PRIVATE SCHOOLS allowed to open reception year?! How is this fair? Why aren't all reception classes open then?

[Worriedlyworried]

All schools closed... unless you are paying privately and in reception that is!

Just heard a close family member is sending their child in to reception in their public school which is allowed to open as reception is EYFS.

How is this fair?

Nurseries are allowed to open as EYFS but shouldn't all reception classes in all schools be closed in primaries to only the vulnerable and keyworker children?

Seems there is a handy little loophole for the well off parents of public schooled children. Either they all should be closed or all early years should be open, not just to the privileged elite.

There will never be a level playing field in this country until private schools are abolished.
I live in hope that it happens in this lifetime.
I think we’ll look back at private schools the way we look back at slavery. They are hideous institutions that do nothing positive on a societal level. They just perpetuate privilege and entitlement and promote a false sense of competence. I mean, just look at the backgrounds of the men ‘running’ this country.
Rant over.

Friends private school years 5 to 13, e mail last night online only now till further notice, in Wales that is. Things are changing so fast.

@justasking111

Friends private school years 5 to 13, e mail last night online only now till further notice, in Wales that is. Things are changing so fast.

All other years will be online private and state but I am interested in the guidance change below - it seems that private shouldn’t have all reception open

Reception year for of the the private pre-preps in my area have all closed, so I don’t think this is a state vs private thing

any school can open reception as part of early years, at the head’s discretion.

You can’t possibly talk about “fair” on a thread about private schools! Of course it isn’t fair!! There’s nothing fair or just or equal about the private school system.

There was a thread recently which opened my eyes to the problems of distance learning. One was lack of kit for teacher/student, or low or non existent broadband. The other was getting some pupils, either because of age, sharing facilities with siblings, to log on/pay attention. Parents WFH and/or looking after another child/ baby can't always supervise or help with IT problems. Some schools aren't as IT literate as they might be. Above all, it's not the same as RL teaching where all the soft skills a teacher has come into play. What I can't understand is why the government didn't build a platform for schools to use but then its IT record is horrendous. Or the LEAs do something to help out? Or private schools share their platforms or lesson schedules? would be interested in comments.

As for the some private school classes being open - I guess because of the class sizes it may be easier for them and they will also have the same pressure of keyworkers as state schools do.

@SleepingStandingUp

Thank you

Yes, until DD1 I worked full time, and had a very good well paying job. Id love to be able to continue that, but with her hospital appointments and admissions, as well as the mental health issues around being brought back from the brink of death twice in a 2 year period, and ongoing chronic fatigue too meaning she was unable to attend school and barely manages college, its simply impossible.

So yes, I do 'get my housing (greatly reduced as in HA, so saving some money there for the tax payer at least) and money for giving up a career to look after her, but Im saying I made a choice to use DS's DLA for his education and cut back everywhere I could on my very modest budget.

Id love to be able to work full time and bring in the kind of money I used to. And Id love to have my daughter not go through what she has, and a son who could deal resiliantly with mainstream school. I know in regards the budget I am 'lucky' to have that choice, but all I was saying is that its not only well off people who's kids go private. It was a thread here, 2 years ago, about a single parent who had put her kids through private whilst on a low income, that inspired me to look into how it could be done, and I am ever grateful for her as it has been absolutely transformational for my boy who was self harming after 2 years in state secondary.

So private schooling provides the kids of rich parents with a (further) unearned advantage over poorer families? Who knew!

In the same way that wealthier families can afford to buy houses in better areas and send their child to an outstanding state primary. And then feel smug that they haven’t bought their child an educational advantage.

There will never be a level playing field in this country until private schools are abolished.

No, there will never be a level playing field. Expensive houses in small catchments, involved parents, paying for tutors, "failing" schools...

Private schools are just an easy target that requires no actual thought.

Level playing field?
What about diversity?
Who is the boss and who is the cleaner?
Are we all identical robots?
Ideally equality but realistically will not ever happen! Equality to a good high advance development standard like Singapore, Scandinavia and Switzerland etc would be ideal but not British given our inherent colonial legacy and different original base lines.

I think we’ll look back at private schools the way we look back at slavery

This is a pretty abhorrent thing to say. They are absolutely not comparable. You should be ashamed of yourself.

@SoupDragon

There will never be a level playing field in this country until private schools are abolished.

No, there will never be a level playing field. Expensive houses in small catchments, involved parents, paying for tutors, "failing" schools...

Private schools are just an easy target that requires no actual thought.

Good point a three bedroom house in one area can be much more expensive, the construction of the house (costs ) may be the same but the perception is different, naice area, good school, leafy neighbourhood all the guff the estate agents put in put the same type of house in different price brackets. Developers around here put up houses which are identical only the locations are different you are talking about a huge difference in sale prices.

I couldn’t afford to buy my house in the catchment of our closest good State Secondary.
Going Private is cheaper

@Seasaltyhair Our private school has kept the school open for nursery class of 11. Is push for a refund if yours doesn't open and is legally allowed to which they are.

Why would abolishing anything including some schools which happens to charge pupils fees rather than being paid for by a tax payer necessarily bring about a level playing field?

It may bring about an insignificant perceived equality but equality starts at home. Statistically even state pupils make it into Oxbridge as it is technically open to all based on merit not financial means.

However most if not all things in life are simply options that exist because of both supply and demand. If there is no local and international demand for certain fee charging schools then technically all pupils will be even more overcrowded into state schools. Educational budgets would be further challenged as less per pupil.

Abolishing usually high academic attainment private schools is not the levelling up answer as they actually raise the national overall standards. Perhaps as not all pupils have identical abilities with some for instance with more artistic or sporting ability than intellectual - then government selective schools may provide a possible solution to raise overall standards and not let less financially able families with gifted children held back artificially to fit within an otherwise lower attainment norm.

Open to intellectual and respectful further debate. I may be off the mark incorrect so happy to listen to your alternative solutions to a supposedly issue of level playing field and standardisation of human nature.

@Cam77

Resentment is a cancer in this country. Resentment isn’t good. But the UK has vast income and lifestyle disparities between regions. For a developed and wealthy country it is also a very unequal one. If you put France, Germany, the UK, Holland, Belgium, Ireland, Scandinavia together, and then picked the poorest regions from that group, research shows they are virtually all in the UK. Research has shown that the poorest areas in the UK are akin to Romania, Slovakia or Lithuania. The important ting to remember is this by design. “Trickle down” wealth creation theory has repeatedly been proven to be a crock of shit. A government either actively slows absolute levels of wealth inequality - IE takes measures to keep, say the top 20% at no more than four times the bottom 20% (in the UK this is currently five times+) or it just lets the market rip - you can call this “Trickle up” as that is exactly what has happened. No guessing which path Britain has chosen thanks to its election of 65% Tory government since WW2.

Why do you believe that successful people should be limited in how much they can earn according to the poorest? 4 times is so arbitrary.

@thedancingbear

So private schooling provides the kids of rich parents with a (further) unearned advantage over poorer families? Who knew!

The whole thing stinks of shit.

Well let's be honest, in most cases the parents have "earned" the advantage for their children

roarfeckingroarr

Well let's be honest, in most cases the parents have "earned" the advantage for their children

Yes of course. Unless we are born equal in a hard line communist state (even then the leadership and ruling elites are not the same as the rest) so let’s say a hypothetical equal communist with no market capitalisation society - then we will start from the same base line.

Even so in this hypothetical society - if you have a larger family with siblings - each child will get a smaller share of the same original base line resources.

Anyway this is hypothetical nonsense but back in the real world - just as there are free government funding specific schools for socially disadvantaged and disabled children etc etc how about also turning this around and implement schooling for special talented children too? Yes it is technically elitist, but it would also help to raise the overall educational standards. This is probably why most families with the means (including by the way many who make other financial sacrifices) pay for a private and so usually better than average schooling.

Basically life will never be equal as per obvious geographic examples highlighted above. Even in the small city let alone street are there differences. We all do different jobs and drive different cars and holiday and shop in different places. It’s just nature! Can’t treat it like a binary computer code etc. It’s like sports and any other competition like exams - there will be a variation. You can’t abolish a particular team from competition because they usually always win! You ie the other teams need to surpass this pesky most previously winning team! And so the cycle continues.

And finally given the diversity even those with plenty will never be satisfied. It’s human nature even if you are richer than state royalty you probably want more. However this gives you flexibility to share as most super wealthy don’t keep everything to themselves as they are usually big employment generators. Some of the central London private schools are established by hedge funders so technically they can generate more income other than running a private school business. Resentment is not a cancer it is just human nature as not all hedge finders were born rich!

@Hoppinggreen

I couldn’t afford to buy my house in the catchment of our closest good State Secondary. Going Private is cheaper

I hear you

But.... you’d have had a tangible asset that unlikely to ever lose on if the state secondary is thatgood that would could liquidate at some point.

Also, places around really good schools that have high values as a result of their proximity to a great school tend to be very nice places to live anyway with brilliant services

We bought A lovely but small property to get our children in to an outstanding state school

No regrets despite it really being too small because aside from the school being brilliant - a wonderful location generally

Now at private and could move and get much more elsewhere but no way moving as just love the area too much

We have a tangible asset now and more importantly we love our house and area. So we had a choice of downsizing and moving to an area we liked less and was less rural or staying here and going Private, which would cost less than moving.
To be fair we did also have a choice of staying here and DD going to a Grammar school 30-45 minutes drive away while DS went to a Comprehensive in Special measures but we decided against that too.

In fact I think we would have had to move quite a distance as there are no Outstanding State Secondaries I can think of round here at all and the one that is considered “Good” isn’t as far as I’m concerned.

In my LEA school-based nursery and pre-school classes are also closed. Quite right too, how can it be unsafe for Year 1 to go to school but perfectly fine for Nursery?

@ResIpsaLoquiturInterAlia

Why would abolishing anything including some schools which happens to charge pupils fees rather than being paid for by a tax payer necessarily bring about a level playing field?

It may bring about an insignificant perceived equality but equality starts at home. Statistically even state pupils make it into Oxbridge as it is technically open to all based on merit not financial means.

However most if not all things in life are simply options that exist because of both supply and demand. If there is no local and international demand for certain fee charging schools then technically all pupils will be even more overcrowded into state schools. Educational budgets would be further challenged as less per pupil.

Abolishing usually high academic attainment private schools is not the levelling up answer as they actually raise the national overall standards. Perhaps as not all pupils have identical abilities with some for instance with more artistic or sporting ability than intellectual - then government selective schools may provide a possible solution to raise overall standards and not let less financially able families with gifted children held back artificially to fit within an otherwise lower attainment norm.

Open to intellectual and respectful further debate. I may be off the mark incorrect so happy to listen to your alternative solutions to a supposedly issue of level playing field and standardisation of human nature.

Your not of the mark, socialism doesn’t work. Look at all the countries that have tried it.