Admissions for private primaries soaring

[Clusterduck]

Every school I’ve contacted has a record number of applications - including my DS’s junior school which is quite competitive and even the non-selective other ones. This is at 7+ and above level. Is anyone else finding this? The feedback I’m getting is that demand has soared since lockdown.

However I don't understand why more people can suddenly find the money for private school. If you had loads of money in the first place then wouldn't your kids already be in private?
We had always thought our children would go to state school (and my eldest did) but our local school was TERRIBLE with distance learning through Covid. (Think Whatsapp photos of poor-quality photocopies of homework sheets!) The children basically missed out on a year of school. We live abroad and after primary, children go to middle school for three years. We decided to move to private schooling just for middle school - with the help of grandparents. It is a stretch and I would love the money tbh but we can do it - although ds complains that our lifestyle is way below that of his classmates - tough! Also I think the fees are probably a lot lower than UK private school!

@Clusterduck @tryandcountsheep

What I want is for my children to be happy. That's my number one priority.

I went to a very, very good private school (NLCS) on a full scholarship from age 11 to age 16. I was super-academic.

My husband, also extremely academically bright, went to his local, good state school.

Both of us ended up with exactly the same qualifications (good GCSEs and A-levels, 1st class BA, MA, PhD) and we have had essentially equivalent levels of success in our careers.

However... The huge difference i see is that the girls I went to school with were unhappy

They were stressed, pressured, overworked. Many of them barely saw their parents. We lived far away from our friends, and spent many many hours travelling to and from school. It was socially and academically intense.

Eating disorders, self harm and unsafe behaviour of all sorts were absolutely rampant. I'm not even getting into my own personal experiences and what I've suffered.

At his state school, my husband saw almost none of that. Those who were bright, with supportive, clever parents, did well.

How I feel about private schools has nothing to do with the misguided insults about 'class war' or whatever.

I want my children to be happy. Relaxed. Comfortable in themselves. I don't ever want them to feel that they're not good enough, or to give up their teenage years to work and stress. They are clever and kind. They will be fine, one way or another. I would never, ever put them into the kind of environment where adults have placed those sort of expectations on their children. Selling your house and going into housing association to get them into that school? Sacrificing holidays and activities and fun? It's not and could never be worth it, and it's not fair on the children.

Above all, I prioritise their happiness, not their "success", by some sort of capitalist, competitive metric.

@CorpseReviver your last post makes sense why you would decide to go down the state route but statements like it's a colossal waste of money and implications that you are state educating to avoid giving your children an unfair advantage are then completely incorrect and not the real issue at all.

Schools like NLCS suit some girls perfectly and they will push them to achieve well as well as provide the contacts for life - I know several in my social circle who went either there or equivalent private schools and then to Oxbridge and have used the contacts to get into excellent jobs (think magic circle law, partners of big firms etc). I know others who went there and are in the same boat as me (and possibly you) - great academics, good careers, happy and content with what we've achieved but many others have achieved similar through state route with good support. Through my work as a HCP, I have also been exposed to those who have struggled to keep up, suffer from mental health difficulties, eating disorders (some more extreme than others) and the high pressure environment was not for them.

This means I make sure the school I send my children to is right for them and they are happy there. I want the same outcome as far as happy, kind, comfortable goes but I also want them to believe in themselves and achieve the best they possibly can. To be stretched and challenged and to have the drive and motivation to go get what they want. Money can come and go in life when they grow up, that self belief and confidence instilled from a young age is hopefully theirs for life and that is why I have chosen to pay for education rather than give them a big house deposit. I feel some sacrifices are worth that (not to the extent of selling my property)

Sorry you lost me at I went to NLCS....

Is there anything sadder than the private school educated evangelical anti private schooler? Yawn......Someone who has never experienced going to a failing state school, with no resources, no hope, no discipline, no prospects....

If ever a thread has summed up how the last few years have gone it’s this one.

some unable to eat, meanwhile private schools bursting at the seems.

trickle down works doesn’t it.

I can gladly accept working class voices who hate the private school system and its hold on all the top positions of society , but I will never accept privately educated people with higher degrees patronising people what a waste of money private school are and telling them bullshit about 'happiness' when most people in this country can barely afford to heat themselves and feed their values a 7 a day diet.

It's so cringe and pathetically middle classed.

Same as it ever was though...

The gap between rich and poor is getting wider and wider and the uptick in private schools is the desperation of some parents to ensure their kids don't get left behind. Because despite what dippy, privately educated, happiness is key parents may tell you, the UK has a fierce class system , it always has and its one built on a system that perpetuates itself through the public school system, has been for centuries and shows no sign of changing. Anyone who tells you different is talking bollocks.

It’s ok talking about what schools were like when you were a child but that’s not the reality now. This idea of state school pupils being happier and less stressed? No don’t think it’s the case at all, funding is woeful and everything is target driven and they’re all trying to catch up because of the lack of teaching in many schools over the pandemic. The kids have to go in unwell because they get a stroppy letter if attendance is less than 96%. There’s little budget to put towards extra-curricular or pastoral care or learning support. I actually think many parents are prioritising private so that their children can attend a more rounded school which cares about them and isn’t just an exam factory working towards the target so that the executive principal can get a nice bonus.

I have children in state schools and have done for years. I can compare directly. I went to a private school on a full scholarship (my parents had very little money). I would not send my own kids private even if the same was offered.

I was at nlcs for 5 years. State school the rest of the time. My own kids are at state schools. But you are determined to keep insulting me personally, for some reason, so I don't think there's any value in me continuing to respond to you.

Such vitriol for the state sector during covid. Such praise for the private sector - they are clearly so much better!
Public sector set up for online learning …..
1/. Select an online comms package safe in the knowledge that it doesn’t matter which one you pick, the children will all be able to access it
2/. send emails to all parents explaining what to down load and sign up to. Within 24 hours, every child is signed up
3/. Begin online lesson. Every child has full access - a laptop of their own and printer, desk, chair, all the paper and stationary and they are ready and waiting to go because parents have got them up and ready in line with the timetable you have sent
4/. deliver on line learning lecture style with little to no adaptation needed as most kids do not have SEND or if they do, they have a parent sat next to them supporting
5/. all children are online. There a zero children in school as they are not ‘key workers’ or if they are they have support networks to sort it and there are no vulnerable children. There are no safeguarding responsibilities, no DV referrals, no children in CP plans to visit daily to see if they are still alive
6/. Do a hybrid model of live teaching followed by independent activities safe in knowledge that all kids will actually do them
and if they don’t, call parents who will sort immediately. These will immediately be scanned back for marking.
7/. if primary, parents will be doing reading, writing and maths daily on top of what you are doing and are educated to the degree where they are able to. Loads are working in professional roles where they are wfh or pt or sahm
Secondary - Most of the children you are teaching will also be having private tutoring in the subject(s) they aren’t as strong at

State school setting up online learning
1/. Find out how many children actually have any device in the home that can carry an online comms package - less that 25% in most schools and it’s mainly phones or the odd tablet and either their parents or there is only one between 2/3 children
2/, select the best package you can and send out emails to parents half of whom do not have email or do not answer it. Spend days teaching parents who do get in touch how to download an app and log in
3/. start producing paper packs of work because most kids can’t get online
4/. divide your teachers as 40 - 60 % of your children are actually in school … usually the most challenging, disadvantaged or SEND but half your staff are critically vulnerable so can’t come in. And some need to do home visits twice daily due to safeguarding concerns and the fact the social service
all but closed down
3/. Simultaneously explore some way of sourcing 100’s of extra devices, and work out how to get them home and set up in computer illiterate households. Oh and they have no broadband …… so find dongles and then figure out how to set these up remotely. If primary, do all this with no IT support because the last IT tech was made redundant in 1998 due to budget cuts
4/. provide school meals to those in school and those not in school and somehow get them home
5/. spend hours phoning parents trying to find out why their children aren’t logged on even when they do finally have the IT kit
6/. deliver lecture style lessons to meet the needs of a massive spectrum of abilities and SEND needs for children
7/. deal with parental
complaints about the work being too hard, too easy, not scaffolded enough, not in line with their child’s plan
8/. deal with parents close to breaking point as the 80% furlough isn’t enough to live on - the 20% difference is the difference between coping and starving. Or they could only work because family did after school care and now they can’t
9/. deal with families who entire support network - family centre, mental health worker, addiction support, social care disappeared over night and you are the only ‘service’ they can find

I could go on….

private school numbers are going up because the outcome of this vast vast disparity of Covid experience which stretches far beyond education is coming home to roost and state schools are absolutely overwhelmed. And all the staff are leaving.
And parents don’t want their children in classes where 5 out of 30 of the class have significant social and emotional issue bought about by the context in which they are living and the impact of the last 2 years, where another 5 children have significant complex SEND issues that have been neglected for 2 years, where 8 more went MIA for two years and are just behind. And the class teacher, who worked 10 hours a day to try to offer online lessons, SEND plans, safeguarding visits, IT support and family support during COVID for two years is now facing this all alone because the one teaching assistant they did have is covering staff absence every day.

just a thought !

Oh and the exodus from London means private owned middle class housing prices everywhere have rocketed so they have equity in their house to borrow against for school fees; they are more likely to work in professions that have moved to hybrid working and so are better off due to home working. And most private schools are not Eton and so a bit ‘extra’ brings them into reach if that is the family priority.

@Noname99 the fault does not lie with the state sector or the fantastic teachers who work in it. Those teachers are most likely better than those who teach DD at her private school. However the government has made their jobs impossible for all the reasons you mention. Constant budget cuts, poor pay, ever increasing workload and teachers on the verge of breakdown. They have to firefight which means attention is diverted away from teaching they want to do to try address all the other issues.

The government are solely to blame for the inadequate COVID provision - we could see events unfolding worldwide and rather than making plans, they stuck their heads in the sand until the last possible second where there was no time. They opened the money taps for everything else in the economy except for education. Why should it take a footballer to campaign for school meals for those in need?

While I have written to my MP and do not vote conservative, the immediate issue for me selfishly is my children's education. I am lucky to have the means to pay elsewhere that the provision is better and so have chosen to do so. The article OP linked to describes many of our situations

Noname99

From my experience of home learning in lockdown, I'd really disagree with what you said - most parents were complaining about not having a laptop that they didn't need to work from, one particular parent complained endlessly about how hard/easy/boring the work was, less than half of the kids were on the live lessons each day as their parents were working. Those kids in school (loads of medic parents at DCs school) got no teaching and had to do the home learning in their own time.

We personally just withdrew from home learning as it wasn't possible for us to work (I'm hospital) and do the learning as well as DC was just too tired in the evenings but DH needed the laptop in the day to work.

Our school was totally closed for a term in lockdown (no provision for vulnerable etc) and provided absolutely no live teaching and no phone calls etc. It was appalling. To be fair many states schools did better but it’s not as if you can just transfer to what school you like, you can however choose a private school if you have the money.
@CorpseReviver nobody is taking issue with whatever choice you make for your own children. You must surely accept that all children, circumstances and schools are different and that you can’t extrapolate into behalf of everyone else.

London (zone 2) state primary here. Our school and other local primaries have definitely seen numbers drop - not because more people are opting for indie, but because a decent number have moved out.

I was coming on to say some of the schools I know in my area have had a lot of HK children coming in.

The 'see who's running the country' comment is true for us too but in a very different way. I look at the likes of Williamson, Gove etc and I want them to have as little influence over what my children do at school as humanly possible. That's one of the main reasons we went for an independent school.

- I know several in my social circle who went either there or equivalent private schools and then to Oxbridge and have used the contacts to get into excellent jobs (think magic circle law, partners of big firms etc).

This is the crux of why social mobility in the UK is still so poor. Never mind about the type of education you get, it's all about your private school contacts. "It's not what you know, it's who you know" is as true as it ever was.

London here. Not the case. The amount of advertising and marketing that is going on to gain more students customers is high. The long waiting list ones have responded a lot quicker than I had anticipated (one month after application despite applying very late and not at birth). A school closing down due to families moving away so not getting the numbers that need to be able to function. I can't comment on the ones where the royals have attended or the selective ones but the non selective ones, it's a different story. But then again, the ones I visited back in winter had 20 students in one class with one teacher. The whole stake vs private for me is the education obviously but also the small class sizes so more time and attention is given to attend each students learning needs.

There's a couple of great state schools nearby that offers the same level or better education than the mediocre independent schools nearby with better outdoor facilities which dc was also accepted despite living 0.8 miles away in the heart of London which I have happily accepted.

I'd been a primary teacher in state schools for a decade and the thought of sending DC to private school never crossed my mind until recently. As with other public services schools are not in a good place right now, and we are seriously considering private. I moved over to teach in an independent school after being worn down by my job and effectively, as with many other teachers, jumping ship before it sank. I went in open minded and definitely didn't think it'll be amazing but thought I can always leave if it sucks- but the difference is night and day. I tried to fight and be a part of a system that gave opportunities to all but it just wasn't worth it, and as we can afford it I'd love for my child to have a better education than many schools can offer due to cuts, ridiculous policies and unrealistic target chasing that draws time away from learning. The situation after covid and provision for sen students is just bloody awful.

@BungleandGeorge this is precisely the reason we have decided to send our DD to an independent. It is more about the extra curricular/enrichment activities that private school offer rather than an expectation of higher grades at GCSE/A level. State schools just can't compete with the pastoral elements due to lack of finance.

Gosh small classes. Our local private schools are up at mid 20's and still full!

I don’t know anyone who went to private school who is still close to their friends at secondary school level let alone at prep so I don’t buy the contact building argument - it’s not a selling point to me. I would rather my children were insulated from the whims of government policy and crappy funding, I would rather my children had the chance to try sports on playing fields rather than running around a patch of concrete. I want them to have access to enrichment activities which don’t involve me spending half a day in a car/public transport to access them outside of school hours and I would rather they gain that confidence that they’ve had a go at many things - even if they do not progress in any of them. I did very well at my state school but have definitely been surpassed career-wise by adults with the same or lower skill levels who had that innate confidence. They were all privately educated. And yes I know confidence can be gained in many ways.

@Clusterduck it is not about staying friends. The leading private schools (NLCS, Habs, Eton, Harrow etc) all have strong old girls'/boys' associations for past students. They provide contacts for those looking to get into a certain field of work. They also give talks to current pupils and help with work experience. Parents of pupils (who are very likely to be high earning) also help each others' children with work experience and exposure. This network is extremely valuable when looking at high level jobs as there is a bias that they will be a certain calibre. I am not saying I agree with it but it most certainly exists

I am educating my primary age children privately for all the same reasons as you. I love that DD's school sets the curriculum and not the government. They work to the children and they do so many extra curricular activities in the school day.