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.

The teachers at private schools are the same teachers at state schools. My local school has several teachers go to local independents and come from independents in the time my DC have been there. Good teachers in both directions.

Equally, friend worked at an independent and had a real struggle with constantly having to cover a colleague going off sick all the time. So it is perfectly possible for private schools to have teachers who fail their class too. Though I wouldn’t expect that to affect more than a couple of subjects. If there are problems across the board that suggests more fundamental issues - unless they had a very difficult year recruitment-wise seven years ago so drastically dropped their intake standards.

Have they looked at getting the papers remarked? This year a lot of subjects were downmarked and whole cohorts dropping grades.
in DD school they have arranged for several subjects to he remarked - DD had her english remarked and she went up 19 points - similar for most of the people in her class and I know other classes like Spanish etc were sent back to be remarked.

ifnit is the whole class then the school should he asking questions and getting it assessed by another examiner.

I can think of two sets of parents who sent kids to private schools for pastoral care and/or extra curricula activities. Some parents choose private schools because they think the whole package will suit their child better.

Schools aren't just about academic results and, as other posters have said, ultimately its about the individual child and how academic they are/how hard they work.

No private school is going to offer a refund, you take a punt that a particular school is the right choice for your kid, regardless of whether it's state or private.

And DD is at state school and they paid for the remarks as felt so strongly about the issue

The other question to ask is why no one seemed to notice that the wheels were falling off.

Then she complains about the quality of the teaching.
You can’t complain because grades aren’t what you hoped they’d be.

That is a very good point and would steer towards poor management- not noticing there were teaching quality issues until it was too late. The refund would be because of failing to teach to the standard required

I agree with this completely. However, there are serious questions to be asked and answered. Poor management surely should have some accountability, especially to make sure the next group of kids aren't affected?

Really??? Bloody hell!

The daughter got the grades she deserved. Simple as that.

It is not as simple as that though. You don’t do nothing for two years then rock up to your exams. You are taught. And it is perfectly possible to be taught badly, to have sections of the curriculum missed, to have work inappropriately graded so you think you are that an A start standard when really you are barely passing. Teachers do bring something to the table…

A good teacher can make a huge difference as can a poor one and this is the issue. Girl was told she would do exceptionally well and it turns out she didn’t

That is a great school.

It feels like something odd has gone on. I think that school is supposed to be really good. GDS schools to have bright (not super Henrietta B. bright) but certainly average to above average IQ students, who tend to be motivated and ambitious with motivated parents. They don’t tend to be ‘nice but dim’ sort of places.

BTW, GDST schools weren’t super posh, there were lots of assisted places kids, back in the day and they were more like non super selective grammars. But I imagine the cost of private schools means the intake is more affluent these days.

Unless something has dramatically changed in terms of make up of kids - your friend should push for a refund or at least free extra tuition for retakes.

The school did better than Shrewsbury school and Oswestry School so I don’t think you will get a refund. www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk//schools-by-type?step=default&table=schools&geographic=la&for=16to18&region=893

Lots of unpleasantly crowing posters on this thread. These are still teenage girls who have had their dreams ruined. If they weren’t a bright bunch then they should have been given realistic estimations of their grades a year ago when considering university, not lined up universities they were unlikely to ever achieve the grades for then have the rug collectively pulled from under them on results day.

And if some had Oxbridge offers then Oxbridge would have considered them bright too - their interviews are very academic and they often require extra tests.

Wrong year that’s 2024???

This was 2024. 2025 is the disaster.

Very few of the local state schools offer a levels so that's hugely misleading. There are 6 rural schools with 6th forms (shifnal, wem, wenlock, newport (selective grammar) , bridgnorth and Oswestry) but none of the 4 high schools in Shrewsbury or the surrounding area has 16+ provision .

Generally education in Shropshire is pretty good, so if you're paying, chances are you want something other than education.

This is my point exactly girls dreams decimated and actually someone should take responsibility for the overall poor performance. And ensure it doesn’t happen again

As PPs have said, every now and then you will get some cohorts that vary wildly. Happens in state schools, non-selective private schools and the occasional selective one all the time. Thats just variance. In some years, the winner of the Olympics Men’s 100m final won with a time that wouldn’t even have beaten the guy that came 8th place in the prior Olympic Men’s final.

It happens. Teaching and curriculum delivery will almost be identical, you will just have some cohorts that underperform. Fluctuations, even the occasional wild one is expected. In the GCSE year before last, we had the worst science grades we had seen in a long time. The year just gone was excellent. On paper the cohort was far stronger on all metrics than the previous one and the culture and work ethic of the year group was much better.

I thought that the point of private education generally is: to build confidence, get access to networking opportunities now and for the future, and for the child to be given the opportunity to concentrate on sports and subjects that they have a natural aptitude for.
We have a family run private school near us that always seems to get a mixed bag of results at A-levels but it is known for being a fantastic nurturing environment for children.
I don't believe any school can make a child who is naturally a C grade ability an A grade, no matter how expensive!

As someone who has put children through private school, I can't see much likelihood of a refund because there is never a guarantee.
I am surprised, however, that an entire cohort can do badly without there having been clear signs of things going wrong

Absolutely right Cat.

No schools give refunds. And I don't see how they could possibly afford to give every single pupil in an entire year group 33% of their annual fees back, without bankrupting the entire school, so that seems wildly unrealistic to demand/ expect.

As others have said, private schools often employ people as teachers who are less qualified than state school teachers. So if your friend expected that the teaching would be better just because the school was 'posh'/ fee-paying, then she was a bit deluded.

The fees go towards covering the costs of running the school - everything from building maintenance to canteen food to staff salaries to library books to sports facilities to insurance to publicity to art supplies to administration... Your friend's DD has had access to all those resources all year, so why would she be refunded?

You said she was told that she was 'on target' to get better grades. But what happened when they did their mock exams? Didn't those results raise any alarm bells at all?!

Not with the families we know of, no. Which in part is why they were so shocked and disappointed.