MumTrying, I did try to define what I mean by an awful school.
If thinking about secondary, it is a school which does poorly in relation to its intake. So given the starting point if it's pupils, it fails to help them achieve all that they could achieve and they leave with lower results and achievements than one would expect. As I said, this often includes a culture of low expectations, admist low level disruption. It means that the brightest are not challenged to achieve or given the chances to take the appropriate GCSEs and A Level,minor guided towards universities which they are capable of. It means that the children there have very limited access to broadening experiences and do not develop a thirst for learning or aspiration to be useful members of society.
I don't know which schools people on here send their children to. However, despite being asked numerous times, for people in the position if sending their children to such schools as described above, no-one has come forward. So whilst bemoaning the existence of private, I have deduced that few if any parents on here are in that kind of school. They have exercised whatever choice is open to them and made decisions to avoid those schools.
If I am wrong and your child is at such a school, then I would be interested to hear about it and if that is because you chose to support your principles about attending local schools, or if you were one of those I mentioned earlier, who truly has no choice.
I don't know which schools people send their children to,mor the type. People have largely talked theoretically on this thread. They are talking about bad state schools and the awful thing about Independent schools being that most people lack choice to attend them. In light of this, I thought it was relevant to ask to hear from people who feel they have truly had no choice and had to attend an awful school. But no one has said that is them,suggesting that most people have children in schools they are at least moderately satisfied with. They seem to have been able to avoid the awful schools. How is this? Is it because in their lives they have some element of control over schooling? Not everyone does though, and they are the people it would be interesting to hear from, not just us talking theoretically.
And with regard to your second comment about exam results.....I'm not sure we are disagreeing. I agreed that people often choose schools for exam results and that it is in my view the single most important factor. However, I also pointed out that some parents could get equally good exam results in some of the fantastic state schools which are available to them....some great Omps, but particularly in the Grammars. If the results there are as good as, or better than in Indpendent schools, how do you then explain why people STILL choose to pay? To me, it is because of something different that is on offer. Otherwise they would attend the free fantastic option. How else would you explain it, out of interest? (And note that here and with my previous comment you picked up on, I was talking about people choosing independent rather than great state school, not dreadful state school versus independent)
I hope that I am happy to engage in discussion and to read what people say and think about it.