State schools vs. private schools

[ugilad]

Hi,
As we are Relocating this summer (August) and working on renting a place and picking it so it is close to a school, I am concerned by headlines such as:

Prime Minister claimed that fee-paying schools were producing 'more than their fair share' of medal winners while sport in state schools was being 'squeezed out' with rundown facilities and children lacking ambition.

Should I forgo the search for a good state school (with all the anexity of little to no available room in the desireable ones) and pick private?

Background info: DS is born Nov-2007, so he will be going to the first year in school, and we also fret about the language barrier as well (not an English speaker)

If you want all your sporting provision to be via the school, then you are likely to find better provision in a private school (although it depends on the school - only the top public schools are guaranteed to have outstanding provision for sports, along with a price tag of £30,000 a year per child...). If you want access to good sporting facilities and coaching outside of school hours (and during term time, "outside of school hours" in a state school is quite a large part of the day), then where you end up living in general is more important - some parts of the country have better facilities and access to those facilities than others.

You seem to have the idea that everything is a state v private issue (I may be making false assumptions based on your threads) but it's not that simple. You need to decide what you want from a school then visit a few to see which fulfils your criteria (or possibly most of your criteria)

I think it depends on the sport and on the school. I know several children who compete or have done so at national level (and in one case internationally), they all went to state school. Obviously for sports like tennis or swimming having private lessons from a young age is a huge advantage. Apart from that, I think the deciding factor has been very supportive (pushy) parents.

You are right that we are (wrongly?) trying to find decision factors - for example state vs. private. for us, these decisions are frightening

There is a lot of bad rep for state schools in London in my peer group, which I am not sure is justified.

Since we have to choose a location where to live and since that pretty much determines the school, this is huge for us and we are trying to narrow down the factor: state vs. private, neighborhood, borough etc.

But OP it is not as simple as state v private - there are some dire private schools, and some amazing ones, just as with state schools, you can't just assume that any independent school will be better than all state schools (and I speak as a huge fan and user of independent education).

My advice would be to choose a place you want to live first, then look at all the schools in that area, both sectors, then choose the one you like best / feel would suit your DC's best.

Either way, considering that your child is going to be starting this coming September, you really need to look hard at what actually has spaces available. In the state sector you will only be able to apply when you have an address to apply from and particularly in London, you might find that limits your choices severely.

This might well apply in the Private sector, although you should be able to apply for a place from overseas so that will help.

You have to take a lot of factors into account and consider the long term. If you start in the private sector, your child could find it hard to adapt if you then have to pull them out. If you have the funds to cover the whole school career, then I would suggest that in your case private may be better.

State schools are well used to taking non-english speakers, private schools may well expect a certain level of ability before starting.