To feel so fed up that the only way to get a good education seems to be privately?

[Greensha]

I’m uk based. I live in a reasonably nice area but the schools are rubbish. We’ve looked further afield and they’re all pretty similar. I don’t know if my expectations are off but the classes are huge, like 30 kids in one room (I thought 25 was the max!). The buildings scruffy. One had a lovely lunch room and nice outside space but the rest of the school was falling down. There’s absolutely no way we can afford private and the one local to us is worlds apart to these state schools. I am trying to remind myself that a lot of that is superficial, the teaching is the same in both sectors as the teachers are the same and I know my dc will leave school with a proper and ‘real’ understanding of life. I can’t help but feel my kids are at a disadvantage overall though and it upsets me. Why should some kids get small classes, loads of sport opportunities and nice clean and tidy environments when others don’t. Doesn’t seem right or fair.

I know LOADS of people who had state educations, went on to excellent universities, and have succeeded in a wide range of areas.

Parental influence and expectation is probably the biggest factor, IMO

^

I also know loads of people who didn't.

Biggest influence at high school are peers.

Drug culture? My older DS is Asd and in state secondary and he was offered cigarettes in the restroom last week. Kids are regularly fighting in his school, luckily he's big and he's got a TA for him and another student so noone will bother him.

And I don’t mean in terms of grades… I think bright, motivated kids will generally achieve good grades wherever they do

^

Not true.

I was mega bright... Very distracted at my rough comp with kids who weren interested, disruptive, disengaged, fighting, swearing etc

I think a lot of comments on here are from people who didn't attend state school, or if they did, they were the better schools

Exactly. Why it's important to be in a setting where the peers are nice kids.

How can you ensure that though?

I’m afraid that’s an urban myth. I trained to be a teacher 7 years ago and there were cover teachers who were not qualified teachers. Some were good and some were at best mediocre. But then that applied to qualified teachers as well. I observed many lessons. If I’d have continued teaching I would have been qualified and mediocre.

Both my DDs go to the local grammar school: more than 30 in a class, crumbling buildings and no money but they've had a fantastic education.

@arcticpandas there's a big difference between a grade 7 and a grade 9, though. If DS turns out to be academically able (he's only two), I want him to be somewhere where he's being pushed to achieve 8s and 9s along with a sizeable percentage of his peers, not congratulated for getting a 7 and pushed no further.

There are some crap private schools too.

My cousins went to a private school from the age of 5 and finished at 16 with mediocre GCSEs and a lack of passion for any subjects so neither did A levels. Their careers are due to extra curricular stuff they did with their parents.

I went to a state school in quite a deprived area and came out with straight As at GCSE and studied at a top university.

What's important is what YOU do with your child. The time you spend with them. That's what will define them.

Depends on the school. In my younger son's secondary intake was based on grades and behaviour. So only well-behaved, good students have access. According to my son everyone is nice so so far so good.

93% of children go to state school.

@FatFiatMultiplaWhopper across the country. In deprived areas it's more like 2%; in certain London boroughs it's 60-70%. And if you look at where successful people come from, it generally isn't deprived areas (which is why they stay deprived).

I believe you need QTS to teach in a LA school? Anyone with a degree can work in a private school with no prior teaching experience.

My DDs go to our local comp, it is massive and probably should have been rebuilt a decade ago (DD says it is leaking everywhere). There’s a wide range of kids, from all sorts of families. We could afford private if we made some sacrifices, but I don’t think it would be worth the money.

Anecdotally, as another poster has said, if teens round here want drugs then the kids at the nearest private school are the likely suppliers. Yes, it gets good results, but it is a selective school so of course it should.

My DDs are on course for at least as good results as I got in my GCSEs at a state grammar school (and I got the best results in my year), and are happy. What would spending £15k a year plus VAT each add to that?

I teach in a state primary school. Our class sizes are huge- over 34 in KS2. I have a massive hole in the ceiling in my class, I use a massive plastic storage box to collect the rain.
We have few resources, often children are sharing pencils. However, we have a fantastic head, as a staff team we are passionate and have high expectations of all our children.
The biggest difference you can make to your child’s education is reading with them EVERY day and supporting your child’s teacher.

Is that in the U.K.?

How do they select by behaviour? What are the criteria and how is it evidenced? Never heard of this!

Love all the answers to this.

Our DC are state-educated unlike their cousins. Their cousins have turbo public school accents, but ours have more diverse friends, and are more confident dealing with people across the social spectrum. We are lucky - our local state school is incredible. (I went to v smart boarding school so I am familiar with both sides of the coin).

You don't need to be qualified to teach in a state academy FYI

My 3 DCs are state educated, and often don't recognise other people's descriptions of the State sector on here, so it's clearly area dependent.

We're in a rural part of North Yorkshire, and the DCs went to village primary schools with smaller class sizes (16-20ish).

Similarly, the classes are smaller at their State Secondary school (around 25).
DS is 17, got four 9s and five 8s at GCSE, and is applying to Edinburgh, Manchester, and Oxford to study Astrophysics and Maths.
So, no shortage of aspiration. He has a fantastic peer group of equally motivated and well behaved peers.

His school has decent sports facilities although, granted, not on a par with what the Private Sector will have.
But, he's loving school and is doing well, so we're happy.

My daughters both had a great education and have come away with firsts in their degrees STEM/English respectively, at good unis.
One went to a pretty average comp, the other went to a grammar.

"They will enjoy their classes more, but become exposed to a massive drugs culture"

Bollocks. There equally as many drugs in state schools as private.

"They will enjoy their classes more, but become exposed to a massive drugs culture"

Bollocks. There equally as many drugs in state schools as private.

There are great state schools - but you may have to move house to access them.

Please don’t worry about this at all. We had our dc in both state and private at secondary and if we had our time again I would choose state every time. Larger classes and year groups are way more beneficial in terms of friendships and again if any fall outs, no-one is particularly invested in it because such a large pool of children. Teachers are no better at private and our private offered no after school revision sessions for GCSE whereas the local state did. No brainer!