If you could afford to send your kids to a private school, would you?

[juicychops]

or would you choose for them to go to a 'normal' state school?

just curious what your responses will be

Said, I'm not sure I get your post. Is it a dig?
We can't afford to send our son to private school, but would if we could.

Yup. Can can do - despite them passing for state grammar.

I am a teacher in a state secondary and have worked in both private and state schools. I would definitely send ds. Not sure if we will be able to afford it though. Like Bodyofeyeore I don't want him having to sit in class after class, with all the attention being on the hideous disruptive kids. If he is bright he will be virtually ignored, as he is a guaranteed C grade.

I have worked in a few state schools, and have many friends that work in others. The money, effort and time goes to the middle ability D/C kids, or those with SEN or EBD. They needs as many Cs as possible. There is a lot of awful behaviour.

No. But only because we have good, selective state schools around here. If not, then certainly.

Only if I lived within walking distance. And then it would have to suit my dds. But the fact that the majority of children wouldn't live within walking distance like us, I probably wouldn't. Oh...I don't know. I considered pre-prep for dd1 for a while (until we had dd2), then year 6 at an independent for dd2 and then again at 6th form for dd1 and year 3 for dd2 but in my heart of hearts I didn't think it was worth it so didn't. I do live in a 'nice' area for schools though.

Absolutely, but not boarding.

It would depend absolutely on the school, the child and the area.

There is no private school within non-boarding reach of where I live that is better for my son (in terms of GCSE and A-level results, and top university admissions) than the local comprehensive. The local mixed state grammar is better still, but insanely selective (c. 1 in 1000 of the total Year 6 cohort each year get in). So for him, it's a definite 'no'.

For my daughter, there is one school - a nationally and internationally known girls' school - that is very very slightly better by those measures than the local comprehensive, but still behind the mixed grammar. However, the academic advantage is so very slight that again I would not consider it

If I were looking for SOCIAL advantage ('mixing with the right people'), rather than ACADEMIC advantage, there is a wide choice of private schools locally - but as I do not value social advantage, then no I would not consider them.

However, if my children had a particular SEN, or an exceptional non-academic talent (e.g. music) that could not be suitably catered for in a local state school, then under those exceptional cicrulstances I would consider private.

Equally, if we lived in a very different area, where my children's special needs (of being very academic, and in DS's case on the autistic specutrum) were not adequately provided for, then I might consider specialist private schools that met their needs. In the same way, my parents entered me for a (100%) scholarship to an academic girls' school when faced with the only other alternative, of sending me to the local ex-secondary modern (total O-level passes in the year I would have entered = 8. From 60 children).

No.

Would only send the dc to private school if we were hugely enormously rich and there might be a chance of them resenting us later in life for not spending the cash on them.

But, to put it in context, I'd need a few million lottery win or household income of £300,000+ a year to even consider it.

To the poster who said you would prefer your son not to have to mix with 'some of the idiots' in state school - I think that is very narrow minded and snobby. The best people in life are those who can get on with a wide range of people from different backgrounds.

I often wonder if that is why a lot of people choose private school because they want to keep their children away from 'riff raff'.

One of my children is in a prep school but paid for not by me. The main reason I've kept her there is that she's lazy and in a class of 30 would probably be able to get away with doing very little. Socially a state school would be far better for her though imo.

Oh, should also have said 'never for primary'. Having visited a lot, and having freinds who work in them, the teaching methods are out of the ark. Any reasonably decent state primary will give a better 'all round' education than any of our local private primaries.

no

No............

DS1 and DD no
DS2 (who has SN) Yes - but to a SN private school.

No, when company offered to pay we still said no.

Only if it offered a better education than the local schools, and luckily we have good local schools. If that changed by the time DS was ready to go (and we won the lottery) I would send him to a local private school.

Might do if schools local to me had very transient populations and unsettled staffing patterns, but we are really lucky and have a cracking state primary and an even more cracking state secondary reasonably near us, so we can send the kids there and avoid the snobbier side of the independent school system (although we used it periodically for DD in the past for various reasons).

No - am perfectly happy with the state primary DDs at. However, we did move house to be in catchment area of a good school (even though we ended up sending her to a different good one out of area)

We could afford to send DS private but have chosen to send him to the local state primary, he's just started reception.

Reason for that is that it's a pretty good school (good with outstanding features OFSTED report, average results which is an excellent achievement given the starting points of many of the kids). There is a lovely mix of kids there which reflects the community we live in. We're in London and I don't want DS educated alongside only white middle class kids as this is the make-up of our local private schools.

If we were planning to be here when he reaches secondary age them we would have to go private or find God as the 2 state secondaries are appalling! Luckily we plan to move and proximity to a decent state secondary will be our main requirement.

I would only move him to private (and it would have to be private, as all the decent state primaries here are massively oversubscribed) if his needs were not met at his current school. So for example if he had SEN and was not getting the support he needs, if he was not making decent progress in his learning or he was very unhappy.

Intend sending ds to state primary & not sure after that. Dp is very bright far more academiclly able than I, the local secondary was rubbish for him, they didn't notice he is nearly blind in one eye &couldn't see the board. My Ex was bullied and skived off @ the same school, don't think its improved any in the last 30 years. So we may well send him to the public school within walking distance.

Yes. I may anyway.

I can afford it and DD does go to an indepependent school.

We chose to go the independent route as it offered us what we required at the time of looking, over and above what the local state school could. We have been very happy with our chose and DD is definitely at the right school for her.

Nope. I'm too much of a commie. I'd Home Ed instead.

I can't afford it, but my two youngest go to a private school anyway. They both have 50% bursaries, and we have borrowed to pay the rest of their fees. Hopefully the situation is temporary though - I finish uni in a year and should be able to get a job which will at least cover the fees.

We chose to move them from their state school for several reasons:

1. It is in a more convenient location (close to where my husband works, the uni I am at and in the area I am likely to work after uni).
2. It offers wraparound care without having to pay additional fees - with the bursary I am actually paying around the same for the school as I would for a child minder to do the 15 mins before school and 30 mins after school which I needed.
3. The teacher in the class my son would be in in his old school was a nightmare (my daughter had her last year) and I am convinced it was entirely possible that a year with her would have ruined his current positive attitude towards school.
4. It offers a fantastic choice of extra curricula activities - again far more than the small village school my children previously went to was able to offer.
5. The class sizes are MUCH smaller and thus the children have far more teacher interaction. This is beneficial in all sorts of ways - not least because the teacher has a far better chance of really getting to know the children and being able to challenge them appropriately.
6. The school is actually far more welcoming than the village school - parents are encouraged to come in when they drop off and pick up and teachers are always available to chat - whereas the village school you felt you needed a really good reason to leave the playground and venture into the school.
7. I think the children are more likely to have their needs met.

Interestingly I the private school we have chosen is non-selective and DOES have the full range of ability within the school, including a few children with challenging behaviour (although I suspect not as challenging as some of the children in state schools). It is also far more ethnically diverse than the village school was (my daughter's class was 100% white British, my son had one white European child, but the rest were White British).

Anyway - that was a yes from me!

My eldest doesn't go to a private school as sadly I have never found one which would take him (he has LD).

no def not

I may have said yes if had been able to afford it at the time for DD. In hindsight, having experienced the snobbery of many privately educated teens both first and second hand (towards their state school peers) I am glad it wasn't an option.