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

I'm from NI and it depends what you class as a private school
We have prep schools here with fees for schools such as Victoria/ methody and stratheren
Although Ben madigan ( school for belfast royal academy closed last month)
Is Campbell a private school or rock port both have boarding depts and high fees.
Would you define the Steiner school on Holywood as a private school as its independent and it's also costly to send a child there
I know lots of schools here no longer have boarding departments but remain competitive grammars to get into with high fees.

£27k per year per child for day school (thanks to vat) for my two girls in a East Midlands secondary school. £14k for my son in prep. He goes up to secondary in 2027.

Great post @Newforspring

No it isn't. My son in law is from Haiti, and this will shock you to know he was privately educated in Haiti itself. So nope it not prodominantelly an English thing

I attended Ashleigh House/Hunterhouse then Belfast High in NI and now send my children to private school in Scotland. The school my children attend is in a rural Scottish town and is the style of education I got for free in a 1980s NI Grammar school. My children attend it because it gives them something not available in a state school in Scotland - a wide vary of cocurricular activities and more importantly, no 11 plus/SAEG to do well in. It is financially incredibly difficult now as my youngest is going into his final year of secondary but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I'm Scottish and went through the state education system in Scotland. It was only in my mid/late teens that I even heard of private schooling, and didn't really understand how it worked.
It was only when I moved to England when I was 30 did I meet someone who used private education. I later moved to the South of England and met many more people who went to private school, and/or sent their kids to private school.

Even to this day, I don't personally know anyone in Scotland who has gone private. So, to be fair to the Op, in my experience it's 'an English thing'.

There no 11+ in Scotland.

Technically, we call private fee-paying schools, public schools. Don't ask me why.

London day schools are around £10k a term and boarding is around double that. Like other posters have said, you can see the fees for each school on their websites.

Private schools all over the world not just UK. I was privately educated and there were girls from Ireland at my school

Exactly. That is why my children have gone to their private school as it is similar to my NI Grammar education without doing an entrance exam at 11.

It’s because when they started all schools cost money but most were only open to people of a particular faith or people who lived in a particular parish etc etc because they were set up for particular groups.

the “public” schools were open to anyone who could pay the fees.

Historically the very few schools which existed were only open to certain local people - those who could afford education had private tutors. Eton, harrow etc opened and were available to the (albeit fee paying) public and therefore became known as public schools. When education became a legal right to children the state subsidized every school place for this. Fee paying schools that opened subsequent to this are known as private.

But no one does entrance exams for Scottish state schools.

Yes but my children are getting a NI style Grammar education without having to do an entrance test at their private school as they were there from the age of three. As a teacher in a Scottish state school, I know there are no entrance tests in them.

@Differentforgirlsa NI Grammar School education is something one gets free. To be guaranteed the equivalent in the south east of England, one often must pay an independent school £30K annually (plus exam fees).

Check the Times Parent Power for more details.

HTH.

Whether it’s free or paid for what makes it worth it?

@Differentforgirlsyou asked what a NI Grammar School education is. I answered.

What makes it worth it is a different question. Not sure I understand the question. If it’s free, what’s the “worth” bit? How can something be “worth” it when it’s literally free?

There are private schools elsewhere in Scotland. We considered one called Belmont and also Glasgow Academy because of the rugby aspect And my son’s best friend was going to go to one. There are over 90 private schools in Scotland. Wellingtons Academy in Ayr is not far from me, and Marr at Troon.

Sorry, I was meaning the exam. We don't have any of that in Scottish State Schools. Everyone just goes to their catchment school within their denomination, unless parents request otherwise and are successful in the request (though they then won't get free transport).

11+ exams and grammar schools don’t exist in the vast majority of English education authorities either.

But you’re actually quite unusual to have a child who did not have to do 11+ for private school, as very very few independent schools in the UK are all-through from Reception.

I’m actually in the same situation as you as my son is in Year 5 at an all-through independent school he got into age 4 (via a very informal group assessment and a lot of luck) and he will be able to stay to 6th form without doing any school exams. But the vast majority of his school friends did the 7+ exam and in year 7 he’ll be joined by a load more who did the 11+.

So it’s just a little bit confusing to people who don’t know the system to suggest that state needs 11+ and private doesn’t, because the opposite is true in most British schools. The downside, of course, is that no state 11+ means no selective state secondaries, which is what led you to sending your child private.

incidentally, I am the product of the 1980s Scottish state system, fully comprehensive. My parents grew up in the same town and they talked with very mixed feelings about how, in the 1950s, they and their friends did an exam age 11 and were then sent to either “the High School” or “the secondary modern”. My friend’s Mum went to the latter and always felt stigmatised as a result.

My children went to their local state school. Did you mean to quote someone else?

Yes, apologies, the poster was @ScottishNI who commented earlier in the chain.

My lovely mother’s own Alma Mater

https://www.victoriacollege.org.uk/