To think that there would be less anti private school

[Poopoolittlekitten]

sentiment or threads on MN if people using private school were a tiny bit more self aware and didn’t ask for sympathy for rising fees or possible rising fees if Labour take away their false ‘charity’ status?

send your kid private if you want, just don’t come moaning about the costs or claim than anyone can go private if they ‘prioritise’ their child’s education they way you do. Particularly at a time when state school teachers are striking over pay and conditions.
And many, many people are working their socks off just to keep a roof over their family’s head.

YANBU - stop whining and looking for sympathy about your fees!

YABU - my milkman sends his 4 kids private by ‘prioritising’ their education so it’s not just for whiny poshos….

Well everyone feels like an expert now because they have Google at their fingertips 🙄 I think there’s a major issue with older people believing rubbish they read online because they didn’t grow up with the internet and assume everything written on it has been fact checked by somebody. Younger people are better versed at checking their sources and understanding any fucker could be claiming vaccines contain microchips.

I also think we have an issue with acknowledging a lot of people simply aren’t bright and can’t be ‘educated’ into being so. It’s quite fashionable to pretend that with enough support, every person can be successful and sensible and intelligent. But that’s very far away from the truth. The issue is now the not very bright people have access to bigger platforms via the Internet.

There have been so many technological changes in the last 50 years there is a real rift between the generations.

OP- it is a world where we are free to spend our monies on what ever we want and that includes how we educate our children.

I go without certain things to pay for one of my DCS to attend a school that has turned him into an achiever, not the lost bullied road to nowhere child he was in his very good state school.

My choice, my monies and yes I can moan if the fees go up - there is nothing wrong with the choice I have made but on mumsnet, I am the lowest form of my life, my DC has no empathy is arrogan, lay does not know how to relate and does not deserve the things he is given, will not get a job because of the prejudices of people who disagree with the way he was educated etc etc.

I do not give a damn - i am doing the best for my child and right now it is worth every penny of my 8 yr old car which is on its last legs!

Grow up OP and stop being goady

I think there’s a major issue with older people believing rubbish they read online because they didn’t grow up with the internet and assume everything written on it has been fact checked by somebody. Younger people are better versed at checking their sources and understanding any fucker could be claiming vaccines contain microchips

🙄

I’m not asking for sympathy, and avoid talking about it in real life for the very reasons you mention - but I am worried about the prospect of fees going up further as we would genuinely be struggling. I always thought I was morally opposed to private education, until I had my daughter who is autistic and massively struggled in (state) junior school. She wouldn’t cope with the state secondaries near us - she is however now really thriving at a small, nurturing private school. We are not unusually high earners - the school fees take a quarter of our combined income, and we both work hard. We’ve paid off the mortgage which helps, but that’s down to sheer hard work and living frugally. It really annoyed me when a school mum who lives down the road got snarky with me and said ‘it’s alright for some, I wish we could afford private school’ - having just bought a massive new house worth 3 times our small house, and running two very fancy cars. Sometimes it is priorities - out of necessity. If we couldn’t afford private school, I’m pretty certain my daughter would end up being home educated, which would mean I’d have to quit work and we’d probably end up relying on benefits. We’re lucky, yes, but it’s not always black and white. Labour should focus on really raising the quality of state education, and on far better special needs provision, before attaching the private sector.

My kids go to private school; I didn’t.

TBH I don’t care what anyone thinks about that. I don’t moan about fees either - they always go up every year anyway, and everything is going up.

Not sure why there are so many threads on it. People make hundreds of different choices every day.

MN maybe be anti-private school, but the vast majority who use it just get on with it, and the comments of strangers in an online forum is not of any relevance whatsoever.

This. We pay a huge amount of tax and have freed up 2 school places by going private

Also live on a private road

And agree with poster above, we have friends who say they could never afford private school, but both drive new cars and go on 2/3 holidays - year.

People make different choices.

Surely anyone wouldn’t grudge or minimise parents of children with additional needs worrying about potential fee increases at schools which have provided a massive benefit for their DC.

I send my kids to private school, have two dogs who I walk off lead, and like and enjoy the company of my transwomen friend.

Is there such a thing as Mn Hell because that's where I'm headed.

Surely there's absolutely no need to even open a thread about private school fee increases if you don't have a child in private education?

Private school threads give posters the opportunity to say:

1. All Etonians are thick.
2. My boss’s children were privately educated and they’d come into the office and behave in an arrogant and entitled fashion, ordering us around and insisting we call them ‘sir’.
3. When I went to a top university other students kept asking me where I went to school. What weirdos.
4. Dh and I are among the top 1% of earners but we send our children to state school because we have morals and are decent people.
5. Our dc went to an underperforming comp and now they are reading physics and maths at Oxford.
6. If our children went to private school we might meet Tory voting parents and we couldn’t have our children mixing with them.

Etc etc.

They are paying……., in the same way that we are all paying the businesses of supermarkets, energy companies etc. It’s not unreasonable to express concern about rising prices of any of the businesses we use. People express concern about price increases in lots of areas - holidays, takeaways etc.

😅😅

This should be a sticky

Although you did leave out wanting your very middle class, well-off children to mix with poor kids to 'ground' them as if the poor kids are some sort of zoo animal

And "I know so much about private school kids because my dc mixes with all the poshos and they are constantly at our house because their own parents don't want them" which was a particularly good one

Wonford yes, and also private school children are always ‘spoon fed’.

If your child has SEND, then I agree, it’s outrageous to expect a parent to fund it. I used to work in this area and provisions are woefully lacking. There are private specialist schools and private schools who specialise in certain areas and of course no parent should have to pay for it.

My comment was that some parents think “scrimping and saving” makes them not privileged. My parents chose not to take us on day trips or nice holidays or have nice cars to fund private school. However, I accept that I grew up with immense privilege - beyond the imagination of many - even if they did make huge sacrifices. The fact that some people on here are so ignorant to the fact that most people couldn’t afford private school even if they sold their house, shoes and every item of jewellery is privilege in itself! Most parents will resort to sending their child to the nearest school because they have no choice. The privilege is the choice money affords people. We are not low income by any means, although we couldn’t afford private education but my children are privileged in other ways and I recognise that.

There are 2 issues in my post;

1. the government woefully under funding and under resourcing education and the fact they have zero respect for teachers and the education system as a whole. Teachers strike again today - hope we are supporting them! We need teachers to educate the next generation. We need an educated society for the future.
2. people who don’t realise they are privilege to scrimp and save and that the ability to do that is far beyond the reach of most people. I don’t know why people are so damn uncomfortable with recognising their privilege. It gives you choices in life.

This is why I don’t understand what Labour are playing at or why they are pitting parents against each other. Like I said earlier I have one DC in state, another in private. Like pretty much every parent with a DC in private school, I’m a net contributor. I take nothing from the state, not even child benefit. Being on PAYE, I pay a fuck ton of tax and have never tried to shirk a penny.

I voted remain because I knew Leave would be economic suicide. I’ve voted Labour because I believe in investment in the state and genuine levelling up not pulling shit down like the Tories. I’ve done everything I can as an individual including swallowing the Tories massively high tax burden and what do Labour want me to do? Pay even more. Then when that’s done, they will want me to pay extra for any private healthcare I receive. Then what , a ‘Londoner levy’? Where will it end? Should I just handover my bank details to Kier Starmer?

Don’t forget comments about private school teachers being “unqualified”, and private school children not being clever. But we’d quite like them in the state sector because they’d drive up standards…… 🤷🏻‍♀️

'OP- it is a world where we are free to spend our monies on what ever we want and that includes how we educate our children.'

And at no point did I disagree with that fact - if you'd read the original post, that's clear

Yes they do want you to pay even more. Some other countries actually subsidise private education and allow a tax deduction for fees. They see the value in providing children with a good education and giving parents a choice. The Labour Party are not happy with the private sector being entirely privately funded and paid for out of taxed income, they want to charge even more tax on top of that.

I’m now wondering what this morning’s back pedalling on abolishing university tuition fees is all about too. Starmer has said he will make an announcement in due course - I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s planning to means test university fees.

Another - yes unqualified teachers is another one.
Also, the vast majority of privately educated children are drug addicts, psychopaths and have eating disorders

Yes he was banging on about "fairness" which usually means I'm going to have to pay more.

Maybe Labour should announce a windfall tax on anybody with a house worth over £500k to give to people in rentals even though some people in rentals are oligarchs paying £10k a week for penthouses overlooking Regent’s Park. Everyone with a mortgage is massively privileged, sneery and must be better off than everyone renting so it’s only fair.

Or maybe treble the costs of all tuition including music to ensure only a couple of kids whose parents have embezzled money from Kazakhstan can afford it. That will make it better for everyone else.

'Surely there's absolutely no need to even open a thread about private school fee increases if you don't have a child in private education?'

I work in education, with all types of schools. So I do have a genuine interest, but even if I didn't I do still get to have an opinion. I have friends who talk about this subject, colleagues who do, and goodness knows there are plenty of threads on MN started by all sorts of people with all sorts of opinions on the rising costs of private schooling.

If you don't want to read a thread about private education, then don't. Skip it. Move on. Don't comment. Easy.

And ....

'You send your children to private school? What about the poor, starving children? Don't you ever think about them?'

'Or maybe treble the costs of all tuition including music to ensure only a couple of kids whose parents have embezzled money from Kazakhstan can afford it. That will make it better for everyone else.'
😂😂You should go for a coffee with my grandad, he believes that new housing is purpose built for muslim refugees living off benefits while 'ordinary' Brits have to live on the streets... or some such nonsense. But then he hates British 'dole scroungers' too so it's a tricky one...