Do private schools have better teachers?

[hercules1]

Read this on a different thread and it has peed me off a bit. I know lots of really good teachers who don't and won't teach in private schools. I've also known some teachers leave the state system to go to the private as they could no longer cope within the state.

Private doesn't equate with better teachers Of course it means lots of other things and I am sure there are lots of excellent teachers in the private system but no more so than the state.

Easy to be altruistic when you don't; have a family to support etc though. YOu do find some teachers change as they get older, want mortgages and may be to be paying school fees themselves and most people get more right wing the older they get.

Anyway good teachers in all sectors and if 94% of teachers are in state schools clearly a lot of those are good although as so many more children get better A levels at private schools could that not have something to do with better teaching....

The trouble is Xenia you assume that the 'best' teachers will fall over themselves to teach the most intelligent best behaved children. THe excellent teachers I know have chosen to work in state schools. A lot of them would have no problem getting a job in a private school but are actually chosing not to.

The 'best' teacher is not someone who went to oxbridge but someone who loves their subject, inspires kids, is able to use a variety of teaching methods to trap kids into learning without them realising it. If you can do that then the whole behaviour thing becomes easier. Of course you can go to oxbridge and do all that but you can also go to Plymouth and do it too.

becky, yes must depend on the teacher. I do think overall better teachers in private schools because of the factors I mentioned but would be impossible to assess unless you could decide what better meant.

You could even argue that the kind of teacher who is attracted to the 'free fees for your children, higher pay, often staff accommodation, lovely atmosphere etc ' that Xenia mentions is therefore a less 'good' teacher than the sort who goes into teaching to make a difference, for love of it etc etc.

Or maybe to do with the selection process.....

You are really showing your ignorance on this subject by saying that private schools get better results as they have better teachers. You are not listening to all the teachers on this thread.
Many have also said that the pay is actually less in private a lot of the time.

NO you couldn't blackcat - that doesn't make them bad at their job!

Let's face it, if you go into teaching for the money and the 'lovely environment' then you're kind of missing the point or a bit mad.

Few teachers go into it for the reasons you think, Xenia. It's mostly because they love the challenge of teaching rather than trying to get all these perks.

I didn't think the issue with this posting was one of pay, it was of better teaching. It's not about how much they earn or what they wear.

FOr Xenia it seems those things do play a part.

Sorry - isn't 'free fees' an oxymoron ??? And by the way, I don't know any private schools that offer free places to children of their teachers. A sizeable discount yes, but not free. Which is absolutely fair enough i'd say, just as other jobs have their company car, private health insurance, product discounts, city bonuses......

My point, Drifter, is would you rather have your kids taught by a teacher who chose the profession and the school because they loved them and wanted to make a difference or because they loved the fact that the school was offering more money and a nicer environment?

And, Xenia, like Martianbishop and co on this thread, I have a mortgage and kids (at private school) but I still CHOOSE to teach in the state sector and wouldn't have it any otehr way.

Agree, Hercules1.

Are you saying teachers at private school don't love the job and don't want to make a difference then?

It is Xenia's implication that Private School teachers are motivated by the nice surroundings and the (sometimes) increased pay.

Oh dear, Drifter, read the thread. Xenia was saying that private schools attract better teachers because they offer more money and a nice environment etc etc. I was arguing that any teacher who is attracted by these things alone is arguably NOT going to be the best sort. As I said if you go into teaching for the money you're missing the point (though where I live a teacher's wage is considered a good one and I respect that).

Aderyn, yes, but that doesn't make them a worse teacher!

Black and white cat, my point is that you can still be good at the job EVEN if you want more money!

You'd expect a wannabe teacher to have some additional motivating forces for venturing into teacher training, wouldn't you?

Actually, we can't know for sure what DOES attract teachers to private schools since they're conspicuously absent on this thread. I suspect that Xenia's wrong anyway sicne many private schools don't offer more moeny anyway and all the private schools around me don't offer longer holidays either. I imagine teachers are attracted to private schools because of the smaller class sizes, less problems with discipline, more 'academic' environment etc etc and obviously these things make them better suited to working in those schools just as teachers who are attracted to teaching because of the challenge of teaching to students from all backgrounds and all abilities and all kinds of behaviour etc etc may be better suited to state schools.

Black and white cat, I assume you wouldn't pay to send your children to school if you actually thought the teaching was bad? I'm sure, like me, you've just seen pretty awful classes and don't want your own children in them?

Drifter, noone is saying teachers in private school aren't good. We are saying that they are not any better or worse than teachers in state schools.

Good - agreed!

I have never been taught be a teacher in a private school so cannot comment from experience. My teachers and my children's teachers have ranged from the rare excellent to the less rare but still uncommon inadequate, with most being adequate to good. The few teachers I've met who are in the private system had all left the state system in misery because they couldn't establish basic classroom control.

Hmmm ... can you be a good teacher if your choice of school was solely or primarily motivated by which school offered you the most money? Yes. Is the kind of teacher who I would want to be teaching my kids solely or primarily motivated by money in his or her choice of school? No.

by a teacher