dinasour the school dp want us to consider has secondary fees of £13K which go up to about £20K if you are a boarder.
Well today they have been upping the pressure as we went walking as usual on a Sunday and surprise surprise the walk wnet past the school and I had to admit it looked stunning but bricks and mortar don't make a good school.
I agree DC that there is a lot of work to be done on the state sector but it is wrong to damn it all as average and not good enough for my kids. Within my own department at the school I teach in (which I doubt very much you would send your kids to) we are beacons of excellence in the teaching of our subject and motivating children to produce work far beyong what they ever felt capable. I have been on training courses and worked with teachers from our local grammar and private schools and been shocked at their poor subject knowledge and the lack of awareness they have about the craft of teaching. These teachers have looked on in amazement when I have described the learning that goes on in my own classroom. I am not wanting to turn this into a private shit state wonderful debate as the issue is not that simple but it is a disservice to excellent teachers like myself to totally write of the state sector. Unfortunatley I cannot guarantee that all teachers work as hard as I do or have the skills I do. I could predict with some certainty that a lazy below par teacher in a private school will produce better results than if they were teaching in the state sector.
I also think that we should do more to support the state sector and I don't have time just does not wash, I hold down two jobs one of which as a teaching post is very demanding as well as my own studies and being a mother and partner, all while battling with an illness that saps the life from me. But I find the time to do voluntary work, be active within my own daughter;s school, be a governer, take an active role in local politics and trying to put my twopenneth in on the national scene.
I think I am close to making my decision, as 100X says I would be a nightmare parent in a private school, l already criticse my daughters present state school for not being inclusive enough.
But there is still a guilty voice nagging away in my head that dd will have a better education in terms of the breadth of subjects she can study, access to the arts and a more competitive environment in which I know she will thrive not to mention not having to deal with the discipline issues that I face on a constant basis in a state school.
But I can't get my head around delivering a standard of education to other people's children that I have declared to be unfit for my own child. It is like me going to the deli counter in Sainsbury's and hearing tha manager saying this food is alright for the plebs that shop here but I wouldn't give it to my own kids. It is a John Selwyn Gummer beefburger dilmena ( Oh no not only am I contemplating a private education I am comparing myself to tory MPs I truely have entered the dark side.
To survive in the kind of school I teach in you need to have 100% faith in what you are doing and why and I think that sending my dd to a school hidden away from the realities of life in the Lancashire countryside will weaken my own faith in what I do as a teacher and what I hope to help the children in my care to achieve. Today as we walked away from the school I tried to contemplate me doing something other than teaching and then perhaps I could send dd to a priavte school but I can't imagine doing another job.