If you had the money would you send your only child to private school?

[lostboysfallin]

Assuming that they generally have better facilities, more resources, smaller classes.

"multimillionaire brickies / property owing clerical level workers are quite commonplace." Couldn't help finding this amusing. So, the defining feature of their children is that they have rich parents, then. But they are still very diverse, because underneath it all, their parents and therefore by implication, their children, are still common as muck.

And as for, "The state school is just filled with lower class people from sink estates in the inner city - not a good mix in any way at all." Is it really the case that you are either sending your child to a private school in your area, or you are lower class and from a sink estate? Is there not a huge rump of people who fall into neither category?

"Moving nearer to a 'good' school instead of going private, how is that actually any different?" I find this a slightly odd question, in that it is obviously a different response to the same problem. Maybe you mean, is it any more moral? Or any more left wing? I would say the biggest difference is that it deliberately refuses to recognise any non-state options as valid. You can disagree with the idea that state education should be the only option, or think it unrealistic, or think it wouldn't make life any more fair, but you can't say that viewpoint is not different from the view that people should be allowed to opt out of state education if they want to.

The state school is just filled with lower class people from sink estates in the inner city - not a good mix in any way at all .

How ignorant.

Define lower class. Please. Not all people living on sink estates are lower class, some are just unfortunate. Oh and some are so clever they win scholarships to independent schools.

No -we have excellent state schools so I wouldn't waste the money.

Hi - seem to have ruffled feathers by my post.
Where I live, (city centre of a major city) there are three schools, within 3 KM radius: two are private schools (one Religious), and the other is a state school.

The private school we chose takes all sorts who can afford to pay the fees: any class, and creed, and colour, any mother tongue, any ability - no discrimination except that it is a single sex school.

The state school - has a very very local catchment, from council flats which surround it, and takes lower class, mostly poor people's kids. A lot of the kids - boys and girls - attending have behavioural problems from fetal alcohol syndrome and ADHD. A lot of them drop out of education, which is a shame.

There is a lot of violence and crime in the area, with a lot of junkies and drunks live in the flats, and homeless. There's a methadone clinic nearby: burnt out cars, lots of theft. It's a very rough area.

There is I suppose a mix of sorts in the state school, in that there are non native english speakers - first generation immigrants: Eastern European and Nigerian. A lot of these have moved back to Poland / Estonia / Latvia now that the property bubbles have burst. The Nigerians tend to move out to better areas.

These are the facts no matter how much we think it should be different : so with these facts we made the decision to pay the fees to the school where there is more of a mix, and the facilities and resources are available. Think Westminster School situated in Tower Hamlets.

For sure I'd like to see a better integration socially, but in reality, that's not going to happen with such massive and fundamental problems such as unemployment, poverty, substance abuse and violence in the area. These problems won't be solved by me sacrificing my kids' chances of fulfilling their potential by sending them to a lower class sink school. Do you know what I mean now Holidaymaker and rabbitstew?

OP I'm glad you're happy with your decision.

I can understand your point of view, totallypearshaped. Regardless of whether I would consider a private school or not, I did choose to live in an area well away from the centre of a big city, because I wanted to remove myself altogether from the huge cheek by jowl inequalities and consequent dangers that you inevitably get in big cities, so I can hardly comment on what sort of school I would send my children to if I did live in the centre of a large city (but suspect, if the local state schools had an appalling reputation, it wouldn't be one of those).

I certainly would send my dd to a private high
School as I do believe she would get more opportunities
To explore a wide variety of subjects and after school clubs.
I am happy with her primary school but I know that even the good
Catholic high school in my area can never accommodate all the children in after
School clubs as a friend of mine has a dd there and she has
Never managed to get a place in the clubs of her choice
As there are far too many kids. 30 in a class can not
Cater to making sure every child achieves their best. And if
People are well off with good jobs I think that's great. Better
They worked to get where they are not like some of
The lazy people who expect everything handed to them
By the government.

Seeker is obviously ignorant to make such silly comments regarding
Only children. It doesn't matter who it's aimed at everyone is entitled to
Their reasons for having however many children and no comment should
Be made about it.