What are the general advantages of private over state primary education? How do we choose?

[cakesonatrain]

DS is 3 so school applications are obviously in mine and DH's minds. We are moving house soon, and the new area has excellent state primaries, and grammar schools. We can afford to go private for primary (the school we're considering will cost a smidge less than nursery fees).
Obviously every individual school is different and has different pros and cons. But are there any generally acknowledged benefits of a small private primary?
I think what I want to understand is, what would we actually be buying for our 2 grand a term or whatever it is, over and above/different from what the children would get from the excellent state school?

I know we need to go and visit the schools, but obviously we can't do that right now. What sorts of things should we be looking for/asking about when we do visit?

Can you give us any help in deciding? DH is very pro-private, my position is something like "I'm happy to spend the money if we are really buying an advantage and significantly better experience for our children, but imagine what we could do with that sort of money if we decided not to spend it on school fees"

[cakesonatrain]

We haven't moved there yet, mandy!

[cakesonatrain]

And we have looked at catchment etc - did that before we made an offer on the house.

[mandy214]

Oh I didn't realise that!

[violetsareblue11]

DS2 and DD are both at a co-ed prep school (and DS1 has left to go on to another leading independent senior school) and we haven't looked back! There are several advantages to a private education: a child will on average get more attention due to small class sizes, the staff will be well qualified, the extracurricular clubs and trips will be endless and the curriculum will typically be more colourful. I'm state-educated, albeit at an all girls school, and haven't a bad word about my state school- it was brilliant and I got to blend in with all sorts of girls (and I mean all sorts!) I just selected a private education for my lot as I think private education has more to it, and offers more opportunities to those who will take them.

[Nneoma]

Go state first if you feel the way you do (although your DH also has a right to educate your DS the way he wants too). Agree to move him if he is not happy or more importantly you and your DH are unhappy with his progress or the school. If possible identify the private school(s) that you could move him to if all goes awry.

We started in state with the hope to go private for secondary. We are not opposed to selective or private education. Was not happy with state school by YR2, not sure if it was so much the schools fault now that we have left and I can look back. It was more of a combination of things which meant that if DS remained with his particular year group (which would have happened as only 1 intake so 30 in a year) he would have done ok, but we thought at the time that he was capable of more than ok. So we moved him. Other state schools were full and we just thought lets be radical and scrap our original plan to educate from secondary.

2 years later and sometimes when I see how he has struggled to get above average in Literary (Grammer, writing, comprehension) in his year of 60 pupils at new school (meanwhile he was the king of all subjects at state school), I really wished we could have moved him after reception which is when I think the gaps start to occur.

Having said that I know friends who have Dcs in state school and speak so highly of their choice, so maybe we were unlucky.

[save4it]

I can't afford private schools so can only comment on good state schools. My dd2 changed school last year from a good school to a good school. Both schools have very similar sat results. However the latter is always over subscripted so each class always has 30 children but the school has more TAs and specialist TAs. Also the school communication with parents is way better than the 1st one. So parents can support their dcs more effectively. The latter has more a community feel and the children seem happier. it certainly is for my dd2. The 1st one is obsessed with streaming and ability settings. The 2nd one is mixed abilities and more focuses on individual child. Dd2 has weekly 1:1 lesson with a TA sometimes she needs support and sometimes she is given extension work. I believe because the 2nd school has more TAs therefore it can be more flexible with their approaches to suit the individuals.

Also bearing in mind the high sat results don't necessarily represent the true teaching quality of a school especially in a gs area. As many parents are secretly doing a lot of tutoring outside school hours either pay private teachers or by themselves.