to be irked when a private school kid tells mine how MUCH better her school is...

[BernardsCat]

grr
And it aint necesarily so

LOL namebacon!
jeee I agree, my kids always say their school is better and lots do - they played football in park the other day and they divided into teams based on 2 local junior schools. Both great schools, they were still rivals!

I guess comment irks more as it seems like "my posh school is great and you are at scummy state one" and I would be thinking "BRAT!" But it probably is just normal rivalry. Hope your DC wasn't upset (and prime them to talk about their awesome art teacher/football team/choir etc!)

I think lots of kids promote their school - liked kids have loyalty to a football team. Not sure it's a private/state thing necessarily.

Except that it is your extreme sensitivity on this issue that has made the hackles rise.

What else would you expect them to think? Really.

You'd have to think it, and that a state education would be unbearably squalid, otherwise you'd just feel suicidal at how much money you were throwing at a better accent.

Well I am always teling DD(4) how lucky she is to go to such a lovely school....Lord only knows what she might say to her friends who don't go there.

Greeny - obviously I'm of the camp who rate fee-paying education higher than state.

There's a word for that. Snob.

What, all fee-paying school v all state schools? Just because you pay fees = it is "better"? No comprende

Biscuits, sorry to depress you but that just isn't the case - fee-paying doesn't automatically mean better

If you like.

oh dear
one of ds1's friends, on being told ds1 was home educated, told him "you need to go to school otherwise you'll only get a really bad job like a road sweeper"

i think it is natural they are going to think their own form of education is the best

That is, of course, what fee-paying schools would like you to believe cos how else could they justify their exorbitant fees?

And there are plenty of gullible parents out there who suck it up!

Well it really ought to be "better" with all that extra cash swilling around.

I am also of the camp that thinks fee-paying schools are probably "better", in the very broadest sense of the word, overall. Not that I'll ever buy into that system myself.
Sometimes "better" is just not better.

Namebacon's post would have been a perfect response to the kid.

.

Pffffff biscuits.

Lots of v expenisve schools full of thick as two short planks toffs.

Vs top performing highly selective state grammer schools, where you have to be in the cleverest person in the world to even sit the exams.

Sorry biccy me old mucker, you are talking shit.

most private schools = money for old rope

still, you get to feel 'better' than everyone else

the school gets the money

everyone a winner

oh, wait - apart from the children

Even I, as fee paying parent have to agree with that one. The country is littered with small twee preps whose only offering is exclusivity. And to be honest, they breed the biggest snobs of all. Yes, they have small classes (too small IMO) yes,they have nice hats but are the facilities better, rarely. Is the teaching better, again rarely.

My kids, at their school are (IMO) getting a better education that had we gone state but that's because of this particular school and all it has to offer and held in direct comparison with our state alternative.

To make a blanket statement that all private schools are better than allstate schools just makes us (paying parents) look like idiots.

My best friend frequently used to tell me that her private all-girls convent secondary school was better than my mixed comp. It did upset me a bit at the time, but it was only a better school for her, she was too delicate to have been at my school, and I'd have hated being with a load of bitchy girls all day, even though I'm a girly girl.

Her Mum told me recently that she only sent her girls there to get them the posh accents, which is HYSTERICAL as my friend has since moved up north, and lost her 'posh' accent.

Disclaimer This is not intended as a dig at Northen accents, but she sure lost her posh toffee nosed one!

Does nobody think Biscuits is just trying to wind you all up?

Very possibly.

fun innit

She could be. I don't know. I don't know much about her. If I didn't have to go and cook dinner now I might look into it.

Oh god this has ka BOOMED a bit.

I totally agree the kid is just being brand loyal. Its when the kid suggests to yours that they ask if they can go you want to garotte explain things to them

Did yours not say 'but mine is great!' Mine wouldn't have mind you. One time some kid got in our car and said 'this car smells, it's really stupid, my dad's got a new car' ds1 said, 'Yeah, I know. It stinks.'

That was an edifying car journey.

I know a state educated child who is habitually thoroughly unpleasant to privately educated children on principle (actually his parents' principles I suspect).

I was also quite proud of my (privately educated) dd who when involved in a discussion about relative merits of different schools with a group of (state educated) friends, diplomatically commented that she thought all schools have good and bad points.

Kids are kids - sometimes they're rude, sometimes they're not, regardless of sector of education. So, you probably ABU: it was rude, it struck a nerve, but it was just a child's tactless comment.

It'a natural for parents who pay for their children to go to a private school to think they are better, why else would they pay for them? Some parents work extremely hard to do so.

One benefit I have noticed from working in both types of schools is the smaller class sizes. You have more time to give individual attention and can manage 'hands on' lessons more easily.

I'd say the parents are also paying for the peer group, especially if they live in a catchment for a school that does not have a good reputation.

Why do people get so hostile about others sending their children to private school? They are still paying for other children to go state. Is it seen as a vulgar status symbol? Really curious as to why it brings out the venom in some people.

My DD had this and replied it's not better as it doesn't allow kids with SN or poorer kids to attend. How is that a better thing excluding kids?

Well corrie - I think it's because people feel that there is an implied rejection of THEIR children in a person's decision to go private.

That people who go private do so because they think they are 'better' and crucially - that their children are 'better' than yours. This leads to hostility and frustration because it's elitist and unfair and untrue.

So then the best thing to do is to knock all children at private school and their parents, because it makes it more even then to believe that they are not better, no indeed, they are WORSE! Their children are idiots, they know nothing of the 'real world', are pampered and unable to think for themselves and have to wear boaters and should be beaten up.

Then the world is right again. Hope this helps.