Does anyone REALLY send their children to private school?

[Mosschops30]

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This school takes about 30% pupils with special needs of various kinds, some paid for by the Local Authorities and is mixed ability/comprehensive, you can read Ofsted reports on the ISIS site too but not all independent schools are members
Sibford School

What do you term 'special needs'? As I said before, many children are labelled special needs simply if they are underachieving in a particular subject. Having a high concentration of SEN children fulfils the government criteria, does down well if you are applying for a charitable status and does not affect the overall school performance as the results SEN children get do not count along with the other children.

Oh and a lot of private schools also get funding from the government, which means that I am paying in my taxes towards the upkeep of private schools even though I cannot afford to send my children there. A slap in the face for society's poor.

mostly dyslexia type but also physical and other needs, if you read the last ofsted report from 2003 it gives an idea, their overall results are affected by the broad range of ability vis a vis pass levels, hence low position in league tables

Normally league results are based on the performance of all the children, with the exception of SEN children whose results are kept separate.

I'm pretty sure that the results include those of all the pupils ..seems to indicate that in the inspectors report

I work in the finance dept of an independent school i am pzzled that you think we get funding from the state ?We have geographic bursaries avaliable these are not the same as scholarships,they are means tested adn you have to live in the local area to qualify,yes you do have to pas the entrance exam but we do actually take quite a large range of abilities,you do not have to be outstanding to geta bursary.

As a charuty we are not allowed to make a profit an incidentally the fees only cover the costs of teaching ,food ,paper etc,anyt surplus,such as it is is reinvested into the school for the benefit of the pupils.We also provide chess club,sfterschool activities ,music and drama teaching etc to children from all the schools in the area state and private.
On the VAT front because we cannot register for VAT as a charity we have to pay VAT on purchases,currentlt we are building a new classroom blocka dn the VAT on this runs into thousands of pounds,we won't get back a penny of this so it is not all one way.
Many of the families here do not have expensive holidays ,new cars etc they choose to spend their money differently.
Incidentally I would never send a child to an independent school which was owned by the Head,always choose school registered with IAPS,HMC or GSA or similar with a board of Governors.
Sorry this is rather rambling but some of the misconceptions about inde[endent schools on this thread really are ridiculous.

"There are many examples of government funding, both existing and proposed, which amount to using taxpayer money to support religious causes" There is also a school site for Hobsons Boarding Schools that says the government provides 120,000 a year.

Rhubarb when i said some pupils are paid for by the local authority I meant that they are funded due to statements of special needs and the school is considered appropriate for the needs of the statement and so they have paid for places

the school receives praise for its ability to achieve well in relation to the ability of the intake

Value-added league tables have been brought in to highlight the difference between the SEN children's scores and other pupils scores, so that taking in SEN children will not lessen the league table score any school may have.

Here is a quote from Mr Stephen, Headteacher at St. Paul's Boys School. "Mr Stephen acknowledged that independent schools were likely to achieve more because of their privileged intake. "Lets be honest, a number of independent schools are selective, that obviously helps."

So much for mixed ability there then!

You can come up with individual exceptions all you like, I'm interested in the general collective.

But why would the parent of an average child want to send that child to somewhere like St Paul's? It is known as a school for academically able children, it's not known as a school that gets great results out of average kids.

Sorry, I'm researching as I go along, but I'm off now to attend to dd's and TLD's needs. But I just out that teachers in a private school do not have to be qualified, whereas teachers in the state section do, and have to do a year's probation.

The CRB info is also alarming in that state schools are obliged to have all their teacher's checked out, it is recommended for private schools too but not obligatory.

State schools have regular OFSTED inspections, many private schools do not.

This info is found here

Sorry, should have added that there are private schools that select on academic ability and do very well in traditional league tables and there are other private schools that do not select on ability (e.g. Millfield) and don't do very well in league tables. The same holds true for state schools.

I was giving an example that i am familiar with of a school which is comprehensive in its ability intake, does have internal and external validated inspections, CRB checks and takes LEA statemented pupils and includes its special needs results in the results for that age group (not as value added )and has 30% children with special educational needs which qualify them for eg extra time in public exams

Some people have asked for examples of such schools

rhubarb, complaining that st pauls is selective and only takes academically able kids is a bit like complaining that your ferrari can't fit 3 children in it to do the school run.

you have to buy to fit your needs, with schooling as with everything else.

I seem to remember a whole thread about whether having qualified teacher status was essential that got rather heated!

No private schools don't have to be checked by Ofsted but they do have to be checked by a recognied body. Considering the slating OFSTED I'm not convinced that not being inspected by them is a bad thing.

TBH I think there is a world of difference between what a private school can technically "get away with" and what they do in practice.

or indeed your pocket pph!

The £120,000000 referred to on the Hobsons Website refers to financial assistance ,this assisistance is provided in the main by the schools themselves,it does not say that government provides this money.
Independent schools are inspected by the Independent Schools Inspectorate www.isinspect.org.uk and you can access reports for schools inspected on the site.

RRW - State school teachers do not have to be qualified. They can be employed as 'Instructors'. A guy that taught RE at my last state school didn't even have a degree - he was offerred a teaching post as an instructor because he was thinking of being a vicar!

And besides, if you have to have your qualifications before you enter a school - what do you think the GTP is? Most teachers on the GTP have their own classes and gain their teaching qualification as they go along.

Sorry to say it, but you are misinformed on this one!

To support my point:

www.hertsdirect.org/scholearn/supporting/teachinherts/welcome/routesintoteaching/grtproute/

And quote:

"The Graduate and Registered Teacher Programmes (GRTP) are employment-based routes to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). These routes allow unqualified teachers in a school to follow a training programme working towards QTS whilst being employed."

I think the 120,000 mentioned by Rhubarb on the Hobson's website is distributed through the Governments Music and Dance Scheme and is to enable talented pupils to take up places in Choir Schools (a type of education not available within the State system)

As I said some LEA's find it cheaper to fulfill their statutory obligation to provide education suitable to a statemented child's special needs by paying to send them to an independent school than to fund the necessary teacher/support/buildingadaptation in an LEA school. So that is taxpayers money but it is to the benefit of a child individually and would be paid otherwise to keep them in state provision

The Qualified teacher status also has its own drawbacks which were highlighted last year when the former head of Westminster school wished to take employment to teach maths in a state school and was unable to be employed as a bona fide teacher because he did not have qualified teacher status (although he could have entered the scheme outlined below)

You can also see the published accounts of independent schools if you wish to verify their costs