Any not-posh private schools?!

[mumyes]

Been viewing a few private schools recently and bugger me they're all so fucking posh.

I love the amazing facilities & resources, but they lose me with the excessive snootiness, exclusively wealthy families and when they talk about all the prep schools they're close to.

My DC is at a (lovely) state primary.

Does such a thing as a nice, moderately academic Indy school where not all the kids are from wealthy families exist?!

Oh for gods sake. Seriously?

It does but it depends where you are.

Try academic selective ones. They are the only ones worth going for.

Er, yes?!

What's your beef?

Yes, kind of agree with you here but the v academic one has shit pastoral care, and also, the families are pretty wealthy. There's not much variation...! Ok, some are really grafting to pay, but they still have £20k a year spare to spend on education, so they're not that hard up let's be honest!

Maybe 2-3 full bursaries a year, hardly ever going to be v diverse is it?!

Don't want to out...South midlands

@Stuffynosetime genuinely have no idea what your issue is. You unhappy soul.

The GDST schools aren’t posh, in the main. Only any good if you have girls though!

I live in Oxfordshire and there are a few private schools here with more "affordable" fees (as in £15,000 a year compared to teddies, dragon school etc which are more like £35,000+)

Upon viewing one school a majority of the students appeared to be from average income families who just wanted their children to get a rounded education and just about managed to scrape £15,000 a year (often with family help).

Want my DC to have lots of subject choice & good kit etc for e.g.science - which just doesn't seem to exist in state schools near us - but I don't want him surrounded by kids who are really very different / from massively wealthier family.

Ok so yes agree, the GDST schools are not posh as in they do value academics above e.g. v smart buildings etc, but the kids are all still from very wealthy backgrounds. Without much exception.

I think their issue might be...

the vast majority of families could not afford private school.

So the families who do send their children to private school are inevitably going to be richer and possibly posher and more snooty.

Also, the act of sending your child to a school based on people's ability to pay probably filters out a lot of non-snooty people?

So your surprise could be a little...naive?

Plenty in Yorkshire 😁

I'm sorry but having 15k spare for school fees - often twice or three tomes over where multiple kids - is just not average income!

It's just not.

The average uk income is like 30k

@mumyes and I'd say from what I could tell the students parents were often working jobs like teaching, nurses etc which tend to not have "high" salaries? As I said they often have help from grandparents etc in order to pay fees. If both parents earned an "average" salary of £30,000 each a year and desperately wanted their children in private school I think they probably could scrape together the £15,000 as I said.

@lbnblbnb thanks.

That's kind of my point though. Lots of people who really don't have 5k a year spare let alone 15k value education.

The states near us are really, really shit. No choice of selection be subjects, poor ofsteds, lots of focus on the bottom end & no focus on kids who could achieve more.

I'm not quite sure what you're asking?

You want a private school where average people with average incomes send their children? That's obviously not how it works....🤔

Why ask the question if you don't want to accept the answer that yes, lower fee private schools do exist. A majority of students in these schools live in standard 3 bedroom semi-detached / terraced houses. Compared to schools just down the road where you had students being flown into school after half term in helicopters? BIG difference.

You asked and you got your answer🤣.

Grandparents rich enough to help often means rich families...not always, but often.

Also, I really disagree that 2 salaries of 30k would allow for 15k of fees. Not when a very very average 3 bed house is 550-600k.

I want a school that is academically selective & has good kit & choices & staff but costs either 0 or less than 5k a year.

I get it. There probably is a gap in the market for a private school focused on smaller classes with fees that are sub £10k without all of the extra trimmings. If you want the facilities on top then yes you are looking at the. £20k a year type schools and inevitably only a small percentage of the population could afford that. There are definitely different vibes between the academic day schools (still pretty posh) and the public schools at £35-40k a year.

Lower fee schools don't exist, that's my point. They start at like 15k a year

I'm near Manchester and there's a few, most notably Manchester grammar which has very good bursaries on offer so tends to be quite a diverse school generally, and I'd say there's a few others towards Chester (The Grange senior school and possibly King's/Queen's in Chester too) - they were always more "middle class" than "posh" when I was growing up, but that may have changed since the financial crash etc.

They want to pillory you for daring to ask a question that might incidentally show that you have money that they do not. Being vile to you because of that somehow makes them feel superior. Basically - they think you’re vile for having money while they are literally being vile and making themselves feel good by lashing out at you.