Worried parents turning to indie schools -The Observer

[lifeafter50]

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jul/26/anxious-middle-classes-look-to-private-schools-after-coronavirus-disruption

Interesting - I wonder who this will balance out with people forced to remove their children from indies due to job cuts/return overseas etc.

Well if people who can afford private leave state, that will leave more resources for children who need them.

So good.

But even better would be NO private education and properly funded, well run schools for all.

As someone who works in the sector this is true and surprisingly there have been less people going than expected so far . This could be because parents in independents are overwhelmingly in jobs which can be done from home but it’s also because the worst has probably not yet hit.

Live lessons may not be the panacea which many parents believe but they want their children doing something and they want someone else to take charge especially for exam years where many independents are now boasting that their classes are ahead rather than behind due to fewer distractions etc . Those who can pay are going to try to effectively insure themselves against a second lock down .

The quote from the campaigning state head is interesting because it rather makes the opposite point that it's trying to. The quote says that state schools have been doing an amazing job of supporting key worker children, disadvantaged families and kids with SEN, particularly given their limited resources. Lots of people would totally agree with that (well, I'm not so sure about the SEN bit). But what this article is talking about is families who don't don't fall into any of those categories, who are MC and aspirational and want good results for their academically able children. Telling them that their school has done an amazing job for the children entitled to FSM and the kids known to social services and the kids of doctors and delivery drivers might give them a warm feeling inside, but it's not going to alleviate their immediate concerns about their own child's education and university prospects.

In our local indies, Y11 pupils who would gave been doing GCSEs this summer were instead moved on to start A levels for the whole of the summer term/ie not just until the exam leave would have started. Do those at least will be three months ahead on A level to those in schools that did nothing.

There is something that might help with secondary school kids ' motivation to self study (and/or to catch up a bit over summer) :
learnnbetterathome.com
dunno if link 'll work but if you google" learn better at home self study guide' , it comes up.
I think most teachers have been doing brilliantly and should get a pay rise, but I fear this 6 months are going to widen the gradient in educational outcomes by social determinants even more, which is so unjust, again.

lifeafter50, our independent school, provided zero lessons for Year 11s, and it's my understanding that only one student is going into the 6th form as a result.

@Soma
That is interesting /are there many other indies in your area? Where I live there are are lots competing for business which is a factor.

We've had class lists out from DS's Prep and DS will be in the biggest class he's ever been in come September. At this point the school definitely appears to be on a net gain of pupils.

I think one factor is that DS's school will still be offering 8am - 6pm (although 7am breakfast, tea until 7.45pm and flexi boarding is all suspended). If you are at a state school that has canned wrap around and is only offering 9am - 2.50pm for the foreseable due to staggered drop-offs, you might look elsewhere if you could afford it.

lifeafter50 , yep, there are lots of other indies. But some outstanding state schools and colleges, and they all provided bridging work or pre A level lessons (not live) to their 6th form applicants.

Also the contrast between how our school treated their Yr 11, and other year groups within the school (full live lessons) and the comparison between other Indies was so huge, that many parents have lost faith in the school to provide a proper A level experience.

We’ve been talking about doing this. DSs are at an excellent local state school but we are beginning to fret about the loss of learning time (we both work FT and the juggling has been detrimental to all of us whilst friends with DC at prep schools have had a full delivered curriculum). We’re waiting to see how next term pans out. DS1 (7) has been consulted and doesn’t want to move which is the reason we’re holding off for now.

Our school has seen an influx of new children - far more than the few who have left. The main reason is local state schools have said breakfast and after school care won’t be running in September.

Where both parents work schools are absolutely about childcare as much as education.

Both our children at the local indie; DS1's class will increase from 13 to 20 and DS2's class will increase from 10 to 14. So far no one has left..

A friend of mine her outstanding state primary provided very little education during lockdown and is going to closed on Friday afternoons for cleaning. They have paid for private tuition over the school summer holidays.

The article isn’t true to trends at our prep. Maybe more a secondary phenomenon. We aren’t having any influx of kids.

I found the comments about state Ed to be a bit ‘parallel universe’ - none of our friends in state have had online lessons and while some of the state primaries have been great with worksheet packs etc, one of the local state primaries didn’t even give out worksheets

I am now an an indie after having work in a London comp for many years. I messaged the admin person after reading the Guardian article and she said that we now have a waiting list for both year 7 and year 9. It has been driven by the online curriculum we offered and the fact we started teaching A level teaching in June to Year 11.

I was amazed given the start of some sectors but there you go ....

It depends on the private school. One locally offered a very poor provision and I know lots of parents there were particularly unhappy. Particularly as another independent a short distance away offered full on line zoom lessons including PE and extra curricular clubs. Interestingly quite a few parents are looking to transfer children now to the one with the better provision.

That’s a really good point another

Many state school teachers on many threads have claimed that they were instructed by their heads, who were presumably instructed by DofE, not to teach any new material remotely as they expected that a substantial fraction of their students couldn't or wouldn't access it. We're all hoping that schools will open normally in September, but who has confidence that the government has a plan better than "hit the pause button" if they don't?

So the brighter and more motivated dc were kept down? Not allowed to progress by deliberate action? I’m not sure the government promoted this. I think individual heads of trusts decided it. I’ve said on other threads that this was not acceptable.

There has also been considerable debate about how many vulnerable dc actually did access education. 10% of these dc was widely quoted by the Children’s Commissioner. Some schools have been brilliant but there were many parents who didn’t get much from their schools at all and were very frustrated. I’m sure those with enough money and secure work will look to private schools for greater stability in a crisis and a less union driven workforce.

Any senior school with a view to getting good A level results would start on the A level syllabus now. Even an introduction helps. Children changing schools are disadvantaged by this lack of continuity though.

A lot of it hasn't been about disadvantaged kids accessing education, though, but trying to make sure that they're still on somebody's radar from a safeguarding point of view, and still able to eat. I have a good friend who's on a primary SLT, and I know they did a huge amount of effectively social work during lockdown - a combination of community outreach and encouraging families to send vulnerable kids into school so they could help these families to cope. It shouldn't really be the school's job, but nobody else was doing it.

What were the social workers doing? The problem is that teachers are clearly looking out for vulnerable dc at school. They are very important links in the chain. However when these dc are not seen and not educated their life chances decrease even more. That’s the tragedy and I think the Children’s Commissioner was 100% right to be worried.

So the brighter and more motivated dc were kept down? Not allowed to progress by deliberate action?

The problem with this statement is the idea that the only thing to learn is the curriculum, and there's no value in learning other stuff - or simply going deeper into stuff already covered.

That's clearly bunkum, the motivated and advantaged students will still get huge benefits from going deeper into what they've already learnt, or self motivatedly taking themselves into other new areas.

Now for a few subjects very close to exams - where self directed learning is tricky, and there's now a shortage of time to teach the rest of the curriculum then there may be more loss, but the situation with GCSE / A Levels and 2021 are going to be badly compromised anyway, and just teaching the few able to access would not really have been equitable.

My0My I'm assuming that families who actually have an allocated social worker would still have been seeing them (?), but from talking to my friend, the families her school are most worried about are the ones who fall below the threshold of concern for social services, but who are nevertheless really struggling - be it financially, emotionally or mental health-wise, or who have kids with significant SEN or behavioural issues that are hard to cope with day in day out at home. None of these would necessarily have any support from social services or anyone else. And this is a predominantly 'naice' school in a predominantly affluent area; I imagine the challenges could be greater in other areas.

And yes, I totally agree with you. I think of a couple of kids at DS's primary and shudder to imagine what life must have been like for them during lockdown.

It’s a PR job by the ISI. Last week there was one all about the notable private schools closing, including BoJo’s prep. I wouldn’t read much into it at all.

My thoughts @LoeliaPonsonby don’t know any indie schools that are suddenly inundated at prep level