To find people say X public School is OK because

[NoComet]

It gets DCs into Oxbridge and RG universities, a daft justification for choosing a school that costs £15,000 plus a year.

We have a local secondary (not even a true comp as there is some creaming off of bright DC by Grammar schools) that is in Special Measures that has just got two pupils in to Oxbridge.

And this is hardly news, bog standard state secondaries and sixform collages all over the country send DCs to Oxbridge and RG Universities every year.

My very ordinary Welsh Comp sent someone in the year above me to study medicine at Oxford, there were others at prestigious med schools and, now, RG uni's me included.

Yes, private schools are very nice, yes DC avoid some DCs with a bad attitude to education, Yes DC get good sports facilities and yes DC may study a wider range of subjects, esp. MFL.

But in the end your DC will, quite likely end up at exactly the same uni, doing the same course, just with poorer parents!

Blimey. 170?

Well, we've had believing and thinking so far today on what those people might do.... and now wagering too, but it's all a bit speculative really.

Is it 50% who say they would use private school if they could? If so then surely a good proportion of the other 50% must take that position on principle rather than because they just like sweatshirts better than straw hats or whatever!

I'd wager that of those who could, most would go privately when confronted with a very bad state school as an alternative.
Those probably already do.
The rest of us take steps to find alternatives
And most just suck it up because they can afford to do little else.

The primary school with the machete kid was the feeder for the school I've avoided.

DH has worked at schools with razor wire on the buildings
and at a school that Ofsted rated highly that he found utterly disorganised with cannabis growing by the front door.
He's also been to private schools that he really liked and others he loathed.
All schools are different.

true, though I think a few brain cells have died since then due to application of booze . He just came in the top 5 in his year at Cambridge.

But there's an awful lot of assuming that schools are terrible which, er, aren't. People shudder at some of the kids piling out of DD1's school. (They seem perfectly nice girls to me, though perhaps quite a lot of their pants are on display.) They say things like "it's quite good, really, isn't it, considering".

Reputations can be incredibly misleading.

Sunnyintervals re post of 8.05am

yes! Curry name school . It is a good school, but not as good as it should be! By that I mean although significantly above average exam results, if these results are normed against education/affluence of the parents, it is in the bottom quartile of similar intake schools "cruising school". Which make me kind of . But new HT with lots of fresh ideas just started, so hopefully it will regain its former glory!

Tikka Academy?
Biriani High?
curiousity is aroused now!

Ah, working out that school and town was a doddle !
And the history of the name is interesting too ... bet they are glad it did not get Islamicised with the 'sa' on the end!

Taz1212, re post of 9.38am.

We did indeed move into catchment for this school, and while I think this was a good move, the situation re results is more complex than it might seem - no "value added" imvho, it's the opposite of a sink school, people move to get in to it, due the the good results, but its these motivated pupils/parents that keep the results up through tutoring and other means, with very little in the way of pastoral care (3 of my dc have attended so I say that from recent experience).

And they do tend to bin the pupils they don't want post 16.

Indeed, the name is perhaps not one you might want to mention, in certain situations in case it was suspected that you had been educated at some kind of radicalisation camp in the mountains of some far off country!

Talkin- thank you, that was the clue I needed to work out the curry school!

goes back to work

beast just wanted to say WOW what an amazing child you have reading A level chemistry at 10 (I'm sure all of your other children are amazing too). I like your idea of referring to all of the schools your children attended as special schools .
I have two very opposite children too: one very academic (not quite your sons level though) and one with profound learning disabilities.

I know, I was at 170. That's off the charts.

I'm sure it wasn't without it's challenges.

running thanks! my other two have learning disabilities, one profound, so are vv different. But was not trying to go on about how wonderful etc, just to make the case that sometimes it is reasonable to bail out and go for a highly specialised academic education.

actually think I might delete that post....

Beast - similar story here. Our DS currently at Oxford tested at 165 at age almost 6. I can honestly say the difficulties with accessing appropriate education for him was much more difficult than for our DS with Aspergers, or our DS with significant dyslexia and another disability.

Education for all of them has caused many many lost nights sleep (us parents, not them), many many meeting fighting their corners at several different schools.

beast
I think the point you make is valid. You're son has exceptional skills / needs and so requires an educational environment to match that. He is not your average bright kid. If his exceptional skills were music or dance, nobody would question if you selected and possibly paid for a school that nutured those abilities. For some reason exceptional intelligence / academic skills is often seen differently to creative and physical skills.

I've never tested either myself or my kids : Mensa just want cash if you get a high number
and as Feynmann said, a high IQ does not guarantee success, it just means learning easy stuff quicker

When I was at school we were told not to apply to Oxbridge as people like us shouldn't aspire to such things. I hope that's changed and teenagers are encouraged to apply to wherever they want and are able.

No, you are right TP- 3 of my dc have been formally tested, not out of curiosity, but as part of ed phyc testing and assessments on behalf of the schools.

A high iq in itself doesn't mean much, or guarantee anything without hard work and application. It can make early schooling years rather difficult though.

Grumpy, at my school, any kind of university wasn't even mentioned as a possibility to me, ever! Shockingly, I suspect that may have been because I was female (I'm mid 40's but this school is in very rural area and stuck about 100 years in the past). I have family still in the area now, it still has one of the lowest rates of going on to Uni in the country .

My school assumed that all of us gels would marry well or become teachers.
I remember getting little or no careers advice at all. Then again my school was a VERY bad example at that time.
The school my brothers went to was better (I read their info sheets) and the school my sister went to gave her excellent advice.

My family - which includes Ivy League faculty heads - thought otherwise.

Beast - dont delete your post as you have every right to highlight why your son needed a specialised environment that could meet his academic needs. Come to think of it, nobody bats an eyelid when we have to send our children to special schools due to having profound disabilities, but some pass comments when we choose academic environments for children that require it, thinking that we have done it for our own reasons rather than what's best for the child (or only option for the child).