an interesting rationale for choosing a private primary school??

[Twiglett]

was chatting to a nice woman today, turns out she lives very near to DS's pre-school (and future primary school), however they don't send their kids there because

by sending their children to private education they free up resource in the state system

... what do you think of that??

I went to a state school, 30 years on I send my daughters to a private school.

From what I have heard things in the last 30 years have got a lot worse and as I get older I can see the failings in my education. I have heard some horrible things about our local school and I would have found it difficult to aford a house in the catchment area of a good junior school. (The six form college round here has a good reputation but I feel it a little late in the day!).

So I am very lucky to be able to send my daughters to a private school. Do I think they are perfect? No. But they have a good reputation and you can go and discuss your concerns very quickly. I had an hour long chat with the headmistress after asking to have a chat with her and it was all arranged in a week. DD1 would have sunk without trace in a class of 30. Yes we have "barbie wives" who would look good on a catwalk and they have the money to match, but if you talk to them they are just people too. I would say the majority of the parents are hardworking people who are struggling to get their kids a decent education because visits to the local schools have left them dispondent. I would walk through fire for my kids and don't want them to be part of a social experiment.

hmb - he he you must have been at CCh then...

ameriscot, I thought we were talking about how schools fitted into the local community. Yes, everyone was the same within my school and it was all jolly friendly ... cos we knew we were a nice community - just that we didnt have anything to do with the hoipolloi at the comp over the road!

IMO the need for private schools (which is a perfectly genuine one) is a sad reflection of the class differences in Britain. Why does the same need not exist in other European countries?
(before anyone tells me, I know there are private schools there, but only v few people actually use them)

If we could send our two to private school, we would, especially for their secondary education - as the schools in this area aren't up to much.

They'll both go to a decent primary school, not the best in the area (you need to be catholic for one and the catchment area for the other has shrunk, so our road is no longer in it).

Pre-children, I used to have all sorts of principles about this, but I don't anymore. I passed the 12+ and went to a grammar school, my siblings didn't pass and went to the local sec modern and their education was so second rate compared to mine. In light of this, I always said I wouldn't support a state selective system, but you know what, if we still had one in this area, I'd hope and pray my children passed the (now) 11+ to get in.

I think that in some cases it's just that the private school system in other countries is not general knowledge here in the UK and thus it's assumed that 99.9% of people go to state schools (rather than the 93% here). Certainly I have seen similar private vs state debates on US parenting sites and know people in the US who opt for local private days schools (of which there are plenty) and obviously there are the "prep schools" which seem to equate to public schools here in many ways.

Should have said that the situation in Spain is similar but it's just not something people are bothered about IME.

As for Twiglett's original post, it's just a reflection of the woman's embarrassment IMO. The woman could hardly turn round and say to Twiglett (who she presumably doesn't know very well) exactly what her real reasons for not choosing the state school are if Twiglett has said she sends her kids there, could she? It's kind of on a par with the feeble excuses I made about why DD won't go to a state school.

In France & Germany theyre mostly religious though, or genuine "different philosophy" schools. I havent come across the feeling that a private school is a necessary part of being an educated, "better" class person. (Except one American guy I once met, whose parents were stinking rich, he was a real t**r!)

Im not aware of any of my (professional) colleagues having gone to private schools, in the UK, I could pick them out by their accents!

I'll have to confess that I have no idea what you are talking about, NN. Unless you define what makes up a community, what doesn't make up a community, and what a community does, I will always be in the dark.

I've never come across many debates about public vs private in the US - I don't think parents get as defensive or protective about their choices.

If you live in a good school district (as we did), you send your kids to public school (ie tax funded); if you don't live in a good school district, you exercise a choice to use the public schools, Catholic schools or private schools - if the school district is a bad one, then you have everyone's sympathies about jumping ship and going the fee-paying route.

With public schools in the US, the parents have very little power - the school district decides which school the child will go to and will provide transport if it is not within walking distance.

My husband had a full scholarship (tuition and boarding) to a major US prep school, and in fact very few students are subject to full fees. The school is well-endowed because they produce successful graduates who go on to support the school for the next generation.

Private schools here are different philosophy too. They are not just a paid version of maintained schools. There is a definite "added value".

I remember our French French teacher saying that private schools there were "remedial", i.e. mainly for kids who had failed their end of year exams or who were "socially awkward" (there's a specific word in French but can't remember it.)

ameriscot- you make a good point- I understand that schools/colleges etc in the states are very good at tapping into their alumni for donations and support.

"the community" usually taken to mean eg a town and all its inhabitants....not just those of a certain class, race, persuasion etc.

But, NN, no school in a reasonably densely populated school is going to be reflective of the town they are in because of parental choice/preference about which state school their children may go to..

Plus, they don't have a lot to do with old folks, dinkies or empty nesters.

And so what? What interactions are there between the schools and the wider community? Schools are pretty introspective and I think that applies to maintained schools at least as much as private. Schools have a job to do - to impart the curriculum to the children, and any fuzzy desires beyond that is well on the back burner. I would even go as far to say that schools have a negative impact on the local community, with traffic congestion, littering, and general yobbish behaviour - ask anyone who lives next to a secondary school.

state school belongs to everyone in the town/city/village. Everyone pays for it and therefore has a stake in it.

OOH, private school is a separate entity, not relevant to 90% approx of the population in most cases.

But so what? A lot of people in a town don't give a toss about the local education provision. It's usually only the people that are directly involved with a particular school that is interested in it.

Actually, a town doesn't pay for its school (unlike in the USA, where schools are beneficiaries of hypothecated taxes) - they are funded at county level, but most of the money is from a direct grant from central govt.

i think we are going to have to agree to disagree about this one...

Although I am aware that private schooling does not make a child who is not motivated to study to become more motivated or who is not very bright, more intellignet, I still intend to send my son to private schools because of my own experinec with state education (albeit in Austria, not here in London). We have an only child.

I had a private education most of my life except two years spent in Vienna, Austria in a state school. My parents sacrificed an awful lot for me to get a private education and we all know it paid off. Having said that I always loved school even when very small and was academically bright. I don't think the private system made me more intelleigent, but I certainly received more attention and praise from my teachers at my private schools, esp. as I didn't speak English when I first arrived in the UK when I was 9 years old.

On the other hand when I first arrived in Austria with very little German at the age of 12, I had to go to a state school for the first two years (as the private international schools were full up and I had to wait on a list for two years) but I got very little attention from my teachers and was left to pretty much fall behind the other students, despite being academically more bright than most of the kids in my class. I believe this would never have happened in a private system.

I would be dishonest if I said that you could get the same kind of education or environment in the private and state systems. My experince has shown that they are two totally different worlds, and I know which I would like my child to be in. It's a totally rational choice as far as I am concerned.