Prep vs State school

[user1484843368]

Hi there, my little girl has been picked on by her teacher, she is year 1 at a prep. We are working with the school but I wonder if she would be happier in the huge local school (30 to a class and 500 kids total) than there. Also the teachers (except the head) have closed ranks and are being unprofessional with us and her IMO. Does anyone have thoughts/ experience of state vs prep?

@user1484843368 You might find it helpful to ask MNHQ to move this thread to Primary Education. (Academic Common Room is for university level academic researchers.)

FWIW I don’t think your current difficulty can be generalised as ‘state v private’. It’s a problem with a particular school. There’s no reason why a different prep might not offer a different experience. Equally you may like some state schools and not others. But it does sound as if something has gone very wrong at the current school.

It’s hard to generalise as ALL schools are different.
We went for State Primary (3 form entry so big) as it was a good school and suited our DC then Private Secondary as the local Comp is pretty bad.
If you have a good State Primary available to you that has a space then I dint think there is need for Private at that stage

Thank you both

You need to look around different schools. Larger primaries mean you have a bigger pool to choose your friends from. Smaller means much more limited friendship groups. Size of school didn't make any difference to how the school 'felt'.
We looked at several primary schools, each school was so different. Two we vetoed straight away as they felt very impersonal (felt like the children were numbers not individuals). One was completely chaotic, one was very old fashioned and felt Victorian children beautifully behaved but just no warmth, the remainder were lovely, so we put them down in order of proximity to home. (All state primaries).

Thanks , much appreciated

Has the school identified the cause of this one teacher’s poor attitude? And put a stop to both that and the hostility from other teachers?

Apart from this teacher is your daughter unhappy at the school? What is the unprofessional behaviour by the other teachers? Is she aware of it?

I vaguely agree that any advantages of independent schooling are more significant at senior level. But that assumes one has access to a decent state primary school.