I'm too lazy to send my son to private school...

[Reallytired]

My son has a little friend in his street who attends a private school three miles away. The little boy is six years old. It takes about 20 minutes to get to the school.

He has to be there by 8.15 and his school day finishes at 3.45. After that he does after school club until 6pm. After that the little boy has to do one to two hours of homework a night. His parents who are keen to get him ahead academically also make him do Kip MaGrath tutoring on a Saturday morning. They are a lovely family and their boy is really well mannered.

I just wonder where private school parents or their children get the stamina to cope.

My son is at private school. It takes him literally 8 minutes to walk there in the morning. Other than hearing him read I have never once helped him with his homework.

My DD is at private school. I walk her to school at 8 o clock in the morning as she starts at 8. 20. I only listen to her read as well.

My DS2 is at a state school. I have to get him ready for a bus which arrives at an unpredictable time and then takes him over half an hour to get him to school.

So I do not begin to recognise the premis of the OP.

Not all private schools involve quite such long hours.

6y DD's prep school is about 3-4 miles away but DH has to pass the school on his way to work, and I have to pass on my way back too. So it takes about 10-15 mins depending on traffic, but on same route. Local school would have been far more logistically nightmare, esp as starts later.

DD;s hours are 8:30-3:30 (goes to 3:45 from Y3). She can be left from 8:!5am (more convienent for DH).

She does one after school activity a week at school and that finises at 5pm.

She also does drama club outside of school and starts piano lessons out of school in January too. Both things she would do regrrdless of her school.

Despite it being an academic school with excellent results there is no pressure at all in the infants so DD does nothing else at all, and is still doing very well. I do not anticipate her doing any academic type activites such as Kip McGrath or tutoring during her time at the school at all.

DD has about 10-15 mins homework a night at the most, often akes far less time.

DD has long holidays and the school day, although long, involves two decent length play times plus a lengthy lunch break.

DD also have very good mnaners, but I hope that DH and I can take a great deal of the credit for that, as she also did have before starting there.

DD adores her school and loves going there.

Good old DD

When we moved back to Italy I toyed with the idea to send the children to the posh English school here. Which is on the other side of the city we live. It meant they had to wake up really early to face 1 hr drive to the school. This seriously put me off, combined of course with other issues I have with private education.

gausgirl

Lynette

LOL at mummyloveslucy - surely your dd is still at her little private school - so your claim that state school children have good manner is a little premature (in your case)...

Actually a child has a right to play and rest, sounds like a very cruel way to bring up a 6-year old. Motherhood is not a race, where you "achieve" things, it is about your childs needs, not about you looking clever as a parent of an academic child.

I know LOADS of people at private school - my DCs between them have been to four.
I have never once met anyone who knows any child anywhere whos 6 year old is doing 2 hours of homework per night.

The school sounds barking. The parents sound barking.

I don't know any private schools like that. It is not a state vs private issue...
although I am sure many want it to be thus.

I don't think the parents of the child in the OP want to look clever as the child of an accademic child - I think they truely want the best for their DS.

I went to school with several boys who didn't seem that bright, were from poor imigrant families but kept their heads down and work hard, and now live in georgous big houses and drive ridiculously expensive cars.

Where as I was having a lovely time, spelling phonetically, because my mother and teachers didn't want my creativity squashed, and doing more improtant things than homework, like swimmig and dancing and riding my bike, and generally being brought up with that white middle class atitude that there is more to life than studying.

I can't help being a little bit jealous of people who are able to commit so much to their childs studying.....but not jealous enough to request my DC's stop pretnding the mud in the garden is snow and the washing basket is a sledge and call them in to sit down and work....

But that is the assumption that annoys me a bit TBH Lynette.

My eldest son is very bright and got into a highly academic school with not one second of tutoring. Had he needed tutoring he wouldn't have gone there as my second son has very profound special needs and i could not help him even with his reading etc for a couple of years.
the school he goes to is a gift to him and to me as it provides him with millions of extra experiences that ( with DS2 unable to get out and about) I would never have been able to do with him.
He goes climbing, plays rugby, does drama, writes scripts and stories, shoots, plays cricket, does loads of charity stuff, goes on walking trips etc etc.

He leaves the house on his own in the morning. he makes his way home in the evening. And his life is a blast.He is lucky but he is an ordinary boy

The assumption that private always = boring hothouse is nonsense.
And he has a far more chilled out regular life through his friends and activities at school than I could ever give him with DS2 in tow.

Thats why DD is going to its sister school.
I hope she gets the same great life experience there that he does.

I liked your posts and I love your attitude. But my kids do the same stuff and making mud pies and watching crap tv and playing hide and seek have been part of their childhoods. And so may it continue

I will go and lie down now. And stop taking myself way too seriously.

I don't think it is a state vs private issue, more a one attutude vs another issue.

I did go to a private senior school for a few years pag, but we obviously weren't hothoused or I wouldn't have lasted long

The same OP could be written about thousands of DC's who attend state shcool.

A couple of years ago I was driving 3 miles to school,(before we moved) had DS1 in English & Maths tutoring after school, and Kumon twice a week.(We've now stopped all tutoring) Presumably the DC in the DC is the OP is in after school club because his parents work, and need child care? Thousands of DC's in this country attend after shool clubs at their state schools because their parents work.

MY DD (age 6) occasionally attends after school club at her school because she asks to.
apparently they have biscuits...

Homework is a bit overrated IMO. I often didn't bother to do mine, it never did me much harm. Maybe I am just a natural born genius and hopefully my DS will be too

Was the aimed at me gaussgirl. Pray say why. I was answering the Op to describe the situation at DD's school. Was that the wrong thing to do?

Our walk to the local state schoolw ould take longer than the drive to our prep school. And the drive would be a pain as parking is so bad in the morning at the state school, unlike DD's school as it is so small. And the logistics of drop off.collecting wuld be a nightmare.

My two DC's both attend a prep school which takes us 10mins to drive to, although will be a half hour drive when we move after xmas

My dd is in reception in the pre-prep and my son is in yr5 in the prep dept. My children both are dropped off at 8.10 and I collect them both at 4.30. My dd's school day ends at 3.20 and she goes into late stay club until 4.30 so that I have finished work and its easier for me to get them at the same time

Late stay involves them having a drink, bite to eat (fruit and or biscuit) she gets prep once a week and I listen to her phonic sounds, reading etc every night

DS who is 9 gets 3 subjects of prep each night, this is different to homework as it is just work that reinforces what he has done in class and shows the teacher that he/she can move onto another topic in the classroom and the pupils have understood the topic etc. These pieces of prep take him around 10mins per subject, certainly not going into 2 hours of prep a night

Both of my children love their school

Also in the prep school formal lessons finish at 3.30 on a friday and every child gets to join a club, my ds has been in science club since Sept and has had great fun in the science lab, blowing up things, melting things and making volcanoes, engines, electric circuits all sorts!!!

They get 3 good length breaks during the day and super long hols, though that doesnt always work around me as I work in a state school!

I wanted my children to have an education like the one I received as a child I was not taught in a private school but in a state school when sats, league tables, bizarre methods of teaching math etc were unheard of and the 3rs were extremely important and times tables were learnt backwards, forwards and inside out!!! sadly the only way I could achieve my simple goal was to go private
there is lots of sport and outside activities which I also had!

off topic there! still hugely shocked that a 6yo does soo much work in one day and 2 hours of work at home is shocking.
btw I work in 11-16 senior school, and I love it!

I can remember when we neary sent our dd to a very full on public school that encourages boarding, the headteacher told us it takes the whole family at least a term to get used to the change in lifestyle as it is so full on.

If laziness is the only factor, then private schools are, in general, by far the better choice.

They can have virtually all their extra-curricular activities rolled into the school day, so no need to be a soccer-mom-ferrying-children-to-piano-and-ballet lessons.

I don't think it's got anything to do with the school being independent - there are families like this everywhere. Plenty in state schools doing masses of Kumon, dancing, extra homework...
There are loads of us who chose indie schools precisely because they're close by and have the loooooongest holidays imaginable.
There are those of that chose indie school to avoid all the SAT testing, NC crap.
Because it's xmas eve I'll assume you're not trying to make a silly generalisation.

My son has his fair share of extra curricular activites. He also attends after school club 5 nights a week as I work full time. He also does kip McGrath because our local state primary is not the best in the area.

My son's little friend's family are immigrants. They want the best for their children and they want to contribute to society. They work hard and make huge sacifices for their children, both financial and in time. I am gobsmacked how they manage to find the time to help their children with their school work and work long hours.

I really admire them for their work ethic. They have a completely different mindset to some white british families in our area who just want take from society and have no interest in working.

Ha ha Snap lynette... This was my life 'plan' too Is it too late for a new plan??

NOPE! can't summons up the enthusiasm.

Private school holidays are ridiculously long! My dd has a friend on private and she's bored witless by about December 12th

You know, the more I think about this six-year old who does two hours homework a night the more I simply don't believe it.

I don't think that the OP is making it up but perhaps the mother has exaggerated or someone has misunderstood.

Yes I have a 6 yr old and her concentration span for homework is 12 minutes max. It wouldn't matter which school she went to, her concentration span would still be the same. She can watch a 90 min children's film and explain the plot to me though

My 6 year old dd is also in Y2 (private school) and has NEVER had more than 10 minutes of homework.

I simply don't believe that any 6 year old, whether at private or state school, has 2 hours of homework!!