WARNING this is a state v private education thread

[icarriedawatermelon2]

AIBU to feel that this is so unfair and that my DS should have the chance to experience all this? AIBU to feel really quite crap and that I have failed him?

To cut a long story short he is at nursery in an amazing prep school. He is there because it is on our door step and the nursery package was the best around in terms of flexible hours, extras etc. Anyway thats not the issue.

The issue is I have seen just how much is available to the children there but more importantly the amazing care of all the students, small classes, amazing setting, child centered learning, freedom to climb trees, etc.

We would be killing ourselves to send our children there :(
Our local state school has a lovely head, but is full to bursting, no space outside etc etc lots of heart there but you just can't compare the two schools.

My DC are every bit worth the best IMO! It makes me MAD that we can't afford it :(

Ok rant over....feel better for getting it out.

Have you asked them if they have a bursary available? If you don't ask, you'll never know.

On the other side of the spectrum my son has austism and tbh the state school he attends is fantastic and shockley only has 20 children in his class. I am great full to all the staff there for making ds feel special for who he is as they do for every child

Always worth asking. A friend of ours who has 3 DCs is sending their eldest to private school for 6th form and has been offered 50% fees if he sends all three.

But I wish I had the money to keep him on track in school holidays because he tends to go 10 steps backwards

Hmm I am a single parent and I work full time.

I have had to borrow a tenner from my 14 yr old son so I can put petrol in the car to get them to their state school tomorrow morning.

But yes poor poor you.

Second what Sparks1 says.

you change your life not your education

What about the kids IN poverty who are just as or more intelligent/gifted than your DC?

What do they deserve?

An equal chance maybe?

If you want to blame someone, blame the last government who essentially doubled the running costs of private schools. In the early 1990s the typical costs for a day pupil at a top public school were £2,000 per term. They're now nearer £10,000 per term.

Of course it's unfair, but socialists hate you and I and anyone who wants to better themselves.

THATS JUST THE POINT OF MY POST LETTUCE!

My god that is some price hike!

Why because there are thousands of parents struggling to get funding for 1-1 for there dc ( myself included having had peadatrician, salt, dietician ear people eye people educational physiologist for statements) why does your child need funding to flourish further when at the age of 6 my son can't read or write

There is no point? My DC are worth the best too as are every other DC in this country.

If people who wanted to pay for private were prepared to invest that money into the local statens school ALL children would be better off and we wouldn't be living in a country run by Old Etonians.

I am a socialist and I have "bettered" myself without going to private school. I have worked hard, and gone without.

Yes, it's a price hike and a half. Partly it's all the stupid Elf n Safety rules. It's also costs such as Employers' NI, which slaps 13% on the salary of every employee. There's also just the day-to-day running costs which spiralled, fuel, food, buildings. Take PAT testing. It's where we have to go around every year, checking every single plug socket is safe. The cost to a typical school with £1,000 pupils? £4,000. Someone has to pay that cost, and that someone is the parent who wants the best for their kids.

How did they do that then flat pack, what exactly did they do?

If it makes you feel any better, we withdrew our DD from a fab prep where we had a big bursary ...and sent her to the state school in the next village because the prep didn't suit her!

It was too academic with not enough arts....we didn't see this until year three...she's now thriving and happy in the state school.

I gather they don't have to pay the cost of the teacher's pension scheme though.

Really interesting, whilst annoying flatpack. I keep thinking there must be a way of doing it. We are hard workers and just want DS to be inspired to be his best and being surrounded by as many people who believe in that principle is really important to me.

Channelling Xenia here- if you want DS to continue to attend there, get better paid employment!

What do you think 93% of the country do?

Do you also sit at traffic lights looking green with envy as super-expensive cars that are rated highly for safety whizz past?

Or stand outside houses that are large enough for each of your children to have a room each, plus a playroom, home office, garden to run around in all day and glower?

You cut according to your cloth...

thehouseonthecorner I totally agree its all about the right school. Trouble is I feel like we have found it!

Really pisses me off this suggestion that because I can't afford and wouldn't even if I could - send my kids to be privately educated I don't "want the best for my kids" it's so fucking condescending and patronising.

I chose to have kids with a man who has since chosen to opt out if being a parent. Sometimes we live hand to mouth sometimes I have to leave them in their own so I can work which I feel massively guilty about yet I am a tax payer - they still go on all the trips etc etc.

How the hell is that below your level of "wanting the best".

I don't get what's wrong with the OP wishing her child could have better. Don't all parents do that?

wigglybeezer

How did they do that then flat pack, what exactly did they do?

Well, I gave a couple of examples above. The rise in day-to-day costs over the last decade was masked for most people in part by rising earnings (at least in the public sector). But business costs rose considerably, and schools still have to break even, even if they're charities. Rises in fuel (schools cost an awful lot to heat), food (private schools tend to have better quality food) and staffing are inevitable. The torrent of HSE directives all require more admin staff, not only to read and understand them but to implement them correctly. A local public school I know well has 1,200 pupils and 100 teaching staff but 300 support staff. The support staff run boarding houses (cooking and cleaning 24 hours a day), maintaining the large grounds, running the IT systems (also 24 hours a day), dealing with applications to universities around the world, and so on.

Private schools are labour intensive. And since the last Labour government (ironically) made labour so expensive, that affected labour-intensive businesses more.