Does anyone REALLY send their children to private school?

[Mosschops30]

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MartianBishop, I don't mean to offend, we all have our children's best interests at heart, I am just voicing my opinions with a view to having my mind changed.

I too worked in a state school as a teaching assistant, my brother has special needs himself, as does my nephew, I work in a private school now. So I don't want you to think that I speak from ignorance. Of course there will always be very good private schools, and very good state schools, rules are not rules without exceptions. My nephew's state school has bent over backwards to help him and provide for his needs. I'm not too sure that a private school would have had the government funding to do the same.

My dh earns around 15k a year, I earn around 4k a year. Therefore in the UK we would never be able to have the option of private schooling. My dd and ds do not show the traits of being particularly clever, therefore scholarships are also out of the question. I love my children dearly and want to give them the best I can, but the best I can means a state school. No matter where we might live, and if we do go back to the UK our financial situation means that we're not going to get a sniff in a half decent area, they will have to take their chances in the local state.

Also, I'm guessing now that the parents of children who go privately are very involved in their school, very active, imagine all those parents being as active in state schools, the influence they would have for the benefit of all the children there. Just imagine.

Someone said that if private schools were abolished, the government would have to spend 2 billion on state schools. Wow! Is that supposed to be bad then?

Just as a P.S, the exclusive private school where I work - I spend a lot of my time trying to restore order in a class where the students do not want to learn a second language and their attitude is less than becoming. The students who do want to learn also get left out because the loud-mouths, the ones with the attitude, take up all the class time. And yes, I've also had an entire class walk out on me, and yes, I've gone home in tears wondering what the point was of teaching pupils who do not want to be taught. It's not just a state school phenomenon, it happens everywhere.

Actually Rhubarb although my children will be educated privatly I was a governor in a state primary though I had to give it up when I moved out of the area.

I've not got involved with the Parents Association at dd's school as I am standing as Chair for a local charity.

Ahhh Rhubarb that's in France though- where State schools are often excellent!

State schools excellent? You try going to the slum areas of Bordeaux and tell me that the state schools are any better than the English equivalent!

ATM my kids, well my dd, (ds is too young) are lucky, they go to a country state where class sizes are small anyway. But if we lived in the centre of the city it would be a very different story indeed.

Having the option to go private means that you have greater choice, but as already noted on this thread, private schools vary, and what is a good school for one child, isn't necessarily the best one for their sibling, let alone another child. In a stretch of 6 house on my road, 5 of us have children, and they are all at different schools (mix of private and state). Everyone is happy with their school. Personally I would not want my ds's to go to any of the other schools represented, and I suspect some of the other parents feel the same way about their choices.

Also think that that the assumption that private school parents are more involved with the school is a false one. If anything I saw far more parents involved with the school at the state schools (where they were hearing pupils read). Certainly we're not invited to get involved in the classroom. What is probably fair is that private school parents may be generally involved in their own child's education, which would also hold true if their child was in state ed, but would not necessarily benefit the other children.

But as I have said LadyMuck, it's nice to be able to choose a school tailor-made for your child that you are happy with! I just wish everyone had the same choice.

It's an eye-opener to be told that parents of private ed children are not always involved in their children's school or education. They must place a lot of trust in that school then! Or perhaps they are working too hard to pay for the funding?

I didn't say that they weren't involved in their education - just the opposite! But no, it is unusual to find them in the classroom, whilst it seemed to be more common in the state schools.

I went to private school - 4 buses a day
just l;ooking at DS for next yr.
attends private day nursery at mo cos I work 3 days BUT will be going to local school

I feel that location AND parental guidance is all you need

I had public (scholaship) education
DH comp
he has fab job
I was miserable at school

will just try best with kids - thats all you can do

It is less about having a tailor-made school (does such a thing exist?), and more about what makes a school a "good" one. Everyone has different priorities for what they want from a school. Even the "worst" schools in my area (in my estimation!) have people selecting them as their first choice.

Why do people go private? Well in today's Observer it points out that in Lambeth in London (next door borough to mine)every year 2,400 children emerge from Lambeth primary schools to compete for only 1,500 secondary school places, of which two-thirds are in sectarian (aka religious) schools. I find this utterly shocking. You either have to pray or pay - and that means paying twice, obviously, once in your taxes and again out of your taxed income.
Choice? Don't make me laugh.

Just been onto the BBC News Education site - they have now published the revised GCSE league tables based on including strong passes for Maths and English - scary reading!

Aloha, I'm really by that stat! Does that mean that there simply aren't enough places for all the children? Afaik, the state has a duty to provide schooling for your child - how does the council get round that?

People absolutely have to send their children out of the area. Kids commute all over London by the age of 12.

Aloha - yes, but the remaining children go to schools just outside the borough, and the borough has to pay for them. And most parents are desparate to get their kids into one of the schools outside the borough!!! Also, the sectarian 2ndry schools are largely freely open to different faiths - there are only a couple of catholic ones which have a religious criteria for entrance, afaik.

The situation isn't good (and godess forbid i should ever defend the LEA in question!)- but bus routes are more important than borough boundaries in whether a school is accessible or not.

The feature has an interview with one mother who put down SEVEN schools for her daughter and didn't get a single offer. I am pretty sure she isn't that rare. There are no half-decent secondaries in Southwark either really, except poss the Charter School in Dulwich, and that's wildly oversubscribed afaik. My old neighbour's daughter went to Pimlico every day which is miles and miles away.

There are certainly loads of kids getting on buses to Croydon, Wandsworth, Pimlico - less so to S'wark, though a lot who live close to the hborders do - esp if a Southwark religious school - and the situation is a very long way from ideal.

We will almost certainly become 'educational migrants' when DS reaches 2ndary age unless things cahneg quickly and drastically.

your not saying that becuase there are not the places available at secondary level that is a reason to send your child to private?

(rhubarb - southern pussy my arse!)

Custy - I think probably lots of parents do send kids private inthis area of london because there are no suitable places available. Personally, i am more worried about the quality of education on offere in a Lambeth 2ndary school, so will move, rather than send ds private (which we couldn't afford, and wouldn't especially want to do, for various reasons).

I have a v good friend who lives in between 2 Lambeth primaries. 200m from one, 400m from the other. Neither have places, and because of the 'proximity' criteria of other schools further away, she can get mo place there, either. The child has serious allergies: some schools have said they will not admit a child who needs an epi-pen, others have declined to admit her on grounds of having SEN. She is due to start in Jan - and for the first time in their lives the word 'private' is crosing my friends mind.

ahh well that presumes choice then blu. which is a different thing.

Aloha kusy out of interest The school mine go to have partialy funded a brand new state school in lambeth (not a faith school btw). It has 900 places and is alsreay oversunscribed.

it must be a realy worry Batters

It's one thing for us to make the choice to go private. It's shocking to be forced into that decision because there are no physical spaces at local state schools.
IME, in a lot of areas you end up 'paying' for the good local school also because house prices in the catchment area become ridiculously (sp?) high. There is a primary school in Sale, Trafford, where the governors took to staking out addresses at night to catch out parents who had clubbed together to buy a small flat in the catchment area which they all put down as their address. It was all over the Manchester Eve News for ages!

Sorry to but in.... isn't it sad when the only decent schools are private? I'm luckyish in that where I am there are some excellent state schools (one of which I went to) and very few private schools, but there are also some really pants state schools that my kids will not be going to under any circumstances. There are a limited number of spaces in the schools obviously, and I know of a few families who have to send their kids on a 10mile bus trip everyday rather than a 5 minute walk as the school closest to them is full!! How can it be? The population in the whole village isn't high enough to fill it!! Are state schools allowed to be selective?