Areas where state schools are better than private?

[Narrie]

Does anyone live in an area where the state schools are really better than the private ones? I picked this up elsewhere but am afraid to comment there.

I have lived and worked in the Midlands where there are few private schools to choose but the state schools are not very good. I have lived in Nottingham, where again I felt the state schools were poor.

Even in London there were some awful schools and private was best.

I currently live in Cornwall having got here working in Exeter, Plymouth and Barnstaple. None of the state schools were good there.

Just wondered where the good state provision is. Is it just odd schools within a mass of poor provision or are there really whole areas where state schools are better?

Thanks.

(PS I have my own DC in a boarding school partly because of the state schooling and partly because we move around so much)

"Does anyone live in an area where the state schools are really better than the private ones? I picked this up elsewhere but am afraid to comment there."
That was OP, in her OP.

Which area was it that Op originally found? Have I missed that bit?

I think Op's posts re not wanting to know about Devon, where extremely rude.

I would like xenia to answer the comments in response to her reference to some children (yup, children - hers, yours, mine) being the dregs of society.

I lived in Kent with a bright child and couldn't WAIT to get out of there before they all got to 11+ age. It makes me feel queasy that we write children off at 10 because that's what basically happens (IMO) Over enthusiastic middle class parents intensively tutoring their children from birth does not make a very fair system

Our state schools are good here but they are not better than the private schools but as most private schools have no SEN pupils would this not be the case anyway, table wise?

I would rather be seen as the dregs tbh and have the compassion, empathy and humility I have instead

For goodness sake. There are dregs in all kinds of things. Some people are bright and some not. Some kind and some horrible. Some are useless at everything and nasty. We are a totally competitive world and society. We have sink estates and total losers.

So Xenia, you are standing by your characterisation of my 11 year old as an intellectually challenged "dreg" who, of course has a right to live, but will find work hard to come by, and will be best served by GCSE car mechanics, tourism and hairdressing?

It doesn't mean they don't deserve to live ...

That's very magnanimous of you, Xenia.

But xenia you haven't really answered have you? You are talking about state comprehensives (or actually secondary moderns) being filled with the 'dregs' of society. Do you really think that? Or do you think that some of the children could be ok really if only their mothers earned more, and that just a few of them are the 'dregs'?

Like I said earlier, could you tell me which children you think are the 'dregs'?

There are non yes of course there are some sabby private schools but tbh there is a reason why people move heaven and earth to get ther children in them

On the whole

Private schools are better
Them grammer schools
Then church schools
Then bog standred comp

But on the whole i do think state do SN much better

Of i had the money my child would be in eaton in a heart beat sadly i have to make do with a outstanding comp and hours extra with a tutor at home which cost me £££ a month

I didn't say that at all. I said 50% of children at Oxbridge are from state schools. I don't mind debating things but don't twist my words.

I said in some areas of the country grammar schools cream off the best children (obviously not in areas with comps) and in some areas you get a sink school. Are people telling me the UK has no sink schools?

boschy you are right no dreggs just really poor pRents who dont give a figg about there children

Xenia- I find it interesting that you refuse to answer my question. Is it a bit uncomfortable with a real 11 year old in front of you? He's blond, by the way. Green eyes. Plays the trumpet and the electric guitar.

The uk does have some sink schools and some private schools that are just grammar crammers if that is what you want. It is also true that less children from non-selective schools go to top university. It is also not true that private is always better and not true that faith schools are better where I live in particular and that comprehensives are really secondary moderns. It is also not true that all clever choose to go to grammars. What is true is the statistics that more children from about 100 schools go to Oxbridge (most private selective with the odd state sixth for college thrown in. What I think is really interesting in this conversation is that taken as a whole the proportion of the UK population that goes to the tip universities is a small percentage and therefore to work out whether state schools as they represent the majority of kids in this country we need to look at the percentage of kids from comps overall that go. I will try and get the figures in a minute but if 10% of the population go to top universities a comp that achieves more than this either has a better educated cohort on going to secondary school or is doing very well when kids get there - added value and to distinguish between private, grammar, comp the same value added basis should be used. Just comparing those that get into top unis from one particular sector in no way compares how good a school is or the potential for your own child.

losingtrust you are right but i would rather take my chance with eaton then some

Faling comp

I bulk at the fact that i have to top up my childs education and no that even with this it will still be no were near what a privatly educated child gets but my view its not to close all the orivate schools down its to model comps more like them take a leaf out of there books

I am very lucky that my childs school is excellect and heavily models itself on grammer with Latin and madrin being taught poor bevaiour not tolerated and a strict school uniform inforced but even with all this i still feel i need to top the education up

About average height for his age, quick moving and cheerful. Loves Monty Python and football. Loves clothes- worships his red Vans. Currently reading The House of Silk, because he loves Sherlock Holmes,and I didn't realise that it's an adult book about a paedophile ring, not another Anthony Horowitz for kids.

I don't understand what I am being asked. If you want me to assess if a particular child is low down on IQ scales I would need his IQ score and description of him etc. I doubt he is one at the bottom of anything from what you are describing.

I not really sure why seeker is making this about her son

What are you wanting to know seeker ?

Have i missed somthing

You have stated that children who are at schools which cater for those left after selection and private schools have "creamed off" the top are for "intellectually challenged dregs". My child is at such a school. I want you to have the courage of your convictions and say that yes, this child in front of me fits that description. You are happy to use those words about anonymous children- why won't you use them about this one.

the odd state sixth for college thrown in
wasn't one of the 5 schools with disproportionate oxbridge entrance... the Hills Rd 6th form in Cambridge? Go figure...

Looking at the sutton 13 vs the RAE gradings is interesting...maybe explains why Britain is in worse economic shape than eg Germany - if you want a top university for most engineering subjects, chances are it won't be one of those. (I expect most are in the extended list of 30, would be interesting to see admission stats including those).

Come on Xenia, tell us the name of your local comp. I dare ya'. So we an stand outside & gawk at the dregs for ourselves.

IIRC, Seeker's DS failed the 11+ by a whisker, she has a chip on her shoulder about selective education.

can (!!)

Which RAE grading source are you looking at, Grimma?

Xenia, maybe you didn't mean to, but the implication of your post is that children who live in a selective school area who haven't passed the 11+, don't have (real or pretended) religious parents and whose families don't have enough money for private education are 'dregs'. That is an appalling term to apply to a child. Seeker is using her son as a case in point to show just how wrong it is to use such terminology.

I said very unusually in our area we have that very low performing comprehensive. A few areas do have schools where you only go if you don't get in antywhere else. Every year mumsnet has threads with worried stat school parents posting that they have 1 - 3 first choices but would rather die than their child go to school 4. I don't think I'm saying anything particuoarly controversial. Obviously the odd child in a school full to thickos doing tourism studies may rise above it and get to Oxford but it is much harder than if you're with a bright cohort.

There are dregs of all groups, surely. It is just a wine term.