'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.

ps I am feeling perfectly calm, thank you, iaytoda. Are you feeling calm?

vezzie - it isn't really surprising that there is a lot of debate around private schools and state schools, given that we keep being told about the apparent over-representation of privately educated people in particular walks of life by our own politicians. It makes it very difficult for people to assess how much of that is down to their education, how much down to their family background, how much down to their own innate intelligence, how much down to individual drive, so people plump for education making the difference, particularly since some people are willing to pay so much for it.

rabbit people 'plump' where they can. They can do nothing about class, background, parents education etc so they 'plump' school education. It's not really rocket science. Re. The jobs, people will employ people who 'fit'. Not fair but there it is.

But, SiliBili, I can afford it but didn't choose it. Its not the best choice, all round, for my dds and our family.

And personally, I would rather 30 than 10 (though 25 is even better!)

I am not even sure what we are debating here. The guardian article to me seemed lazy. Why is the point of it?! The journalist seems to want to publicise that her daughter goes to private school with a posh uniform. There is really no deep substance to it.

rabbitstew, I know, and that debate has to happen, and those questions have to be asked. On a systemic level it is outrageous.

What a weak article. Written by a parent with very very little experience of having a child at school, but based entirely upon extrapolating from that limted experience. The new statesman piece is much stronger.

My sons went to state primary and now go to private secondary, despite passing for the local gammars. The younger has just finished year six. 18 out of 70 in his year (in classes of 35) achieved level 6 in maths on the externally assessed SATs. So you could pretty well say that they exceeded national expectations, since under 1% of the national cohort does so. You choose the school you like best of the options available to you, it's not rocket science.

elibean, maybe because u may live in a 'good school' catchment. Would you for example send you children to a 'bad' inner london comprehensive of you had the money just so that your children can experience the cultural (in all forms, from class to financial ) difference? I really doubt it.

proposition I agree with all your comment.

I think 10 in a class is too few. Larger classes give your children more chance to make friends and a variety of friends.

minty by class sizes, people may generally mean teacher/teaching assistant to child ratio.

Oh?

If they mean that, then it's not at all uncommon for a state school 'class size' to be 15, then! Hurray!

Lots of 'fatuous unsupported statements' in you responses Polly!

Kettle, pot, black?!!!

Oh, I wasn't aware Polly was being paid to write an article for a broadsheet newspaper, paddlinglike hell?...

I don't think anyone ever means adult/child ratio when they say class size. They generally mean - er - the number of children in the class.

IME private schools do better on adult/child ratio too. Private school classes (at primary level) generally seem to have a dedicated TA, whereas state schools are more likely to share TAs between classes.

Ah, it is ok, I was just letting silibili tell me cos I is an uneducated product of the state school system - a comprehensive, too! Just think.

Silibilimili: my 2 are at state schools and we can more than afford 2 sets of private fees without sacrifice but we chose not to as we have very good state schools which have more than lived up to our expectations. One reason we didn't choose a local prep school is precisely because the classes were too small. We did not want our children in a class of 10, the teaching would be more tailored but socially it is too restrictive. My daugher has 10 girls in her one form entry class, she is now year 5 and it is too claustrophobic and they are starting to get sick of each other. I don't think that this would be such a problem if there were more girls. Ideally I would like a class of about 20. It is big enough to choose friendships and small enough for more attention. Having said that 30 doesn't bother me a bit, I actually think it works well for my children.

No she wasn't, but there are far too many generalisations about Private vs State both in the press and on the boards.

I went to a tough Comp. and did OK, but the state system I chose for my dd let her down badly and is still letting those kids down that are in her old class now. I feel incredibly lucky that we could do something about it, but also desperate and angry about the whole thing, for my friends who can't and the kids that are still in that madness.

I have to say however, I am shocked at the differences, maybe I am naieve, but I didn't think they would be so great.

I also think the fact she had to wear a hat is ridiculous!!!

The journalist seems to want to publicise that her daughter goes to private school with a posh uniform.

I thought that too. I wonder if the school would have been so attractive without the uniform complete with boater?

It might have been more attractive - how embarrassing and uncomfortable can it be to wear a straw boater? I'd be really annoyed to have to go through that just for the sake of a good education.

Not all private schools have a straw boater as uniform but so what if they do. Seems a silly thing to pick up on and object to.

No straw boaters at our DCs private school. We do have a boat house though.

minty you seem to want to pick fights rather than have a debate. Maybe that is uneducated.

Re. The class sizes, I was trying to understand the debate. I have only experienced the smaller size so far so no experience of the Benefit of the larger.

Yes, those straw hats do look silly and out dated.

It isn't silly to object to a uniform that is expensive and looks uncomfortable. You may think the school is wonderful so it doesn't matter, but if you don't then an uncomfortable looking school uniform with lots of unnecessary trimmings which add to the cost would put me off, not attract me to the school... And I doubt anyone would choose a school just because of the uniform.