Another private school thread - is this REALLY a good thing??

[Grewsap]

There's a private secondary near us which I was considering for dd. They do lots of sport. We decided that we'd be better off sending her to our good local comprehensive and doing sport out of school. I was talking to a private school mum and she said that her year 8 dd had been in lessons for a day and a half that week, she'd been competing for the school in various sports the rest of the time.

That's not good is it? Can a school be so good that kids only need to attend so rarely? Then I thought maybe those sporting opportunities are what you pay for. What do others think?

My DS occasionally took two days out of school to attend a sporting fixture he did this right up until the end of year 13 it made no difference to his results, and most importantly he really enjoyed doing it. He was at a very non sporty school super selective.
I used to work in boarding schools and this is very common. Some independent schools are trying to offer a broad package of education not just the academic stuff, children learn better if they're happy and enjoying an interesting life, extra curricular activities are IMO very important.

I don't see how you could draw conclusions (one way or another) from a y8 child being out of class for a couple of days in one week.

My DC's school is very active in music, drama, sport etc and occasionally DC in the early years of secondary do miss the odd day or two of school for related competitions, activities, trips. However, the school's academic results are very strong and DC are prevented from missing days when it starts to be important.

I know of a less academic school not far from us in which DC do spend a lot of time doing sport. But DC at that school are usually not very academic, very keen on sports, and their parents chose the school with this in mind.

You can't draw any conclusions based on one week. If the child had been on a 3-day residential that week, you wouldn't assume that the children were always away on trips. Ask the school!

I have a sporty DD, and as well fixtures (often after school, but sometimes in the afternoons) there is also the county schools netball tournament (can be some distance away, especially if you reach the later rounds) and various cross country meets. It's unusual to have that many falling in one week, but I can see how it would happen.

If the school is any good, someone will,be watching out for how well the girls are keeping up with their studies. If there are problems, then they may need to reduce the number of fixtures they attend. If you do not think the school would be sufficiently on to that, then that would be a reason not to choose it.

My daughter has had a few weeks like that at her state comprehensive. She's been out of lessons for concert rehearsals, inter-house competitions, visiting speakers etc and sometimes it just all seems to happen at once. As long as it's not every week, there's no issue and it makes school life a lot more fun. She's also not had any weeks like that since starting her GCSE courses, so I'm pretty confident the school has things under control.