Private school: the good, the bad and the ugly!!!

[Goldenspice]

I think I have convinced DH to do private school but we are newbies to being private school parents. I have spent lots of time online looking at options and visited a few and narrowed it down to one I like and local parents seem really, really effusive. But they are all so positive and realistically their have to be some issues right? It makes me a bit spooked that it is so positive because life isn’t perfect is it? The marketing stuff looks impressive but I hope I am savvy enough to know that is what it is - marketing!
So let’s say I have the ‘good’ bit nailed down - small classes, accountability due to fee’s, decent sports provision and nice extra curricular and nice long day.
So what can be the bad and the ugly be? What do I need to watch out for?!

@Placido

Teachers have very good access to training in the state sector - less at a small private. Which I found means that teachers who have been in role a long time can be fairly stale and not awash with new ideas.

massive generalisations going on here!!

Firstly not all state primaries are big and/or have big budgets for training.

Secondly not all pre-preps and preps are small and/or have small budgets for training.

The truth is that there are poorly led schools in both sectors, and schools in financial difficulties in both sectors. Those are where you are likely to get teachers whose practice is not up to scratch.

Another consideration is also the unions. It is harder (although not impossible) to sack a poor teacher from the state sector because they are unionised.

@Ziegfeld
And harder to get good teachers to join the beleaguered private schools that have taken themselves out of the teachers’ pension scheme because they can’t afford the contributions

@batmanladybird

Ah I see. Shall we talk some more about the uniforms for you? The lovely blazers The cute ties? The blouses for the girls? The little pleated skirts?

I can see you aren't here for real
Debate

I agree. It costs so much money to go to a private school, can't believe someone would do it for the uniform. Can't take this OP seriously, reckon she's a troll.

@Needmoresleep

Downside is usually the lack of cultural diversity.

You have clearly not stood outside many private school gates! Many ethnic minority parents care deeply about education and will make every effort to ensure their children have the best opportunities available. Rishi Sunak, is a good example.

Hear hear! I'm an ethnic minority, not from the UK. English is not my native language. Fairly middle class but working very hard to send my child to a private school. I believe in upward mobility. Education is a big part of my culture, also part of my religion. I don't care about what other parents will think about me, that I don't have a posh car etc. I tell my child she's lucky to be in this country, lucky to have access to the best education. And that's it! I hope for her to have a good life in this country. My other friends who are from Asia are also sending their kids to private schools... we don't ever talk about what you guys call the "Toffs", just only ever discuss how many opportunities are available here and how we can best access them for our children. we are so grateful to be here we are willing to sacrifice and provide the best we can.

I agree @kiko18. What rubbish some people come up with on MN.

The private school my son went to was far more culturally diverse than the C of E/state primary he attended before that. I think he was the only child in his year at his private school with two British parents. Whereas at his inner city state school nearly everyone was a UK national and the vast majority were white. Its admissions criteria required three years of specific church attendance which was a neat way of ensuring cultural conformity.

Kiko18, I do not understand some of the comments here.

Our DC went to private school very largely because our local inner city state provision was poor. We did not want to tutor for 11+, gain religion, move, or, very common, rent in another catchment. Children only get one shot at education, and we wanted them to be educated.

We were not looking to buy networks, poshness or privilege. Just education. Proper broader, rounded education.

The unexpected thing they did gain was ambition and an understanding that achiement was the result of hard work. This did not come from posh peers, but from their diverse, international classmates, often the children of high achieving expats or immigrants. Their networks, to the extent networks exist, won't be of the old school ties, funny handshake, clubbable variety, but international and meritocratic. Their friends went to top British and US Universities. They know they are as good.

@thingaling

I agree *@kiko18*. What rubbish some people come up with on MN.

The private school my son went to was far more culturally diverse than the C of E/state primary he attended before that. I think he was the only child in his year at his private school with two British parents. Whereas at his inner city state school nearly everyone was a UK national and the vast majority were white. Its admissions criteria required three years of specific church attendance which was a neat way of ensuring cultural conformity.

I think the diversity issue people are highlighting is not so much ethnic diversity as social. Schools which are academically selective are inevitably less representative of society. The whole point of selection is to exclude certain groups, after all. Same goes for schools which cost £££, what you might call selection by income. Typically private schools exclude a large section of society in both of these ways. They are socially much less diverse than state schools.