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!

we did the whole range from medieval to 1960s in both french and german so I only spent a week on flaubert which from memorty was plenty...

I only have one left at school now- the one in SEN school. Quite a change from before- he is in sixth form and has sent the last two days colouring in, apparently, lol (we cant be sure as he cant tell us)

We did Les Bonnes and Les Negres as our modern texts. I hate reading plays. A good linguistic comparison with Anglo-Norman French and a slice of Gargantua though

Yeah, reading plays can be tiresome: it always makes me think of the Victoria Wood sketch where she's being interviewed for medical school and they ask her what she thinks the main theme of Othello is: 'um, I don't think it's got one, really - it's just various people talking and sometimes they do things in brackets'

Gargantua, Horry you dirty beast

I did medicine at Cambridge. I was offered a free place at the local public school as I won a scholarship due to parents low income. However I point blank refused to go as I did not want to deal with toffs. Sadly when I got to Cambridge it was full of bloody toffs and wanted to leave but my parents said they would disown me for bringing shame on the family if I left. I bloody hated Cambridge!

Hell will freeze over before I send my son to public school

Can I add social intelligence is actually a far better predictor of future earnings than exam results. I believe children who get to mix with others from a more diverse background develop a better social intelligence.

Social variety... I spent my sixth form living with girls from all over the world (thinking of the corridor I lived on, Malaysia, Pakistan, Russia, Ukraine, Hong Kong and the UK). Some on Army scholarships or church bursaries with nearly no money, some with frighteningly rich parents. That's a damn sight more varied than a thousand children who happen to live within a mile of a school.

Oh and Arnie I suspect you were at the wrong college - mine was nearly 80% state school and off the tourist trail, up the hill.

No I went to Churchill too and the students there were pretty cool it was all the toffs I got stuck with in the medical lectures and dissections. I can remember in my first week the lecturer said hands up if your parents are doctors and virtually everyone put their hand up. I just hated the place but that was partially because I did not want to study medicine anyhow but had uber pushy toxic parents. My degrees are not worth the paper they are written on as I quit being a doctor after it caused severe depression and all I have to show for it all is 8k of student debts to repay

Oh hang on you are talking about Girton aren't you? I was always scared of that place as it is rated as the most ghost haunted college in Cambridge

I think the most valuable lessons a child can learn are staged in the playground

That's a shitter. I'm sorry that was your experience. I was just over the road but did MML/Linguistics which may have had a lower arsehole quotient.

Just because you can afford private doesnt mean you have a bright child. I have a average DS re academic achievements. However putting him in a fairly academic private school where he just managed to scrape a pass meant he was surrounded by some very clever kids.

So when he took his GCSE's he didnt get A across the board (and not many pupils do!) but he did get 8 A, and A's. I honestly honestly dont think he would have got that at our local state school.

99% of pupils go to the RG uni's and he is aiming to do so too. Its peer pressure but in a good way I think. He has had the time of his life at boarding school and we have no regrets whatsoever.

handcream
But that is exactly the problem
because you can afford feeds, your average bright child has displaced a really bright but poor child from their place in the queue for good courses and universities

That is exactly the reason that some state school careers staff give up : because their brightest cannot compete against better resourced but less innately intelligent rich kids.

How insulting Talkingpeace. You dont have a chip on your shoulder about private education do you? What on earth has it got to do with you what I spend my money on!

talkin thats just not correct IMO. Handcream's DS has worked hard and has been supported to reach his potential and deserves his place. DCs at even private schools do actually have to work for their results contrary to what the average mumsnetter believes about them being handed to them on a plate!

Yes but it stands to reason that if school X confers an advantage, a child not at that school is relatively disadvantaged. If you choose a school to help your child then you are acknowledging that a child of similar ability at a "worse" school will do less well, and equally logically that a child from a worse school who does nearly as well as your child was probably cleverer to start with.

It's not just a matter of fees though Talkinpeace is it? In state schools, average bright children with professional, university-educated parents soon displace very bright children from other backgrounds, from the top sets. My dc are teenagers and I have witnessed the shocking reality of this in recent years. Their school seems complicit in this

Handcream I benefited from private school, and I have been sharp elbowed with my kids (state) school.
Your child has been able to reach their potential.
Those of parents who cannot afford fees will not - therefore will miss out on 99% of pupils go to RG Unis
Which means that the long term benefit of the country is being jeapordised

goinggetstough a child who passes the exams deserves their place.
BUT it has to be taken into account that passing exams is much easier in certain circumstances than others
even the idiot Gove has realised this
www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/09/michael-gove-unwittingly-makes-case-against-bedroom-tax

Ladyedith
I'm not sure what you mean : is that because of parental help?
Surely if tests are the basis of setting, mummys car should not affect it.
Certainly DCs friends in the top sets reflect the mix of the school.

That's why we chose the school - to reach his potential - which he did. Now if state schools arent doing that for their pupils that's another issue.

Of course I recognise that not all schools are equal. I went for the small classes, the regular reports, the endless options for after school clubs and sports. The teaching standard at the school. The fact that almost all went to uni.

He could have gone to the local sec modern. However I went to a state school and looking at the two options for us - we decided to go private. My sec modern school was a load of rubbish.

I took the theory - surround yourself by pupils who want learn and behave and it will rub off. For example - if I had been taught tennis by Jimmy Connors - I wouldnt be as good as him but I would definitely be able to hold my own!

Why are we trying to drag schools to the lowest common denominator. Some state schools are bad therefore its not fair that some private schools are good.

If state schools do not allow pupils to reach their potential you need to
address that.

Next someone will be saying that we all need to be paid the same as its not fair that some get more than others.

North Korea or the old USSR anyone?