If you can afford private education but remain in the state sector cont.

[happygardening]

Thought I repost the OP although the debate has moved on a little .
It's going to be hard to avoid this becoming another state v private thread, but what I'm interested in is a slightly different take on that debate. It's not "which is better?" but "if you think state school is better even though you could afford private education, then why is that?"

The question is based on the assumptions that the DC in question is/are reasonably bright (so might benefit academically from academically selective education), that the state school is non-selective (as most people don't have access to grammar schools), and that you hope for your DC to go to a good university (to make the £££££ fees worthwhile!)

I've been mulling this over ever since I heard some maths professor from Cambridge talking on the radio about the age-old private v state inequality of Oxbridge admissions. He was all for improving access for state school applicants but said that the simple fact was that for maths, even the best state schools generally teach only to the A-level syllabus, whereas the best private schools take their maths/further maths A-level candidates well beyond the syllabus and so the state school applicants are at a huge disadvantage - they simply don't have the starting level of knowledge required for the course.

This made me wonder: with this sort of unequal playing field, if you have the choice of private education, what reasons might you have not to take it?

Would be interested to hear from those who've made this choice - how it's working out, or if your DC have finished school now, how did it work out? Did they go to good universities/get good jobs, etc? On the other side of things, if you paid for private schooling but now regret it, why?

My DC go to a state school by the way.

.

Netherlands

Bonsoir - that's understandable then. Dutch is tricky... and no offense... not the most useful language to learn. I'm assumng they don't live anywhere near Bergen for the European School there?

She sent them to the European School in September 2012 but she had to remove them after two months as the timetabling and transportation issues were impossible (quite different to what she had been led to believe when she enrolled them).

September 2011

My sister and her family have nothing against Dutch and have learned the language, but they need to remain prepared for all eventualities and that means being educated in English and French (her DH is French) as the chances are that the only schools available in other locations will be in English or French. Plus there are massive cultural issues - eg her DS1 is mad about cricket and it is super important for him to have cricket at school.

Cricket... is a difficult hobby to maintain outside of the UK and the Commonwealth. I gather they would have preferred dcs to be at a British School in Netherlands (which unlike the European one is fee-paying)?

They are at a different school. But cricket is still possible! International schools often cater for a very wide range of interests.

In fact, he has played on the Dutch national team - so being outside the UK isn't all bad (not even he thinks he would have made the national team in England!).

peterenas I've noticed you dodging questions before. So, out of your DSs cohort of 14 King's scholars, which you've shown you know well, how many of those 14 applied to Cambridge or Oxford and how many were rejected and how many got in? It's interesting in the context of the discussion about admissions above. Re-typing the HTs blanket figure doesn't answer the question; the question is specifically about the top end at Eton, who passed this very tough exam. It would be of interest if even one failed to get in and would certainly give the lie to any notion at Cambridge or Oxford of public school bias.

And peterenas please do stop talking to all posters as though they can't know a thing about Eton. It's uncalled for and silly. I was talking to an OE about his chickens only this morning (his father was brought into shake up science at Eton) and can see both his house and the house of two other Etonians from my back garden. They can't be that exclusive :)

But Yellowtip, peterenas is so much more entertaining when he does the smugly arrogant act! Admittedly, it isn't a great advert for Eton having moved on from its past, but it's still fun! And there's a certain charm in being so excited about your child's school, provided you aren't the jaded relative having to listen to it all without getting a word in edgeways about your own children!
Peterenas - you raised the issue of Harrods, not I. On reflection, I decided that John Lewis was a better description. But if you want to stick with bloated opulence, that's fine with me! It doesn't make the school sound good value for money, though.

Guys - Harrods can't be THAT expensive.

When my parents used to visit me as a singleton in London, I found myself coming home to a fridge full of Harrods paraphernalia, and my parents talking about the 'bargain' food items in there. They treated it as though it was the local Sainsbury's... which (when I was at uni) they thought was too expensive.

"Harrods can't be THAT expensive"
I dont know how it compares with other places price wise and have no interest in finding out but I was always told by my rather trendy leftie parents that Harrods was rather crass.

For a start yellow, I?ve no obligation to answer all your questions and unlike you, I/we don?t hold Oxbridge to be the be all and the end all. You may as well ask me how many went to Russell Group or US unis as if I cared, so why ask only about Oxford and Cambridge? If you know where I came from and my background then you?ll understand my philosophy that what your degree can do for you is of paramount importance more than which uni you graduated from and I hope all MNers take note of that.

My belief is that it is pointless going to Oxbridge (or any uni) to do what the Chinese call a ?subkow? degree*, i.e. a useless degree, rather than reading something meaningful elsewhere or even going into early employment.

As regards Oxbridge?s bias one way or the other, you should know what my view is when I wrote previously about the flagging up nonsense from Oxford. One talks about equal access, I?ve no problems with that. I happen to know also there were and still are, many extremely poor students in the Far East who, beside attending some crap day schools also got to help out with their family?s hawker business in the night and yet still make it to Oxbridge. So tell me more about ?contextual data?.

About your chicken-keeping OE neighbour (assuming you have one) it just goes to prove Etonians are just as down to earth as anyone else. So the idea of they being ?exclusive? only exists in your head.

*apologies to all Catonese MNers

Oh rabbit, please don?t take my postings too seriously. I see MNers are all too tensed up and some so obsessed with class (I hear it?s an incurable British disease) that the bulk of my postings are meant to titillate and tease. Please don?t lose sleep over them.

Good that you shop at John Lewis - I spent £15 on hard gums and other sweets yesterday at Poundland, that is to say 15 bags of sweets to rot my teeth.

I think you need to check the definition of titillate.

I wonder what 'useless' degrees are, when people with degrees in ancient languages often end up going on to all sorts of high-powered jobs in both the public and private sectors.

"intended to titillate and tease"

Hmm. As I believe the young people say nowadays- "epic fail". You just, I am sorry to say, sound like a dick.

I have!

Good heavens, peteneras. Do I give the impression of taking your posts seriously?!

Another interesting thread derailed.

This seems to have disappeared up its derrière!

Distracted, not derailed.

I just want to be post 700 on this thread.

Mission accomplished.