To wonder if its fair that some forces children get fees paid at private schools?

[scruffybird]

A few old friends of mine have their children at good private boarding schools due to ninety percent of the fees being paid for by the forces. I am perfectly aware that I may be being unreasonable for even questioning this, but it just seems wrong?
One of the girls has gone to a school hundreds of miles away from where her family live so that she would be eligible.

I wish they were identikit! We are having to get rid of a load of furniture for our next move because it isn't going to fit!

That's right LineRunner because it's to do with providing stability for the children's education, whether that is at boarding school or at a local school with a parent who doesn't move to be with the serving person.

Buy a house?! Why would I want to buy a house in an area I don't want to stay in? I am 300 miles away from where we want to settle.

That sounds about right, LineRunner. If the spouse stays in the country with the children, there is no need for CEA - they stay where they are as their life and schooling are not being disrupted.

Oh, right. Because my SiL moved with her husband to Germany in order to have a private boarding school education for her chidren, which is not what CEA is for, is it?

I have no idea what the rules are nowadays.

But it was great in mine.

Lots of girls at school had parents who only got as far as Wiltshire bases or Germany if they were lucky.

Dad got two HK postings along with Brunei and Germany,France,Aden and Scotland when we were smaller.

Err, I don't think you can take your spouse and family to Afghanistan, Nikon...

Ginger - our houses in Germany (6 different ones) and the ones at Honington were almost identical with exactly the same furniture - though this was in the 70s and 80s. By the time we were posted back to Germany again (after I had left school, but while younger siblings were still small) they had at least had a lick of paint and the sofas and beds had been updated

Not dissing CEA, btw, just stunned at my SiL.

I am trying to avoid not going to be drawn into the thread but just contemplating the attitude of nikon and what sounds like pride in her (or his) self confessed prejudiced, biased, uncompromising, bigoted, dogmatic, intolerant, opinionated, narrow-minded, pig-headed outlook.

Quote from The Free Dictionary as antonyms for 'openminded'.

So buy a house in the area you want to settle and settle.

I am off this will go on all night.

If some people would rather tend to their DH needs than their childrens then so be it, but when the children are grown up and you look back and realised you missed so much I hope you are happy with the choices you made.

Where were you in Germany Rock?

We were in Dusseldorf.

RockStock most people opt for their own furniture now, the issue stuff is gopping. We are moving to our 8th SFA next month and they have all been totally different!

yy Reeling between the ages of 5 and 18 we lived in England (3 bases), Germany (3 bases), Cyprus, Saudi, HK, Australia, US and my stepfather had a couple of very lengthy exercises in Canada and Iceland (5m each).

If you choose to live in your own home, it might work for a while but then your husband gets posted away and you hardly see them. We live off the patch and it was great for three years as my husband came home every day for the first year and most days for the next two. Then he got posted miles away and could only come home every two to three weeks because of the nature of the job/duties.

He's just finished that job and left for Afghanistan last week and it'll be April before I see him again.

There is no easy way to provide stability for families in the forces

LineRunner - not really, no. But she could argue that she wanted to stay with her husband and that this was better for the children. Presumably they could have had some kind of schooling in Germany, if she had wanted to keep the family together and they didn't mind the disruption?

Nikon I spend 6 months of the year with DH out of the country, I don't need to live apart from him when he isn't deployed.

"Buy a house in the area you want to settle, and settle." I quite fancy living in Cornwall, Nikon, but there is not a cat in hell's chance I could practice my profession there. So should I just give up work and go on benefits? (My work is London or Brussels or Paris based.)

And i forgot the Northern Ireland posting in 1976.

Nice place to be then Nikon.

I rarely post on MN but threads like this make me mad.

When I met my OH I knew he was in the forces - still fell in love with - foolish me bought our own home. He was in the medical corps and served in the Gulf War (1). I remember feeling a tad vulnerable one day, living in an area where I knew few people, miles away from my family, no idea where OH was (no email in those days) or when/if I would ever see him again. I was told by one of my colleagues that I didn't warrant any support or sympathy for feeling upset as I "knew what I was getting into".

Thankfully he came home and we then shock horror decided to start a family. I am not sure what we would have done re schooling at the appropriate age, the local garrison comp had a poor reputation - probably because few of the children were there for long - maybe not.

Standards of married quarters varied - some were lovely - others were dreadful (at the time I worked for local authority and was regularly visiting social/council housing stock which was always maintained to a higher standard than the military. I also had the worked with families trying to get their quarter adapted to meet their children's disability need - this was almost impossible as the army/RAF (had both in the area) were reluctant to adapt a property for a family that might only be there a couple of years.

OH took voluntary redundancy and we now both work in the NHS (lapping it up with our fantastic public sector pensions

Life in the military is not always fantastic (we did have some ace balls and social events - and I had some brilliant friends) yet because no longer use conscription/press gangs and people join voluntarily somehow this translates into we deserve whatever shit life throws at us!

Laarbruch, Bruggen, Rheindahlen, Wildenwrath (sorry can't be arsed to find umlaut..) We lived in Goch, though for two of the postings as DB1 and I were at Maas First in Laarbruch and it was easier to keep us there.

Ginger yy I'm sure - we didn't for years as small matter of not enough money really. Lots of 'accessories' but stuck with the standard shit that was doled out. By the time Mum left married quarters in Bruggen after my stepfather died we had our own stuff. Thank fuck.

OK line but she has to live in Germany with her husband. Some locations in Germany don't have secondary schools so you have to weekly board at another location in Germany anyway. So some decide to board their children in UK so they won't have to move when the Germany posting comes to an end.
According to you, your SIL does it so she can boast, well I would assume she has chosen an expensive school therefore she will be contributing a lot too. People get confused but families have to pay a minimum of 10%, only a very few schools have fees that are covered by the remaining 90%. So most families as was mentioned earlier pay anything up to an extra £4000 per child per term for the most expensive schools. This is though their choice.

jcscot aw, I hope you have the best Christmas you can, that's rubbish that he's away again.

Rheindalen and Wildenwrath were near us i think.
I think we landed there once.

Were you RAF?

All four of the German bases were near you (within an hour of Dusseldorf), Reeling. You would probs landed at Rheindahlen I think - that's where we tended to fly out of. Yes, RAF, he was a pilot - Buccs and Tornados mainly.