Teachers at private schools

[FurySlippers]

We are considering applying to a private school for our DD for Y7 entry.

People talk about how much teachers are hands on and spend so much time talking with students and have lots of time outside classes for their students if they ever needed help.

This sounds very different from states school (where I went) where teachers were only there for classes and never seen until the next class.

I guess the teacher - student ratio is different, but what else? Do teachers in private schools have less teaching time and more time for students coming up to them for questions? Or are they actually as busy as state school teachers but actually "make" time for out of hours teaching?

Goady thread especially the last part.

interesting first post

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Or are they actually as busy as state school teachers but actually "make" time for out of hours teaching?

Are you really asking if busy private school teachers make time for pupils outside of lessons whereas state school teachers don’t?

"Or are they actually as busy as state school teachers but actually "make" time for out of hours teaching?"

Twaty sentence

Having experience of both I can say our State school teachers made themselves available as much (if not more) out of school. Our private school has strict boundaries. in state school the teacher would be sending/responding to messages late at night.

at Private school they tell us not to expect a response out after 5pm. With regard to calls/meetings state or private we always got it. Always got a call the next day. My kids state school was brilliant.

Thank you for your reply. It's interesting to hear how state schools can differ (just as private schools differ from one another). Ours are very strict so no responses past 3.30 and we only get 8 minutes with a countdown timer for Zoom parents evenings.

Apologies to anyone offended by my first post. English isn't my first language so might not have phrased things correctly.

To put your 'only get 8 minutes' into perspective OP. 8 minutes each for 30 kids is 4 hours (that's without any breaks.) 10 minutes each would be 5 hours, 15 minutes each would be 7.5 hours more! If parents evening started at 4pm and you had 15 minutes for each appointment it would go on until 11:30 pm to be able to see all 30 students. Midnight if you think the teacher should have a break during that 7.5 hours 🤨

They do it over 2-3 evenings and they take breaks.

Of course they take breaks, they are entitled to breaks 😳

Also there is a limit to how many hours a teacher can be expected to work during the year. If you increase the length of time a parents evening appointment is then something else will be reduced as a result.

Have a read of this, it will explain how directed time works. I don't know if it's the same in private schools, but this is why you can't just expect endless and long parents evenings in state schools.

neu.org.uk/media/11391/view

Slightly lighter teaching load (more free periods), half the marking, fewer students, fewer major behaviour problems to be dealing with and higher expectations of teacher-student interaction. Yes, absolutely this is the case.

Thank you for this.

They do it on top of their normal working day! Makes for a 14 hour day sometimes.

Probably varies and I don’t have recent experience of State Secondaries but at my DCs school the teachers are very responsive and available, much more than I expected to be honest.
They do seem to go above and beyond as well, dropping things off during Covid for example. I think a lot of it is just time and resources. You can call round to the houses of 15 pupils in your class much easier than 30 or more.

Makes sense. Thank you.

Do your dc go to a private school?

I just feel that DD isn't getting much attention at her school and not differentiated at all. Yes I understand there are 30 other kids to take care of so I guess what she's getting is as good as it gets.

And I have a feeling this will carry on into secondary.

@Macaroni46 yes I do understand the working hours can be extremely long.

I really am grateful for all they do.

A friend teaches at a private school and she does a crazy number of hours each week including evenings and weekend with the boarders. It means she regularly works 12 days in a row.

Yes, I said I don’t have recent experience of State Secondary schools
I do have friends with dc at our closest 2 comprehensives. 1 seems ok from what they say but the teachers just don’t have as much time. At the other one the teachers seem to spend a lot of time on trying to control the behaviour of a small percentage of the kids unfortunately
The real contrast was during Covid and afterwards to help fill any gaps

Going the extra mile down to individual teacher, their love for the job and the kids, their desire for promotion, and school culture not whether state or not.

but as a business, private schools see parents very much as customers and the education they provide as a service.

recent history has shown that many private schools provide timetabled lessons with direct contact time when state schools close, eg during covid lockdowns and strikes because otherwise the business would have to refund fees for a service not provided.

most private schools I know use their teachers for cover so extra time is spent on that.

compulsory attendance at weekend open days, longer school day offset against much longer holidays.

Class sizes getting big in city private schools as some impact with retention and recruitment.

so look carefully before deciding.

Well they have a much easier gig than state school teachers so I think you’re comparing two different situations.

It's very difficult to compare as it's much more complicated than state Vs private. It's school Vs school. My DDs primary school was awful at communicating or differentiating. We had to fight to have her SEN noticed and even then it was a struggle. Secondary was completely different. So much support and help. I don't communicate that much with the teachers, but when I do they reply promptly. I speak more to the senco and assistant head and they reply to my emails within 5mins sometimes. Never longer than 2 days.

However, my DDs best friend is at a private school. All her classes are 24ish kids which is bigger than my DDs. DD is in learning support and low sets so that plays a part but so is her friend. DDs in a maths class of 8 and English 17. DDs friends mum had to wait 3 months to hear from the senco. The school is very sought after but I really struggle to understand what they're paying for. No differentiation at all, friend uses a lot of the revision material DDs school prepared for dyslexic students. Her 25k a year private school has given her nothing but extra time.
Don't get me wrong, what we've got in our state is unusual, but from what I'm seeing, it is not that unusual to have what DDs friend has in private.

All that extra money per pupil that private schools get makes a difference. You should expect a better deal than state schools.

@noblegiraffe exactly. I just don't feel most parents realise that just because you pay, doesn't mean you get that. It is difficult as the state system is crumbling, but so is the private one. It's expensive to run a school and even their fees aren't keeping up with cost.
I can't help but feel the government has underfunded state schools for so long, the indies look amazing because they have a teacher in the front. I look at the indies in London and feel most of them provide what I got under Labour. Wishy washy child led learning included.

I don't think the teachers went above and beyond at our private school more than my friends kids experienced at state. As ever, it's kids that have behavioural issues, special needs or are particularly bright that seem to get more attention - if you are hardworking and follow the rules you will not be getting anything extra as they don't think you need it.
And we have five minutes per teacher online at parents evenings - the best thing that came out of covid! If that isn't enough or you have particular concerns can you make an individual appointment with the teacher?