If you have no choice but to send your children to the local state school, even if it is satisfactory or even inadequate - what can you do to help your child?

[conniedescending]

I suppose i mean - how do you compensate and bring your child up to the level they (supposedly) would be in private?

and we cant hire a tutor

Support the reading, maths etc but also look to broaden their interests. I read in the newspaper this weekend that a couple of hours a week playing chess was more useful developmentally than a couple more hours of the same academic subject (don't shoot the messenger!).

There are good free structured activities to be found - wildlife watch (part of Wildlife Trust) is only a couple of hours a month but the stuff DS age6 learns! This weekend they were dissecting owl pellets so learnt all about owls, skeletons of small mammals as well as use of microscope, enhanced fine motor skills etc.

Our local secondary schools have the worse results in the county. Ie. they are on the BBC's list of the 200 worst state secondary schools in the country.

Unless we catch religon, move house or my son passes the 11 plus and is bussed 12 miles to school there is little escape. He is quite bright, but it is hard to complete for an 11 plus place against the hot housed private school kids.

My son's state primary is wonderful though.

If you are in a fully selective area, it is hardly surprising that the other secondary are in the worst 200. How many average schools would move into that category if they had their top 20 - 25% of pupils removed?

Well done Mayqueene, your kids are a good advert for the State system. My kids are having a wonderful time in state schools. They do music lessons and swimming club outside of school and I speak three different foreign languages (all learnt on my own or in State school) and have passed on this learning to my children. Interestingly swimming club takes place at one of the best private schools in our area and my DS has told me that he would never go to that school because the toilets were the worst he has ever seen.

When I was paying nursery fees and looking at primary school I considered private because it was not much more than nursery fees. I visited our local one but was put off because of the playground which was just tarmac, no paintings, no fun play things, boring tarmac. The library was just a portable trolly basically which was pathetic. It just did not compare to any of the state schools I looked at, which were amazing. The pre-school was tiny and the kids had to wear full uniform including tie, blazer and hat which I thought was pathetic. However, the results were good but the kids just looked miserable as sin.
My DS is now performing just as well in State school.

I then rang a prep school in posh Solihull and the head put me off, who, when she found out how old DS was said 'that is the perfect age so that we can mould them in the style of 'school name' children.' They were off the list after that comment. I believe they would just breed children as snobby as the staff. I wondered how they would then cope in the real world.

I also looked at another school that could not offer any other extra-curricula stuff to those my children do at state school but at £9,000 a year, (that was cheap). I have now been put off private schools for life.

Really it is worth visting a few of your local private schools even if you cannot afford them just to do a comparison.

Become a parent Governor! It's the best thing you can do. You get to know all of the teachers, they are willing to communicate more freely with you, you get a full insight into the school life as a whole, and you have more opportunity to learn the teaching techniques they are using so that when you support your children at home you are not conflicting in methods. Be interested and hands on. See if you can go in and help, no matter how short the time.

Be enthusiastic in your childs achievements, no matter how small. Surround yourself and your home with books, reading material of different types. Take your children to interesting places outside of school, or to support their current curriculum. Get them interested in other activities that will help boost their confidence and give them the drive to achieve well in school too.

State educated children can fare just as well as privately educated children. If your children's school only scored as satisfactory, or inadequate in their inspection, find out why. It could be that there is a problem with absences that are outside of control - illnesses etc. Something simple that is very little to do with the standard of teaching.

Motivate your children to achieve. One of the children in my daughters school was astounded when I told him that if he wanted to be a pilot, if he worked hard enough and long enough then that's exactly what he could aim for! It saddens me that parents lack the vision to give their children these possibilities for their future.