Private schools opening over summer unfair on year 10s and 12s

[sunshineanddaffodils]

I’d just about got my head around the fact that even though my year 10 is missing a load of GCSE teaching, all dc are in the same boat and allowances will have to be made. Now I hear private schools are changing term dates and/or opening over summer so they can teach the syllabus as normal. How on earth is this remotely fair and what impact will it have on dc in state schools?

Mine are in private and we have not been told that at all. Nothing is anywhere near confirmed with regards to the rest of the year. We are following same advice as for state schools.

One thread on MN has said that 2 schools might be doing this.

That's nowhere near enough to make a difference to GCSEs

I doubt it will become a widely adopted change, because of the number of people who would have plans for July/Aug if social distancing is relaxed and people can visit their families (or use their holiday homes)

Are you a journalist for the Daily Mail?

The proportion of GCSE candidates who will be doing this is so tiny it will make negligible difference. My kids are both working remotely this term and I and they would be mightily unimpressed if they had to lose a big chunk of their summer holiday on top of that, not to mention the staff who are working now. Are the very small number of schools that are proposing teaching over the summer teaching now as well? Or just switching their holiday dates around.

In the same way that private schools can offer classes of 15 or less, sport every day etc. They have the freedom in the earlier years to not follow the NC or do SAT'S. As many people will point out there are good and bad things in doing this. It's likely that next year's exams will be either modified slightly or have some statistical work done to account for the disruption in teaching. Only 7% of kids are privately educated and they spend their lives trying to defend themselves against accusations of buying their grades. This cohort will just get that in spades if more schools follow suit. It won't make much difference at all to overall outcomes or grade boundaries for the 93% on state.

I’ve heard of two schools doing this. I presume that it’s to justify continuing to charge fees. At least one of them does the IGCSE which is not available to state school pupils, so they will not be in the cohort which is directly compared to your child.

There’s a separate conversation about how unfair it is that IGCSEs are easier than the reformed 9-1 GCSE but are treated equally by universities, however.

they spend their lives trying to defend themselves against accusations of buying their grades

Oh, thank you. I needed a giggle this morning.

Thanks for the reassuring comments. I really need to relax and I know what will be will be.

@GoFiguire

I think in general this situation, although necessary, will increase inequality. Your kids will be at a massive advantage to kids who are being sent home to chaotic home lives without internet access or a quiet environment to work in. I'm not sure many private schools will open over the summer for any significant period of time.

Esteban... Not sure why that's funny. I work in an indie. Our 6th form get this kind of thing a lot. I get that it might not seem like a big deal in the grand scheme of things but it does happen

DC's private school are considering this, I agree with a PP that it's no different to them benefiting from classes of 15, access to huge amounts of extra curriculum activities, work experience offered by parents with DC in the school etc. It's why DH and I make the financial sacrifices we do to send them private.

It won’t make any difference to children in state schools, and it’s unlikely that all private schools will do this anyway.

To be fair, that’s what private school parents are paying for.... private schools also continue with the curriculum now, and didn’t just send dome paper home.

@HugeAckmansWife Truly, if you feel that your students go through their whole lives having to defend the qualifications that they achieved before the age of 19, never achieving anything else that might supersede those early achievements, then I suggest that you and your colleagues might need to look at how you are doing things.

I do applaud you if you are choosing to deliver the more challenging 9-1 reformed GCSEs which are required of state school pupils, of purse. As mentioned by a pp, many private school pupils benefit from doing easier IGCSEs which are then treated as equivalent. Those students probably have something to defend.

If the Government say schools can't open until September then not sure how they can do this, as all private schools had to close when all the state schools did.

I also read it that they were shifting the summer term, rather than extending it.

But since when has the private school system been fair for the rest of the population? (Runs away)

Of course individually they aren't doing that their whole lives. As you say, most go on to higher Ed, get their degree etc but you only have to spend 5 mins on here to see the kind of prejudice against anyone educated privately and doubting the validity of their success. We do do mostly 9-1 yes and my previous school did the igcse before gcses were reformed in order to stretch our v able pupils. Is that OK? My current school is non selective and provides amazing support for very limited ability children, many on bursary schemes.

I haven't heard that my kids school are thinking of this yet, but they are wanting (and planning) a return after half-term.

Many of the parents I know have cancelled their holidays in the summer anyway, as they wanted to get the money back, concentrate on getting their jobs on track, and not commit to more spending. They are prioritising their school fees.

I was only responding to your precise words, Huge. If you're going to make ludicrously hyperbolic statements about a completely fictional challenge that results from the privilege of private education then you should expect to be challenged. I'm sure that you and your colleagues do excellent work and that your students feel the benefits of their private education long after they have left you.

the kind of prejudice against anyone educated privately Ahhh that well known prejudice, they have our sympathy, poor dears! Maybe they could escape the prejudice by going to state school...just a thought!

Oh bugger off, apologies if I'm not spending hours composing a carefully moderated statement, referenced and footnoted. You know what I meant. I'll go now and carry on providing unfair advantage to my stressed out y12s if that's OK.

Frankly, there is nothing fair about private school (or private medicine) but nobody who benefits from that is going to (want to) change it.

In fact inequality in the UK is … nope. Not going there today.

When it comes down to it, I am not sure 4-8 weeks of extra teaching will make more of a difference than the other advantages that private schools give children. Class size has a huge impact on performance, and being taught in a class of 12-20, instead of 30+ for 5 years already gives private students an advantage.

It's no secret there's inequality built into the system.

It's also worth bearing in mind many private schools have a longer summer holiday that state schools, though- so if schools went back at the end of June, state schools would probably have 2-3 weeks of opening, whereas some private schools would have none. So some schools might say "we are opening in the summer", when they really mean they are just matching state school term times.

Don't see the issue myself it's up to them.

@YippieKayakOtherBuckets our state school did igcse in English and they only stopped doing them because the government wouldn't include them in the progress 8 score.