Is private schooling mainly an English thing, and what does it cost?

[Misoniso]

I’m from NI so the majority of children here attend public schools, I don’t know anyone that attends a private school at all. But I always read about them on mumsnet, is it mostly an English thing? And what sort of cost is it to send a child to a private school? Genuinely curious

Wow I’ve been educated, I came on as a Scottish person to say, yep, it is an English thing - had no idea about Edinburgh and the relative proportions. Very interesting as to the cultural differences between Edinburgh and Glasgow. I’ve only met one family who have sent a child to private school, and see it as very rare.

I have friends in England and that’s the only time I’ve heard of it so I was wondering if it was a mostly English thing .

Some people seem offended I’ve thought it may be an English thing

I am from Northern Ireland too OP. State school educated (grammar school followed by Oxbridge).

Our son is at an independent school here in east London because the state primaries were totally over subscribed and the one he was eventually allocated was not among any of our six choices, miles away and dreadful.

He’s moving to another even more prestigious independent prep in September. Yes, there are even echelons of status among these independents.

Go hard or go home, I say.

Ireland is subsidised by state though, hence it's v cheap. You can't compare private school in Ireland to UK where it costs more than the average annual salary to send one child

Public school is the term for very prestigious independent (private) schools in England.

You could do a degree in this shit, it’s so nuanced, I swear to God.

The English are always offended about something, OP. You get used to it.

Almost 40% of kids in Australia attend private schools. While the curriculum is the same, the environment is not. It depends where you live.

I think the number will climb as state schools here are going downhill fast. Unless you live in a rich suburb. I'll live in a cardboard box before sending my DC to our local state HS. It's horrific. I'm trying to get DD to move from public primary to DS's private. It's becoming unbearable.

Public school means private school.
Eton is a public school.

There are loads in Glasgow, St Aloysius, The Glasgow Academy, The High School, Kelvinside, Hutchesons and there are a few other smaller ones like Fernhill (recently closed) and Belmont.

But it doesn't mean any private school. The historic upper schools, mostly, rather than preps.

Actual public schools are state schools.

There are actually very few outside of a relatively small area of South Dublin, where they tend to cluster. Beyond that there are only a handful around the country.

It’s interesting; I live in a fairly middle class area of North Dublin City, where the state schools are generally excellent. There is probably a market for a few private secondaries here, but I’m very glad there aren’t any, as state schools would lose out hugely if their (by and large) more invested and better-resourced families defected to private education.

@AppropriateAdult sorry I didn't mean they are everywhere in Ireland. I meant in lots of countries.

We now live in UK and DC have just left a private school.

We did indeed live in S CD, though our friends children attend Irish Boarding Schools.

Private schools in Ireland are very different, they are much much cheaper than ones in England as pp said.

I believe England has more dc in private vs Scotland but Edinburgh is an anomaly.

I’m in edinburgh so there’s plenty around. Think around £15-£25K? I don’t really know though - my kids are at state.

I grew up in the states and went to private high school for a couple of years. Loads of private schools where I am from in the states but mostly around religion. My husband went to a private uni prep school specifically around getting kids into top tier universities and then went to a state one and messed up their stats.

Very common in Australia. Nearly 40% of students. All are subsidised by the government to some degree so can be very reasonable in cost.

The naming protocol for schools in England/the UK is confusing.

State school - free
Private/independent - fee paying
Public - fee paying. Originally set up to educate boys from privileged backgrounds for public service. The schools are "public" from a historical schooling context in the sense of being open to pupils irrespective of locality. They are elite schools and academically rigorous and many of them are boarding schools.

The nearest independent school to me charges just short of £22k a year for senior school/6th form. Exam costs (GCSE and A levels) are not included.

I agree there is a disproportionate number of posters whose children are privately educated - far more than the 7% of children who are privately educated nationally.

Most of my Scottish colleagues privately educate so definitely not an English thing

Most countries have private schools.

in France the state schools are explicitly non religious and there are a lot of private catholic schools. Those are fairly cheap compared to English private schools.

in Switzerland there are lots of international private schools - Switzerland has lots of diplomats (the UN is based there) who move between countries every 3-5 years so there’s a whole industry of private schools that offer an international curriculum so you can just slot in wherever you go.

most international schools offer either American curriculum, British curriculum or the IB (an international version of the French baccalaureate).

there’s international schools in most capital cities and many big cities will have private schools in the tradition of their country aswell so for example London has Lycee Francaise Charles de Gaulle which teaches completely in French and follows the French curriculum https://www.lyceefrancais.org.uk/

Where are you from?

Lots of kids go to private school in France, particularly for secondary. ETA somewhere between 15-20% of French kids are in private schools.

Fees are very low like £3000 a year.

I have a very down to earth friend who sends her DC to private school, it's about £15-17k annually per child! She did it just for secondary.

A cousin in Australia went to private school, she said the fees were heavily subsidised. I wonder if they received some state funding and parents then top it up?

My DC are state educated in England. There's no way we could afford the fees.

I believe the reason that private schools are so cheap in France is because the teachers are paid by the state rather than through school fees.

Costs vary enormously - currently £22k for the school my Dd attended but Wycombe Abbey is around £50k.