Parents from private schools

[freakazoidroid]

We are considering private school for our dd. She is already at the nursery of the school we like and is due to start in reception in sept.
What I am worried about is the community of a private school. If she went to our local primary it would be more like that.
Can anyone please say what their experiences are? Have you made good friends with other parents and socialise with them?
Also we are not loaded and do not have a massive house and lots of nice holidays. In fact holidays would not occur much if we go private.
Will this hinder my dd at school as she gets older with her friends, will they pick on her for not having the lifestyle?
Thanks!

Seeker - You often state that grammar schools fail to attract the brightest. Now you're bridling at the other school because you claim your bright son will be in isolation.

Either you DO believe grammar schools attract the brightest or you don't want your son to go to school with working class children.

"Depends on your definition of rude, I suppose. Mine includes: when someone is asking for help or advice, you coming in and unhelpfully trampling your ideology all over the thread."

Read back. I didn't start this stramash!

Making nasty comments about an individual parent or child is wholly different from making asserive comments about a system.

I am against the system in which the state funds faith schools, but have absolutely no criticism against my friends who send thier children there,, quite legitimately within the current system. Seeker has spoken against all forms of segregated schooling, including the selective grammar system, byt since that is what she has, why shouldn't she act legitimately within that system? She said further down that if the appeal fails her son will go to the Sec Mod and will make the best of it.

Has Seeker been snide about indivdual children sent to private schools? That pfb comment is really nasty.

Sorry, I feel uncomfortable, don't want to speak on behalf of another poster, but what I am struck by, as a bystander between all these personalities is the pesonal nature of the debate. Why shouldn't any member of Mn make their theoretical views known?

Is this thread now liked on fb, somewhere? That should put many prospective members off!

Who were the two newbies Fellatio mentioned?

IndianOcean- it reminds me a bit of the backbenchers in the House of Commons!

The pfb comment is because seeker seems to think that her DS is some special case; unique because he didn't pass the 11+ despite being very clever. It happens all the time.

The fact is, seeker has for years tutted and rolled her eyes, and (virtually) snorted with derision every time a poster has said that their child is 'not a good fit' for the local (state) school, nd therefore they have chosen private.

it is never a valid concern about the school - just snobbery on the part of the parents who cannot bear 'little tarquin' joining the local comprehensive.

and now, seeker is in the same position. she cannot bear the thought that her son will go to the local secondary modern, where there is no choir. instrad, he is a unique child, the only one in her area clever enough to pass the 11+ but who instead failed, adn will be a fish out of water, with absolutely no peer group.

just a little hypocritical, tbh.

IndianOcean

I've contributed to this thread, but am not involved in the Seeker argument.

I do feel I have to point out though, that while once posting in a thread asking why parents had moved their children from a state school to a private school. Seeker called me a liar and said that I was making up the reasons I had stated to justify my decision to other people.

It's not very nice publicly being called a liar by someone you've never met, who has no personal knowledge of your life, or the school you are describing.

Clearly I am not the only person who has been upset or hurt by her comments on independent schooling on MN.

i think Seeker by now has realised the error of her ways although too proud to admit it, if she hasn't by now, only God can help her.......and she doesnt believe in that either!

A dyed-in-the-wool lefty not practising what's preached is hardly uncommon. It's like those lefties who claim to adore living in multicultural Streatham one day then then the next day they move to Norfolk citing gun crime, gangs and a lack of social cohesion.

seeker Mon 19-Dec-11 05:44:44

"Would you seriously send your children to a comprehensive where the school is 'aiming for a 24% GCSE pass rate', where the person sent in to help the staff control pupils was attacked and ended up receiving hospital treatment, and where the pupils tell the Ofsted inspectors that they don't feel safe at school?"
Schools like this are few and far between. Except in the England of the Daily Mail reader!

Actually, Seeker, I don't read the Daily Mail and this is ds's catchment school. This is the information that I have read from their recent Ofsted report. You've been rude to me before regarding my son's private education.

Everlong - there isn't a local comp.

"It's like those lefties who claim to adore living in multicultural Streatham one day then then the next day they move to Norfolk citing gun crime, gangs and a lack of social cohesion."

Or one who spends a lifetime denouncing the Establishment now accepting a peerage.

Usually the nearest comprehensive Everlong. Seeker's already said that she doesn't want her son going there though as he'll be all alone, what with the bright children going to the grammar school and all.

Ah, the horror of Streatham .

Everlong, RTT (read the thread)

I Think its a secondary modern that seeker said they have, thats been her reason for not wanting it, but i'm guessing thats where everyone else goes and as others have pointed out he'll be in the top sets there.

As for choir, he can join a church local choir.

Neither can we Everlong.

everlong, as has been mentioned repeatedly on the thread... there are no comprehensive schools in seeker's area. There are only grammars and secondary moderns.

That's the problem with the selective system. To which seeker is opposed. But which applies in her county.

I can't believe the pounding seeker is getting on this thread; it's disgusting. As others have rightly concluded, this has indeed unwittingly turned into a most enlightening thread on the subject of private school parents. Lots of posters who made the choice to go private have come across well and with dignity, but ohhh the smugness of others (yes, mainly you amerryscot) as they try to goad seeker into digging a deeper and deeper pit.

I am very much a 'waverer' on this subject and am thankful I have a couple of years yet until we need to make the decision. But I do see seeker's and Elaine's point that it is risible to talk about how private education is open to everyone. Yes, it is - in a kind of patronising Charlie and the Chocolate Factory kind of way - oooh, see how the povvos fight it out for the few golden tickets!