What do private schools do that state schools don't?

[Mommymoments]

For me the local private does
Weekly swimming
Learning an orchestra instrument (extra cost)
Debating
Language (Spanish, French, German & afterschool Latin, Mandarin & Russian)
Yoga
Hockey & Lacrosse
Lots of sporting & drama opportunities
Excellent field trips out of school
Ski trip from Y7 onwards..

Would love all that for my dc's but can't afford it. But would love to hear about all the nice extras your dc's get at their private.

About the skiing comment. I know both secondaries in my area do ski trips. We just got a letter about it. They only have about 30 kids going. We don't ski as a family and DC won't want to be the only one who doesn't know how to ski there. I think you have to come from a skiing family really. I know there are quite a few in my DC primary that skis. It's not a private/state marker. It's a family wealth thing surely.

I attended private and state, and boarding, as a child, so feel qualified to compare.

The meals were far nicer.

The class sizes were smaller - hence teachers had more time and individual attention. We'd even have tea and cake with the headmistress.
Bad behaviour and disruption in class didn't really happen.
It's a more competitive environment than state and I hate that trait I've carried through with me to adulthood.

As a parent the main difference is that you'll have to pay for everything, even individual GCSE exams (they're free in state).
Nice environment (with fishponds at one school), facilities, sport average though all the children seem to do lots of sport or dance extra curricular and excel.

Bullying at both but more physical at state in my experience.

*sport and dance extra curricular not provided by the school

Only the state school offered skiing lessons
Is this a posh people go skiing stereotype because I don't know anyone who does, though a friend (state educated) is a ski instructor.

That's where I learned to ski via state school can't remember now, never been since, could manage snowplough only I think.

I skied at (private) school and took the children but only one of them has gone on a school ski trip (they all went to private schools).

There are lots of good state and private schools so no reason for anyone to be too concerned.

I like schools where if someone is going to be disruptive in class they will be leaving the school.
In a sense I felt by choosing academic secondary private schools I was buying a peer group of children who would all be going to be working hard for A levels and go to good universities as teenagers are more influenced by peers than parents at that stage.
I wanted single sex schools which is not the norm even in the private sector these days.

We are also a fairly musical family - 3 children won music scholarships so the kind of music a parents' choir etc might sing was the sort of thing that mattered although I am not saying parents' choirs in state schools cannot sing complex church choral music of course!

Big deal. Does that even really matter? I've never been skiing in my life and I've often met people who are surprised by it and I couldn't care less

I think perhaps that private schools are more consistent in what they offer, whereas state schools are more hit and miss.

I went to private school, and loved it. I was a foreign student there, along with quite a few others, so there was diversity. The class sizes were small, and the teachers and facilities excellent. It provided a lot in the way of educational opportunity and extra curricular, and we didn’t have issues with antisocial behaviour of the type you often hear about in schools. There are of course state schools that offer similar if not the same, but you can be shit out of luck if you don’t live in the catchment area of one.

@vra is it a stereotype about posh people skiing? It is expensive in the UK to ski. I hear it's quite affordable in some easter european countries.

I think it might be @SnowAndFrostOutside Though I've only heard that on Mumsnet. I'd associate it with influencers now, more than anything, rightly or wrongly.

People have more often asked where I went to school, or similar background searching questions, than if I ski (never been asked).

I learned to ski on dry slopes, and via state school, and it wasn't expensive a couple of decades ago (and a bit). I don't think dry slope skiing is expensive, unless it's shot up drastically in recent years.

It is. There’s a lot of slopes in my home country and the (easily accessible) surrounding ones, and skiing is not considered to be the sole preserve of the wealthy.

An ex boyfriend of mine who went to a famous private couldn't believe I'd never been skiing at the age of 26

Why would you ever ski if growing up in the UK? Other than a few slopes in Scotland, you can not ski here

Of course all children in Austria and Switzerland grow up skiing!

Yes agree with this. DCs school specifically state that parents should ensure they are comfortable with allowing their dc to go so they should be proficient skiers.
It's a small group and is very different to language / history or subject related trips where children are very much encouraged to go.

My experience is that families tend to go during half term so unless your dc are close friends with skiers they wouldn't really notice as there wouldn't be space for the majority of them to go with school even if they wanted to.

I went on our (state) school ski trip as a complete non skier. In fact I think only one or two of the group had ski’d before. To be fair though none of us could ski by the end either, we were 17/18 and spent most of the time in the bar!

Why do children in the UK need to learn to ski? There are no significant mountains here? It's expensive to fly to the alps and, with global warming, there won't be much skiing in future.

And I say this as someone growing up skiing near the alps!

I think most state secondary schools do offer ski trips - my dd has done two, one each at two different schools. My own state comprehensive also offered ski trips when I was growing up, though I didn't ever actually go.

I think the issue with skiing is not so much private vs state but whether or not families can afford it. DD's recent trip cost in the region of £1400 if I remember correctly, which would obviously be prohibitive for many families, especially if they had multiple children wanting to go. And I imagine that that would include some families in the private sector who might be stretching themselves to afford private school fees and not have any spare left over for optional trips of this nature.

Clearly, they don't need to learn but it's a nice experience for those who can afford it.

And given that you're probably right about there being fewer opportunities to try it in the future due to global warming, I am grateful that dd has had the chance to do it through school. It isn't really something that we would be likely to do as a family, but I'm all in favour of her having lots of new and different experiences.

They don’t need to, who said they did? It’s a hobby. Most people don’t ‘need’ to do a lot of the hobbies they do, or go to the places they go to on holiday. It’s recreational.

DD and her friends had a few lessons at our local dry ski slope before they went on their first school trip, but they were still very much "beginners". They were astonished to find that they were put in the "advanced" group once they were on the trip - clearly, the majority of their peers were absolute beginners with even less experience than them!

She did the second trip with a different school, and despite having had a bit more experience herself, she was in a lower group as lots of the other kids clearly had lots of experience.

Funny how it varies from school to school, but I would expect to see at least some non-skiers on most state school ski trips.

Yes agree with this. DCs school specifically state that parents should ensure they are comfortable with allowing their dc to go so they should be proficient skiers.

Really? That's very different from our experience, so I stand corrected. It seems stupid to run a school ski trip only for kids who clearly have the chance to go skiing outside of school in any case. What is the point of that, I wonder?

Both of dd's school ski trips have included around 25 hours of "ski school" and all different levels of ability have been catered for. They have also tried really hard to accommodate all pupils who were interested in going.

Though I want to go skiing again now even if just a dry slope. Thanks to this thread!

Always amazes me how many people on forums have children who go to state school yet somehow know ‘loads’ of kids who go to private (and are normally very disparaging of them). How do they know all these kids? Are they the only socialist in their large group of Tory friends or something? 🤷‍♀️

It is strange isn't it? It's almost as though people make friends through shared hobbies, have extended family, are in touch with old friends from when they were younger, have neighbours or have work colleagues, who might have entirely different views to their own.

They usually have a magical job that allows them to make disparaging judgements about all private school kids.

It also depends on the local schools.
I'm from a grammar school town.
You only go to private here if you fail the 11+ so the private schools aren't able to cream off the talented kids from the best socioeconomic backgrounds.

I do remember someone who insisted that her dd was at state school and yet very much in the heart of the social scene of the local private school, so they were all constantly in her house. Hmm.