Private schools/ what do dcs do?

[morethanpotatoprints]

Just wondered what children at independant schools learned and if it was the same for all.
Parents, do you know what you are paying for? I ask as many parents complain they have no idea what dcs do all day.

Learn how to spell independent for a start...!

Sport, Sport, Sport....the competitive kind......

I'm am surprised by what my DS has learnt in the first year at his full boarding senior school that is definitely not on the national curriculum but then he has a daily lesson of a non public examined subject. Last year lots of different topics were covered history RS current affairs politics the boys are free to suggest studying something in more depth or going off at a tangent if something particularly interests them.
On a day to day basis I haven't got the faintest idea what's going on whether it be what he eats, what prep he is doing, what marks he gets or what sport he's participating in this week. I also dont know if he sees the school doctor unless he choses to tell me. I only discovered he went on a geography field trip because it was on the bill! None of this worries me he's so obviously happy and his reports indicate he's doing well and if I ask he tells me he's participating in loads of activities what more do I need to know?

Ha Ha smallwhitewine. I am severely dyslexic and some words I get others I don't. I'm not offended though.

I am really interested in the fact they are free to study something in more depth. What is the non public examined subject?

It is also interesting that you don't know what they do on a daily basis as this seems (synonomous?) to complaints from state sector.

I am seriously after info here not trying to cause any trouble, nor am I a reporter, just a parent. I would like to understand more about the subjects covered if anyone can help.

For example when is Language introduced and do both boys and girls do Latin/same subjects?

If something particularly interests them they can suggest to the teacher that they look at it for the next lesson. The boys are encouraged to question everything and a lot of emphasis is placed on developing writing skills and also debating skills within any topic that's being studied. There are termly ( I think) internal exams but no public exams to this end neither history or English Lit are taken as GCSE's although both are studied extensively between yrs 9 and 11. My DS learnt French from starting at his prep in yr 3 three to four lessons a week and Latin from yr 4 or maybe 5 again 3-4 lessons a week at senior school he chose from five other languages to learn German.
Yes I agree the main gripe in the state sector is not knowing what's going on I trust the school to provide him with an outdtanding education and my DS housemaster to resolve any problems. If either of these things were not happening and he or I was worried I would try find out where the problem lay and attempt to sort it out but in the first instance I am very happy to let people who know what there doing get on with the job of successfully educating my DS in the way that he and I want him to be educated. His school has a very long unbroken history of doing this (about 600 years i believe) so why should it change?

My DC have a passion for languages which I am guessing has been brought on by the opportunity to learn a few from a young age.

French from reception/nursery
Latin from year 4
Spanish from year 5
Greek from year 6
German from year 7

There are also other language options.

Some are taught in depth and others just lughtky with the option to continue to a higher level as they go up through the school.

*lightly not lughtky

I think there is a great deal of difference between private schools and even people who set up schools with the best of intentions make ghastly errors of judgement. I think languages should be taught in primary but not at the expense of basic literacy and numeracy.

In my DD's private primary school (a few years back now), they were taught Latin, French, Italian and Spanish from Reception. With the exception of Latin which was taught by the proprietor, the others were exceptionally badly taught by an Italian speaking former nursery teacher who had no proper qualifications. For example I saw a French worksheet that the teacher had prepared and the nouns had the wrong genders.

They were also taught critical reasoning from the age of 5 which went right over their heads. My DD2 was not able to read properly at the age of 7, but the school rubbished the idea of dyslexia which she was later found to have. When she started state school in year 4, the Head told me she reminded them of children they had seen, who had never been to school.

DD1 was judged to be about 2 -3 years behind in maths when she started at her super selective. Luckily maths was not in the entrance test or she never would have got in.

I shudder when I read that Gove has told academies that they don't need to employ qualified teachers, while there are exceptions, we were badly let down by so called teachers being completely unfit to teach but presumably cheaper to hire.

Interesting that not knowing what children are doing day-to-day is a concern in state schools but a positive bonus in private schools.

I think buying an education, is a bit like choosing your super-market, if you buy from Waitrose your probably less likely to read the packaging as you trust the branding, buy from Tesco and you'll be picking through a lot more to get something that suits.
The impression happygardening gives is that as a mum you can safely send child to school and trust that if there is an issue it will either be dealt with or brought to your attention, a sort of no-news-is-good-news situation.
This is very comfortable and reasuring as an adult, but of course misses the point of having a family life in the nitty-gritty sense.

They do mostly what all primaries do but in a slightly different way .In my experience the day is more longer but largely to accommodate longer play times and more sports and games.They also have specialist subject teachers and timetables more like senior school models.For example double maths ,geography,history ,music,triple science etc.

At my ds school they have a language scheme which means they do a different language in each of year 3,4,5 and 6 plus a double lesson of language awareness which teaches them about how language develops,the building blocks of language etc.

There is also a lot of music ,roughly 80% learn an instrument plus the whole of year 4.Lots of choirs ,music groups etc.They also do lots of verse speaking ,ESB,prose reading etc

They don't do SATs at 11 so no time spent practicing etc altho' they do practice for entrance exams in the January of yr6.

Sorry more longer where did that come frommeant to say more spread out and longer.

My children have all been in private primaries and have never been taught by unqualified teachers by the way.

I do think that London is a different market to everywhere else in that there are a lot of private preps that feed on the lack of state provision and/ or parents fears about secondary education

"but of course misses the point of having a family life in the nitty-gritty sense"
but what I do is get involved in is other "nitty gritty" issues of family life he has anither area in his life where I play a very significant role in as it happens to be my area of expertise. I think its easy to forget that children are not just about their education and of course we have done the nitty gritty of choosing the school(s) in the first place. l may not be involved in day to day school but my DS still will talk to me if he needs to about school/prep/options etc and as we get closer to Pre U choices and applying to university I'm sure he will talk to me again although he is free to choose and be influenced by others especially asit is not my area of expertise.
I am secure in our very strong relationship I do not feel that I have to be the only influence in his life after all he is his own person and is free to take what ever path he likes.
With regard to languages etc he had specialised teacher in all subjects from yr 3.

Happy. There are probably just as few parents in state sector who are involved with their dcs school. I know some my dc attended who were completely against any involvement. But I too have noticed that the private school parents aren't as bothered by this as the state. For me it was because I don't trust the gov, with much and something as important as my dcs education I wanted to know that I had some control. Even if this meant following the curriculum, setting my own homework etc.

I am thankful for the replies so far, and particularly interested in the languages being taught. My dd really wants to learn Italian and I am busy finding resources/courses atm. A tutor would be good, but no luck as yet.

sport,is better.

jxcgjkds.

I imagine the facilities are second to none. How does it work though if your dcs are not particularly into sport, or particularly very good. Do they all become good/find an interest because of the wide range of activities offered.
I suppose you could ask the same question of music or extra curricular activities.
I have often wondered this, where does the dcs interest come from.

My dh went to private school and had no interest in sport or music. He played the piano and flute for a while, then gave them up when he could - I don't think he regrets having tried them for a bit. As for sport, he probably had more choice of sports than a non-sporty state school child, so did enjoy cross country cycling at school. He also got to keep score a lot for the sporty children!... Some private schools do make a very big thing out of competitive sport, which I think must be somewhat irksome for the less sporty children, but some are so well endowed that I think they normally find something the child is capable of participating in with some sense of enjoyment. I went to a state school and came out an awful lot better at music and sport than my dh is, but almost all of my music and some of my sporting activities were done outside of school!

Could anybody give me an example of a typical day at their dcs indie please. E.g start at, lessons, times, breaks etc.

This may seem like a strange request but very genuine and not to be judgemental at all.

I want to compare to what dds typical day was like. I am particularly looking at y3/y4/5.

Will try, my ds is in yr5. School starts at 8.40am with assembly//chapel followed by two 35 minute lesson eg double maths and then break for 20 mins,then 3 lessons eg DT then double German.Lunch is from 12.40 to 13.55 followed by another 3lessons to 15.40.eg double English ICT.Twice a week the afternoon will be all games.Schools ends at 15.50 and clubs start at 4pm until usually 5pm,homework club is freely available without booking until 5pm as well and quite a few stay until 5.Some clubs are also at lunchtime or in form period which happens once a week,so quite a busy day but they have lots of fun

Timings can be affected by matches ,music lessons activities etc,they also have 5 minutes break between each lesson to make sure they get to the right classroom.

One son attends a bilingual school which follows principally the French national curriculum. At his age, it is simply playing with an emphasis on soft skills - no formal learning until at least 6.

My other son attends a superselective London prep. School starts about 8:15 and finishes at 4pm. They have an hour and a half lunch break which allows them to hold clubs during the day or simply to have a long break. Additionally, several clubs are held after school and on Saturdays. Games 3 times a week (all boys on a team from A-F), and PE twice a week in addition. Specialist teachers in his year (4) for languages, DT, ICT, Geography, science, Art, Drama, Music. All boys his year are expected to carry a sketchbook with them at all times to draw their ideas. Very little homework, but a weekend project every week. In terms of music, more than one instrument is encouraged, as well as singing in one of the 4 choirs. No boy is forced to do any extracurricular music, but the majority do.

Thank you, I know it does seem a long day, but I don't think its too bad. We found similar as whilst dd was state school all her activities were after school. Poor love was exhausted as some nights she didn't finish until 7.30. But likewise had lots of fun.
I could be wrong but imagine one of the main differences would be the intensity of the lessons and maybe methods of teaching used. Also there is a difference in homework as dd didn't get any at all. Although, I was secretly happy about this as she wouldn't have had time.
Thank you for your reply, its very helpful.

Mominatrix

I so like the idea of the sketchbook I'm sure it encourages creativity. Maybe they should have cameras too. Its amazing what you see when you have no resources to hand. Wow I'm so impressed with this. (Have led a sheltered life). I'm glad they don't get alot of homework as I imagine with super selective schools the standard would be very high, and the daily work challenging enough.

y6 DS in private had very similar time table compared to when he was in y5 state. More sport, and more variety of sport at indie, less "basics" at the indie. No languages, truly, at either. More drama at the indie.
Lack of communication & not having a clue what's going on is a big reason why we are moving him to a state school for y8.

Don'tEatTheVoles.

That is interesting, so they aren't all similar at all. I'm learning so much about the private sector. Have you seen the posts where parents in state schools are saying they are ill informed with little communication. I think this is common to them both. However, maybe at your state school it would be easier to call in, speak to other parents etc.
I used to search bags for letters, fb parents, call school receptionist, anything to find stuff out. Sometimes it was my fault, but usually the schools.

Private education should give parents more confidence in the breath and quality of their childs' education, and the peace of mind to be less hands-on in the details

• but as much of a pain as it can be to support your child through state school (parents prompting homework, doing the extra reading, - school based "prep" sounds like total joy to me) - there is a cost to having all that done for parents, that cost is knowing the daily trials of children less well. Not a concern at all for some parents, but it would be a great loss to those who like to have more connection with our children. Being proud to have no idea that children have been on a school trip until the bill arrives at the end of the term would do my head in, such a loss of connection at such a young age.

Completely agree with you Rosemary!! What a breath of fresh air. I would hate to completely be detached. Maybe at secondary school level when they are a lot older but at primary level I am not comfortable with the idea of leaving it all to the school.