To think private schools should be banned?

[BethanyBoobs]

Why should someone have a better education just because their parents have money? Why should someone have a better chance of getting into university because their parents paid for their education? It makes me feel uncomfortable that people can buy their kids an upper hand when it comes to education.

I feel the same way about private health care too.

IMO private schools should be banned. Everyone should have the same chances when it comes to their education.

Trebezion, are you honesty trying to say that because my 20 seconds of googling didn't bring up the right document, there cannot be any indirect income?
The point I was trying to make by saying it was 'a quick google' was clearly not to say that the link was the only definitive proof, but that if typing 'contribution to UK economy by foreign students in private schools' can bring up an 85 page document, authored by the government, it clearly isn't an insignificant amount.

But because that one document didn't list the right stat, it doesn't exist?

Just the tax collected on the airfares for them arriving at the start of each term and leaving at the end of it will run into tens of millions.

If you want to see some of the other spending in action, I suggest you take a walk around Windsor or Harrow of a weekend...

This is quite interesting reading, by the way. From the admittedly right-leaning Spectator, but I challenge anyone to read that and say they don't believe foreign students at British schools contribute to the British economy
A British education has become a commodity bought by wealthy foreigners

YABVVVVVU OP. I have 4 kids at private schools because dh and I believe that because we can afford it, our kids should have the opportunity. Also, as a poster earlier on the thread said, it would definitely not resolve the problem if they were to be banned. Tbh if children from private schools were to mix with children being educated in the state sector, it would open up a whole new range of problems. Eg, their brand of shoes, what they were wearing on mufti days, what their cars were like, what they were doing in the holidays (where they were going, how they were getting there)etc.
personally, my opinion is that they should most definitely not be banned as it is the choice of the parents.

I hasten to add though that families who are less fortunate should have the opportunity to be given a funded scholarship if the child would thrive there and it was the right school for them.
I hope this all makes sense and that it is not too boring and that I have not just completely repeated what others have said!
Xx

Ha, Guineapig! You've obviously never visited a state school in East Cheshire where we used to live! Parents would drop their children at our local catchment primary in the Bentleys and Range Rovers.

Guineapig, please can you expand on what you mean by "Tbh if children from private schools were to mix with children being educated in the state sector, it would open up a whole new range of problems. Eg, their brand of shoes, what they were wearing on mufti days, what their cars were like, what they were doing in the holidays (where they were going, how they were getting there"

Why would it cause problems, and who would it cause problems for?

Plus, the last thing I would want is for my privately educated children not to be able to easily socially mix with the other 93% of children in society. Tbh, I'm not sure my kids could tell the difference between two other local kids, one who attends the other prep and one who attends the local state primary.

How far are you prepared to take this, OP?

Your DC are massively more privileged than those in third world countries, simply because they happened to be born here. Not fair, no?

Would you be happy for their advantages to be taken away from them and distributed to the global poor?

Guineapig are you for real? I went to private school as do the kids. I certainly never looked down on anyone (whether privately educated or not), nor judged them by the shoes they wore or the cars their parents had. My children wouldn't dare look down their noses at anyone who attends a different school. You are an utter snob! I'm so glad not everyone thinks as you do. My goodness I'd love to see what happens when your children leave private school and HAVE to mix with state educated people. Lol

Should beautiful people forced to undergo uglifying surgery to put them at less of an advantage compared to us plainer people? After all, it's no secret that physical beauty opens all kinds of doors, and it's just not fair. No-one earns their beauty, they are just given it on a plate. From their parents.

Personally, if i had kids and i had the option to, i would send them to a private school. My reasons are: fellow students would be around the same level of education which encourages a culture of learning among the fellow students, various extra curricular activities, ect overall a better quality of education. Plus why would anyone not want the best for their children ?

One would think it would be would to more effective to focus our efforts on the delinquent parents instead of punishing those of us whip are doing the best for their kids.

But that's not fun is it?

I find it hilarious that some people honestly say they will sacrifice their children's education for the greater good. All I can respond is to say that at anyone who does that is a fool.

Really resent this idea that those of us who happen to live in 'middle-class areas' and send our children to state schools are somehow morally on par with those who pay for private education.

Really? So if you happened to live in a not so nice area with failing schools then you would choose to send your children there? You think you're morally above people who pay for a private education because you just 'happen' to live near a good school. That's just as bad from a social engineering point of view as paying to go private imo. You pay a premium in terms of house price/rent in order to live in an area you 'just happen to like' and lo and behold, that area just happens to be in the catchment for a good school! Funny that.

Tbh if children from private schools were to mix with children being educated in the state sector, it would open up a whole new range of problems. Eg, their brand of shoes, what they were wearing on mufti days, what their cars were like, what they were doing in the holidays (where they were going, how they were getting there)etc.

Guineapig, this is also a big, steaming pile of bullshit and a massive generalisation. Around here, there is not such a polarisation. We are probably sending DS1 to a private school in December, from his current state school. I know parents from both and their backgrounds/homelife are really similar. Some just choose to spend their money in a different way. Obviously most at the state school can't afford to do so, but then neither can a huge % at the private school - it's grandparents paying! And at primary school who notices things like footwear anyway?? My DS1 hasn't even a concept of designer footwear, and the only vehicles he notices are if they exactly the same as ours. So I have no idea what you are talking about. Out of their uniforms I would challenge you to identify the private school kids and kids from DS1's current school.

I find it hilarious that some people honestly say they will sacrifice their children's education for the greater good. All I can respond is to say that at anyone who does that is a fool.

I agree. I'll believe it when I see it.

I have found from our experience that ds1 and his fellow pupils at grammar are invested in their futures. They have got the message that the better they do the more options they will have when they leave school. The behaviour is more conducive to learning than at ds2 comp.
Although the majority of the pupils want to do well and work hard, there is a minority who have no interest in being there and cause disruption to the rest of the class and make it difficult for the teacher to teach.
If I was a fee paying parent, I would insist that my dcs were not subjected to this disruption. This is why private schools are perceived to be better.
The question is what to do with the disruptive element. Dcs that live in an environment that is beaten down and has little hope of improvement will have no incentive to do well, as they would need a great deal of imagination to see what most of us take for granted.
I think that if you are already at the bottom, you have nothing to lose which is hardly going to encourage them to change.
There needs to be an incentive for doing well that is missing at the moment- university means high debt and no guarantee of work, a job from school, a home when you need one.

Can I really point out that views like Guineapig's are NOT why the more resonable of us send our children to private school.

Fleta,
I still can't work out who Guinepig thinks will be the bullied party
My education was a mix of private and state. At private schools, we mostly wore hand-me-downs and green flash trainers, and were dropped off in aging estate cars
It wasn't until I got to my state school that I discovered that Ralph Lauren made school shirts, and people drove convertible cars

littledrummergirl, this is why I'm a big advocate at schools offering two routes at 14. Instead of flogging the dead horse and demanding that non academic, quickly losing interest 14yr olds carry on with 9 or 10 GCSEs, offer them something different. Something they see as interesting and worthwhile and will be of use to them after the summer they turn 16.

Schools could offer a range of vocational courses supported by local fe colleges and local businesses and then a whole section of kids in danger of opting out of society who would otherwise leave with no qualification would now leave with something tangible which would help their transition into employment or further training. I can't find a link right now but I know that some schools have piloted such schemes with huge success.

Well quite. We certainly don't wear designer clothes here. Well DD wears alot of Joules (pony mad child and pony mad clothes almost exclusively bought 2nd hand), my sunglasses are from Primark, I DO have a designer bag....that I won in a competition

I should also say that it's important to teach kids of all abilities that both options are equally valid and worthwhile just different. This obsession with getting 60% of kids to university is damaging. We need to see qualified trades as equally important to going to university. Society needs decent well adjusted adults engaged in a range of jobs in order to function properly.

Guineapig - you sound incredibly shallow and naive if you think that private schools alone have children with nice cars and designer clothes. (And I say that as a parent with 3 children at private school - no designer clothes in our house I'm afraid).

I live in northern Ireland. We don't have any private secondary schools. Northern Irish gcse and a-level results are higher than the rest of the uk every year. bbc report

I don't know where GuineaPig gets her ideas. If I sent my children to private school I couldn't afford the holidays etc. The joy of state education is that we can afford a better standard of living.

NancyJones, while I agree in principle and ds2 school has started to do this, I know of dcs who want to continue with eg history and are told no, they have to do the btec in bricklaying.
These are dc who work hard and really want gcses which will keep their options open and are being forced into a route they dont want because they may not hit the magic c.
This is disincentivising these dc who feel they are being written off.
I have no problem with this route if it is what the dc wants.

Webster school sounds lovely from the ofsted report, Impatient. Has it gone downhill recently or something?