To think at a private school, it’s not the teachers that are better...

[Caitlin555]

....it’s just you are less likely to get the bad behaviour, and more likely to have smaller class sizes?

It drives me mad that there’s this perception that the teachers at private schools are so much better than at state. They are not. In fact, you don’t even need a teaching qualification to teach at a private school.

It is obviously easier to get good results and control a class when you’ve got a smaller class of (probably) better behaved, more affluent kids whose parents want them to be there and to not have the social problems that some schools contend with.

I wish parents would just be honest about why they are sending their kids to x private school - it might be the small class sizes, it might be the facilities, it might be that it is super selective - but don’t make it about the teachers as that’s an insult to those amazing teachers who work hard every day to make a difference at state schools.

And no, I’m not a teacher.

It’s the children who are more disciplined in private schools that makes all the difference. State education is abused by a harmful minority or dysfunctional parents whose feral kids make learning impossible for other children. But of course, we must never hold parents accountable for bad parenting, no, no. That’s just not the done thing. It’s always the state that’s to blame, or the teachers, or if there’s no one else left to blame let’s call it a mental health issue.

Hey. Not sure why anyone including OP is assuming behaviour is 'better' at a private school. Why should anyone make this assumption?
By all accouts behaviour is worse.

And certainly the rates of 'absent parent's are way higher than state schools.

It seems crazy to me that so many people here think crowd control in a classroom is a virtue. It means something is already very wrong in the school. Not all state schools are like that, at all. Mine wasn’t (and it wasn’t selective either).

Mine has been in a private school from reception - the county we are in has good schools so I was reluctant to fork out the fees but husband was clear, our experience/reasons:

Class size small - 20 total in daughters class and total school circa 350 girls
Loads of land to be active etc
Teachers/principal have a way of conducting themselves and expect the girls to be the same
The older girls practically become role model
Girls quickly go from ‘babies’ in reception to being matured in how they carry themselves.
The parent group in this school mostly are nice but there is a lot of competition
My daughter (year 2) practices maths ever weekday 6:45am -7:45am and then English 7pm-8pm before bed
Parents need to put a lot in- lots of homework
All the primary school teachers are qualified and secondary teachers mostly are oxbridge

What we get as parents:
A voice - since we essentially pay for it..
During the lockdown the google classes and the support pastoral etc was very good
We have been notified that the google classroom will run parallel to the classes to make sure that the girls who are isolating waiting for tests don’t miss out.

The school is ruthless in dropping the girls whom they believe won’t get the grades in secondary out- apparently they start indicating to the parents from Grade 5

It is still a huge financial commitment- one which I do periodically question.

But of course we should never hold parents responsible for their bad parenting...of course not...

certainly not in private or public schools, the little lamb parents cant' help their behaviour can they now?

God, this thread makes me puke

In a lot of cases private schools have a greater pool of applicants for posts, and this, along with greater funds means they are more likely to find it easier to recruit subject specialists. So while the quality of teacher could be the same, private schools in general could have teachers with more specialised knowledge of their subject areas, especially so in subjects with shortages like physics, chemistry, MFL etc.

@greengreengrass14

Hey. Not sure why anyone including OP is assuming behaviour is 'better' at a private school. Why should anyone make this assumption? By all accouts behaviour is worse.

And certainly the rates of 'absent parent's are way higher than state schools.

Really? Surely there isn’t the level of disruption that you’d get at state schools?

@MsTSwift

Absolutely spot on. You are buying a way out of mixing with chavs and any parent saying otherwise is lying through their teeth.

What funny is the earnest group insistent that their child’s private school is “more diverse” than the state option 😁. Pull the other one. Tbh I would respect them more if they were honest about it.

nope mine definitely is

Old school - STATE - one black family - we had moved from a very cosmopolitan city and I was shocked...
new school - PREP - roughly half of each child's class is non white

I didn’t know people thought they were.

I loved Rhowton’s comment. I too prefer to avoid awful families.....like hers. Desperately unpleasant.

I’d love to see how he’d cope in a bigger inner-city school

Doodlejump You mean you’d love to see him being unable to cope? That’s spiteful.

I'm absolutely sure that there are outstanding teachers in both sectors, but it takes a lot more skills, in my opinion, to teach 30 kids than 15. And out of the 30, there probably will be some who don't have English as a spoken language at home, some who are on 'free school meals' and may not get healthy diet at home, some who are living way below the poverty line, some who have learning difficulties, some who are dyslexic, etc.

All of the children with difficulties, social, financial or developmental, wouldn't be in the private school as they wouldn't get in/be able to afford it. Therefore, in my mind, it takes a much better teacher, with a wider variety of teaching tools and techniques, to be an outstanding teacher in a state school.

DS14 is at a private school (we have to make massive sacrifices to afford it). I’m a teacher myself (a very good one) and have only worked in very challenging inner city schools. Some of my son’s teachers are great but some are very average and one is inadequate. Some wouldn’t last the distance in the schools I’ve taught in.
We don’t send DS for snobbish reasons or because we think the teaching is better - we send him there as firstly it is a lovely school with a big focus on kindness. Secondly he had epilepsy and has dyspraxia so the small class sizes make a massive difference for him. He loves his school and I am very grateful that he has been able to attend it.

@rhowton

We send our DD for the small class sizes, better ratios, children who are similar (language, manners etc tends to be better), no disruption, no SEN, no awful families (snobby, but I don't really care). Private schools are just better.

So happy for you that your DC don't have to mix with children with SEN

My children don't have SEN, but I am glad they appreciate that not all children are the same as them

All the private schools we looked at listed the degrees/qualifications of the staff on the website. The state schools we looked at didn't. Just because it isn't required doesn't mean it it's frequent. I've yet to come across an unqualified teacher in any of the private schools our kids have attended.

It’s quite depressing that according to this thread, in order to get an adequate education, parents have to fork out upwards of £15k per year, per child!

Really, Caitlin 555

What a ridiculously biased and bigoted poster you are.

Fannybawz diversity is a lot more than that.

My DM would laugh re your behaviour comment. House Mistress at boarding part of wealthy rural town private school. Stuff she and teachers dealt with: setting fire to duvets, strangling a girl mid cookery lesson til she passed out, while teacher rescued another girls cooking disaster, meeting up with dodgy boys from the bail hostel in town on Saturdays who then hung round outside the school (they were allowed out in pairs on Sat , pm, once 15.). Flashing boobs & catcalling at guys on public tennis courts while walking over road to lessons. Endless list. Army children were worst as by time you found he parents any incident was weeks old & parents were yawning & not interested.

Personally I wouldn't lower myself to allow my kids to mix with parents or kids of public schools. They need to get themselves an education.

@greengreengrass14

Really, Caitlin 555

What a ridiculously biased and bigoted poster you are.

Based on what? I simply questioned you suggesting that behaviour isn’t better at private schools - when that seems to be a main reason people opt for private education?

At one extremely challenging school I taught in, we had a literacy consultant who’d only taught in a really great private school. We kept telling her that her ideas wouldn’t translate into workable lessons with “our” type of kids. She insisted that they would. So we invited her to show her superior skills with a difficult lower set. Not only did they destroy her lesson but they stole all her pens and left her nearly in tears.

Nope!!
Teaching standards in most private schools are very high.
However I wouldnt say that the children of those families are particularly "nicer".
There are plenty of drug/arms dealers kids at our local private school, they are the only ones who can afford the fees.
Your average police officers/nurses/teachers children will be at the local comp.

And my DD having had a choice and scholarships said she wouldn't touch public schools with a barge pole. Yes, so i guess it is me that is prejudiced on that front...

@greengreengrass14

Personally I wouldn't lower myself to allow my kids to mix with parents or kids of public schools. They need to get themselves an education.

Oh, I see now...

@doodlejump1980

I know someone who has only taught in private schools. He thinks the sun shines out his arse cos he always gets good results. Yeah smaller class sizes, and most of the kids have private tutors too will do that. He wouldn’t last a minute in a state school. The silver spoon would be hard to keep balanced in his mouth. He has no experience of class management of kids who don’t want to be there. He has experienced a very sheltered way of teaching. I’d love to see how he’d cope in a bigger inner-city school.

There was a documentary a while back when some private school teachers and state school teachers swapped places. The private school teachers couldn’t cope and the state school teachers had a lovely time.