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.

Ooh, my second , and I can't even be arsed to read the thread.

So where exactly do you originate from? Do you work? Could you homeschool?

From a former colony, English is the only language that I'm comfortable with. DW is from a different former colony and was educated in English but it's not her first language.

Retiring this year.

Home schooling is a possibility, but not sure I've got it in me.

My first ever

Hope your DD grows up to be less ignorant than her parent(s)

its naivity to assume that all private schools are good.

I agree, but I believe this one really is good. Since I've partially identified my location by mentioning Canary Wharf, I might as well specify: City of London School for Girls.

Not that it's a foregone conclusion they would have DD. There are entrance tests.

Hackney is a tricky one

I'll out myself a little more and say not Hackney, E1W.

I mean E1W is my postcode, in case that's not obvious. Maybe someone knows a good state school other than the one I know.

My dh was brought up in a council estate by a single mother (shock horror), all five kids worked their backsides off to get to university. All five are now professionals who can speak a variety of languages & are very successful in their careers. They got where they are today because they had nothing growing up & it gave them the drive to do better. Dont just look at stats, look at the people behind the stats. They too want a good life / education for their kids so dont look down at them just because you have the cash to buy your way out.

Personally, I think a good education is the best thing you can ever buy your child.

Many people can get that for free but, if you can't, then pay for it, your money will be better spent than giving an 18 year old a fortune.

City Girls is a fantastic school but I don't know if you can register this late can you?

If you are worried about EAL children I would steer clear of private schools. Some of those can be very mixed indeed

Well, rhetorically I would say that giving the equivalent amount (that private education would cost) as a cash lump sum is, on face value (excuse pun) a sound idea.

I think an individual determined to succeed in life/chosen career will do, regardless of state or private teaching.

I would probably give it them at, say, 25 rather than 18. Give them a few years to forge a career and learn the true value of money (rent/mortgage/bills) so that it may be spent more wisely than a piss up in Ibiza I would have done at 18

Yes..they are likely to perform badly because the children live in social housing?

In reply to you and everyone else who has been offended by the social housing reference, I will repeat and add to what I explained earlier:-

1. the relevance of all children in schools being from social housing is that no-one who is free to move sends children to these schools.
2. I assume the reason the schools are all bottom quintile peformers is because the intake is difficult, i.e. mostly don't have good English. I suppose it's possible that the 13 nearest schools just all have crap teachers though. (Disclaimer, I only actually looked at the nearest seven before giving up hope.)

The OP's wife is an EAL adult. Oh the irony!

Ipare PIL's a pain in the ass?

Meant "are your PIL's" a pain in the arse?

I think the OP is getting unfair treatment. I came to the UK when I was 14 and for one year I went to Quentin Kinaston in St Johns Wood in the eighties. My parents had no idea what kind of school it was. Coming from abroad they assumed that it would be a good school as SJW is a very expensive area.
How wrong were they! There were only two non Bangladeshi in my class and the main language in school was not English, it was Bangladeshi. These guys aspired to get D at English and Maths GCSEs and the lessons were taught accordingly. The maths that I was taught, i had learnt when I was 8. I consistently witnessed teachers being abused verbally. I got beaten up during a PE session for missing a queue.
I am not exaggerating any of this. This was in all honesty my experience for a whole academic year. Perhaps things have changed since then, I don't know.
Personally if I was in your situation I wouldn't think twice about spending 1/4 million pounds on my DD's education if I could afford it and this was the alternative.
GL

Umm its a tricky one. If I moved to France say and put Ds in school, I would expect him to pick up French pretty darn quickly. If the teaching quality was good, and it was a good school to begin with.

Would I put him in a school here, that pre dominantly didn't speak his mother tongue and was already a struggling school? Probably not.

I suppose the reason being is that I put loads of effort into trying to increase his vocab and its already been noted that he does have a good range for age, I would want him to bounce of peers with similar level and go further.

I have heard stats however that schools with a high no of EAL's do really well, however I have also heard, not necessarily the English as mother tongues do that well in that environment.

I don't think people from other countries are thick, I don't think poor people are thick, I do think the OP thinks this and I think that is wrong and nasty.

I only think that sharing a class where 9 out of 10 people don't have good English may hold DD back.

Or if that's not the reason why the school is in the worst 20%, then just that being in a school that's in worst 20% isn't good.

Boarding school
Then you don't have to move anywhere, since your home criteria are so important

I went to a boarding school. From the age of 12 I regarded my parents as nice people whose house I camped out in during the holidays, before returning to my real life, at school. I'd like a closer relationship with my daughter.

(Though it may not have just been boarding school that affected my relationship with my parents - it was probably a bit distant even before. Haven't analysed it much, don't like to think about those years.)

Have you considered the Free School in Canary Wharf? It is meant to be much better than the state school in West Ferry Road. I know several people who moved the children to the free school, for the exact reasons that you are mentioning, and are very happy. Fail that, I would definitely go for private. Why gamble with your daughter's education when you can afford for her to go to a good school?

"Personally I would spend some of the 250k on moving to an area with better schools."

I've never understood that approach and I never will. Each to their own of course but it's not the choice I'd make.