Is private school really worth it?

[milliec]

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I pay for eldest DS and youngestDD but not middle son.
It depends entirely on where their needs are best met ( although I also pay for some private support for DS2 as well).

Why does it need to be justified.
They all love their schools and none would like to go to their sibs school instead.

TBH it is only surely a problem if you take the view that those who are going private are getting better than those who go state - which they arn't

Just for the record - not every parent educates children privately to avoid special needs children.

dd2 didnt get into to that school and they wouldnt take her the following year, we tried then to get her into another one but they didnt offer her a place either

so no choice really

and she wasnt very keen

the state school she went to was hopeless for her

would nhave been more hopeless for ds

given time over agqin we would have done things differently

but possibly she wouldnt have been happy at dd1 school

tho she might have been ok at ds but that was too far away for daily tracel i took him for two years but it was 500 miles driving a wek for me and his school was expensive

and she wanted to be with her friends as she is bolshy

also i left my husband a few weeks after ds started at his school and i had been in a psychitaric hsopital for 3 months earlier that year so things were a bit more complicated than just schools

ds became a boarder

Depends on the schools, depends on the kids, depends on the parents.

There, thats helpful eh

Nearly all the kids at dd's pre-school are going to private primaries. dd is not, and the state primary we've chosen is undersubscribed. But its by far the most caring of the schools we visited (private and state), smaller classes than all but one other, and has excellent values as well as very good SATS.

If the local primaries had been awful when we looked around, and we could afford private (which we can) she would not be going there. But I'm very happy to say she is.

My neice and nephew were state educated throughout, and one went to Oxford (now doing her PhD) and the other to Bristol. I went to private primary and secondary and messed everything up, more or less.

There just aren't any black/white answers!

RE: the SEN issue (as it seems like this kicked off after my earlier post!!) - can I just clarify that I wasnt saying my view is that having fewer SEN children is a benefit; I was pointing out that to the fee payer, it could be perceived as a benefit. And this was in the wider context of my view that when you pay for private, you are essentially paying for indirect benefits.You don't pay because the teaching is better,you pay because you are buying into something exclusive which means essentially that you are narrowing the range of children in the school. For the record, I am a SENCO in a state comprehensive, so no way do I have issues about SEN kids!
In response to Quattro, my comment that if you are paying, you will definitely believe its worth it because you're hardly going to pay and admit it doesnt make a great deal of difference; Quattro responded that the converse must be true. I'm not sure it is. For a start, many people choose not to pay for private when they could affford to if they beleived it was worth it. Also, not everyone with their kids in state schools is entirely happy. So I dont really follow that argument Quattro.
In the final analysis, IME, bright children with a supportive home set up tend to do well wherever, and possibly have better independent learning skills in state schools. Private can tick certain boxes - eg music, sport, but you shouldnt have to pay full fees to get the benefit of those specifics.

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Alfies babe - approximately 7% of children are privately educated. Objectively (and statistically) it gives them an advantage in terms of education (the proportion in good universities is massively higher than 7% - around 30-40% - Xenia will be here in a minute to provide the exact statistics) and there are massive differentials in subsequent wealth too. There are of course exceptions to every rule but privately educated children do better and the advantage is lifelong. I am not at any point saying this is fair by the way.

What I am saying is the reverse of your argument. You say that private educators would think that private education is better. I am saying that state educators would think that the state offers a perfectly good education. It's logical to defend your own position after all.

eh, Fio - it was me that 'accused' you of being drunk...

Bloody ol' soak.

May be we ran against each other?

I did hurdles and 200m.

Except I'm about a million years older than you.

It's possible though that it's not the school that created the difference in subsequent wealth. It might be quite simply that rich people send their children to private schools and rich people's children are richer (due to inheritance etc). The school is therefore part of the package rather than the cause.

Batters isn't a snob!

Good grief, whatever next!

six months ago i would have said no. but in all honesty if i had the money i would pay for my son to be in a smaller class.

"privately educated children do better and the advantage is lifelong."

But is that the education, or the life?

Privately educated children have, by definition, wealthier lives and / or lives backed up by parents who work their socks off for the child's education if they haven't got wealth enough to do it otherwise.

That is bound to have a big result in terms of averages.

I wish this wasn't true but i believe that the % of British children has recently risen to more like 14%. Not sure where I got that from though so it could be untrue.

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sorry, the % of British children at independent schools

if you have the disposable income, then is it better to spend it on holidays and cars and other stuff? or having your child in a smaller class?
if you dont have the money, then the questions is a nonstarter

More children are educated at private schools nowadays because more people can afford it. Private education has always been something desirable for many people and now it's within the reach of more people. The City boom, the rise in property prices have made a lot of people wealthy these last 10 years.

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i wish private schools were banned, at least at primary level. i'm so sick of seeing good teachers at my son's school leaving. mostly to work in better schools. it's like they're just all giving up at once.

Exactly, Batters - it's the interested parent that makes the biggest difference. IMO - and in the minute experiment that constitutes my family.