How far would you go for private school?

[buckyou]

We have 2 kids not yet of school age. So just at the planning phase. OH went to private school, I didn't and have always been against the idea but now I have my own kids seem to have changed my tune!!

We have a fairly decent income at the moment but a large mortgage on a house with land (horses), o afford it will include downsizing, taking a chunk of equity and saving a lot (of nothing changes for us financially).

Local state schools are ok not amazing. Not fully researched the school we indent to send them to yet but hear good things, good results etc.

So do you think it's worth it?

My DC went to a state primary with class sizes of between 18 & 23 each year. It wasn't the best primary on paper, but we could see by the results that it was a rapidly improving school. Don't discount your local state schools as you might find a gem like we did. Having the children at state schools meant we could afford to take them on holidays & pay for things like horse riding & ballet etc. I'm glad we chose this educational route at that stage because it meant less financial burden & a happier family.

By the time DC went to their independent senior schools, we had larger savings so the cost wasn't as challenging as it would be if our DC went to independent primaries. We had one DC weekly boarding & the other was a day pupil. The cost of boarding was enormous with many hidden costs that caused the termly invoice to expand. That was a little worrying & we were lucky that we could scrape the money from somewhere.

I think only you can decide what financial implications are acceptable to you. For some, independent schools are priority whatever the cost, yet the schools they choose are weaker than the local state schools. I think we tried so hard to find that 'perfect' choice, but perfect doesn't exist. What we managed to do was good enough for our family. Our DC are allegedly grown up & it was us who gave them good values not their schools. They have a wide circle of friends from all walks of life. Personally I think that's more important than excellent exam grades which they managed to also achieve. We would make the same choices again but I'm glad we don't have to because parenting is scary!

No idea why the paragraphs didnt come out on my post?

No idea why the paragraphs didnt come out on my post? I can see paragraphs ;)

"On a results aspect just over half of students get 5 GCSEs at the comp vs almost all at the private."

That's a significant difference, but you need to be careful that you are comparing like with like.

The best comparison is "the private school kids" vs "the kids at the state school whose parents might have gone private if the fees weren't so unaffordable these days" (better-off families with kids mostly in high/top sets).

You may find there is little difference. (Or, then again, you may. There are some rubbish state schools, sure).

On a results aspect just over half of students get 5 GCSEs at the comp vs almost all at the private.

Worringly, a lot of people say this, and think independent is better.
There is a direct relationship between the prior attainment of a pupil/school and the attainment achieved, i.e. pupils attaining well at SATS, on average, will attain well at GCSE, and vice versa. Naturally, if the school is full of bright pupils the attainment of those pupils, and therefore the school, will be high.
The results you mention will be, mainly, to do with the ability of the pupils at each school.

The ‘progress’ values are just as/more important. This shows how the school itself can progress the pupils more than the norm.

Regardless of state/independent, if you have options then I’d be looking at schools which have both above-average attainment and above-average progress values (some data suggests the higher the attainment the higher the progress, on average).
This is easy for state schools (using the Gov site), but an accurate value for independent schools is not guaranteed (because of iGCSEs not counting).

That's interesting stub, thanks for the info.

I took a huge leap of faith and moved my ds from Private to State and it was the best decision I have ever made even though we can afford Private and are setting the money we would have spent on fees away for University or a deposit on a house.

He was being bullied to the extent that he was suicidal and the Private school were in denial even though pupils at the school were openly setting up hate Instagram sites.

We got him into a large local comp and he is the happiest he has ever been with local friends and big enough that he has met lots of local kindered spirits. Ironically he never goes on social media now as he has plenty of freedom to see friends out of school and dare I say it more of a normal life.

I can understand wanting a smaller environment for when they are little but for Seniors do not underestimate the impact of having friends spread out over a wide radius which can happen in Private. More of an issue for us as our DS is not sporty so did not have the opportunity to see friends at matches and fixtures.

My dd has just started reception at private.
Tbh we won’t really be sacrificing anything but if I had to education would be a big priority for me. Certainly owning horses. My granny always said it is the one thing no one can take away from you. We live in an area like you. People on here talk about these amazing state schools but not where I live. It’s 30 to a class with a floating ta. They’ve had a roll call of reception teachers in the last few years. There’s no swimming, no clubs etc.

I went to private school and my experience was that it was school that kept me from going off the rails. The opposite to what a lot of posters say here.

Our children will have a 30min drive to school.

I think it depends on the not just which schools you have available to you but what type of kid you get. I think the middling ones are the ones who benefit the most from the attention in private. In private you are paying for them to pay attention to and bring out the very best in your particular child. It's all well and good to say that a child with involved parents will do fine in a class of 30 but it's just not true of some kids. The cuts to funding in the state sector are a travesty. 30 kids in a class is waaaayyy too many in the early years even with a TA. It's just too many.