to ask if you use state or private education

[manicinsomniac]

Sorry, I know it's a little rude and personal but I only ask because I think that only 7-8% of the children in the UK are privately educated yet on mumsnet it seems to be massively higher than that which I find interesting.

So, if I'm not being too unreasonable to ask, do/did/will you use private or state education for your child/ren?

timmysamba I wish! DDs both have 75% scholarships and DS has a sports bursary paying 33%. The remainder is split between exH and I.

DS is at state primary.
He wants to take the scholarship exam at local private secondary.
I am undecided.
If in 12 months time he still wants to and he is clever enough and we are subsequently poor enough to be granted a full bursary then possibly private.
If not then one of the utterly shite comps in our area.

State. But I will turn into psycho mother when they are 11+ age to get them into grammar school if I can.

I love their current school but think that private has the edge from 7+ and would send them to prep/senior if I could afford it.

But none of the scholarships I have ever seen for schools near us are more than 10% of fees. We wouldn't qualify for a bursary.

Private of course

State. But we are quite lucky in that all the state schools in our town are pretty good.

There is a private school in the town which many are convinced must be worth the fees because it gets good results. However, it is also a selective school and, since the fees are quite pricey, attracts mainly the well off middle class. You would expect then that it would get decent results, which it does, but they are not actually so much better than the local state schools which take the whole ability range. Indeed, some years the school DD attends and one other neighbouring state school got even better results at A level than the private school.

We concluded that if our DD is bright and works hard she will do just as well at her good state school as she would if we went private.

Sharbie

I would imagine you could ask 100 different parents that question and get 100 different answers.
In spite of the private vs state division on mn most people I speak to chose their Childs school based on loads of different criteria.

You mention grades in you post. Grades had very little to do with the schools I chose for my dcs

People factor loads of stuff into choosing their Childs school.

Sharbie: because we don't have a "perfectly good state secondary" in our area

suppose i am lucky that was really all i had to consider then pagwatch

isn't it cheaper to move house then nimpy??

yes. I had a fricking list sadly. Walking to school was one though and funnily enough the two children who are at private school are 5 min walk. The bus/drive is the other one.

Some parents do seem a bit convinced that all state schools are massive feral holding-pens, where children mill around committing mindless acts of violence and are taught in massive, unsupervised classes. I've come across a few MNers who've never even visited a state school.

State. I went to a private school on a scholarship and apart from the other poor kids they were all tossers. There's more to education than hothousing kids to get into Oxbridge imo.

Totally understand why my mum did it though as we lived in a rough area and the local comp was shocking.

You can actually go to Oxbridge from state school, in any case. Quite a few of the MN Oxford-educated contingent did.

We have always used state. However, DS2 has SN and the only school which would (and does) meet his needs is private. We don't personally pay for it though.

State. I can't ever imagine being in a position to afford private, but it's not a huge sadness to me.

i went to one of the worst schools in the county (now closed as it was so awful) and managed to get a fairly decent job.

DS1 prep and then GS; DS2 prep and hopefully he will follow his brother and we can have a holiday again!! Joking aside it has been worth every hard earned penny.

Sharbie, because the state secondaries around us were not good then and are still not good now. I am thankful that we have the scholarships/bursary, as it would cripple both me and my ex-H without them. However, by the time DD3 starts year 7, the next DC up will be 5 years out of school so one set of fees will be highly manageable, scholarship or not. But again, it will depend on the state options in the area we live.

Obviously I know you can go to Oxbridge from a state school! I just meant that at my school once you got into 6th form it was all about Oxbridge, special classes for those with 'Oxbridge potential' etc. I got 4 As but didn't want to go to Oxbridge- that pissed them off

Obviously I know you can go to Oxbridge from a state school! I just meant that at my school once you got into 6th form it was all about Oxbridge, special classes for those with 'Oxbridge potential' etc. I got 4 As but didn't want to go to Oxbridge- that pissed them off

I know mother inferior.
But let us be fair. It does cut both ways.
I have seen comments about private schools that are pretty bigotted too.

I wish peole wouldn't rip each other apart but I think sometimes people anxiety/defensiveness about their own choice makes then attack others who chose differently.

sharbie ours was nothing to do with grades. We went on gut feeling about the school feeling perfect for dd and then the same for the school ds will attend. Dd is a at an all girls school with 10 in her class and although some friends have looked around and not felt it was right we thought it was perfect.