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Original poster

Useless poll- How many of you state secondary teachers send their children to independent senior school?

37 replies

duchesse · 23/02/2008 11:17

Alternatively did you switch to independent school teaching when your own children made the switch?

Please name change if you want to!

I have a pet theory that discipline in many state secondaries is so poor that many teachers prefer to send their own children into independent schools at secondary level. I have personally only taught in one state secondary of around 12 I've been into and had experience of where I would have been happy to send my own children. I am not talking about exam results, but about ethos and how discipline is tackled. If we still lived in that town, I would not be paying a large amount of disposable cash every year to send them to independent school.

OP posts:
UnquietDad · 23/02/2008 11:18

Butterkist butterkist ra-ra-ra

Original poster
duchesse · 23/02/2008 11:24

Bless you!

OP posts:
Lauriefairycake · 23/02/2008 11:39

Not in this house. DH is a secondary school teacher (but in neighbouring town) and our children when they reach secondary age would be going to the state secondary nearest which seems fine.

None of the state teachers I know send their children private, however the children perform well in whichever school they are sent to for many reasons (help at home, indepth knowledge of curriculum, importance of certain attitudes enforced from a young age and loads of other boring 'worthy' reasons )

abitdifferent · 23/02/2008 11:42

?

abitdifferent · 23/02/2008 11:43

I have recently started a PGCE and my first placement was in a well thought of secondary school, A - C grades 62%.

I spent my first day mentally making a list of all the nearby private schools.

Not sure why I felt the need to change my name. I will almost certainly teach in the state sector but will move heaven and earth to get my two children into private.

alfiesbabe · 23/02/2008 11:59

I teach in state and dcs were in private (got discount as DH teaches there). Main reason being it's a specialist music school and ds was a chorister. Now his voice has broken, he's chosen to move to state school (we're fortunate as local state is excellent).
DH also moving back to state sector (giving up the easy life and 18 weeks a year holiday) because a) he wants to feel he's making a better contribution to society (sorry if that sounds wishy washy leftie - but dont know how else to say it!!) and b) he's fed up of the private sector being way behind state in terms of initiatives. He's seen both sides and just feels that state is the place to be.

UnquietDad · 23/02/2008 17:32

I find teachers very defensive about the schools they teach in, "closing ranks" if anyone dares to suggest the school is in any way failing the kids, but at the same time being oddly equivocal on the question of whether they'd send their own there.

DW teaches in a "tough" comp and we are in the catchment for a "good" one, so there is no chance of ours going where she teaches unless we fall on especially hard times. We have engineered this, and I don't apologise for it.

Heated · 23/02/2008 18:05

Not yet!

Slightly facetious answer. If I do send dcs to private school I'll be the first amongst my teacher friends. But I don't have the strong views my colleague do but nor do my dcs have the choices they do as I live well out of the area.

I am a product myself of both private and state ed and actually I like both! At present I believe dcs will be attending the local state primary but we have visited a private school as well, but unfortunately wasn't overwhelmed by it. It's a fall back I suppose.

My dh chooses to teach in tough schools but no way would I let my dcs attend there. On the other hand, I would be delighted if one of my dcs went to the secondary school I teach at as it's excellent.

Blandmum · 23/02/2008 18:10

Mine go to an independent school and I teach in a state comp.

An article in the Times Ed this week stated that 1/4 of teachers in the state sector would sent their kids to a Private school if they could (not sure of the poll size)

HonoriaGlossop · 23/02/2008 18:14

mb I find that very interesting that yours go to private school - without sounding like a stalker I hope, I always like and respect what you have to say about education....so that is another 'notch' for me on the 'will we do private for ds' post!!!!!

Was your decision about not being near good state schools or more about just always knowing they would go private if you don't mind me asking?

DualCycloneCod · 23/02/2008 18:16

we had htis htread rececntly iirc

it went on and on1

HonoriaGlossop · 23/02/2008 18:17

do yours go private Cod?

I am feeling SO nosy today

Lucycat · 23/02/2008 18:19

dh and I do and probably won't send dds when the time comes - but then again...... no probably not.

Honoria - do you live in Glossop then?

DualCycloneCod · 23/02/2008 18:21

god no
odnt hink they woudl even if we coudl afford it.

i think i haev a vaguely militanlty left wing sentiment about it.

mind oyu al are pretty clever so itsnot an issue and all local schools are good.

alfiesbabe · 23/02/2008 18:26

I always find the polls about 'Would you send your kid to private school if you could afford it?' a bit of a red herring though.
It's a bit like doing a survey of drivers of a ford focus and saying 'Would you like to have a porsche instead?' Probably 99% of them would say 'yes please'. Would it enable them to get from A to B any better? No. Would it enable them to feel better about their choice? Quite possibly, particularly if they're not very confident in themselves!! Would it make them any happier as a human being? Probably not.

Blandmum · 23/02/2008 18:27

never planned to send them to private HonoriaG, dd went to the nursery there, she did so well, and local school not being great she stayed. Eventually I went into teaching and found that the pre and post school clubs were a life saver for me an allowed me to manage without other child care. She she stayed longer. Ds joined her.

He gets 10 hours of 1 to 1 support for his SEN. In the state primaries local to us he would get nothing.

I think it horrific that this is the case, but he needs the help now, not later when his education is already deep sixed.

It shouldn't be like this, and I'm very sad and angry for children in ds's situation that go to the local schools, but I'm not going to sacrifice his education to my conscience

DualCycloneCod · 23/02/2008 18:28

i owudlnt thoguh. ours is a 3 min walk away.

why dirve wjen you ahev an outanding shcool free on your doorstep.

Blandmum · 23/02/2008 18:28

We also get support from the RAF

HonoriaGlossop · 23/02/2008 18:31

No Lucy I live in London and the country with my parents Sir Roderick and Lady Glossop

Thanks for sating my nosiness cod. The thing is I have always had that same left wing sentiment and been proud of it but we've found ds has co-ordination difficulties and we got thinking that he may thrive much more in a smaller class - and that's just not going to happen in state.

As the best labour MP's say, 'you can't mess about when it's your own kid's education'

Blandmum · 23/02/2008 18:33

HG, ds had dyspraxia

Support for dyspraxia (unless extreem) in state schools is non existant.

Which shouldn't be, but it is

Lucycat · 23/02/2008 18:34

ahhh sorry m'lady

was going to say that if I lived in Glossop I'd probably send my children to an independent school too

HonoriaGlossop · 23/02/2008 18:35

thanks for that mb.

There's one school local to me which has an outstanding approach to all kinds of special needs etc and run the morning and afternoon stuff which would mean I could like you manage without other childcare. Which would be a bloomin good thing as DH and I wuold have to work all hours to afford it

I don't really want to go down the road of him being in school 8 - 6 till he's much older though, we are thinking of state junior and then private secondary (in the hope we'll be better off then! Ha!)

Blandmum · 23/02/2008 18:35

ah, so you are one of those Glossops!

[nods sagely]

HonoriaGlossop · 23/02/2008 18:37

Yes, mb - I'm realising about the non-existent support! DS was investigated for dyspraxia but hasn't got it, but has got co-ordination delay and therefore problems with fine and gross motor skills problems. He has no one to one at all, and the suggestions from the Ed Psych about other ways of recording being allowed (having a scribe, recording his voice) have been ignored, his teacher has told me she doesn't think it's necessary

Don't know why they got the Ed Psych in only to ignore his recommendations

Blandmum · 23/02/2008 18:40

lack of funding. Which is crap.

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