we broke up on Friday ). However, I don't think their school is particularly well equipped compared to the secondaries I have seen in our area, and it doesn't compare with the top grammar schools results-wise either. But it suits my two, one of whom has Aspergers and was not thriving in a state school class of 30 with no extra help. My other son is bright but lacks confidence, and being in a class of 15 has been brilliant for him. He may well take the 11+ but I'd prefer him to stay at his current school as the pressure of returning to a 30+ class of super-bright kids would not be ideal for him IME.

Thanks for the suggestions alice and senua, I do think DS should top up on the local hospital and GP w/e with care experience, I think it is important .

Our school (state selective) has 30 in a class up to the Sixth Form where cuts in funding are leading to bigger class sizes in all the popular subjects. It makes it harder, inevitably, for both students and staff.

Although 'outstanding', if you mean in Ofsted terms, is a whole other thread - dds' school is 'good' according to Ofsted.

Might be worth looking at the Ofsted 'good' ones, Ishani, if you haven't already? The numbers may be lower, but the schools just as outstanding in real terms...

London?

Thats where we are, anyway.

Well consider yourself lucky because I have been trying to relocate to the SW for 4 months now, looks like the move won't go ahead because I cannot find one outstanding school with a single space in year 5 or 3, not one from Cheltenham to Exeter. Where are all these lovely small classes ?

22 in dd's school's Y6.

22 in dd's Y2 class, for that matter.

As I said, it really does depend on the school - amongst other things.

Well here by the time they reach year 6 the norm is 36 to 40.
Hopefully the numbers go down again in secondary but even so.

I have no idea what the norm is nationally but it's not unusual at my school. We have classes of all sizes - the average being in the 20s. Exactly the same as in my DH's school.

I have a couple of classes of 30 but the majority are less than this.

I'm sure you would concede however that 12 is not the norm in state schools.

Agree with Elibean and Alice/

My penneth worth. I teach at an outstanding state school. Some of my classes have 12 students in them - small classes are not the preserve of private schools.

DH works in an outstanding private school and went on a course to do with Oxbridge/medical school applications. The advice given for med school was that shadowing a hospital porter was of much more value than a consultant as it gave a more holistic and realistic view of what medicine entails.

Op

I realise that sounded very anti private schools. Your choices may be very different. If your local comp is not up to standard when you look into it, you should do what you think is right. and write to your MP

My sister and I went to a state comp whilst my three brothers were at private school. We all got into a top university to study medicine, several of my class mates went to Oxford. My sister and I now have our dcs in state comps where our brothers children are at a private school. Our local comp sends a very high proportion of kids to Russell group/Oxbridge.

Private does not always equal a better outcome, in my experience. I am very keen that my dcs meet and make friends with people from all walks of life. If they do end up in the caring professions they will know how to relate to people from all backgrounds, which I think is of real value.

lme30005 I can only relay my own personal experience of school. I was privately educated from the age of 11. The class sizes were small, the teachers excellent and I have no doubt that in the profession I am now in (rightly or wrongly) it had a significant impact on making the path to UNI and beyond a lot easier. The majority of people who I work with were also privately educated. That I am afraid is the way of the world. The imbalance is there. I agree with a lot of what has already been said however that there are good private schools and bad private schools. You must do what you think is right for your dc.

Good luck with whatever choice you make.

A 'nice' accent and eating disorders.

Bitter, moi?

It's a pressure cooker - that works for some kids, not for others.

Here ,Here Eibean. You took the words right out of my mouth.