Before you send your kids to public school ...

[pontypridd]

Think about what sort of person you are shaping for this world.

Under this leadership of lies the youth of today will learn that to survive they must shun the truth.

Public speaking and leadership skills are toxic if they lead to the likes of Rees Mogg, Johnson, Cummings and Gove etc

Power needs to removed from these poisonous public school places.

In our democratic country

Beachlane presumably those who voted for a conservative candidate in the last election knew that the Prime Minister was an Old Etonian. Maybe not everyone cares as much as you do about the background of MPs.

I got a scholarship to a private school. I hated it. My family had no money. I was the odd one out. Couldn't go on the ski trips. Never got picked first for anything, no lead roles in music (always went to semi famous person's child). Not sure where I'm going with this but I bloody hated it!

DS is at a private/public school on a bursary and that hasn't been our experience at all. He's never been made to feel out of place. I guess it depends on the school. (NB a quick Google tells me that Eton has over 250 kids on reduced fees, with 90 paying nothing.)

This isn't fair. My DS and his friends went to a private school and fully understood their privilege both as being there and being predominantly white males. All of them are active labour supporters and socialists. You may be thinking of old money and the old boys network which is different

Public speaking and leadership skills are toxic if they lead to the likes of Rees Mogg, Johnson, Cummings and Gove etc

Where has Johnson shown public speaking or leadership skills? He seems pretty mediocre at either, and that's being generous.

It's funny, you don't hear so many people angrily demanding the abolishment of private healthcare.

@oldwhyno

It's funny, you don't hear so many people angrily demanding the abolishment of private healthcare.

Very true oldwhyno. I can’t remember ever seeing a thread about abolishing private medicine on mumsnet but there have been thousands about private education.

Have you ever seen the difference between private and state school kids and their parents at closing time?

1 is orderly, relatively quiet, well mannered, and the parents are dressed appropriately. Whilst at the other, absolute chose reigns both amongst the pupils and the "adults" alike.

Which is which?

@SodaPerson closing time? Eh? Are you talking about pubs or schools?
And do you mean chaos?

@greyswallow lovely. Remember though that Erin gets something in return. They get the best brains, taking them and their results away from a local state school somewhere. I wish we'd stop thinking this 'charity' is a one way street!

I know lots of lovely privately educated children

But i still havent got over a lower junior school hockey tournament when one private school child was heard to say ‘now we are playing the rough children’

The rough school being a really nice state school in a really nice middle class area 😀

I went to a private school as did my siblings and my children and their cousins and the next generation. I don't think we are toxic or awful. We are well educated as are people from the better state schools , state grammars, state boarding schools etc.

Some people are awful in both sectors. I think 20% of children at sixth form level go to fee paying schools in the UK, 500,000 children a year go to fee paying schools in the UK. They cannot all be awful surely.

True, theoneandobi. Though also, they're paying to free up a place at the grammar my son would otherwise have gone to, for another child. Of course, the grammar is itself taking bright children away from the local secondary moderns. And the good comprehensives which people will pay a fortune to live near are taking the (stereotypically) more engaged and less challenging children away from the 'sink' comp down the road. It's way more complicated than state vs private.

Oh, and re the 'we're playing the rough kids now' comments - let's not pretend that this doesn't happen between 'naicer' and less 'naice' state schools, from the less pleasant children.

Hilarious. Private school kids aren’t one homogeneous group you know. In my experience (teach in one and have my children at another) any inflated sense of superiority comes from home rather than school. Often when you meet the parents you understand.....

Oh, and re the 'we're playing the rough kids now' comments - let's not pretend that this doesn't happen between 'naicer' and less 'naice' state schools, from the less pleasant children

Of course it must

Thats obvious surely

And as i said i know loads of lovely private school children...It was just very funny at the time

Sorry rufus, read too quickly and missed the tone of your post .

They are outrageous relics. The quicker they are banned and dismantled, the better.

Like the state sector, it depends entirely on the school.

Why are private schools called "public schools" in UK please?

It sounds the opposite of what I would expect them to be.

@yolio

Why are private schools called "public schools" in UK please?

It sounds the opposite of what I would expect them to be.

It is a strange historical anomaly. They were originally set up centuries ago to educate individual irrespective of their background i.e. the public. By the 1860’s the schools had become expensive establishment fee paying schools. So the term refers to the old prestigious (mainly boarding) schools. People do use public school as a synonym for private school but really they are a subset of private schools.

Government schools are referred to as State School

Oh yes I’m sure parents thinking about future schools shall read this and think yes that poster on mn is right that it’s been the school I feel is best for my child, the results are fantastic and the facilities are wonderful is all irrelevant now

ChazsBrilliantAttitude

Thanks for taking the time to explain. It's obviously an historical term, but still makes me smile sometimes as I am not in UK now and anything public is NOT private to those outside the UK lol.

yolio, most private schools (fee paying schools) in the UK are not Public Schools although all public Schools are fee paying schools . The public schools are a tiny sub set of fee paying schools and are on a list. I think the thread has moved to talking about all fee paying schools however.

A Public School is one that is a member of the Headmasters' Conference or the Girls' Schools Association on te most ommon definition

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headmasters%27_and_Headmistresses%27_Conference
My 3 sons' two schools are on the list but my daughters' fee paying schools Haberdashers girls and North London Collegiate (the latter often being the top 5 of all schools in all sectors for the best A levels of any schools in the country) are not.