... 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!

fuck sake Xenia I was agreeing with you until that comment.

Love from
Thick HR girl

Anna,
you say:
OK, but academia isn't an end it itself. Human progress is only valuable if it benefits society - so making the "socially advantageous" choice is also the morallly superior choice.

How does it benefit society if a student studies at Oxbridge....just because it's the right address....? Surely society benefits (as much as they ever will) by a student studying at a Uni that gives the best education?

3andnomore - I've already answered your question further down the thread

I'd just add - I've never spoken about Oxbridge - there are lots of "socially advantageous" universities on the planet.

Anna, you are just making the point that some people choose universities not just for academic reasons, but also to make contacts in later life. Fair enough. In UK, it is the Etons and the Harrows.

But how is doing that 'morally superior'? It sounds downright socially aspirational, a good choice for your child maybe, but for society?

Might be too far a leap ...

blueshoes - please read what I wrote earlier this morning, I don't want to repeat myself

Anna, I stick by what I said. Nothing you wrote this morning explains why choosing the right address advances society, as opposed to your own child's career, or that it is 'morally superior'.

Lorayn - if your friend at Cheltenham Ladies College gets into Cambridge, she will get college accommodation for all of her years at Uni and it would be very odd not to take up your rooms in college.

"Habbibu - on the "right address". We were having a conversation about this last night, about choice of school for our daughter (2.10). My partner had had lunch with an old friend of his and it transpired in the course of the conversation that this man's two younger half-sisters had both attended the exceedingly academic school we shall be applying to for my daughter.

This friend (who is apparently a very down to earth man) said that both his sisters had been pushed to the limits at this school, that it wasn't for the faint-hearted but was an excellent school for very intelligent children from families committed to education. He also said that one of the huge advantages that he perceived was that there was a critical mass of students in that school who were extremely clever and went on to great things - and so, later on in life, you would be inserted in a professional and social network that enabled you to get things done in a way that was impossible if you hadn't been to such a school.

The "right address" does help society move forward IMO."

Crikey, I just scrolled down too, and found this;
"attended the exceedingly academic school we shall be applying to for my daughter."
(this daughter is 2.10)

"was an excellent school for very intelligent children from families committed to education"

I really hope, for your sake anna, that you do not, for some unforeseeable reason, go broke before it comes to paying for her school fees or, for her sake, that your child turns out to be thick as two short planks.

Caroline, it was oxford, and she wanted to come and stay with us, not for all the time at uni of course! but it would have been nice to have her so close.

Lorayn - the school in question is not expensive at all

ah, thankyou Anna, didn't realise we would both c&p it at the same time!

Anna, the last sentence of your repeated post is a non-sequitur.

The school may not be expensive but what if your child isn't particularly intelligent?
What would you do then?

Not at all

Anna, you can do better ... come on, explain it to us lesser educated beings, instead of just parotting yourself and bare denials. Or don't bother - I am not impressed with your argument, nor follow it.

I still want to know what will happen if anna's daughter isn't clever enough.

... have to rush off. Got to attend an HR seminar at work on how to get my schoolage child into reading ...

Lorayn - first of all, the school in question is the most successful bilingual (French-English) school in France. I had a bilingual education, my sister did, her children have one, my daughter is being brought up in a bilingual family and we know quite a lot about bilingual education and how to help her get the most of of that. So in that sense she has the best possible family environment in which to benefit from the school.

Secondly, she's no fool and her parents and wider family are bright and have all done extremely well academically.

Thirdly, I know quite a few families with children at the school and nothing suggests to me at this stage that their children are more academically inclined than my daughter.

Obviously, there are no guarantees about anything but at this stage I at least want to try to get her into a great school. And the easiest way to get in is at the beginning of the academic year in the calendar year of your 4th birthday - which is September 2008 for her (the school goes up to 18).

blueshoes - I'm not going to get into an argument . Read what I wrote, it's perfectly clear.

Anna, she is not even three yet!!!
How on earth can you claim that "nothing suggests to me at this stage that their children are more academically inclined than my daughter. "

Lorayn - the school will interview my daughter before giving her a place, just as her current school did, to assess her progress. So if schools think they can make some kind of judgement at age 2, why shouldn't parents be able to?