Do bright children do just as well in state school as private?

[Alelujah]

My friend's academically able DS has just started Private school (Year 10). They do 1 hour and forty minutes of homework every night and are assessed weekly in exam conditions to prepare them to deal with the stress of exams. The school has selective entry and teachers only have able students to cater for. There is no classroom disruption at all as the students and parents are heavily invested in the education process.

Meanwhile my DD in her Comp finds that many lessons disrupted by students who don't want to be there. They don't get much homework to support learning. Teachers probably don't ask them to do much as they know it wouldn't be done by a large number of students. They have to be realistic.

I can't help thinking that the commonly stated opinion that a bright child will do as well in any school is utter bollocks! It looks like children in private schools are massively advantaged.

Where I live the private school kids just do more work and tend to get the results to match.

My DC get hardly any homework. No text books at home. And an unspoken social code of not trying too hard. No real school expectations of anything until a big mad scramble in exam year that leaves some classmates verging on traumatised but qualified and others unbothered (and with low level and choice limiting qualifications.)

Kids with schoolteacher or doctor parents seem to do better perhaps they have a clued up home structure and there is certainly judicious use of tutors.

Looser style parents with ambition seem to slink away to the structure of the privates after a year in our secondary! They see the signs imo.

God I feel like Cassandra.

Just as an aside, people do know that there is bullying in private schools too? And that private school does not guarantee a culture of quiet bookishness and admiration for the academically inclined?

I can confirm to an earlier poster some state secondary schools in the UK have mostly mixed ability classes. Our scools main exception is maths.

I guess it depends on the child. I went to a state comp and breezed through it gaining straight A’s without a moment’s bother, so clearly I couldn’t have performed better at a private school. I think it might benefit children of more mediocre ability more.

"Where I live the private school kids just do more work and tend to get the results to match."

How do you know this?

That should read "Our school's."

I have had friends/ acquaintances of mine and my children who have moved kids across as they progress through.

I know it's not the same everywhere. I stated that I was referring about the local situation.

Just as an aside, people do know that there is bullying in private schools too? And that private school does not guarantee a culture of quiet bookishness and admiration for the academically inclined?

I truly don’t think that people do. I feel that there is a perception that as soon as you pay for a school the children within it become perfectly behaved, studious, considerate and compliant. As I said in an earlier post, whilst there’s probably no physical bad behaviour, teens are teens and as such will behave accordingly. Some will be studious and compliant and some will be pains in the bum. Some private schools will hold on to those with poor behaviour because they need the income. Some will tolerate low level disruption especially if the children in question are high performers as they’ll live and die on their results. Anyone who thinks any differently is deluding themselves. Bullying, being mean and targeting other children isn’t exclusive to the state sector you’d just hope that a private school will put their mouth where their money is and deal with it.

I was a scholarship kid at a girls independent school.

Bullying was rife, and made my life miserable. But as the kids doing the bullying were rich kids whose income the school needed.....nothing was done.

I developed what seems like a thick skin but it's vastly affected my self confidence

Just as an aside, people do know that there is bullying in private schools too? And that private school does not guarantee a culture of quiet bookishness and admiration for the academically inclined?

raises hand - yep.

But I have often said - philosophical / political disagreements and finances aside , there are private schools and private schools , some IMHO aren't worth the price of the uniform.

Ah just to say - - even in the best private schools I don't believe there is not ever bullying or other problems. Main thing , as with all schools , is how is it dealt with

When my daughter got into Mensa we moved her from a god awful comp to s private school where she flourished

Then it was back to 6 th form where she did a levels which weren’t so good ( boyfriend)
Again some teachers couldn’t keep discipline

But she went to uni and did very well and got an excellent job till she decided to have children and Home educate them

She’s sassy and smart. Caring and kind

Her happiness meant everything to me more than a clutch of gcse and a levels
Yes she would’ve done alright in the comp but she has big gaps in her geography and history knowledge from being taught in class groups instead of the streamed groups for English, maths and science

I think a bright AND motivated child would do well in either. Anyway, I don’t suppose you could prove it as it depends on many factors.

DH was top in his year despite the school being so bad, and it has shut down now due to lack of applications. He is unusual however, as he is extremely focussed and was the only one there who did Further maths and get into Cambridge. He wasn’t “cool” though so got bullied and once got cornered and punched in the face by a gang in the year below.

I went to to a local comp and did well, but it was single sex, so maybe that helped a bit.

DS is bright but extremely lazy and is easily influenced, so follows what everyone else does. It’s not cool to be studious, apparently and “everyone” leaves their homework until the day it’s due in. I think it may have been a different story if we sent him to private.

We weren’t poor but we weren’t rich either... there were some very rich families that my daughter mixed with at her private school.

We started up our own school bus as I was really concerned of the safety of the one they were expected to use

One poor little 4 year old whose family had more money than brains was practically thrown onto the bus by her mum.. who would more often than not shout after her
And yet can stop yer crying now or I’ll give yer something to cry about when yer get back.

My daughter spent most of the journey comforting the poor wee mite.

She got quite an education she did. In more ways than one

How not to need a treat a distressed child 😡

My DC are privately educated, I'm of the firm belief it doesn't mark an average intelligence person smarter, if you've got it, you've got it. But what it does do is instill confidence, teaches each child to be a leader, has them focus academically, and learning is considered to be cool. If you're surrounded by kids with good attitudes to learning, it's very natural and easy to have one yourself. That's what you're paying for really, the attitude and personality it gives them rather than expecting them to be brainier

I sincerely hope so. DD is extremely bright, but private school just isn't an option.

The other big difference is the class sizes and 1-2-1 learning. Private schools can afford a specialist teacher to sit with each child in a class for an hour a week. DD gets a 1-2-1 speech and drama lesson per week, for example.

The private system isn't perfect and isn't for everyone, but it gives many kids skills for life

It depends on the child. My personal opinion is they're likely to get similar exam results but those aren't everything.

If you send your child to a state school and invest in them at home either through private tutition or helping them as much as you possibly can yourself, there’s every chance they will do as well as a private school child. Parents need to invest time and effort into their children.

My DP went to private school and he didn’t get a first at uni like I did. His parents worked all hours to be able to afford private school and really, they still didn’t have enough for it. They scraped by and got into a lot of debt, debt they’re still paying off to this day... I don’t get the point since neither DP nor his sister have faired any better from their education.

Our local state high school (deprived inner city area) has a special, smaller sized class for the brightest kids in the area. It focuses on preparing these kids for academic success and moving into higher education . Candidates are put forward by their primary schools. No idea how this compares to a private education but it sounds positive.

@PhilomenaButterfly My Ds ( private school ) went to a very well regarded university ( possibly not relevant if that is not her aspiration ) but just to say his cohort of friends came from all sorts of schools. All bright and all got on. He has friends who were state educated and got better exam results than he did ( as you would expect ) I wish her well .

Agree gunpowder

Thanks so much Basilisk. 😁 She wants to be a photographer, so I'm not sure the choice of university will matter too much.

"it. But what it does do is instill confidence, teaches each child to be a leader, has them focus academically, and learning is considered to be cool."
You're describing a good school-not a private school.