If you can afford it, would you send your children to an independent school?

[Fiona2011231]

This is a hypothetical question, and I would greatly appreciate your insight.

My question is based on this assumption: In England, if you want your children to have a better chance in life (great success, joining the elites, etc), a good independent school is a requirement. Of course, few have enough money to afford it.

But suppose you have enough money, would you send your children to an independent school? Or would a grammar or a comprehensive school be good enough?

Thank you.

We don't have many extras. Music lessons are extra. Sports are included. One trip to France in year 9. Occasional trips to local theatres. Uniform (I bought it in year 7 and she's still wearing in year 9)

When it comes down to it, there are good schools and bad schools and I would pay to avoid a bad school. I would also pay to avoid a school that was good for most children but did not fit my children's needs, if there was an alternative that would fit my children's needs. The greatest good for the greatest number is all very well if you are one of the greatest number, but it's pretty damn shite if you aren't one of them, and it's almost impossible to sit back and let yourself perish as one of the necessary victims on the altar of the greater good if you don't actually have to...

Talkinpeace - in my building, the gardienne and her taxi driver DH send their DC to a private school. Locally, the illiterate Moroccan couple who have a greengrocer's shop sent their DC to a private school and both DC have gone on to higher education.

When people with little education are brave enough to use selective schools, fantastic things can happen.

They can also happen at non-selective schools, Bonsoir. Good schools can certainly cause fantastic things to happen; I see it at my daughter's non-selective non-leafy comp too.

I went to a quasi private school (selective Direct grant school - now abolished), a highly academic school, and my DS's state comp offers:
More extra-curricular activities
A wider range of academic subjects
Far better musical opportunities
Greater breadth in every way than the education I had.
And performs brilliantly wrt to achievement in relation to the base level of intake.

I experienced some truly inspirational teachers, but then so has DS.

I just don't think you can generalise about anything based on sector.

Talkinpeace I've known a number of bursary students in various Edinburgh independent schools who have not come from private/uni/grammar backgrounds. One of my colleagues worked in a minimum wage clerical job and her husband is a bin man- her son went to Edinburgh Academy. I was involved in a Big Brother/Big Sister programme and my "little brother" lived in a deprived part of Wester Hailed and attended George Heriot's. The niece of a friend of mine comes from a very difficult background and is currently a Foundationer at George Heriot's- and I've known quite a few others over the past few years.

Going back years and years now, my uncle attended George Heriot's as a Foundationer. He was brought up in absolutely dire conditions- one of 7 children squashed into a 1 bedroom flat on the top floor of an Edinburgh tenement. His father was an unemployed alcoholic who died when my mother was 2 and his mother scrubbed floors for a living. He was given a full scholarship including extras like transport, uniform, books etc. He was eternally grateful to Heriot's for the opportunity and without getting into too much detail, his experience impacted the whole family. I know his example is well out of date now but I know enough bursary students now to know that some schools, at least, do offer them to pupils without a strong educational background in their family.

I also know that Edinburgh can be a bit of an anomaly- I really somewhere that something like 25% of students here are privately educated which is way above the norm!

Bonsoir. it seems selective schools work best,when taking children from lower
middle class/ aspirational working class families and placing them in to academic environments.

In the "Times" this morning there is a report , stating that not enough working class kids are attending grammar schools. Its not something
none of us on here don't know. The sutton Trust stated that the grammar schools involved should be doing up to 10 hours free practice/training with kids who have the potential but not the parental funds or knowledge. This was something i advocated on another thread and was dismissed out of hand by some.

As for what qualifies in Britain as wealthy who knows, is two parents working earning 25k each a well to do family?

Because a family earns £50k pa before tax it, does not make them wealthy.
These families are being forced to go down the private school route, because a lack of appropriate education be that academic or vocational is available. These families and children are the future of Britain , the Lower
Middle/Aspirational working class not the "UnderClass" or serious "Rich" were education seems to be set up for . The majority of families in the £50k
bracket want grammar schools available for their DCs to offer them the same opportunities as the kids from "Public" Schools.

My family were "Wealthy" working class, if you know what that means.
It means despite growing up in £2 million pound house i had a very poor
education because my parents did not value education particularly.

Our state primary school thinks nothing of asking parents to contribute £360 for a 4 day outdoor pursuits holiday.DH and I have asked several times why they choose such an expensive location,so far away,at peak holiday time and come up with cheaper,more local sites run by the same company and used successfully by other local primaries,but they aren't interested.We aren't the only parents to query the cost either. Most parents can scrimp to send one child,but not more as that 4 days for 2 or 3 siblings is the cost of a family holiday.I don't think expensive trips ect are the sole preserve of private schools.

My cousin has 1 child at private and 2 in the above state primary and says that once she has paid the fees,that is it,no letters home every week wanting money for this or that

I would have said no until last year as I hate the very essence of private education. What I have seen is my DS being let down by his school and it made me wish I could afford to send him somewhere else.

I wouldn't do it. Not ever (my parents don't get this - we could probably afford it but choose not to).

I'm a teacher, I wouldn't work in a private school either - in fact I chose to do my pgce in Glasgow because at the time the college in Edinburgh was expecting one 8wk placement of 3 to me in an independent school.

It's partly political (I'm a scary leftie) but also this: my children are bilingual, they are educated through the medium of Scottish Gaelic. Honestly, no matter how rich we were, we couldn't (unless we went for private tutoring) buy the education our children are getting for free. The Gaelic education system in Scotland (and sounds like its similar in Wales) is really awesome.

Yes, I went. The children go. Feels like money well spent.

Ds' non-selective, non-leafy comprehensive with a high proportion of EAL and FSMs also does fantastic things with the kids.

Duke of Edinburgh up to Gold, trips to Paris, Poland, Iceland, South Africa, Italy (skiing) in recent years. Involvement with Commonwealth Games presentations, bids for the Youth Olympic Games 2018 (unfortunately losing out to Buenos Aires). Trips planned to Peru and Munich. Achievement Fund to ensure that no kid misses out due to genuine lack of funds.

Fourteen subjects offered at Advanced Higher Level . Not sure if any of the private schools in Glasgow could match that -although to be fair I haven't checked that closely because I didn't see the need

If it hadn't been for the bilingualism my dc would have gone to the same school as prettybird's ds - it's excellent. Why pay when you don't need to?

Why pay if you don't need to? To relieve the stage of the burden of educating the 500,000 children in the private sector so there is money available to educate those who cannot afford to pay.

weegie I think it depends what you mean by need.

There will be some obvious examples of need, such as families not being offered a state place remotely close to where they live. Or families where SN provision has been unforthcoming. Or families who have suffered unmanged bullying.

But there will be others for whome need will feel very subjective. They feel, though others may disagree, that there state provision to not give their DC an appropriate education.

But, frankly, so much of it is not about need but about choice.

I don't think I could manufacture a case that my DC need independent ed. My DD would no doubt be adeuqately catered for. DS perhaps less so, but I'm sure he'd survive .

So really it comes down to choice. I choose to send my DC to independent schools. For me it has a value worth the cost. Perhaps if we had less cash, I'd have to revisit that. It's subjective, no?

I quite very much suspect that is not the kindly motive of most private school parents, though it's terribly noblesse oblige and all that

mother whilst I think relieving the state might be a happy by product of going independent, I could never use it as my reason, even in my most ironic moments .

Yes: I can't help feeling also that if that's the motive, do bog off and take your attitude with you.

Woah!

motherinferior wordfactory Muswell
please remember that certain posters have very well known views about private school, parental earning capacity and maternity leave that are almost calculated to get a reaction.

Talkin
I agree

I thought it was a quite restrained offering this time

I agree with wordfactory its not about need. I choose to send my children to a private school because it is the best option, in my view, available to them. They don't need to go there and I am fortunate to be in a position to make a choice many/most people aren't.

I feel I am doing the state school sector, and in fact the nation as a whole, a huge favour in allowing my DS to be educated at our S London comp. Our local borough will get the credit when he becomes an international Nobel-Prize winning particle physicist virtuoso rock guitarist.

Eek - but what if Gove claims the credit?

Home Ed. Never has there been such a compelling argument!

Blu - at least in Scotland we escape the nightmare that is Gove don't have that issue.

So when ds becomes the Scottish kicking scrum half, Olympic gold medal winning cyclist, Tour de France winner, Nobel prize winning astrophysicist, we'll be able to give the school all the credit! (ok, and his cycling and rugby clubs! ) (and Glasgow City Council for investing in the world class facility that is our velodrome ) and yes, I do pay through the nose for it with my Council Tax but it's worth it

Talkinpeace, thanks for the heads up. It's clearly well known to you and others, but wasn't to me. I'm just not spending enough time on here

It's Friday

Bonsoir in the UK the equivalent schools would be way beyond the financial reach of your gardienne/greengrocer.