Have you taught at a private school?

[WiseLemonFox]

I’m deciding whether to send my child private at yr 7 but I’ve heard from two ex private school teachers that the local schools aren’t worth it. They said the teaching standards aren’t any better and they only get better results because they’re selective in their intake and lots of parents provide tutors. This is in Greater London. Is this true? I don’t want to pay £25k a year for hot air!!!

People don't realise that teachers at private schools don't even need a teaching qualification to teach unlike state schools where you need your PGCE

I thought that QTS was also not a requirement to teaching academy or free schools? i.e. the majority of state secondaries don't have a formal requirement of QTS either. No doubt lots of private and academy teachers have it anyway.

@WiseLemonFox I have a daughter who has gone through Sydenham Girls (the state one), with GCSEs all at 7-9 and now loving the sixth form in Year 13.

I also, coincidentally, have a Year 11 child at a private school - though not a local one. She's got a government music place at a boarding school. She moved in year 10 so has experienced both Sydenham Girls and the independent sector.

DD2's view, having experienced both sides, is that she wouldn't pay for the teaching at a private school just for the sake of it as she thinks it is definitely not better.

There are nice things - small classes, and a swimming pool, and lots of text books to go round, but in general moving made her realise just HOW good sydenham was, particularly for maths and science - where she found the transition extremely easy - so much for state school children being behind.

DD2 is high ability - more so than her sister, who is bright enough but had to work for her grades. Sydenham stretched her with lots of extras and is now offering further maths as well as triple science to the top of the cohort. I think she would have got great GCSEs there. DD1 did a lot of debate which really helped her confidence and is a strength of the school.

Friends of mine who have had kids at Sydenham high are ok with it - but not wowed. Many move for sixth form as it is small...JAGS is a different ball game - more academic, high-quality music etc.

My caveat is that if your child is very musical and wants that as a career, don't go for Sydenham Girls at the moment as it has become a bit of a weak point, which is why DD2 left.

If she hadn't been offered her dream school with a massive government chunk of funding, we'd have moved her to Prendergast, where a space opened up for her.

Otherwise, Sydenham is a great place to be.

Go private

Perhaps worth looking at Kingsdale as they are meant to have a great art department. It’s a huge school but caters well to your DD’s profile. Not sure where you are exactly and how far from the grammars Townley/Newstead etc all good for that profile too.

I would probably choose St Dunstan's then

dn goes to JAGS and is thriving. It is competitive but in a way that’s inclusive - the kids all tend to drive each other.

I have taught in two different independent schools since I had DC and they went to my schools. My current school is brilliant. Really well qualified and enthusiastic teachers in every subject, great co curricular provision and smaller class sizes. Absolutely worth it and I don’t think I’d still be teaching if I were in the state sector now although I started out there.

@Mia85 - technically true but in practice pretty rare nowadays.

Have you asked her where she wants to go? I went to a private secondary school. It was awful. I didn’t want to go, obviously I wanted to go with all my friends from primary to the local (very good) high school. Instead I was taken away from my close knit community every morning to the city where I knew no one, had trouble settling in, never really did fit in. The teachers were all dinosaurs, all completely uninspiring, boring af, we had to go on a long bus journey every PE lesson, (and wear these stupid embarrassing, poncy big pants for it!) whereas the local school was surrounded by sports fields. Obviously we all used to roll our skirts up at the waist and the head teacher would come round and put her hand down our skirts to unroll them (I appreciate this was the early 2000s) but still, I think some private schools think they can do what they want, have an attitude of “untouchable” about them (hence the multiple cases of abuse well documented in boarding schools). IMO teachers who teach at state schools do it because they’re passionate about it, private school teachers do it because it’s better money. Uninspired teachers = uninspired students, which equals very average grades. I got out of there with a bunch of ok GCSE’s and went straight to a state sixth form where I actually realised learning could be interesting and started getting As. Visit all your options and listen to what your dc wants. They’re the one that’s going to be experiencing it and sometimes, in this situation they know best. Even my parents acknowledge now that it was a mistake and I’d have done much better and been much happier if I’d gone to the local state school like I wanted

I work in a state school. The worst teacher I've ever met couldn't teach or cope with the demands of the job so left to teach in a local prep which has an amazing reputation(& associated cost). Its astounding that people pay to have this lady teach their kids!

Yup, this. Best teacher I ever had was a technology teacher who'd trained as an engineer, then run the family electronics/engineering firm before a career change in his 40s. His practical knowledge, and industry experience, were phenomenal. His lack of a formal teaching qualification didn't prevent him from teaching to a high standard, reflected by the excellent results from his students.