Be honest - would you send DC private if you could?

[Naptrappedmummy]

If your DC is at a state school and you were offered free places for them at the local indie, would you accept? If so, why? If not, why not?

YANBU - Yes I would send them private
YABU - No I wouldn’t send them private

Me - yes I would, in a heartbeat (DD at state primary).

I would for the DC who struggles academically.

For the one who is academically gifted I think state school has probably given them a lot of other valuable life experience.

Irony is public schools won’t take the kids that could really do with it.

If I formed a govt I’d make private schools take a fixed number of kids with additional needs for free.

In principle I think private school is a pernicious idea and if it was banned I would honestly celebrate. Yes I know I'm a rank hypocrite.

The peopleversuswork yes you really are an appalling hypocrite. I genuinely can’t understand someone using a service which they think should be banned.
I think salmon farming is pernicious and should be banned so I don’t eat salmon.

Not for primary. Defo would have done for secondary and sixth form. Not that the secondary/sixth form they both went to was rubbish but I think going to the local private schools would have a) gained better exam results (particularly at A level) and b) opened doors for them that just don't happen in mainstream education (certainly in this area anyway).

I could afford to send my dd to private. Her state school offers a variety of courses not available at private, including an application only science track which she will almost certainly be accepted in.

We could afford it but chose not to. The kids also got into a grammar school for 6th form and chose not to go. They went to a comprehensive and a sixth form college both of which were good schools.

We would have whipped them out at any point had they wanted it or needed it. I think they would have got higher grades had they gone to a private school but they all did well and went to the Unis they wanted and into the careers they wanted.

If we had lived in an area without decent state schools we would have sent gem to a private school.

I'm glad we didn't though As I dislike private or selective schools.

Private schools do well because they only take the brightest kids - it's a scam.

Yet a pp says the only point of private schools is to improve the chances of mediocre children. Which is it?

I could and I don’t. I don’t agree with them morally.

I have 3 kids so I would if the offer was for all 3.

They actually don’t always take just the brightest children. They take the ones who can pay and then just don’t enter them into the exams they won’t pass. One GCSE pass in art anyone?

No I wouldn't.

Yes. We were faced with a shit state school, privately educate or move. My vote was v much move, but planning for 500 houses had been granted next to us and who wants to live by a giant building site? No one for the 3 years it took to complete the thing it turns out.

So, in the meantime, we went private. We cannot leave now, dc v embedded. It is something I get cross about, as it was all so obvious, and I blame dp for not listening when it was really all so clear. We had no intention of private school but ended up committed to it. It will cost us £220000/250000, without the potential labour tax rise. Despite our school being not for profit. It means totally rethinking all our plans.

If Labour do go ahead with vat on fees, we are probably fucked anyway. So would need to move closer to good catchment etc and move to state school.

We are both working class and absolutely not what you would expect private school parents to be. But then, actually, so are at least half the parents at our school.

SonI think if state provision locally is rubbish and you think you might be able to stretch, who wouldn't?

But then labour are maybe going to fuck everyone like that right over.

The thread title is a bit misleading, sending them
if you could is completely different to sending them for free.

If I'd have had children they'd have gone to private school, same as DH and I did.

Do you agree morally with people moving house for the sole purpose of getting into a better state school catchment area?

Private schools do well because they only take the brightest kids - it's a scam.

No, they generally want average or above. But if it's a year of low applications they will take what they can get.....they can't afford to be super selective these days.

Definitely not at primary -DS is at an outstanding primary and absolutely loves it, and honestly I’m not sure what the Indy would offer that he isn’t already doing.

Secondary - depends on the school. Again our catchment school is excellent, and DS is a pretty anxious perfectionist kid so I don’t particularly want to put him through tutoring and entrance exams etc. If there was a guaranteed space at a private school he desperately wanted to go to then maybe, and if the local schools were shit then definitely, but in our current situation I don’t think I’d bother.

I've always said no. I was privately educated and had a miserable time at school.

However DS rarely has a proper teacher any more. His class are regularly left supervised by cover staff with no actual teaching going on. I'm not sure what he's actually learning this year at all.

The state school my DCs attend is better than any of the local independent schools, so no. For sixth form though... (the school finishes after GCSEs.)

Yes, if it was a well rounded independent school that valued all types of learners and encouraged students to pursue the activities and subjects they were best suited to. No if it was simply a really posh private school that cared only of results and ran through nepotism and hefty donations from super wealthy parents

I did for secondary with first but then changed back to state 2 years later. Wasn’t impressed with how it was run (and this was a highly regarded school) and ds was not happy. He flourished in the state school and we didn’t hesitate to send our next two there who have been equally happy and all have had great teachers overall and get good results. So paying for it doesn’t always equal better.

That being said, the only reason I would consider it now is if one of my dc were bullied or really unhappy. Then I would look into other options, although this time would look for a less pressurising, nurturing indie.

We changed a few independent schools, we didn’t feel we were getting much for the money (think more than half the class's results came back as underachieving compared to the national level, probably because of hours of colouring in class and chatting about the weather). We are finally really happy in the local state primary. Outstanding teachers, LOTS going on, excellent homework (independent was a few Twinkl pages printed, wow thank you!).

Genuinely no. It's a non issue as we'll never afford it but I work with a lot of privately educated people and they all have such huge social and understanding blind spots.

Some of them literally think they're poor because they earn £50k a year. I find it quite pathetic. I would never ever want my children to be so blinkered and cosseted from reality.

This. This is what I was going to say!

Yes I would. For the small class sizes, and therefore more individual attention. I don’t think the actual teaching is better, and can often be worse (I attended a private school myself). But we are lucky with our local state comprehensive and primary schools where we are (suburban London).

Mine are at great grammars so there would be no need or point in moving them.