Pre-Prep - builds foundations or complete waste of money?

[Phoenix78]

I'd be interested in people's views on this as I am undecided.

I know from my own experience that I barely remember by pre-prep days other than winning an award for a poetry reading and learning how to count in French. I believe the main positive influences in shaping my character, aspirations and willingness to work hard came from prep school.

I wondered how many felt that education at ages 4 to 6/7 were key years in determining a child's blueprint.

How important is it to you and why?

Thanks

Hmm. Xenia, could you suggest some girls' schools, which include boarding, outside London that you would not describe as mediocre? Or do you believe that all of them are? I cannot think of any, even the most prestigious, that do not have a substantial body of overseas students - and while I do believe that they are cash cows, I do not believe that all lower the academic standard. Even in my day - and that was when many Hong Kong Chinese were establishing toeholds of residence in the UK prior to handover to China - the girls from the Far East contributed very significantly to the results of many girls' schools.

Really there are not loads of army children in every boarding school because many don't offer an armed services reduction. IME the main reason why boarding children are anxious is because they're parents are going through an acrimonious divorce.

I agree with HG there are not loads of army children in all boarding schools. DCs in any school come from a cross section of families with many different issues. Plus military DCs don't bring down the results due to being the DC of military personnel!
Back to the original OP... we moved around a lot when our DCs were of this age. We used pre preps and they gave our DCs small classes which helped with the constant moves.

I was saying the results of foreign pupils do not improve private school results materially as most children in private schools are not boarding so the foreigner results are neither here nor there. There is one girls' boarding school in the top 20 schools - I think - Wycombe Abbey - 11th rankings.ft.com/secondary-schools/secondary-schools-2012

I just think it is a red herring to say private schools do better as they take a lot of overseas pupils.

I think Teacherwith2kids raises a really interesting question and one that I've never seen addressed. I have read that once you extrapolate socio-economic factors, then the gulf between private and state schools is actually much smaller than one would expect. I do always think that the sort of kids who get into Westminster/St Paul's Girls might be so bright from such motivated families that they have a 50-50 chance of getting into Oxbridge from anywhere.
On the specific question of the difference in outcomes dependent on when one enters the private sector, I can only offer one personal example. I left my state primary to go to a (not partic good) private school for y6. Most people had been there for four years and they did subjects I'd never done like French and calligraphy (!). End of term exams resulted in a class position for every subject and then one overall (urgh, not my cup of tea to do that and the fact that I can remember suggests I was a bit scarred by it). Anyway, end of first term exams, I was in the top half by not very much. Something like 17 out of 40th, I'm guessing. By the end of the year, I was 4 out of 40th (I think, long time ago!). In other words, it really didn't take long to catch up and hit my natural place.

farewell how much value a private school adds, is, IMVHO, impossible to calculate.

Sure, you might be able to work out how many A*s pupil x left with and compare with pupil y, but that wouold only tell you half the story, wouldn't it?

Value is far too subjective to be properly measured. It is so very personal, taking into account how much money was has to begin with, what one wants from an education, what alternatives are on offer etc etc etc...

Oh I agree, Word, it's not just about the results and you're right that the value is very dependent on an algorithm of factors. I do think Teacher's question about the entry point is interesting though as by comparing the pupils in the same school by when they went there you could possibly see some meaningful data.
For instance, UCS is pretty difficult to get into at 11 (say 250 for 25 places, though obviously those 250 would all be applying to other schools). However, there is an automatic senior school place for any boy in the juniors. And almost of all the boys in the Phoenix pre-prep get into the juniors. And there is preference given for sons of old boys for entry into this pre-prep. In other words, the process of getting into the senior school by attending the pre-prep at 4 is far less academically rigorous than doing a competitive exam at 11. My friend argues that the pre-prep and junior are so academic in their teaching that the boys who go up via this method are just as clever if not cleverer than those entering at 11.
I have absolutely no idea whether this is true, but it would be pretty easy to compare the university destinations of the two groups.

Living in Vietnam and being involved in overseas study I see the occasional UK boarding schools coming to give scholarships to Vietnamese students. The schools don't try and hide what they are doing and these are generally good schools, but not the best.

They administer tests to students and if the high scoring students pass the oral interview they will be offered anything from a 50-100% scholarship.

According to the school representatives they are doing this to raise their standings in the school tables.

I do not believe this is widely done amongst the good schools and I doubt it changes school grades that much, but it is finitely done.

"Living in Vietnam and being involved in overseas study I see the occasional UK boarding schools coming to give scholarships to Vietnamese students. The schools don't try and hide what they are doing and these are generally good schools, but not the best. "

Prehaps these schools are trying to meet their charitable aims of giving a world class education to the poor. In the UK every child has access to an education as even the state comps are better than what the rest of the world has.

Private schools have to justifiy their charitable status.

I agree with all those who say that whether it is a waste of your money or not depends on your own very subjective opinion. If it feels right to you and you can afford it, then it isn't a waste of your money. It might well have been a waste of someone else's money, but it's self-evidently not a waste of yours.

I agree rabbit - the thing is we are all coloured by views (good and bad) and have had different experiences. We will never know if it was a lot better (or not) because we won't have had the other experience.

Really tired: they may have various reasons for coming to Vietnam to offer these scholarships, but over the years I have worked with a number of these schools and they make it clear to me that the main reason for coming to Vietnam is to get excellent students to boost their ratings.

DS is at prep school. They take children from both state infants and pre-preps. They reckon it takes around 5/6 months for the state children to catch up and everyone to be on the same level.

I'm not sure if that helps?