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.

I don’t recognise that statistic about private schools and Ofsted.

Do you mean that half of private schools have full graded inspections of all aspects of their education, behaviour, safeguarding, etc etc - ie exactly the same inspections as state schools undergo, so direct comparisons can be made and similar warnings / assurances given?

Or that half have some Ofsted oversight of some aspect of their provision eg basic safeguarding within boarding?

I can believe the latter, but not the former.

Ah, a quick Google suggests that if Ofsted is involved in private school inspections, it is against a different set of standards.

"I don't recognise that statistic" hi Bridget!

I don't care what you recognise or don't, here is the data, just under 50% are inspected by Ofsted.

Are you a Schrodinger's school theorist? That independent schools are purveyors of privilege yet simultaneously have worse teachers, worse outcomes and aren't as rigorously overseen?

How dare you show these people facts. It doesn't work with their rational of "private schools are the worst, private school parents are the devil, private school children are entitled twats, private school teachers are state rejects".

Independent schools don't have to follow national curriculum or all the god awful various fashionable government initiatives and dictats of the day (thank god) so of course they can't be inspected on a like for like basis because they aren't the same as state schools 🙄 I would have thought that was obvious.

😆 yes they are so bad that they also manage to confer such privilege and advantage that they must all be closed down.

If the parents had read this on Mumsnet in 2016 they might not have sent their child there.
Shrewsbury High School exam results
8 replies
sorry don’t know how to link it.

This. If those students just weren’t that bright/high achieving/ willing to work, then they weren’t.

I worked with a bloke who used to tell everyone what he hadn’t had a privileged upbringing even though he went to a famous boarding school because he’d bombed all his exams. So clearly the privilege had had no affect on him…
He certainly had that public school confidence! ‘Hello everyone, despite all the money spent on my education I’m as thick as mince and/or lazy so it didn’t count!’

mindboggled. Particularly as it’s an industry to do with education where colleagues very much valued education, and those who made the most of theirs.

Wow really??? Is there no independent body that checks what goes on? I mean, what if there were other issues at a private school, say safeguarding concerns, or issues that in a state school would result in some form of disciplinary action? Do the school mark their own homework?

Amazing how rich some of these 'not for profit' companies and their owners are...

Of course not but that PP is highly prejudiced against independent schools so is spouting bollocks

Yeah well now we get to your "real" post with the point you are really trying to make.

People send their dc to private schools for far broader reasons than purely results.

But what if a lot of the thickos left, and only the ones who did well stayed....???

Many Indis are checked by both
Ofsted and the ISC

😂😂😂😂😂 that is all.

Who are the ISC?

It is ISI. Independent School Inspectorate.

So as a taxpayer do you want to fund the body which inspects independent schools? If not then who should fund that inspection body?

The ISI - funded by private schools - inspects many but just look at the number of private schools who have for years, decades, allowed pupils to be abused & covered it up to protect their own reputation & income - Merchiston, Barrow Wood, Ampleforth, St Pauls, Godolphin... and the list goes on and on and on.
I know of two families who have left well-known privates for state because of horrendous bullying that the schools did absolutely zero about, preferring instead to have the victims leave to protect their reputation and because the bullies were 'established' in that school.

So again, do you want to fund the body who inspects them? I'm 100% you wouldn't be happy to find out that your taxes are going to fund the ISI??

In that case, who should fund them?

Funny how no PP can tell me how ISI should be funded..........

It's no more incestuous than a state funded body inspecting a state funded body.

yes, quite frankly, when it comes to the safety and education of UK children then that absolutely should be managed for private schools the same way as it is for state schools.
That's how taxes work, love. I have several childless friends who's taxes are funding schools they won't ever use for their own offspring, I'm paying towards a state pension that I would say it's quite likely I'll never get to have, or not for long anyway. My taxes go into a benefit system that I haven't received a penny from, and hopefully won't ever really need to...

Thanks twisty yes I meant the ISI

The ISC is the Independent Schools Council @Em1972

The whole point of independent schools is in the name ie they are independent from the state!

That's what I love.

You are bleeding deluded if you don't think they have stringent safeguarding controls. All boarding schools are inspected under Ofsted for Safeguarding!

The bullying example you gave could easily be from a state school too. 1 or 2 experiences do not = whole sector.
At our local state a child had their hair set on fire by a other pupil, I don't use that to ascribe to all the state schools in the country.

You obviously have a huge boulder on your shoulder about independent schools but that's your issue.