To think unless you’ve been to private school you don’t really understand why it’s so valuable?

[huopp]

I have so many people telling me the state system is fine, a private school just has better facilities, that the teachers aren’t any better, that the extra curricular stuff can be done after school at a state school but at a different venue etc etc…

whilst all the above is true, it isn’t what makes a private education valuable? And that you have to actually have lived it, been to one, to get the whole experience it gives you across the board and not just academically?

i think this is why a lot of people with ‘new money’ don’t always spend it on school fees. In contrast those who have been privately educated mostly want the same for their children.

I’ve worked for family’s where the parents are privately educated and they didn’t want that for their children. So that’s not completely true.

My privately educated son has been out canvassing for Labour. He enjoyed school, did well but no more do than his primary school friends who went to state schools. I think I’m the mug!

@huopp do try harder to be a little more condescending

Gross generalisation there!

I was privately educated and didn't grow up to be an entitled brat. If anything, it was private education that taught me how to behave in society, how to be polite and considerate towards the needs of others and I had role models around me, teaching me life lessons that I remember and benefit from, to this day.

the whole premise of this thread is elitist nonsense.

When you find out, do let me know, it's insulting to the intelligence.

Absolutely. This is my issue. There is a conflict of interest. At private school, the parents are the customers. At state, it's all about protecting the children - if a safeguarding issue comes up, there's no question of brushing it under the carpet in order not to lose a fee-paying customer, but I know all too well that that happens at private schools.

I went to semi private school but possibly one of the posher schools around Dublin and yes while it pointed us in the right directions in some ways, it geared everyone towards going to university, and not even colleges, universities. On the day before other college places were due in and also with things like apprenticeships they’d announce ‘by the way the people who want to go to eg college or do an apprenticeship/ go to the uk can get the form in the office and bring it in tomorrow’- the career guidance teacher had no interest in these because to get into the league tables in Ireland they look at the %of students who went to three universities. Very sad when you think of it now, I’d hate my son not to be given all the options out there for work or study

This jealousy rhetoric is becoming mind-numbingly boring. Not to mention really quite ignorant.

Do people really think that most low or middle earners are simply envious plebs who aren’t capable of intelligent reasoning? Be that on logical, moral or social grounds, it’s highly, highly insulting to be continually fed the line that your opinion couldn’t possibly arise from anywhere other than envy.

God forbid someone who can’t part with circa £30k a year ever have an intelligent, astute or considered though. No, apparently they are just chewing dumbly on their morning Kingsmill toast and seething at their lot in life.

Your thread is akin to saying “People who don’t have oodles of privilege don’t understand how lovely it is?”

Tone fucking deaf.

Was privately educated
Decided never to put my children through that. They've come through state school with great results and , more importantly, well adjusted, with great self esteem.

Don’t be a tede OP

The "incredible confidence"'people talk about I do understand but I think it's more like an arrogance often not based on much substance beneath it.

I am from a city in the NE of England and went to state school. I went to a university known for having lots of "rah" types and I was initially very intimidated by them all in tutorials as they all spoke very confidently with RP accents and I sounded nothing like them. But then when I started to listen to what they were saying, I realised that often, obviously not always, there wasn't much substance to it.

Then, I got a tutor who was a bit old school and made the point of returning our essays in front of the class with a comment, in order of marks from lowest to highest......I was always the last person to get my essay back. The others were clearly gobsmacked that the working class geordie was outperforming them academically, and tbh so was I.

So I don't think that the quality of education is the deciding factor here- it's much more about that confidence. But the country has been run for the last 14 years by people who went to Eton and did PPE at Oxford and look where that has got us......

Brexile · Today 20:05
I'm ambivalent about sending my DC to private schools, insofar as private schools are set up to produce arrogant wankers.

If private schools produce ‘arrogant wankers’ why are you ‘ambivalent’ about it?
Why even consider such a thing if your dcs’ peers are so awful?
Not much fun for the dc if their parent is constantly running down the school.

My mother boarded at Roedean. She chose not to educate us privately for political and social reasons. She was also…a very difficult person to love.

I chose not to send my children; all are highly successful in their respective professional fields but, more importantly, happy in themselves.

I was educated in a Direct Grant school. It was good because it was selective, not because it was private. The local grammar school was just as good.

Didimum · Today 20:48
This jealousy rhetoric is becoming mind-numbingly boring. Not to mention really quite ignorant.

There's just as much ‘private school children are all arrogant and entitled’. Do you find that ignorant and boring too?

How did they perform during the pandemic?
My daughters teacher dropped off study packs at every child's house, and every child had 4 hours online teaching a day (teacher taught half the class, then the other half to cater for the higher and lower learning levels, so she did 8 hours). Also directed us on online resources to do when the other group was learning so my daughter probably did more learning than when actually in school! Some was academic - phonics, maths, geography etc, and some PE, music, drama and 'wellbeing' sessions.
Once I was back at work, she was then in school every day due to me being a keyworker
Speaking to friends, this was far above anything their children got, private or state.

Jesus Christ is would be livid if i had payed for a fantastic education and my child turned into a Labour voter 😂

I never went to private school, I'm very working class roots. Went to one of the worst 15 schools in England ( kent) got good grades, degree, sister excelled degree, sisters mate has a masters, her brothers have phds from Cambridge and Oxford.

But I see the merits of private. I excelled dispite, not because. I see value in aspiration and escaping your roots. Why would I not? We was not the norm. But was short of the exception. We definitely trod the path less traveled going to uni

The top tip of your story @funderama is that if you can’t afford private, just teach your kids to speak RP. As a povvo with an unfortunate regional accent I’m hoping that’ll work for my kids! 🤞🏼

Yes, I do. And I’ve never voiced or had that opinion. Ever. And anyone who does is equally ignorant.

Yep.

I am acutely aware of the value of private education given its disproportionate representation in national institutions, among my senior managers and the bright young things that are rising through the ranks.

You didn’t read my comment. I said ‘many’. Many is true in my opinion. Perhaps you’re not one of the many

DH and I were both taught in the state and private sector at various points (in my case at one of the top schools in the country for a while). Our children have also had a mix of both due to moving around... but after a truly terrible experience in one private school (with no accountability) we are state all the way now. The efforts made with the parents in the private school, the PR etc. hugely outweighed the care they took of the children, and there was an almost cultish level of support of the school by parents.

I went to both; private then state for A levels.
It was a marked difference between the two for me, in both facilities, time spent with teachers and general attitude. To be honest one of the teachers at the state school clearly hated me because I had been to a private school and was deliberately unkind (throwing homework back unmarked because I had done 2 sides of A4 and everyone else just did 1, remarking on my accent, not letting me read aloud etc). I know first hand how feeling engaged in a school can make a difference and maybe I just wasn't at the state school long enough but there was no denying the teachers at the private school would put in extra and knew us all very well. It felt quite individualised as a result and they knew how to keep us engaged. Again though, some private schools are rubbish - you have to check what you are paying for via your child and how they feel, not just on results or what other parents are saying. Kids do their best when they are calm and happy.