To think State education is really poor?

[Boswelian]

We sent our eldest to a taster day at a private school. He was agog. His school don't allow playing on the grass when it's wet. The private school change them into waterproofs and wellies for break. PE 3x a week. Sport every day. Dedicated specialist teaching in art, DT, languages, sciences etc. 16 in a class instead of 30. The difference in the quality of life between the two school has really blown my mind. The state school is "outstanding". The private school reckon DS is 2 years behind their curriculum. We've been told in state that he's meeting expectations. How is this remotely acceptable?

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Yes. That's why the curriculum thats covers what could be done in two hours per day should do that, and give the children downtime to do free learning/ reading/ music/ art etc for the rest of the day. Instead you have primary schools who have children there for 30 hours per week telling parents that exhausted kids should do more writing, maths and other ramdom stuff on top of that as homework. Why are they not doing that in the already excessive 30 hours+ each week at school? Then the kids' free time can be to rest, do music, art, clubs, sports, socialising, read, relax. What is covered per day in Primary in terms of learning is probably a hour of actual learning. In secondary maybe 2-2.5 hours per day. Wasting away their childhoods and having the love of learning and creativity crushed out of them for nothing.

State is underfunded. It's awful.

I wonder how good private schools would be if they were treated as businesses, which they are, and taxed accordingly, instead of being able to claim charitable status.

Some are businesses - with profits going to shareholders - and some aren’t, being non profit making and all proceeds go back into the school. And education is generally agreed to be a charitable purpose.

There are lots of private schools which aren’t charities. The ones I know of are still excellent schools.

It is poor in some places, better in others. You are buying privilege, what's your point?

My dc are in private and it’s great. However, be very cautious of the private school telling you how ‘behind’ your child is - they are selling you a product! They are hardly likely to say that your child seems to be doing well in their current school. Never forget that private school is a business and they exist to make money.

State schools do not have space and time to prioritise play - it would not cost more! And would be a massive improvement to child MH.

Get rid of sats and let kids do a lot more play/ physical activity.

Agree. Although i will be voting Labour this time around.
I know teachers who under labour said the class sizes went down, anything the school needed they got and standards improved..
Tories on the other hand cut all services the poorer and working classes use because the toff walkers they all are don't need to rely on them

I'm really glad I've spent my Sunday planning lessons for the week to give the kids in my class the best they can to be told the education isnt good. We are a lowly state primary school but have a lovely meeting with the house of Lords online this week, will be delving into Pompeii, develop our science skills both in class and during breaks with extra activities while children play in our forest school area and that's just Monday.

It’ll be great. We use state and we’re very happy with it.

Probably as they didn't pass the exam to stay or move to a selective secondary. I was In private prep school and we all had to do 11plus. Any that failed were not allowed to move to the secondary part of the school. Money doesn't buy intelligence

Quite. Labour started closing grammar schools also - preventing bright kids from wc backgrounds from having that opportunity, now a ridiculous VAT on private school fees. So no Labour are the opposite of education education education. The only education policy they’ve talked about is the VAT, therefore penalising many pupils (from state And private). We know absolutely nothing about what they will do if they come to power. Continue making facilities ‘gender neutral’ maybe 🤢. So more girls will try to stop going to the toilet. Etc.

We need them and the tories to tell us how they’re going to improve the state sector. Improve sports, drama, music, art. More books. Teacher incentives. But nothing.

So I agree OP. State schools are crap, mostly. Obviously not all, there are some good grammars (shocker, who knew?), and primaries can be excellent. But the state secondaries, academies comprehensives, generally crap.

Yep. Close them down and make all schools better!!

How are Labour planning to do that?

Primary education is pretty good. My DD's was very good. Secondary is woeful.

They should be funded to the same level as primary.

There are five primary feeder schools and one secondary in my area.

Three primaries are religious therefore better funded.

I work in a state primary. It’s a ‘Good’ school and the staff work hard and the children achieve well. Those that struggle are given lots of extra support. What’s crap is the funding procedure and the slow higher needs funding system to help those children.
My DC are early 20s and went to state everything. Both got great gcse and A level grades and went on to good universities and got good jobs. Home is a big factor. Some parents do t talk to their children, don’t help children to practise their reading or times tables etc and expect school to do everything.

Except they’re not crap as they fill unis and provide students who do better at uni than privately educated students.

Its the quality of teaching that counts not waterproof overalls and many teachers in the private sector wouldn’t last 2 minutes in the state sector.

😂 not quite. Bit of both..

The Higher Education Funding Council (Hefce) tracked 130,000 students beginning degrees in 2007, looking at schooling, background and ethnicity.

It found on some measures state pupils were significantly more likely to get a 2:1 than their private school peers.

The Independent Schools Council highlighted figures in the report, external showing that 67% of independent school pupils achieved a 2:1 or above, compared with 62.3% of state school and college pupils.

But when students with the same A-level grades were compared, the results were different. Of those students who achieved ABB at A-level, some 69% of students from independent schools went on to gain 2:1 or a above compared with about 77% of students educated at state schools.

Well the school I went to was crap, and still is. Some clever kids scrape through - so of course they will be successful at uni, they got through that state quagmire of crap.

Obviously not all state schools are bad. As I said in my original post. But frankly, a majority are and everyone knows it. It’s not just about academic results either.

My DD went to a so called top uni from state schools. She had higher A level grades than many of her privately educated new friends. What they had was contacts which led to internships. DD got everything on her own merit. I’m even more proud that she got where she has when her primary was in special measures for several years.

Threads like this make me so sad. My kids are in state, I work in state and we work really, really hard. When people criticise state schools, I feel like they are criticising the children and the staff in turn. It's not our fault the government serves education of funding.

My kids are doing so flipping well and that is all down to their incredible teachers, all working at the top of their professional game with zero budget and terrifying members of the public to deal with every day.

To all those children at fancy schools - I hope you enjoy your facilities and selective cohorts and I wish you all the best. In the meantime, here's to all the state schools doing their best with what they've got. And especially all those year 6s, 11s and 13s and their exams.

I agree and you’re right about everything. It’s the gvt who need to invest in schools and teachers. Books, clubs, pay more etc. But they never do.

There are several private schools round here that get far worse results than the local state schools. Far worse.

Some private schools are good but some really aren't, same in the state sector. And many in both are a mixed bag.