Private school underperformed I think my friend should get a refund. AIBU?

[Rambler96]

Friends daughter did her A levels at a posh girls school in Shrewsbury and failed to get the grades she needed for her university place. Now all the results are published, it looks like the school has massively underperformed for some reason. I think she should get a refund on some of the fees.

Schools can't guarantee what grade a child.is going to get.

I agree. But it looks like other parents have complained rather than this one. Frankly it looks like no real interest has been taken in the child's A level studies until the results came out. The school has been allowed to coast and the child has not been pushed. But this should have been picked up by the parents when they discussed homework and exams with their child.

It is buyer beware.
Personally I think teachers in the state sector are much better
If she thought the teaching wasn't very good at the private school why did she continue to send her child there?

I don't disagree. Sounds like this school is in significant decline. Unless it has something non-academic to offer, people will stop paying to send their girls there and it will close. If PPs' reports of huge decreases in student numbers are correct, it may be that the OP's friend was one of the last to notice in their DD's year.

That was about the A level results. I guess emotions were running high when they realised their daughter’s dream were shattered and so were her friends.

It is interesting how different this thread is to those about VAT on private schools which seemed to think they were all like Erin. I think this thread is much more realistic about what most private schools are like (though teachers are very similar to state schools).

Where is your evidence that "most" independent schools are like the one on this thread?
On the VAT threads we specifically say that Eton et al make up 1% of independent schools and the sector is hugely diverse.

There has been some utter bollock generalisations spouted on this thread ie applying the situation of 1 school across the whole sector. Can't you understand that independent schools aren't 1 homogenous entity? In the same way that state schools aren't either?

There are good state and good independent. There are shit state amd shit independent. It's up to parents to do due diligence and pick the one which nest suits their child. The parents in this example obviously didnt do that, or bother to track progress throughout that child's time at the school. That's on them.

Where i live, private schools previously selected pupils on academic ability. They wanted pupils who were likely to get good grades. And v occasionally, if a pupil turned out be to be less academic, they were quietly managed out

Now, fewer parenrs can afford private school. Therefore schools are less choosy. They take anyone who can afford the fees. So exam grades have droppef

I see you agree with me.

There is something in this. VAT is pricing many people out so the smaller schools are lowering entry requirements, therefore results will also fall.

Yes, in my experience teaching is better in some state schools. No school can guarantee top grades.

OP
no school can guarantee the grades a kid wants
no teacher can ever know what grade a kid will get

School is more than grades!! So much more.

Of course they aren’t entitled to money back. Unless that’s in the small print 🤣🤣

Ah, thanks. That's not what I was told, so good to know. I know quite a few who left didn't go on to 'better' colleges, rather more career specific, like farmy and animal stuff

Why would you complain if you're being told all is going well and on target?

This is a superb post with really good analysis.

I have to ask, why did you put pressure or create expectations about someone else’s daughter who has nothing to do with you? Is it because you have too much free time?

It’s not about the school. It’s about your friend’s daughter not putting in the effort because she lacks the motivation to excel and meet the grades you expected from her. I’m sorry, OP, but you weren’t a strong enough incentive for her to push herself to do better in school.

If a student doesn’t want to succeed, they won’t. It’s as simple as that. It doesn’t matter which school they attend; this phenomenon can happen at any school, anywhere in the country.

For those criticizing private schools, remember that parents choose them because the state system has failed them in a big way. Also, they still pay taxes to support public schools, even though they don't use them. In my opinion, they shouldn't have to pay for a service they don't benefit from. They're constantly being unfairly criticized without valid reasons.

Because in another post she said the teaching had not been good.

If this is the case then it should have come to light during the course. E.g if a topic had not been covered on a mock exam or past paper such is readily available on the Internet. There are loads of them out there.
Did she not see things in the study guide that she hadn't covered or didn't understand? Again these are available for anyone to buy for about 20 quid.
I'll repeat that it appears that these grades appear too have been a complete surprise!

It takes 2 to tango. If the child does not put in the work there is nothing a school can do to get the results they want.

The family we know have, but it's about more than exams. When all is resolved, will post what the response is.

I think it is a lot easier to assess yourself for some subject than for others. Maths should be fairly straight to figure out you don’t understand the material. But humanities are a lot harder to assess whether your essay is up to scratch without external input.

I agree with @Tagliateriroa’s post. But also, were the pupils and the parents happy throughout the 2 years that all the A level modules were covered? Did the school give regular monthly/half termly feedback on effort, achievement and predicted grades? If yes, and the predicted grades were much higher than they achieved can request the school review the work to check for the standard they were working to? How did these pupils do in their mocks?
How many pupils have requested a re mark and to see their papers? The school should really be requesting sight of them.
The school won’t refund any money, but they should be making an effort to check that the teaching of the subjects and their monitoring of progress were correct to ensure it doesn’t happen in future.
It does seem that they are a weak year group looking at their GCSEs.

DS has just started A levels (local state college). He is constantly being told to familiarise with the curriculum, read around his subject, and to do as much work out of lessons as in lessons. Did that get through to this year group? .

I doubt OP would know as this is a friend of hers child

But if you RTFT you’ll see the same year didn’t do well in their GCSEs either whilst other years did

Its the particular year then

State schools are exam factories. All the extra-curricular stuff at private schools - sport, cultural opportunities, fancy art studios, state-of-the-art drama studios… all those flashy and expensive facilities… they don’t really exist in state schools in anything like the same way.

State schools have a lot of often very experienced teachers who focus first and foremost on prising the best exam result out of the child, that the child is capable of achieving. That’s their focus.

What's done is done. Your friend is best concentrating on supporting her daughter to make her next choices. Which she is probably doing and you should stay out of it.