"The great private school rip-off"

[CountessDracula]

Interesting article here

This woman's tone reminds me of Rachel Johnson who has a column in the Saturday Telegraph (I know, I know, but it has good girlie features!) in which she witters on in a disingenuous, poor little me manner about the trials and tribulations of her life.

As far as I can make out (can never bear to read the thing properly) her life involves a banker husband, house in Notting Hill, three children at private schools and a summer cottage in Exmoor. Oh my bleeding heart.

Why newspaper editors commission and print this sort of meaningless froth is entirely beyond me.

yes well, the phrase 'more money than sense' springs to mind (wonder what type of education she got! hope her parent didn't pay for it cos it was wasted)

sorry to be cynical but I don't know what everyone is worried about - by the time this decade's primary kids are sitting their GCSE's they'll have A *** and +++++ coming out of their ears - they're already being handed out like smarties!

Anyone watch 'That'll teach them'? - nuff said!

Looking forward to seeing it !

frogs - I read that Rachel Johnson column in "Daddy's sport paper" as ds calls it just to be able to shout "Oh for God's sake" loudly several times during the reading. Sets me up for the day .

Moron's article is the lamest thing I have ever come across - why on earth did she take her children away from a good local school? Ludicrous, and even worse that she praises the state system in one breath and then takes that praise away with her "polyester" comment. Silly, whiney cow. Imagine me writing an article about a fabulous holiday in Mustique or somewhere that was just a complaint about the cost.

I guess I had a different take on it, but I didn't get the polyester sweatshirts dig or, I guess that whole paragraph led me to think that she was describing a happy, idyllic scene. To me, it sounded like she was shaking her head at herself and wondering what she had done. But please realize I might not have read it correctly -- I still read things critically, but not usually with a lot of cynicism.

To me, she was writing about an the adult form of peer pressure; getting her children into the schools she thought she should rather than leaving them in the schools where they were happy and learning just as much.

My dd started at private school today.
I know we are VERY fortunate to be able to send her there, She loved it (i was a nervous wreck).
I think the way she talks about polyester faded sweatshirts is patronising crap and the whole article is crap actually.

One of the amin things i worried about was comments like 'little Tarquin' and 'poncy svhool blazers'!!!

I don't expect poor me comments and it is a patronising article but blame the aticle!!

What a load of rubbish. My 10 year old 'state educated' dd could write a better article than that.

Is she only paying for primary level private education? Hoping that they'll get into a decent state secondary - then she obviously doesn't know that most state schools don't make the final decision on who goes where. Oh, and she wants her children to 'speak nice'. No wonder her local state school didn't want her as a governor.

Ooh I could go on and on. Faded polyester sweatshirts indeed

My husband and I come from poor working class backgrounds. My parents never took my brothers and I on holidays because they could not afford it (that's why I cannot appreciate the big deal people make about not being able to take their children on holiday). I missed the last 2 years of primary school because I was in and out of hospital because of problems with my legs which had to be rectified in order that I did not spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair. Both myself and DH went to state schools that were just about average.

Despite all this, we both worked hard at school and passed both the O and A'level exams with good grades (I even won a prize for the "most endeavoured" at O'level because the teachers told me that I would never pass any of my O'levels let alone get into university ). We both went to university and ended up with high flying careers.

Now that we are parents to our twin ds (age 6months), we intend to send them to state schools for the simple fact that if they have the ability, they will do well wherever they go, if that is what they are interesting in.

When I was at university, what I found interesting was that the privately educated people had problems motivating themselves to work! They had been coached to pass exams but their understanding of the subject (chemistry) was wanting. I'm not saying that all privately educated people are like this but certainly the ones I came across were. Unless they had someone giving them a kick up the backside to work, they did not have the self-motivation to do so.

This patronising, self-pitying woman should just keep her whinging to herself because nobody forced her to send her childrent to private school. Too many parents succumb to peer pressure for the fear that their children will miss out on something if they do not go to private school. My parents were poor but they instilled in me the belief that I could be anything that I wanted to be and the only limitation would be my lack of ambition. At the end of the day, if a child is self-motivated and supported by equally motivated and interested parents, they will do well at any school. Both my husband and I are testament to that .

Hooray, hooray, I don't live in London any more and i don't have to read the Standard

I am anti private schools for many of the reasons mentioned in this thread - plus some plain ideological ones.

However, I am going to have to "register" ds at our local private primary school, just in case he doesn't get into the primary school we need him to get into.

By "need", the reason is this: 98% (according to HMI report) of the kids at our catchment primary school have English as an Additional Language. The majority can speak NO English at all when they start primary school. I've just met someone via work who was told by the headmistress at this school when she went to enrol her son (she had just moved to the area), that "did she realise that her son would be the only white child at the school".

Fortunately she was able to send her kid to the school just a wee bit further away, which is the one we will also be putting in a placing request for (still less than a mile from home). It also has a high (majority?) proportion of Asian kids, at least it IS a mix - and it also has a fantastic head teacher. I WANT ds to go to an ethnically diverse school - he lives in an ethnically diverse area - but I don't want it to be at the expense of his first year at Primary School, while the other kids learn English - and also for him to be not to be the odd one out.

If we don't get the placing request, we are scuppered - hence the safety net of reigestering him at the private school.

Uhu that's a fantastic post. I agree with 100%

I've mentioned this on here before. But a while ago the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 took 2 friends (girls age 10) and they swapped school places for the day. One was State educated and one private- and they both said that the standard of discipline and standard of work was higher at the state school. The private school had better equipment.

Always thought that was interesting

and ks, I met a woamn the other week in morrisons (she knew me but I didnt know her!) and she started talking to me about her daughter and how they have had to battle to get her a statement and how her mainstream school has failed her. She is 11` now and they have decided to send her to private school (for dyslexics though) in ramsgate (did I say she was dyslexic?)

I just thought of you though ks when she was talking

It's easy to get heated about the choices individuals make for their children, but the real problem is with the system. Parents have to make difficult choices within the constraints of this system and in terms of their assessment of their own children's needs. What is right for one child may not be for another. Ulu would probably have flourished whatever school she went to, while this may not be true of others. (Of course, the other major factor is cost. Most people can't afford to make this choice, so the notion of choice is misleading.)

In countries where there is an excellent state-school system, middle class parents do not opt out, but send their children to state schools. This is the case in Germany and the Netherlands, to my knowledge, where only a tiny minority of children go to private schools. The best way to eliminate our two-tier system would be for a serious commitment by our society to investment in state schools. If this happened, more middle-class parents would send their children to state schools and more would become involved in making sure their children's school remained successful. There would be a virtuous circle, instead of the vicious circle so common here now. It may make me unpopular to say this, but many countries with successful state systems also undertake quite a bit of ability streaming. This is also likely to be a factor making state schools more attractive to middle-class parents.

I know!

I found oldiemum's comments interesting in that countries like Germany have excellent state schools and that more middle class parents here would send their children to state schools if they were better. Why do people in this country continually speak as if state schools in the UK are second-rate? They are not. Many provide excellent teaching and do their utmost best to ensure that children reach their potential. Yes, there are some bad schools but why are they bad? Is it because the teaching is inadequate, do teachers have low expectation of their pupils or is it because of the socioeconomic situation of the type of students frequenting the school? And what about the parents? If a parent is proactive in their child's education and the child is interested in learning,won't that child succeed to the best of their abilities no matter what type of school they attend?

I went to a school where teachers expectations of poor working class plebs like me were that we would not amount to anything. However, they went out of their way to provide as much help as possible to the more well to do pupils. For example, a well to do girl and myself both went to see the teacher in charge of discussing career options. I said that I wanted to be a doctor and the teacher told me to stop being silly and that I would not pass my O'levels let alone get into university. The other girl said that she wanted to study astrophysics and the teacher enthused nothing but praise for her and said that she would certainly be successful. I told my parents what happened and said "I'll show them!" Well guess what? I passed all my O'levels and she did not. I ended up at university and she did not. Why? I knew what I wanted and went for it. She on the other hand had pushy parents who could not see that she was not the academic that they wanted her to be. Unfortunately, the class conscious teachers could not see it also but also overlooked people like me because of our background.

I personally believe that snobbery is the decision why many people send their children to private schools. Yes, there is choice for those who can afford it but I wish people would stop using the excuse that they do so because the state schools cannot provide what their children need. Reading some of the threads, you get the impression that some of these children are gold plated and could not possibly mix with the commoners. I'm in no way referring to those with special needs who have no choice but to go private but to those who seem to think that going private gives their little darlings that special something that state schools cannot provide. Well as far as I can see that special something is status and I think that is really sad, particularly for the children.

We could afford to send our DSs to private school but we won't because the money is better invested in paying off our mortgage and we already pay enough for their education through income and council tax. As far as I'm concern, many of the people like that stupid journalist who pay private school fees are self-indulgent, status obsessed muppets with money but no sense and should not whinge to all and sundry about their self-inflicted predicament.

I thought the article was hilarious and have to agree with a lot of it
why private schools rip you off with shorter terms or annoy you by making hte kids go in on saturdays?
OR ( my pet hate) make the kids wear twatty uniform ( and i speak as someone who went to a blucoat school) i dont know

There is a local private primary close to where i live. All i know about the school is that they are dirty players when it comes to netball and football . i cant afford to send my daughters there, and even if i could i wouldnt as there isnt a private secondry around for miles and i dont fancy my kids having to 'commute' to school.
BUT we are looking for one of the best primary schools in the town for my dd1. she is a bright child, and needs to be pushed otherwise she gets bored (something her nursery has said). we are looking for a small-ish school, with good pass rates and one that feels right. one we looked at this am was ok, but felt too big to me. we have another 2 to look at b4 we make a choice. Its hard enough making a choice with state primaries let alone factoring in private schools as well.

What is a blucoat school? Sounds like something from Hi de Hi

Uhu - I'm very sympathetic to what you say and was not trying to say that all state schools are bad. However, if you look at the exam performance of state and private schools, the differences are striking. I attach a list of Oxford schools, with their performance at GCSE, here The crucial column is that giving the % receiving 5+ A*-C grades at GCSE. No prizes for guessing which are the private schools. Of course, some people do send their children to private schools out of snobbery, but until this huge gap in performance is eroded, we will be stuck with a two-tier system, with all the social divisiveness that brings with it.

UHU, like you I worked very hard in my state school, come from a working class background and did very well for myself.

However when you say

'
I personally believe that snobbery is the decision why many people send their children to private schools. Yes, there is choice for those who can afford it but I wish people would stop using the excuse that they do so because the state schools cannot provide what their children need. '

I must disagree. Since I have met my children, and you have not, and I know the schools in my area and you do not, I am afraid that you are wrong on this one. This is a very sweaping statement that you have made. You don't know the individual situations of the children of posters, any more than I do. Trust me, I earn a reasonable amount, but not so much that I would send my children to a private school if I felt there was a reasonable alternative in the state sector.

And I know the state sector in my area very well, I work in it.

my sister ( privately educated , kids go to state primary) teaches at a prep shcool in sussex. whislt she redcognises tha the facilitesa re pleasant she ( a very informed woman with mba and management experience) thiks that snobbery is a lot to do with it