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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder how one would go about abolishing private schools?

466 replies

Chuffin · 19/07/2019 16:41

If anyone is following the @abolisheton campaign, they state their aim is to integrate private schools into the public sector and hope this to be included in Labours next manifesto.

My children are about to start independent school, having had a terrible time for a whole host of reasons in their state primary.

Aside from the moral argument for or against private schools, I am very interested in whether it would be legally possible to abolish private schools and how this would happen? Would this even be feasible realistically?

OP posts:
Knittedjimmychoos · 21/07/2019 15:23

It's an emotive topic Shakespeare and I think posters should be a little more sensitive perhaps when posting.

TryingAndFailing39 · 21/07/2019 15:23

The school I teach at gives a lot of bursaries and does a lot of charitable work. I know this isn’t the same for all private schools but there are definitely some that strive to be as inclusive as possible. The ethos of my school is one of the reasons I love working there.

Knittedjimmychoos · 21/07/2019 15:24

Cendrillon, history is littered with bodies left behind by the kind fair left. Sad

TibetanCherryTree · 21/07/2019 15:25

Where I live we had a lovely private school with a pool and massive sports grounds. It closed a year ago and many of those students were unable to secure state schools due to lack of places. They are now in schools up to an hour away. Our town and surrounding areas has nearly doubled in population with no extra school places. My DS1 goes to private secondary as he got his 4th choice for state. What a f&cking joke. The local population petitioned hard for this existing closed private school to be converted into an additional school but it's now going to have its lovely building converted into flats and its grounds into a massive housing estate. What a missed opportunity. The state won't ever improve the education system by absorbing private. It will just milk the cow dead. Hogwarts buildings will be snapped up by housing developers and councils will gladly take their money and throw your kids under a bus.

My local comp has 300 kids per year, 10 sets for subjects. Everyone I know from my prep school who went there walked straight into the top sets. They all have their DC tutored because they tell me that once you are in set 3 or 4 or below, they only teach to a certain level and the teachers concentrate on those students in the upper sets. Usually it's about 4 DC per year who go to the comp. If my private school closes that's 40 DC per year potentially dominating the top couple of sets with extra tuition. Tuition works. My DS1 went from being way behind his peers to the very top of his year for maths in 2 years.

Closing private schools is a stupid idea and a false economy.

AtmosClock · 21/07/2019 15:29

As I understand it, from a few Northern European countries I know, sending your child to a private school is a bit embarrassing, almost an admission that you know they’re not particularly smart. Maybe fostering that feeling somehow might be the way forward. I think there’s a decent opportunity with the next prime minister

CendrillonSings · 21/07/2019 15:32

No kidding, Knittedjimmychoos. They're damned well going to bring you that gleaming new Utopia, no matter what it costs to get there...

JacquesHammer · 21/07/2019 15:33

Maybe fostering that feeling somehow might be the way forward

😂😂

To be fair we - and my daughter - wouldn’t have given a monkeys whether people thought she wasn’t bright.

I mean do you honestly thing that would make a difference Grin

AtmosClock · 21/07/2019 15:37

I mean do you honestly thing that would make a difference

You might when it came to the job market.

“Oh, she got good grades, but oh no, she went to a private school. I have my doubts as whether she has the capabilities for this role”

JacquesHammer · 21/07/2019 15:38

Oh, she got good grades, but oh no, she went to a private school. I have my doubts as whether she has the capabilities for this role

What a load of bollocks Grin

The more I read threads on private education, the more I become convinced they’re required!

CendrillonSings · 21/07/2019 15:41

“Oh, she got good grades, but oh no, she went to a private school. I have my doubts as whether she has the capabilities for this role”

Brilliant - I'm sure introducing that sort of unjustified bigotry will solve all society's problems!

AtmosClock · 21/07/2019 15:41

Why is my hypothetical situation bollocks? There’s evidence that for example, state educated pupils with the same grades as privately educated students do better at university.

AtmosClock · 21/07/2019 15:43

I'm sure introducing that sort of unjustified bigotry will solve all society's problems!

Lol, love the irony. We currently live in a country where the inverse of my statement (or bigotry as you call it) holds, but you support it because it benefits you.

JacquesHammer · 21/07/2019 15:44

Why is my hypothetical situation bollocks? There’s evidence that for example, state educated pupils with the same grades as privately educated students do better at university

Because what you’re suggesting is that you have a model candidate but somehow want to discount them from a job because of their school?

Funnily enough whenever I employed people I was interested in their grades, experience, what they had done to supplement their interest and how they interviewed. Discarding people on schools they attended years before is just daft.

AtmosClock · 21/07/2019 15:45

But Jacques, the point I’m making is that the inverse of that situation holds. Why else do you think we have so many Etonians at the top of society?

Biker47 · 21/07/2019 15:45

*you’ll never make all children’s upbringings equal.

What you can do is make sure the same basic schooling is available to all (unless you homeschool).*

The same basic schooling is already available to all (well would be if there were more schools obviously). It's just there are other paid options outside of that scope that exist.

Dragging something down, instead of raising something else up instead, rarely results in what you actually want to achieve.

BertrandRussell · 21/07/2019 15:46

The trouble is that this particular bigotry is there already- but in the other direction.

I remember being assured by a mumsnetters that the exams they do at state schools were easier- that explained why clever children do as well in state school as they do in private. I know that was only one individual-but the same sort of opinion, if less extreme, is expressed all the time.

CendrillonSings · 21/07/2019 15:47

You're the one who wants to discriminate against someone with "good grades" simply because they went to private school. Own your bigotry.

JacquesHammer · 21/07/2019 15:47

But Jacques, the point I’m making is that the inverse of that situation holds. Why else do you think we have so many Etonians at the top of society?

I agree that’s an issue

But additionally setting up Eton as the “marker” for private schools is utterly ridiculous.

AtmosClock · 21/07/2019 15:47

Own your bigotry

I will if you own yours as well

BertrandRussell · 21/07/2019 15:47

“Discarding people on schools they attended years before is just daft.”

I absolutely agree. Sadly it still happens.

CendrillonSings · 21/07/2019 15:48

That was to AtmosClock

AtmosClock · 21/07/2019 15:50

The point that supporters of private schools often seem unwilling to see is that they’d be horrified if their children were discriminated against because of their socio-economic situation, but are happy to see other children discriminated against because of theirs.

CendrillonSings · 21/07/2019 15:50

I will if you own yours as well

Have I ever said that anyone should discriminate against state educated individuals with good grades? I never have, and never would, because that would be both stupid and bigoted - exactly as your plan to discriminate against the privately educated would be. Own it.

AtmosClock · 21/07/2019 15:51

Have I ever said that anyone should discriminate against state educated individuals with good grades?

No, but by supporting private schools, yoh are supporting it. Own it

JacquesHammer · 21/07/2019 15:53

The point that supporters of private schools often seem unwilling to see is that they’d be horrified if their children were discriminated against because of their socio-economic situation, but are happy to see other children discriminated against because of theirs

The state system funds schools that discriminate on faith....