German expat questions value for money of top English private schools

fierce I am probably showing my age when I say there was not one Russian in my DCs year at prep school .

if he missed the target 4 times, he's a ..... banker.

word my oldest have just left this prep school and each year below her gets increasingly bankery, you just have to look at the parents' email addresses. Youngest in y4, I'd estimate 2/3 of the class have at least one parent working in finance and the majority have French/German/Italian American/Chinese/Russian (these last 3 not European, I do realise!) parents.There's a certain ridiculous kudos attached to having two British parents, like you were on the Mayflower. The landscape is changing very, very fast.

The thing with schools, is that there will always be a point when you have to give it a go.

You can do as much research as you like. You can speak to a million parents/ex pupils etc. But ultimately you won't know it's going to work for your child until you start.

That's why you have to evaluate regularly, and why you'd be plain silly to carry on for year after year, if you're really not happy. And any parent who doesn't do that, can't be expected to be taken seriously when they decide a decade and a half later that they're disappointed.

I've been told by "bankers" in London that there is much competition between them for the kudos of sending their children to the "names" schools.

They have no time to actually look at schools, usually employ a "consultant" to help their partner (if they're not also a banker) sort out the entrance exams.

It's likely that this chap fell into the same rut of "outsourcing" everything and not really understanding what he was getting into. The office kudos lasted a short time and his kids, presumably, have paid the price for his pathetic attitude.

Schools are schools and if he missed the target 4 times, he's a ..... banker.

amazon could it not be that current parents are genuinely pleased with these schools?

If they were not, wouldn't they move?

Also, don't assume that by a parent saying something is fab, they mean it is perfect. Most parents seem to accept that this is unattainable. But they probably don't concentrate on minor/niche problems if the overall package is of value to them.

I know that since I have gone public about my DD leaving her current school, people have swooped upon this desperate for me to confirm that I'm unhappy. But I'm not. So I can't.

Our reasons are individual to our family and don't make that school any less outstanding.

granola of course not! .
But W isn't 'packed' with euro ex pats. For one thing it's a lot more selective that Seven Oaks.

TWF I doubt Holle Jr is the only son of a banker in his year at Westminster...

Home Counties ( train line to city).

So yes, perhaps fewer expats ( who like to live in London). Also my last child left three years ago so the landscape in the lower school may have changed markedly.

wordfactory were your dcs at a prep in central London, because I am sure my dcs' prep is not an exception. European bankers live in London, like Mr Holle, that's where they send their dc to school and of course he doesn't speak for them all, but I have noted that these are people with high expectations of everything, who generally come from countries with often good (if declining) state education, who are therefore cross if paradisiacal results aren't delivered.

Alas, Bonsoir, I have found that talking to parents does not particularly help. They are only keen on affirming the prejudices they held when choosing the schools, so the schools have to be good/fantastic etc, or reported as good, because they have spent so much money, invested so much time and so many years, and what was it all for if the school is not superb?

We are close to schools with outstanding reputations, but the only parents I have found that seemingly can be open and honest are those with children that are leaving due to relocation, or those we're friendly with that are describing their niece/nephews' experience rather than that of their own children. Parents with children there /just finished are too busy reassuring themselves the huge costs involved were worth it.

Alumni may be more forthright, but how does one find them?

granola one poster has said her prep has lots (my DC's had one in their year of 60).

And H. Holle does not speak for them all!

So private schools are packed with the offspring of European bankers and it now turns out those bankers believe they were sold a dud. We can mock from the sidelines but it didn't need to have been like this.

Independent schools could have made different choices these last 20 years and could now have had a more diverse range of contented parents. It was up to them but they were (largely) badly led.

Bonsoir: you are in the lucky position of having bilingual children in an academically selective school in France. You come across as well educated and interested in your DCs education - in the broadest sense of the word. Like a middle class parent with a child in a UK selective school you can be sure your children will be able to access the UK university system and do well.
Most German families do not share these advantages. Most children do not get a place in a Gymnasium. Even if they start off there, the rigidity of the system is such that many have to repeat years, or to drop out and move to a second or third tier school with all the damage that does to their academic careers and their self esteem.
So for many German students a move to a UK independent school is a real life line. The child who excels in Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology but who is rubbish at essay based subjects gets poor marks in the abitur. But she can go to a Uk school, come out with good A levels and do well.
Moreover she will learn fluent English which is now a reqirement for a decent job in Germany. Obviously this is an option only open to the rich.

fierce there will always be some fools who think a school/educational system can, or indeed should, be perfect.

H.Holle was looking for 'paradisiacal'. And was, unsurprisingly disappointed. He was looking for diversity, and was disappointed. He was looking to outsource the business of parenting teens... there's a theme here .

At my dc's prep, European bankers make up the majority of parents. They are utterly obsessed with the English private-school system and aghast (and somewhat impressed) my dcs previously attended state schools. They also are outraged when anything is not perfect. It seems to me that in expat circles, schools are the main (or only) thing people have in common so are discussed to death and take on far too much importance, and that if you move country navigating a state system can seem very scary and you decide the best way to set up your children as Brits is to buy into a seemingly foolproof system.

Bonsoir I constantly evaluate my DC's education (including against the systems in other countries).

Many parents do.

For some reason it's important to you to portray this as super difficult and beyond H. Holle. Everyone else seems to find him and his opinions a bit daft.

Are you able to evaluate your DCs' education versus other systems?

Er, wasn't that the whole point of the article - that he was passing on his wisdom re evaluating boarding schools?
He either knows - in which case take action - or he doesn't - in which case keep his (non)thoughts to himself.

To be fair, he does seem to have taken some action because DS3 is at a day school. Are we to expect another rant, against uber-selective schools, in a few years' time?

I think the difficulty is that the 'well educated' part is impossible to discern as 'high academic standards' is all that is measured/published.

How are parents supposed to judge which schools actually educate children as opposed to prepare them for exams?

The thing which comes across most strikingly to me is this "And we parents hand over the tussle over schoolwork, computer games, condoms and hashish pipes gladly for huge sums to the professionals.” Some might, this is not the reason most parents I talk to chose their independent boarding school for their children.

I assume the topic of UK boarding school vs high quality German state school has a particular resonance in Germany and that's why the article was published over there. If he were simply saying is a "top" boarding school value for money against a very good UK state school then would the Telegraph have bothered printing it? Hardly controversial.

As it is it comes across a bit as if they want to drum up a bit of " 'e comes over 'ere , criticising our schools " to me.

Also, Bonsoir, he has been settled in UK for 20+ years, so not exactly an outsider.