to get hacked off at journalists moaning about how oh so hard it is to afford school fees

[emkana]

like in the Daily Telegraph for example today

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/main.jhtml;jsessionid=AFH51SI3AUOK5QFIQMFSFGGAVCBQ0IV0?xml=/education/ 2008/01/30/faclass130.xml&page=2

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Agree with PPH and 100x. Moaning and whining is boring and so horrible.

If you don't want to send your kids to private school don't, if you do then just get on with it.

Yes, it does cost a lot, so yes, you will have to earn a lot but that is YOUR CHOICE so just stop bloody whinging.

Oh but does anyone with any sense actually read the Telegraph?

Wrt the OP - poor ickle bunnie-wunnies. In time honoured MN fashion, shall we have a whip round for them?

I totally agree with Cory about bright children and behaviour. One of my dc has a PhD, another is well on his way to his doctorate and a third is doing v well at uni so I'm thinking they must be quite bright, yet none of them has degenerated into juvenile delinquency.

load of shite

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It's not a personal attack littleone, don't feel got at. We all know you are making what you hope is the best choice for your child, taking all factors into account...which is what all of us do, in our own way, though the actual choice, of course may end up different. I hope she enjoys her school and thrives; when she is a MC lawyer/doctor/politician/journalist, she can come on MN and tell us all about the sacrifices her lovely Mum made to give her a good start in life! Just don't let her take a job on the Telegraph...

Anchovy: "Oooh - do you remember that Dr Who when the Dalek and the Cybermen worlds' collided and they were in the same episode?
I think it is happening here. Private education and G&T in the same thread."

As I recall, that was resolved by just four Daleks zapping an army of Cybermen with the mantra "This is not war - this is pest control!"

Could the same happen here?!

Why are you all getting at littleone for her choices on how to educate her child? For all you know, a compelling reason might have been to have the wraparound childcare to enable littleone to go out to work. Would you be slighting her then?

fwiw, littleone, personally I would avoid setting too much store by reading age at 7 as future predictor of achievement. However, if the only help your daughter's school is able to provide in making her feel comfortable is putting her with the yr 6) not the first time I've heard of that), then it sounds like a skip into a higher-achieving school is exactly what she needs. I mean, for god's sake, what the fuck are they going to do with her for the next four years? Keep making her do yr 6 work? How secure, comfortable and "normal" would that make feel?

Think about other people actual predicaments before going in with the hobnail boots, people...

LOL UQD - DH and I frequently use this analogy as shorthand for "two like minded entities clubbing together to overwhelm us".

The other day he was unpacking the Ocado shopping when what should fall out but a "specially for Ocado customers Boden catalogue". "Dear God", cried DH, "Its like the Cybermen and the Daleks getting together".

I think you will find it a useful concept, and I present it to you all with a flourish.

I am finding Spike from Buffy/Angel on Torchwood even more so, I have to say.

ooh Spike

Anchovy, is your dh aware of the Mumsnet/Boden/Ocado tripartite agreement?

Oh lolol at this thread, especially Anchovy's worlds colliding comment. Just for the record, standing shoulder to shoulder with MI, bundle, Fennel et al, we could have paid to educate the childen privately, to the extent that when we were dicussing secondary schools money wasn't really an issue, but we have actively chosen to send the children to the local comprehensive. Shocker.

Have only read the first half of the thread so apologies if I'm off the point, but:

What would you do if all the local state secondaries are completely shit (& I'm not being poncey, though I am Guardian-reading middle class with high household income) - I'm talking inner-London completely shit? My DCs are currently at an excellent state primary that we can walk to, & I'd really like them to go to a state secondary. But a fairly decent one. Nowt special, average would be fine. But that choice is not available to me. & because of where we live, all private schools are a bus-ride away, & they're at the expensive end of the private school spectrum. To educate my 2 will probably cost the best part of a quarter of a million pounds. FFS, why should I have to do/pay that?

Write to Channel 4 and ask Phil & Kirsty to find you a home in the country within the catchment of a good state school, as well as a city pad (or bolthole) for the higher earning partner to live during the week (there have to be 2 of you, though you are allowed to be gay, but only boys).
In the real world, you pay up & feel guilty and poor; or send to crap school and feel guilty, do overtime at the PTA and spend saved cash on private tutors.

It's the ones who could afford a better education in the private sector and instead spend the money on drinks and holidays and clothes who are in the wrong not alittleone. Come back in 20 years and I am 100% sure that most of the private educated children on here will be doing a huge lot better than even those who leave the state system with AAA at A level for loads of reasons.

I dont think that you can say that those who go to private school will do better than those who go to state school. Me and DP went to state schools and we did just fine! Its not only about the school that you send your dcs to, but also about the kind of education they recieve at home. Encouraging and supporting your children are also important. Tbh I have never had any complaints about any of the schools that I attended or that my daughter attends.

Also, I could if I wanted to afford to send my children to private school, however I think that being able to afford holidays and family time away together is just as important....travel broadens the mind and all that!!!

jumping in late here on an earlier post...
'G and T kids are on the special needs spectrum,' said someone.

I don't think so. My eldest did Y6 Sats in Y2 and aced them. Now at 16 she's still bright but not a million miles ahead as some super genius. And having a 'gifted child' is nothing like having a SN child. You know how I know? dd2 is seriously brain damaged and cannot speak or move. Thats what SN looks like. Not reading a book aimed at 12 yo's when 6.
Oh, and dd1 didn't become delinqunt cos back in the olden days they didn't have this stupid G&T thing
Far as I'm concerned, if you can wipe your own bum, feed yourself and walk and talk you're doing well. Having a bright child is nothing like SN.

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Probably a bit late now - but was I right in thinking that one of the couples in that story was taking in lodgers in order to be able to send their children away to boarding school. I only skim read it but that was the impression I got. Odd or not?

Yes well, we'll see, shall we Xenia? And there's no need to be quite so gratuitously insulting just because some people make educated choices that are different from yours.

schools should cater properly for all abilities (my dd1 was far far ahead in all areas. I took her out of school and home edded her)
But no, I don't think being bright should be classsed as SN in any way or take resources away from severely disabled children.
Bright kids manage but the main problem lies in having classrooms with 30 kids of varying abilities and trying to teach them all the same thing. Plus the dumbing down (I've just seen last years GCSE Science paper. My cat could do it)
And for what its worth, dd1 went to a private school when she turned 13 (in-laws paid) She did a year and was bored rigid cos they still teach to the exam and the exam is dumbed down.

Ah yes, when Xenia turned up with the "you are derelict in your parenting duty if you do not send your child to a private school because everyone in the country would and should if they could" it was like the Sea Devils coming along as well

LOL @ Xenia as Sea Devils. Surely she is The Rani?