... to think it slightly odd that so many of my school mum friends are hung up about secondary schools already, when their kids are only 5!

[sandyballs]

It seems to be the sole topic of conversation lately - how good/bad the local comp is, how extra tuition will be needed for the local grammar etc etc.

The kids are 5/6 years old! Let them be kids!

I'm sure our parents never had all this school angst!

Luucyellen now I'm confused.

Xenia that's interesting.

A recent survey demonstrated that parents in many professions are now priced out of private education. Very many middle class professionals now cannot afford fees without remortgaging/gifts from grandparents etc even if both parents work. I know this from experience!

drosophila, i just thought to myself that you must have a reason for that nick name, i used to work with drosophila (no not this lady!) before i took the rash decision of becoming a SAHM and just wondered if you did the same.

If they are priced out then I suppose they go back into state education and that may benefit state education. So in a sense the higher the fees the better may be....

From the link you gave
"The research was based on the premise that workers could not afford to spend more than 25 per cent of their gross earnings on one child's school fees. Using this criterion to measure affordability, it found that only nine occupations out of 39 in the study could afford private education in 2005 compared to 19 in 2000.

The Independent Schools Council (ISC), which represents nearly 1,300 schools teaching 80 per cent of pupils in the private sector, condemned the research as "muddled and misleading".

Jonathan Shephard, general secretary of the ISC, pointed out that most families have two earners. He said that two newly qualified police constables, on a basic (out of London) salary of £22,107 each, can afford fees at more than 950 ISC schools. "

Well kinda. I studied Lab Science when I left school but mainly it was because a guy I knew thought my real name reminded him of the fruit fly.

if i could afford private school for my children i guess i would send them, although i think it rather sad that a persons education is dependent on their parents income, my eldest dd did not do well in state schooling. It doesnt really seem fair to me, but then perhaps i should just put up, doff my cap, and shut up.

Xenia,

You're wrong about the OFT investigation into fixing of school fees. The OFT did fine each of the schools, and also got each of them to set up an educational trust for the benefit of pupils who may have suffered as a result of the fee-fixing. The OFT took the whole thing very seriously indeed.

H, sorry, yes you're right but they came to a very funny decision. It was amusing. They didn't want a finding of guilt against the schools as otherwise parents woudl have brought a class action as buyers of football shirts in a different case are currently bringing so they had that fudged fund thing without a decision the law had been broken if I remember it rightly.

Yes, I think they came to deal with the schools of some kind. I'd better not mention the class action re: football shirts, but watch this space!

Ops - I'm worried about that now and my youngest is not 2 yet!

Xenia, maybe due to the type of people you mix with you underestimate the burden of the cost of the school fees. To the majority of people, it is not a matter or working a few more hours and "spending less time at the school gate". I went to one of the NW london schools you quote and obviously did not chose a well paid enough profession!! I enjoyed the school, but was shocked by the attitude of most the girls there, who thought that their lifestyle and the pressure that were are under was quite normal. Many of the friends I met there are not necessarily happier in their life now, as 20 years later you realise that getting A's or B's or getting a job in the City does not mean everything.

high percentage of the girls in my local grammer school are anorexic, rather my ds go to local comp and have chicken nuggets.

know friends with daughters there. plus well documented that anorexia is a white middle class affliction. too much pressure to succeed. its true.

Re independent schools pricing (sorry because a bit off topic for the OP)
There is an interesting supplement free with this week's Country Life. It shows that school fees are not at their most expensive ever relative to earnings and the cost of living.
OP - The parent discussing extra tuition and 11 + schooling is to the school gate what the house price bore is to the dinner party.

Xenia, are you Lydia from ROF?

Also, about the public benefit test for the charity status of private school. The tax saving by virtue of being a charity is worth approx £220 per term each to my sons' school fees. Most people will be able to absorb that cost. I would personally prefer my sons' school to ditch their charity status if meeting the public benfit means that my sons have to share their education with a load of disinterested hoodies. I pay fees to avoid that.

There are schools which will ditch the charitable status. it isn't a huge concession really and there are disadvantages to it anyway.

Yes, I know school fees are hard to fund. It's an issue for our children - do you want a life finding it hard to afford a nice home, car, holidays, schools picking X career or do you want a career where those things will be beyond your reach. Any of us with half a brain considered all those things in our teens and 20s when we picked careers.

(H, yes, you're right - they found the schools in breach, but limited the fines to £10k each "The OFT makes no finding as to the effect of the infringement." That was the sop to the schools so that parents can't easily sue to get over paid money back if indeed the result was that fees were higher which I very much doubt)

oh you ARE

is there no escape?

I don't think on line people should say who other people are or might be.

There is no need for it is there? Well, hello anyway.

After my experiences with primary schools here, I think they are being very wise to look into it very early

ROFL @ PPH's comments last night

3easterbunniesandnomore, your name is almost identical to my easterthemed name....just took a doubleturn there, lol, didn't realise there is another 3andnomore person on here...

anyway, op....I must admit, that there isn't, ime, much point anyway, to worry to much so far ahead...I suppose, if you were going to send your child to a school that puts you on a waiting lists for years ahead, lol...but then, I always thought that people put their children down for those before the birth of the child, lol!

rofl here...I jsut realsied that this thread is an old one from march....and it was me under my easetername posting...oh , I am sooooooo blond today!