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

LOl 100 you wait till the banner goes to Millfiled

was juts hoovering thinking if ds2 was offered a sport scolarhsip woudl i sned him there
answer no
now i need ot put my waffle maker in the post

oh I can't even bear to read it, I set off and got very annoyed

Xenia how thick?

Really thick?

Do they all fail to get into University and have to sweep the roads?

Fio me old mucker

how is your dd with her fantastic first name?

thick children

what a lovely description

I think of Xenia whenever I am unhappy with the way my housekeeper has polished the glassware

You wouldn't, why? Because you don't want him to board or because of principle?

Is very sporty school, good for training future sport stars. I'm going to enrol your ds2 immediately I think. I am going to live my life through him actually, it's going to be great. I shall take him out at weekends.

But OMG - ds1 made the hockey team. he did! He plays in goal. The A team. We are all amazed. He is moaning about the helmet. You may need to make a small banner yourself - obviously not along ds2's mammoth one - which says 'Shut Up Moaning About the Helmet - You Got in a Team!'

Who's getting the waffle maker?

Yes it is Fio

I am, well, okay. Not good at all, but not bedridden

It's the Telegraph, they write lots of articles for some limited segment of the population that just isn't remotely representative of the vast majority of population in the UK (I peruse the Torygraph whenever I visit ILs). See their other articles about second homes, where to go on holiday, how to choose a luxury sedan, whatever. Every issue has at least 3 articles in it that I end up shaking my head and thinking "What planet are these people on?"
I also honestly think Telegraph is more biased in presentation and spin than any other broadsheet.

Not long back Telegraph did a piece about poor (as in, to be pitied, not remotely financially strained by doing this!) older people having to fund grandchildren's private education. How some private schools were trying to appeal directly to grandparents, in recent years. Like it was some huge new worrisome social phenomena, indicative of something bigger, instead of something that has always happened, and even now only affects a minority of the minority that get private education.

"she is registered as gifted"

I'm sorry it just sounds so ridiculous

It is very good for sports. It has too many children who are given too much money. It would never been on the top 100 schools for exam results BUT plenty of children aren't very bright and if a child's main love is swimming as these three are in the article then it might well be suitable for those children. I wasn't saying it served no purpose. Just agreeing with whoever said the schools they picked were hardly the ones you'd go to if you had much of a brain.

Yes, what sort of gifted? Does she see dead people?

She just means she's got a clever child and she's going to pay for her to go to a good school. Good for her. It's what most parents would choose to do if they earned enough money or had made wiser career choices.

I have two bright kids, and could probably pay school fees. I have good state options nearby. End of.

we paid HEAPS for childcare up to the age of five and could probably afford private education now. but as MI says We Choose Not To (even if we earned lots more) and well that's it.

ditto MI and Bundle. We are sending our children, clever or not, to local non-selective state schools. Not even high performing desirable ones.

And we could afford independent school fees if we wanted to do that.

I am sending my children to fabulous state schools as I have no choice in the matter

oh shame on me for not making wise career choices so that I could afford to send my children to a private school!
shame on my parents too!!

but wait...i went to a state comp and I have a phd..and 2 of my sisters went to oxford and one of them got a first...so hey-maybe my parents didn't fuck up all that badly eh?
maybe state education can be PRETTY BLOODY GOOD sometimes

Xenia you do talk rubbish.

Like MI, we could afford to pay for school fees if we thought it was necessary. It just isn't necessary here - we have an excellent state school 2 mins from our house and all of my children doing incredibly well at the school.

There is just no reason to pay for education here, in our circumstances. Sending our children to a state school is a choice we've made - not a necessity.