To not give a fuck about schools?

[sensuallettuce]

AIBU to be totally hacked off with this subject every bloody year.

I don't care that Saffron didn't get into your first choice school even though the local school is varie good she just isn't "suited" to that "environment" all the council estate kids .

It's such thinly veiled snobbery and competitive parenting at its very worst. Kids should go to the local school end of and if there is a grammar system state educated kids should be permitted to take the entrance exam (not privately educated kids who are trained to pass an exam) and this should be means tested.

I live in one of the most competitive school areas of the country with a massive social divide (Poole in Dorset). Because of this I ended up with all 3 kids at 3 different schools for 3 yrs .

How can people bang on about the state providing a perfectly good education then spend an extra £50,000 on a house in the "right" area. It's hypocritical snobby bollocks.

Kids will learn if they want to. I do not believe any of them have faired any better or worse due to my non choice of school. They are fulfilling who they are.

They have a loving home and are well balanced grounded kids and they know if I believe they have been "wronged" I am behind them 100%, if they have done "wrong" I am behind the school. I a, supportive of and interested in their education.

We all need to bloody calm down about this seriously

But for many rich students their parents have been shelling out more than £10k per annum on school fees, what's another three years when you earn hundreds of thousands or millions?

Exactly.

Also I've heard(happy to be corrected)that you can only borrow so much re uni loans, the poorest are allowed to borrow more.

So where does the child from a squeezed middle family get the rest to live on? Have friends with children struggling-a lot!

It's hard working your way through uni(I did it),there are very few lower paid/part time jobs out there at the moment.

These schools are HIGHLY selective (unless you happen to be a member of the royal family, of course). While the proportion of children attending top public schools who go on to Oxbridge is obviously much much higher than that from comprehensives, it is hardly surprising when you consider these schools are attempting to select the top 5% (or in many cases 2 or 3%) of the ability spectrum in the first place. Comprehensives have probably something like 98% of the ability spectrum (I'm assuming that the bottom few per cent will have learning difficulties and may be more likely to attend schools specifically for pupils who have difficulty accessing the mainstream curriculum).

@MrsH That is worrying the bleep out of me, too. However not quite so much as the fear I won't have a job in 4 year's time. And if that fear comes true then I guess my DD1 won't have a problem getting the maximum loans.

Yale and Harvard are quite tricky to get a place at too and far from run of the mill even at the very top schools in the UK.

No one denied that Eton is advantageous academically when compared to most local comps. But I do deny that you can 'buy your way in' to Oxford and Cambridge which is what Posie said, in terms.

Anyhow I thought it was the private schoolers these days who were complaining that they were being 'discriminated against' at what you call the top UK universities. There are lots of complaints about the use of contextual data etc. and massive outcries of 'unfair' when anyone suggests using grade differentials at A2 to allow for the disadvantage suffered by those in the least good schools.

That's it Haberdashery. It's absolutely to be expected, given the intake. In fact it's surprising that so few get in, given the level of selectivity and the fabulous education they undoubtedly get.

Well I'm sitting here just ticking lots of boxes saying 'maximum loan available' and I or they will deal with the debt when my/ their boat comes in.

I went to Leeds Uni and lived with a twat guy who went to Marlborough. He accused me of being uneducated because I hadn't studied Latin or the classics, tbh I didn't even know what classics were. I thought it was a nod to classic literature and I had a huge Penguin collection! My nephew goes to a well known private school and have friends at public schools, my son commented that his sports cupboard was quite small at school....the other boys have purpose built gyms and playing fields.

Advantage is not just academic at private schools, it's broad knowledge, discipline, common goals, networking. I have friends who attended Rugby, they are all still in a weird inner circle of pats on the back and introductions.

I think it tends to be the dimmer end of the spectrum at these schools who like to be exclusive. That's a relection on their lack of intelligence more than anything else. They have to cling on to something, poor things.

Private schools are steeped in privilege. The one thing they can't deliver though is guaranteed places at the top universities.

Not guaranteed, no but much better odds.

@posie you are not comparing like with like, I think. If you compared a top selective private school with a top selective state school I don't think there would be much difference in university destination. If you compare a top selective private school with a comp then there probably will be a difference since the selective private school has only 'top stream' equivalents. There are plenty of non selective private schools which while still redolent with privilege furnish their leavers with average results and average university destinations.

Let me put it this way, take a seven year old who is pretty bright of she goes to a private school her future is much brighter than if she's in state.

It's the connections.I have several friends that teach in the private sector. Apparently doing your A levels in a private school has huge advantages not least connections!

That's too simplistic Posie

You may be giving too much credit to a large part of the private sector as well.

I am confused about the connections. I attended a school which regularly sent around 50% of its leavers to Oxbridge (no idea what the proportion is now) and yet have never benefited from or indeed used or even attempted to use any form of networking related to my school. I'm not denying that the opportunities for doing so may have been there if you are the sort to try and use them but I can't say I ever even noticed them.

Smaller class sizes, better discipline, better equipment all adds up to a more successful education.

Agree Haberdashery.

I think we're in a minority on MN though.

Haberdashery Are you a woman? I wonder if that makes a difference, all the networkers I know are men. Incidentally look at the cabinet!!

DS is in a state grammar that selects the top 5%. They don't get anywhere near 30% of pupils into Oxbridge. Is there any selective state school that does this? I thought that the only state institution that did send a very high percentage was the sixth form college in Cambridge, where the children often have parents who are university lecturers and attended private school from years 7-11.

Hill Rd. doesn't send a massively high percentage, just a high number - it's huge.

Hills Rd.

@posie Let me put it this way, take a seven year old who is pretty bright of she goes to a private school her future is much brighter than if she's in state.

Sorry Posie, while that may be true sometimes it's just as often not true. It wasn't true for me, and it isn't going to be true for either of my DDs (or my DS).

Yes, I am a woman. I went to one of the schools mentioned in all those articles not long ago which bemoaned the fact that five or six schools were sending as many pupils to Oxbridge as all the rest of them combined or something. And yes, I went to Oxford. The cabinet and the shadow cabinet contain a fair number of people that I knew slightly or knew of (in friend of a friend type way) when younger. I am still at a loss as to how I could turn this to my advantage in any way, though, or why I would bother since I seem to be doing all right off my own bat! Possibly am just a bit thick...