Paying for private school a poor investment in kids' future

[womblesofwestminster]

AIBU to wonder what all the private-school-paying parents think of this? (I know MN has a disproportionate amount of them).

"The research shows that a private-school education may help you get to university, but is of no help once you are there and of no help later once you try to enter the workforce"

www.tourismportdouglas.com.au/Paying-for-private-school-a-poor-investm.11742.0.html

[AuntieStella]

klaxon? Surely it's just the natural effect when a thread is in Active Convos? Title is seen and those with an interest click on it?

[MyFairyKing]

Yes but there are some posters who are on every thread about certain topics posting the same views over and over. Don't people get fed up?

[rubybleu]

I'm the product of the Australian private school system and I'm not sure it's relevant to the UK situation. As someone said, we have Catholic schools which are very cheap (just hundreds per term, in some cases).

The Australian university experience is also very different whic I think is a much bigger influence than private vs public. We have a vocational system - you take a subject at uni that is directly correlated with your intended career plan. We don't have entrance interviews but instead receive an overall entrance ranking that means a computer determines whether you are eligible to enter a certain course at university.

People who miss out on a popular subject can trade up to better courses once in university e.g you miss out on physiotherapy so enrol in a general science degree and assuming you pass, you'll have enough points to start physiotherapy the following year, as moderately good passes at university are equivalent to top Year 12 results. This also applies to transferring between universities, so you can trade up to a sandstone university if wanted. This massively levels the playing field at university and therefore the graduate jobs market.

I actually don't know that many people who finished the course they started at uni; the majority of my friends traded up.

The UK seems to set people up for failure from 15 - poor GCSEs limits your sixth form college options; poor A-levels limits your university course choice; weak university degrees mean that a whole swathe of graduate career options aren't realistic. We seem to have a lot of intermediate steps to redeem ourselves in Australia.

[minifingers]

Lee sheep - what upsets me is that the richest, cleverest and best supported children get twice as much spent on their education as everyone else between the ages of 5 and 18, and following this they are put forward on a supposedly level playing field to compete for the best jobs and university places. This is clearly unfair and undermining of our meritocracy, should be clearly acknowledged to be unfair and wrong, and should be addressed by the government.

[minifingers]

"poor in terms of culture and intellectual ambitions.No education model can change that"

Well herding all the children with the lowest aspirations into one school and all the others who have aspirations and the means to realise them into separate schools which are entirely inaccessible to the vast majority of children.

Aspiration and ambition is catching. We shouldn't be herding children into educational ghettoes, whether they be intellectual, religious or economic.

[minifingers]

Whoops - didn't finish that sentence.

"Well herding all the children with the lowest aspirations into one school and all the others who have aspirations and the means to realise them into separate schools which are entirely inaccessible to the vast majority of children isn't going to help."

[Moreisnnogedag]

I agree that "aspiration and ambition [are] catching". However, so is poor behaviour and apathy. I'm sure many of my friends could have done well but if they are surrounded by people who just don't give a shit there is a lot of peer pressure to underperform, to backchat teachers and to skive lessons.

I'm not sure what the correct balance would be but do think it is naive to assume that just by putting a mix of children together, more children would be pulled up. I think in a lot of cases more children would be pulled down and how is that fair.

But the money invested isn't government money but private funding and people should be fee to spend their own money where they see fit.

[chumrun]

I'm with Minifingers. Not quite as extreme but I agree with the basic gist of her posts.

Summer born children aren't put in classes exclusively filled with children born in September either There are plenty born between October and July to address the balance!

[CharethCutestory]

Agree with everything minifingers has said.

[KnittedJimmyChoos]

I agree that "aspiration and ambition [are] catching". However, so is poor behaviour and apathy. I'm sure many of my friends could have done well but if they are surrounded by people who just don't give a shit there is a lot of peer pressure to underperform, to backchat teachers and to skive lessons

Yes I am afraid in our family we have victims of fitting in with the majority which is apathy and poor behaviour.

[CaptainRex]

This hasnt been mentioned either

[meddie]

I sent both of mine private. it was a financial nightmare which I have only just recovered from in the last year (they are 25 and 26 now) but I don't regret the struggle one single bit.

I came from a low working class background with parents who didn't give a stuff about education, there was no encouragement to achieve only to leave school and get working asap.

The local comp they sent me too was horrendous. (was in the news for pupils going on strike and a hammer attack on a teacher) I hated every minute of it. I was a bright intelligent child with a reading age of 16+ at 7 and an IQ testing between 135 and 145 so I was like a square peg in a round hole there and only by becoming a bit of a class clown did I survive and escape the bullying for being a swot.
I deliberately dumbed down in class but I gave it my all at O level exams, when I knew the results wouldn't make my life a misery.

I could have done so well if only I had had the educational opportunities and support that a half decent school could give, so I was determined that my children would have every opportunity I could afford them. I never wanted them to be in a school where intelligence and academic ability made you a target.

Its been worth every penny. they are confident,self assured adults and both doing really well in their careers. I would do it all over again.

[jeanswithatwist]

loads of reasons, all of em' good & (hopefully) worth every cent :0)