If you had the chance to put your Dc in private school, would you?

[Thisyeargflewby]

We may have the opportunity.

We are an average family, not hugely wealthy like some of the families (not all though)

Would you, it you could? If so, why?

If you have put your child in private school, what are your reasons for doing so?

I’ve taught in both. It’s the private school I’d rather leave, the entitlement of some of the parents and children is horrible.

We send ours to a private prep.

It is so much more than academics for us.

Small class sizes, sets for maths, English and phonics from Year 1.
Swimming weekly, forest school weekly, sports 2/3 times a week, art and music twice a week.

Access to most of the musical instruments, LAMDA etc at school so they don't have to do it outside of school.

From Year 3, all of the sports are taught by specialist coaches. For Year 5 & 6, the netball coach plays in the Super League.

There are 200 different clubs on offer each week for all of the children, 50% free 50% paid, like sailing, karate, tennis, art clubs, drama, gymnastics etc.

Wrap around care including breakfast and a snack from 7:45am to 6pm inc in fees.

Children are read to daily for 10 mins minimum, with a new book sent home every day in Reception to Year 2. There are specific reading TA's whose job is to read with the children, change books and to take small groups for additional support.

Termly, they have 4 chances for you to come in to school to see their work, interact with the teachers, watch assemblies, take part in their topics.

They go on at least 2 trips a term, with 2 outside companies who come in for their topic work.

Teachers hold monthly drop ins from 4-6pm to discuss any problems.

You have the email address for your class teacher so can email any queries and get a reply within 12 hours normally.

What my children and I have access to, will be far far more than most state schools.

There you go OP
A well thought out and reasoned argument against Private Education

"yeah but Finland, - and also Eton"

No. Good education should be a right for all children, not just those with parents who can afford to pay

I think everyone would agree with this but it’s definitely not the case here in England, at least (I can’t speak for the rest of the UK).
Not blaming the teachers at all.

I absolutely would have if I could have. Look at the facilities for a start, especially if they love sport. Fortunately mine did alright out of a state secondary. I would never ever have sent them boarding though.
Go for it!

What's the point in having them? I really don't get it.

That might be what they tell you @Sdpbodyand what you see at open day, but based only on the private school I teach at, it’s not true. I have covered classes so often that I have zero experience of. And that’s zero, I don’t even have a teaching degree, so far less than state. The ONLY day all 3 of the teachers were actually teaching the sport they are expert at, was show day.

I agree. I definitely would but only if we could comfortably afford it, which we can't...

You're touchy! I just answered OP's question but you seem to have taken it very personally.

Surely it depends what the options are? All state schools aren't equal. All private schools aren't equal

Also, IMHO, too many people focus on whether they can afford to pay school fees. You should also consider what else you could achieve with that pot of money

My DC attend a state school. Modern building., Excellent facilities. Headteacher awarded MBE for services to education. Exam results better than closest private school

Granted, the private school offers better trips and clubs. These are undoubtedly a benefit. But, overall, I'd rather save the school fees, arrange our own clubs and save for a housing deposit

I did and would do it again. Single sex education for girls statistically proves it academically but for so many other reasons too. You only have to look at the sexual assaults stats in mixed secondary to make it a no brainer.

Our children were in private school and we reluctantly removed them following the vat on fees issue. I was very upset at the prospect and desperate to try and keep them in / get them back there. They've been in state school now for 6 months and I can honestly say it has been brilliant. Probably helped by the fact that the school they are in is massively under subscribed so we have very small class sizes, but still, I'm very impressed with the progress they've made. I've actually just inherited enough to easily return them to their old private school however we've chosen not to because we don't think it's worth it.

We will still consider private for secondary school (we have separate money set aside for that). However I'll be much, much more selective on the schools we view and how we view them.

Basically, I've learnt the expensive way that private doesn't necessarily mean better!

I did, but it's not a cut and dried issue, there are plenty of circumstances under which I wouldn't have.

Our state choices are very challenging. A classmate of DC's who went to the local comp was bullied for putting in academic effort, doing homework etc. DC needs to be in a focused and studious environment and would not cope well with disruptive classmates, and needs additional pastoral and learning support due to neurodiversity issues.

I don't know what "would have been" if we'd chosen state but I suspect it would have been overwhelming anxiety leading to total school refusal and either no GCSEs or very limited ones. As it is with a supportive indie with an excellent SEN team, we've had some struggles with school avoidance but have been mostly ok and are on track for decent but not stellar grades.

If I had instead chosen to add an extra £200,000 onto our mortgage to move into the catchment area of the outstanding leafy-suburb comp which selects by houseprice I could have bought a similar experience within the state sector but that would have been more expensive than school fees.

Some state schools are excellent, and when we looked around 4 local indies we found one to be terrible, so I would always say it depends on the school and it depends on the child. If your child will thrive in your local state school the money would be better spent on either uni fees or on a mortgage deposit.

No, there are no private schools in the country that can offer my children what their state schools provide, which is education through their home language.

At the one you teach at.... So no experience at any other private school.

I am employed at my children's private school, so I know exactly what goes on.

We also only employ teachers who are qualified. We have hundreds of applications from teachers for one teaching post. At least 25% of our TA's are qualified teachers who are hoping a post becomes available.

She does, but it's ridiculous that at school she has to read at a lower level than she's capable of. And children that have read their school book 5 times at home get a reward on Friday so in order for her to get that, we have to read it, even though it's not stretching her at all.

Mine is at a private prep and will go on to private senior. It’s a no brainier really if you can afford it. In my experience it offers many things that a state school cannot. The behaviour is obviously a big factor, there isn’t anywhere near the level of disruption in a private school. The learning environment is far more pleasant for all concerned.

I was state educated btw and it was dire. I would have killed for the opportunities my child is now getting. He is very lucky and knows it!

No because I do not believe in children having clear advantage over others.

I do wonder if the ‘I don’t want my children to have an advantage over other children’ extend that to not using private healthcare? I’d bet that very few do.

It's also important to get divorced, make sure you are in insecure rented accommodation that you can be forced to move from regularly, with ongoing maintenance/damp/mould issues and nowhere quiet for DC to do homework, distribute all your money to the poor and live on the breadline ensuring you child sometimes goes to school hungry, and make sure your children have no access to any educational or cultural museum or theatre visits or overseas trips or music lessons or anything else of added-value extracurricular, or get any kind of input to raise their aspirations, otherwise they will have advantages.

Or you can acknowledge that of course your children are going to have advantages, stop being so smug, and ensure you raise them with an understanding that their advantages are a privilege not a right and that they should have nothing but admiration for the achievements of anyone who they encounter who didn't have those advantages.

Let’s hope that professional footballers don’t dare have a kick about in the garden with their own kids.

Always interested in those who say they chosen state so their children learn to mix with all types of people.

All I learnt was to keep my head down and dim my brightness. It was a relief once lessons were set by ability, and all those friends were exactly like me.

I definitely didn't maximise my potential and this wasn't a bad school and was before any of the recent issues schools face - covid, SEN crisis etc.

No - DD is academic and made it to Grammar school and the ones she could get scholarships for are not as academic

DS isn’t sporty and doesn’t like eating school lunch both of which are things he would need for the private school he would attend near us

so it depends on the school and the child. DH and I were both privately educated though I left at 16. Mine suited me until 15 and out grew it DH got a music scholarship to a top London one (still highly sort after) and struggled socially

Delighted your child was so well supported. For balance, my dc has been supported at an independent school in a similar way. There are good and bad schools - both state and private. There are gems of academic and pastoral staff in both sectors too.

When my 2nd child was approaching reception age they were already reading fluently and doing arithmetic. We went to the local state primary's open day and asked how they would handle the child's ability. The head told us that they had never allowed a child to work significantly ahead of age-related expectations and that when they had previously had a child who was significantly ahead in maths they had put him to work teaching fractions to the other kids. It was clear that our child would not be given appropriate work, would not be challenged, and would instead be used as fertiliser to bring up the others, and expected to sacrifice their own progress to work as an unpaid teaching assistant.
We went private. No regrets and would do it again. Our child was appropriately challenged, worked years ahead on maths with the support of the school and had a roaring time participating and competing in many other areas.
It shouldn't be necessary to go private, but the sad fact is that, at least with the options open to us, it was necessary. For us, it wasn't about networking or privileged connections when you leave, but having your needs met and not being bored rigid while there.

The state system, as it currently is, seems to do a reasonable job with kids that are not too far from the middle of the ability distribution, but does a rotten job with those at both extremes. The state SEN system is in disarray and for the most part there is no meaningful extension for those in the top couple of % of ability within the state sector.