Slightly loathe to start this thread .. but I honestly want to know with regards to Private Education...

[Twiglett]

I can understand when people say they choose private education for their particular child

But I'm not sure I totally understand how to analyse one's child to see if they would be better in private education

what are the key areas of a child to look at (in your opinion) .. and which ones would be better served in a private rather than a state school (again in your opinion)

I'm not trying to be contentious .. I should just like to know how I should look at my 6 year old who's school life is rather a closed book really

Twiglett
This may not be relevant to your DC aged 6 but in our DCs cases:
DS1 was always very bright but local comprehensive didn't then set until end of Y7. We reckoned that he would have coasted far too long and sent him (with his agreement) to high achieving but very relaxed independent school where he was very happy and came out of it with the grades to go to a good university.
DS2 - more interested in sport and an August baby. He has been through state schools to Y11 as our local schools are reasonable. He is now likely to go to an independent sixth form as this will provide much smaller groups (we were told that his AS maths class would have around 25 students) and he has responded very well to individual teaching.
We are keen that our DSs receive the best possible education suitable to them whether in a state or independent school (but we do live in a relatively affluent and well educated area).

Well dino, if you can't accept that those statistics suggest that the state sector has anything to learn from the private sector I'm afraid I can't be bothered spelling it out. I wish I could be so sanguine about the state of British state education at the moment.

Gatehouse's policy has been unchanged since its inception. Disability discrimination legislation has no bearing on schools admissions policy as regards SEN.

Depoends on the school
Are we saying state grammars should accept children with an IQ of 80? Of course not nor would Manchester Grammar but that doesn't mean they are nasty places. Chetham's school woudln't accept a non musical tone deaf child. A school for the blind wouldn't necessarily accept the sighted. The Saudi muslim school in London is unlikely to accept Jews etc etc.

Of course you might want all home and private and non comprehensive schooling abolished and politically lobby for that but we don't have that situation in the UK.

Sorry dino I'm confused, you said yourself that not all private schools accept SEN children so obviously they are still entitled to do this, irrespective of disability rights legislation.

Clear transparent ways as do state grammars - of course they do. Many many parents of children with special needs want them in special schools too - entirely depends on the disability.

My ex husband's prep school had a boy with Tourettes and that wa snot a problem at all. My daughter is clever and slightly dyslexic and did really well at Haberdashers.

There is no more exclusion in private schools as state for children with special needs, none at all except the private provision at the top end is usually better than the state.

As I say, Gatehouse's policy is unchanged. It has always been non-selective which is only natural as it's a Montessori school.

I don't envisage the state sector learning from the private sector any time soon as despite the fact that as the recent OECD report confirmed, British private education is the best in the world, the state setor comes well down the league tables of industrialised countries. Prejudices and resentments are so deep seated that I seriously doubt that any politician would have the guts to stand up and suggest that perhaps the state sector could learn something from their approach to education.

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I think one of the reasons it has become more common for parents to consider private is that for two income families, by the time school comes around, they're already used to paying for childcare. After all, private education for two kids is probably about the same as a day nanny.

NKF is right. Suddenly you aren't paying a nanny £25k a year out of taxed income so two sets of school fees are actually cheaper.... .and most parents who work do manage the holidays by various means.

The state sector started after hundreds of years of private education in the UK and to an extent copied it anyway. Then elements of the private sector that work have been copied. Good core curriculum. Blair has spent ages working with the best private school heads to get them to help pass over all that excellence free to the state sector because there are so very many ways privaet schools do just about everything better adn it's not just money. It's calling teachers sir, standing up, uniforms which in state schools 20 years ago were rare but now they copy private, all kinds of things.

NKF - I'm sure you are right. Dual income couples are used right from the start to meeting substantial costs incurred for childcare responsibilities and so school fees might come as light relief for some.

Incidentally, I was at a presentation recently for an excellent school here in Paris, the Ecole Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel (www.eabjm.com) that has a boarding school with the same curriculum, teachers etc in Lille. It is much cheaper than an English boarding school and gets excellent results in the French baccalaureate and the IB...

Just in case anyone on MN is looking for a very good, cheap-ish boarding school.

Aren't there lots of English public schools with branches in the Far East? Or did I only imagine that I read that somewhere?

Just wondering if the anti-private posters would really not send their children to a private school if money were absolutely no object?

NKF - yes, I have also read somewhere about English public schools opening branches in China. Universities and business schools are doing this too - extending their reach by going to the students, rather than have the students come to them.