Private schools are performing better during Covid?

[Hoolieannabanana]

I know private schools perform better than state schools but are they actually better just now or is there just a perception that they are as they are having more live lessons? What makes them better just now in particular?

And their pupils can afford private tutoring and their parents can bribe them with money or threatening to take it away etc etc.

I mean - we have quite a few live lessons, I’m not sure all schools have this or makes this ‘better’ - some children just have no buy in at all (my daughter being one of them) - she’s better this second lockdown but initially it was very hard. I know from friends that the local state school has no live lessons, but they have work sent to them etc.

It's hard to tell because I don't have anything to compare.

Ds (12) has six live Teams lessons per day plus registration/pastoral care in the morning. They do a full curriculum including, music, art, food tech and sport. Assignments are marked some of the time.
Ds likes the structured day. It's hard work but we're coping so far.

@louisetrees It really doesn't work like that. Having scraped together the fees I certainly can't afford private tutoring.

Not sure how our head would react to a bribe. He's ex-army, he'd probably just expel us

Sutton Trust did a survey on lockdown 1. I don't know the methodology or definitions, but they found that about 1/3 of state schools had good enough remote learning, compared to 2/3 private schools.

Both sectors have had more time to prepare for subsequent periods of burst bubbles/SI and thus lockdown, so I hope the numbers are up. I'd be really surprised if state schools were outperforming private ones, but I do hope the gap has narrowed and that many more schools are good enough

Kids in private schools are much more likely to have facilities such as WiFi, laptops, their own room to work in.
I have friends that live in a 2 bed flat with their 3 children. All 3 kids are taking it in turns using the mums mobile phone to access online lessons. No the kids won’t be doing as well academically as a child that has their own device, reliable internet and somewhere to work

My DC were all given new laptops in December.
They have live Teams lessons 8.45 to 4 every day and homework
Compared to what friends dc are getting it’s pretty good.
We also get weekly pastoral phone calls and if we have any concerns we can email and get a response within an hour or 2

It’s difficult to say. My ds goes to the local state school and at the start of this lockdown, his school now have live lessons and everything marked and send back via the assignments tab on Microsoft Teams plus points awarded for each piece of work handed in. Approx 10-15 children attending each live lesson out of a possible 30.
Have two friends with children at private school and it is similar in that they have live lessons but they have a higher percentage of children attending them so in my opinion they are getting less attention than my ds is at the moment plus no enrichment which is one of the most important parts of attending private school apparently.

[quote Mintjulia]@louisetrees It really doesn't work like that. Having scraped together the fees I certainly can't afford private tutoring.

Not sure how our head would react to a bribe. He's ex-army, he'd probably just expel us [/quote]
Not bribing the teachers! The kids! But there are parents like you that scrape to get the fees and then there are the very comfortably off those are the people I am talking about.

Live lessons are not the be all and end all.
Lots of teachers are at home with their own children. Pre recording lessons and assessing queries also works.
Many students are sharing devices with parents and siblings.

My daughter is in year 8 and has a full live timetable, she did in the last lockdown too. There is more or less 100% attendance as well, allowing for sickness etc. School have recently reviewed the timetable to make lunchtime earlier and to reduce lessons from one hour to 45 minutes to help their mental health and concentration as a lot of the girls were struggling with the amount of screen time. They all have an iPad from school, this isn’t just for covid, they are given them when they start in year 7 so school know everyone has a device to access the teaching on. I think she is getting the very best provision possible under the circumstances.

I think the 'problem' is -covid or not- that parents who are paying thousands each year to send their children are literally and practically more invested in their children's education in general. For example, I'm huge on education. I had carefully reasearched and picked out my children's future schools before their births. My sister just popped hers into the local. She doesn't love her kids less than I do, it's just different parenting priorities.

I find that the biggest difference this time around is that my children’s private schools and most of my friends offer the full curriculum AND extra curricular online.
We re having PE (albeit in a different format), music, dance, coding, etc.

So the gap has narrowed I think (I hope) academically between states and privates (all the states around me offer the full curriculum and teachers feedbacks; but thats it. So unfortunately, the private schools are keeping up with giving the children the rounded education indy parents are paying for.

It is very sad. I volunteer in a youth group and we are desperately trying very hard to engage with kids on their extra curricular but we are running out of funds so I personally subsidise it quite a lot because i believe it is very important for their mental wellbeing.

My DC are very fortunate.

The teens have lessons 8:30-15:30 on zoom.

My prep school DC have lessons 8:50 - 14:00.

Save for being an hour shorter a day their lessons are very similar to those they had when attending school.

Why is it a surprise that private schools are coping better with online learning? Why on earth do you think parents pay fees?

@Mintjulia same here, I work 20 hours extra a week to pay £1200 a month school fees there’s not a chance I m forking out for private tuition on top!

And actually I have no idea if they are better than the local state, but I'd be surprised if they weren't.

All live lessons (since day 1 of first lockdown), full timetable, PE on Strava, group zoom social meetings, drama challenges. All pupils with pen enabled laptops so work done and marked in real time. Tons of feedback, essays and maths etc marked the next day, personal chats every week with tutors. Goals to aim for in every lesson. Teachers constantly helpful, cheerful and encouraging. Postcards home every week congratulating them on good work. Class sizes of 12 ish.

We are NOT paying for tutors on top of fees.
Access to technology and being ready set up for online learning is what has made the difference as far as I can tell.
Dd1 is at private - all kids have own iPads as part of normal curriculum, used everyday, staff trained and used to online working before it all happened. Kids bring iPads home, teachers already know what they are doing and off they go!....
Dd2 - state lower school (who we rate very highly, she is happy and progressing well) no tech, teachers have no training and no experience.
My school- state primary, scrambled to get google classrooms up and running in 1 week. Many kids without tech, no training for staff or kids. Outcomes have been hit and miss but improving.

And yes, the usual advantages of smaller class sizes and specialist teaching.

Also, we haven’t had a fee reduction last time, we got 10% reduction in the summer term so if this is standard they need to provide first class online provision as parents will be very unhappy is we don’t feel we are getting value for money.

I have 1 at state schools and 1 at private school.

Ds - private school is at senior school - he has work to do daily - a few live lessons and emails.

DD at state school has morning zoom lessons
A work park delivered every Friday, seesaw communication. 1-1 phonics sessions 3 times a week over zoom a 1-1 social zoom on Tuesdays with teacher and a Friday afternoon zoom for class.

I think they are both doing as much as they can.

Full on live online teaching is exhausting, as the teacher you are having to work a lot harder than in a class environment as there is so less interaction. (I suspect it feels the same for the children). Plus the planning and marking time has gone up hugely.

I work in an independent school where my largest class is 20 and I teach 19 out of the 30 lessons which is significantly lower than having 34 in a class and teaching 26/30. And I am only just keeping up with my workload.

(We are expected to do a lot of extra stuff during term time to make up for lighter lesson load)

Then add onto that, that I have nearly 100% attendance, nearly all students have adequate WiFi and parental support and you have a lot of the difference.

The PE department are putting on a full activity programme, not just sports, art, cookery (aimed at our y13 leavers) drama. Which is helping to keep the students enagaged.

I think it looks as though the gap could narrow then? I’m in Scotland and the difference between lockdown 1 and now in terms of the school’s approach is significant.

I was chatting with our Head however and a comment she made stuck with me. Basically that state schools can’t compete with private schools because of their resources...

In my local authority, kids get an iPad each from P6 so the tech is there. By the start of this academic year, the education dept ensured that each household had at least one device (iPad or laptop). A parent at the school applied to somewhere for laptops and data and got 30 to give to families. Still a lot of sharing going on but doable...

I teach in a private prep school. From March we did 2 calls a day on Teams for registration/end of day catch up, and 3-4 lessons per day - some live, some prerecorded or directed to videos online. All work marked. My friends who teach in state were in supervising KW kids and sending worksheets/packs, no live lessons (safeguarding concerns), no marking or feedback.

This time the expectation for us is almost every lesson starts live, then most go on to have independent work. Assemblies with weekly certificates etc. Twice daily check insand all work marked, meets with parents every few weeks. Attendance is pretty much 100%, any absence is chased that day. Meanwhile state school friends are doing live lessons now (no idea why safeguarding is no longer a concern), and I imagine marking work this time round. And finding out why I was so stressed last time 😂

It comes down to: we know every child has a device, and parents will mostly make their kids come online. If work isn’t submitted we chase the child, then the parent, and they all care. In some state schools this won’t be the case for every child. Still have issues with WiFi where some kids live rurally though, not sure any amount of privilege can overcome that!!

I think a lot of private schools will be keen to deliver a full day of live lessons to keep the parents on board, not because it's necessarily good for the kids

I don't think it's good for the kids to spend all day on screens. At my DS' state school, they have 1 or 2 live lessons per day, plus lots of projects and assignments. I'm happy with that

BTW, I take issue with OP's blanket statement that private schools are better than state. Schools reflect their catchment. And, if you're judging on exam results, our local state school gets better results than the two closest private schools