To think instead of paying for DD's schooling we could give her 250K cash for her 18th birthday?

[LondonMan]

DD is about to turn 3. I have looked at on-line info for local state schools and don't like what I see. For three of the nearest primary schools where I've managed to locate statistics, two have over 90% of children with English as an additional language, and one over 80%. The schools all have bottom or (rarely) second-from-bottom quintile performance in all subjects, in Ofsted reports. All local state schools are likely to be similar, because they are teaching the same demographic, children of local social-housing tenants, mostly Bangladeshi. (From long experience living in the area, virtually all non-social-housing parents leave the area once they have children.)

We don't want to move because we are near DW's job.

DW is hoping to get DD into the 14th nearest state school (which is only 0.7miles away) using their religious criteria. That school has excellent Ofsted results, "only" two-thirds of pupils have English as an additional language, though apparently one third arrive speaking no English at all.

There is also a just-opened foundation secondary which might be an OK option later.

I suspect we won't get into the good state primary school and will end up private all the way, which we can afford. There is a top girl's school nearby, and the fees are actually slightly less than the 15K a year we spend on nursery care at the moment.

I've calculated that if we don't send DD to private schools for 13 years, and invest the money instead, with average luck (5% return) we'd be able to give her about £250K cash instead.

The title question is mostly rhetorical. I expect that DD will not end up in the sub-par schools, whatever we decide. I'm just a bit bemused by the situation and thought I'd give you all something to comment on.

[TheVermiciousKnid]

thought I'd give you all something to comment on

How very kind of you.

[Ooopsadaisy]

This is a joke isn't it?

Such fun!

[Bakingnovice]

I gee up in a rough area and I can tell you now that the family who has done the best in terms of education/jobs/ money etc is the immigrant family with 8 kids who had English as a second language. I'm still in touch with some of them as we grew up together and they include a lawyer, teacher, doctor, chief probation officer and psychologist. This is despite going to very poorly performing schools in the 80's. their work ethic and drive to succeed is second to none.

[LondonMan]

No not really going to give an 18 year old 250K. It was just a dramatic way to illustrate the apparent cost of adequate education where I live.

[MummytoMog]

I'm guessing you live in our old area - we started looking to move the moment we saw the positive pregnancy test. Wasn't the schools so much as the drug dealers, bloody student flatshares and achingly trendy wankers though. And Hackney fecking council.

[LondonMan]

I may have misunderstood English as an additional language. Going by the (high-achieving) schools comment that one third (actually think it was 30%) of children arrive with no English, I was assuming my daugher would be twiddling her thumbs for several years while the schools teach enough English to be able to teach anything else.

[LondonMan]

Would all you purveyors of dougnuts/biscuits really be perfectly content with these schools?

[JakeBullet]

[EldritchCleavage]

Genuine question: are the repeated threads about high EAL % in local schools, oh what shall I do hand-wring hand-wring actually just asking coded questions about race?

[LondonMan]

Why is it relevant that the children you speak of in your OP, live in Social-Housing?

It's relevent becuase it communicates that everyone who is able to avoids these schools by moving away. I've live in a devlopement of 300 flat, until recently there's been barely a single child in the whole development. It's all City workers who move away when time comes to procreate.

[LondonMan]

I live in a development of 300 flats that should read.

[JakeBullet]

No I wouldn't be happy either, but neither would I sniffily assume it's down to social housing dwellers and non-English speakers.

I live in social housing and my DS's school do well despite having a 40% intake of children for whom English is a second language.

And NO, your DD would not be left "twiddling her thumbs". Instead of posting your prejudices here why don't you contact the schools and ASK them how they would differentiate for your DD? Or is that too much of an original idea for you?

[Decoy]

Would all you purveyors of dougnuts/biscuits really be perfectly content with these schools?

93 per cent of children are in the state sector so yes, the chances are most of the biscuit-givers aren't going to be wondering what to do with their spare £250K.

[LondonMan]

Yes we would, do you actually know how education works in this country?

No. Neither I nor DW went to school here.

[Grammaticus]

Just move house man, your Dw will have to travel a bit further to work.

[JakeBullet]

I suspect this thread has been started to inflame......

[noddyholder]

Good idea

[ChazsBrilliantAttitude]

The children will pick up English very quickly especially if they have already gone to nursery from the age of 3.

Things you need to consider are Value Added i.e. to the children come out with better results than might be expected looking at their starting point. Also, is there a dominant subculture within the school is it pretty well mixed. One reason I wasn't particularly happy with some of our local primaries was there was a large Arabic speaking group there and I could see a risk that my DC would spend most their playtimes chatting in Arabic rather than mixing more widely.

The Prep school they go to is ethnically diverse in line with the local area. However, no one group is obviously in the majority so the children mix well.

[TheVermiciousKnid]

'Hide this thread' is very useful too...

[LondonMan]

Have to go now, will return to the thread when I can, probably Saturday.

[Decoy]

Or "derail this thread"

[cantspel]

I wouldn't send my children to a failing school no matter what language the children spoke, colour they were or type of housing they lived in.

You all can be as pc as you like but a failing school is not going to get the best out of any child and if you have an alternative you take it.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

someone mentioned PC