'Why I send my child to a private school' Guardian piece...

[PollyParanoia]

Is there no thread on it? Surely there must be.
www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jul/23/why-send-child-to-private-school here
It's just so badly written with lots of fatuous unsupported statements. She's been so suckered by that clever thing that private nurseries do to encourage parents to sign up until 11. Our local one makes the nursery children buy and wear the uniform in the pre-reception year. Especially if the uniform has an expensive boater as hers does (I always notice that the most prestigious schools around us have the least pretentious uniform).
And as for 'Katy's exceeding national expectations', well, a good section of children in a state school will do the same, doh, as you'd know if you really were an educational expert.
And that bit about how lots of children would thrive in a non-academic environment/technical school. But not her child of course.
Oh and she lives in Kent so I think we know the answer to her point about her going private if she's not happy with the secondary school provision.

Non selective state schools do not get equal/better results for everyone to independent schools. But that is because independent schools are by definition selective.

I think that Kent has the problem of most children going to whatever they call secondary moderns these days. I bet they don't go to private schools if they get a place at a top grammar school! If you live elsewhere, with good comprehensives, you don't have the problem.(you would in London).

exotic I went to state, secondary comprehensive and at 13 left for the local grammar. Most of the children there came from private and if you like that is another factor sending my DDs to private .... If they can get into the grammar they will go. If they gain advantage over others by going through prep school so be it.

Perhaps the pay off is that she has to wear a boater!

I have noticed also a huge demand for 1 to 1 tuition. I did not know what these were when I was at school. Friends of mine in London (DCs attending state schools), seem to spend a lot of time and money on tuitions. Poor kids. It's becoming like it is in Asia. Is it just the people I know or is this a common phenomena now too?

A big reason no one has mentioned for private is to get the grammar school place. ( luckily boater free these days!)

Well I mentioned we have 10 private schools in a 7 mile radius. I will also say these go to age 13. The local grammar school starts at 13. We have 3 senior private schools. The nearest 3 independent prep schools publish their 100% grammar entry success regularly.

I don't see point in this debate at all, I agree it is a very poorly written article and mother/writer very obviously has very deep insecurities.
Parents choosing to pay for schooling or not is a secondary issue, primary concern being wanting the best education or style of it for your child, Imo this a very private matter and decision each one of us try to deal with in the best of our abilities.
IME choosing good school private or state has very little to do with style of the uniform(banal example given in the written article)but everything to do with quality of education, care provided and provision made for children.
Generalising either sector, without possibility of having two children of the same age at at the same time in two different schools, one private and one state, I am afraid none of us will ever get the "right picture" or which one is better.
We have used both routes with our own children and never looked back, one solely state educated and one solely private, in both cases it worked out very well.

Poodle, sounds like your situation was exactly the same as us. However, in the Northwest there is hardly a grammar school to be seen. State primarys are bursting to the seams with three form entries of 30 in each, the two nearest us are in special measures, the outstanding one my dd went to didn't do homework, spellings or proper PE and by Yr 1 she was on a specialist reading scheme and we were thinking there may be some learning difficulties. There were 29 in the class and a PT TA.

Moved her to an Independent (with boater!), and a different child, very obviously no learning issues. My switched off, demotivated little girl is back to the tenacious, enthusiastic child she used to be.

Mind you two other independents, one very small, have closed in the area recently, so things are tough out there.

I know a good state primary would give us exactly what we are getting now, but sadly that isn't an option where we live, so bully for you lot who are lucky enough to have that. In the meantime, I do what I need to do for my child to fulfill her potential and what should be her right - a good education if I have to pay for that, so be it. I count myself lucky we are in that position.

Tiggytape it is fact that few places are offered to children from the secondary comp to go to the grammar school. It only takes from 13 so prep schools do not lose their children as the majority do not have senior schools. It is common entrance tested. All independent schools here will tell you they teach the building blocks for common entrance and do not have to follow the national curriculum.

It would be nice if things were as equal here as you say they can be in London, but is not . The grammar school here is very different from others as it takes boarders which out of catchment independent schools use to get their pupils in...

A big reason no one has mentioned for private is to get the grammar school place. ( luckily boater free these days!)

I thought that was implied in the last paragraph or the Guardian piece in, 'I plan to send Katy to a state secondary if I can, but if I find myself dissatisfied with what is on offer, I will go private again.'

Exactly- she lives in Kent - if she thought her DC could walk a place later she would save her money.

rabbitstew there's no need to be so patronising. I may not know the economic background of every teenager in my area but I have lived here long enough (and brought up children) to know there is a huge socio economic variation. The point I was making was that the school uniforms round here of a similar standard and unless you knew one uniform from another you could not tell whether pupils wearing them went to state schools or private.

The only way that I could tell is that state schools don't tend to wear tartan - but maybe they do in some areas.

Yes they do in my area, and kilts and stripy blazers

In that case I don't see how you tell the difference .

thing is with this article I thought it was missing was the debate about the cost and the availability of good preschool provision. As she said, the 'free' hours are only useful for a family with both parents working if you already use a nursery (of which there really aren't enough places) or if you have free childcare from grandparents, otherwise in many parts of London/SE childminders insist on being paid for those hours, and not all will do drop off/pick up from pre-school if they have school drop offs to do at different locations.

We currently have DS in a nursery 3 days a week - if I worked full time the cost of a nursery place would be more than prep-school. For a lot of people who are used to this expense every month, it doesn't seem like such a big deal - if you have already arranged your finances to allow for over £1k a month going out for childcare, you will be able afford private prep.

I've also noticed, DS is 2.5 and some parents are taking their DCs out of his nursery for prepschool's pre-school, for the full time places they are attracted by the increased facilities to nursery and that their monthly bill will decrease. Many are vage about what they will do at 5, a couple of years ago they were keen on State, but I can see once your DC is settled it, you are used to paying the money each month, you would need a good reason to move them. At the earlier stage it doesn't seem like making a 'state vs. private' debate as if you need full time childcare for a pre-school DC, it's all 'private'. I can see that some people 'drift' into it.

However, if there was more affordable preschool provision, it wouldn't be the case that parents are used to paying out such huge sums that it doesn't seem like a big deal to go private.

Exotic even though we have different views you have hit the nail on the head. Hopefully my DDs will fly through common entrance for a grammar place. If not they will stay private ..... But then many try to go private here at 11 when they fail the 11+ but as not many senior schools they find it hard to get into these too. Plus here if you are not an existing pupil you must also take a test to get into the senior independent.

OK, mirry - I will try to stop patronising you if you will try to stop patronising people who aren't "cosmopolitan Londoners" whose ideas come from you do not know where (ie my post was a reaction to the way I perceived your post.... I don't tend to view "I don't know where you get your views from" comments as entirely benign, so my apologies if you really didn't mean to be mildly offensive).

rabbitstew, I may have put this badly but I was trying to say that I've never seen a boater in London so I assume they must be far more common outside London. I was getting a bit fed up with all the judgey comments about private school uniforms because you honestly can't tell the difference around here. Actually they're all pretty horrid.

If I was in 11+ area and they failed I would go private-if I could afford it.

dontmindifido - you make a very good point. I know several people who drifted into private schools after private nurseries because the cost just didn't seem that much more, if any, if you already pay 1k childcare a month per child.

Agree Don't MindifIdo

Most at DD's school come for the pre school and stay. A prep school in the next town has now got an onsite nursery taking children from 3 months.

Parents also are used to nurseries open 51 weeks a year, 8-6. The state school my DD was offered had no before/aftercare/holidaycare. Private schools meet that demand.

We dont have any state grammars in bristol.

instead we have one of worst performing leas within bristol itself.

hundreds of kids dont have any 3primary places due to primary admissions crisis.

we have mix of comps and academys.

so no I doint blame so parents for going private.

i would say situation equally as bad as london, birmingham has similar problems

the city keeps growing but sadly not infrastructure with it.
nearby suberb new builds becoming so big many families means my areas desperatly crying out for new secondry school.
my lea is south glos suberbs of bristol very poorly funded .

bristol has highest amount independat schools outside of london.

The nearest ouytdoor prep sadly way beyond affordble for us.

we luckily got eldest into state va rc catholic primary-we noth catholic and 15mins from home and okish results so count ourselves lucky.

what i resent is the guardian and its hypocritical stance on education.

i belive we a democracy that allows choice.

regardless of political persuasion should be parental choice why should writer feel guilty
?