is private REALLY better?

[ChuppaChups]

just out of interest, i would appreciate some OPINIONS on this area as i am seriously considering the move to private from state. The main reason being is we are now financially able to do so.

So, is it better and why?

Thanks

TDiddy, I take your point. I went to a comp, my brother private, but I have the better GCSE and ALevels, went to the more prestigious university, mostly due to the fact that I had better teaching. There is no doubt we have been shaped by our differences in schooling.

of course private is better, but then again if your child can succeed in the state then surely it's worth lots more than being spoon fed to pass tests.

Yes, low expectations, Janeite. I remember that from my teacher training.

What do you mean? It's nothing to do with low expectations. We really do get pupils starting with us on P levels ie: way, way below the average level for even a KS1 pupil. For them to get a GCSE is a huge achievement and the CVA reflects that. Their E has as much worth as another child's A or A* (and you know what, we get those too). Not sure you are quite understanding CVA.

my school life was blighted by this scienceteacher.

Oh, I understand CVA - we live and breathe CVA in independent non-selective schools.

But I also understand what it means to have low expectations for pupils -they will generally live up to these expectations. The research backs this up.

So if a P level student should be given the opportunity to work at the highest level they are capable of then Janeite, why are so many 'bright' students left to bumble along & not achieve their best then? Oh yes, because the comp uses all it's resources on the P level student of course!
I am not saying they should not get the help, but surely this proves a need for a jolly good grammar system again like we did in the good old days? Then all could achieve their best, whatever the level they are capable of.

Is your school selective scienceteacher? Other than by income?

The worst behaviour I have ever experienced in a classroom was at the school I attended with the most priveledged children. They were so arrogant they thought they were better than the teachers, and they knew that little would be done about their behaviour either. Sure they didn't throw "geek or nerd" as insults (those weren't the words used when I was at school anyway, it would have been swot I suppose) but there was high level disruption, which I recall being horrified and very irritated by. Posh kids can be just as obnoxious as poor ones, and behave just as badly. Differently badly I expect, and when they all went off to Oxford/Russel Group universities I expect they behaved very badly there too. I remember our Physics master (ex-CERN and very very clever, but no idea or experience in teaching - looked great on the prospectus though) standing at the front of a room of A level students who were engaged in reading comics, wrecking experiments or just chatting and just saying "Why?" we had all chosen to do Physics, we were all bright and capable, and we were all well on our way to failing.

I have already said that my school is non-selective.

x-posts

Do you honestly think an E is a low expectation for a child who enters on P6?

Perhaps you'd like to come and see me teach? I assure you I treat ALL of my pupils the same and have the same high expectations for them. Trots off feeling offended.

Oh and what's a "peri" please?

We expect all our students to get minimum grade C, regardless of where they come into school.

Do you get any coming in on P levels?

As a non-selective school, we get all levels. Even weak students deserve a good education.

Of course they do. I would LOVE to see evidence of you getting somebody on P levels at age 11 or 12 up to grade C at 15 or 16 though. But now I am going - because I am cross.

If I was still living in London I would agree, but there is no 'of course private is better' in my neck of the woods. Having visited private primaries for dc I have been, quite frankly, disappointed. I was also shocked to find a teacher dismissed from a maternity cover for unprofessional behaviour rock up in a local private school as HofD!

I also happen to teach in an outstandingly successful state school which puts ALL the private schools in the region in the shade examination results wise, including a public school. But parents will still happily pay for the public and private schools because their results are still pretty good and my state school still has tough kids that they don't want their own child exposed to, classes of 30 and the cricket tour doesn't take in Barbados.

You know that the P scales are for children working towards NC level 1 right? And you have children entering your school at that level and leaving with a grade C at GCSE Science?

if children have the drive they will succeed whatever their education.

the amount of private school kids i have met who are going into law or medicine is quite depressing. just seems their parents made up their minds for them as soon as they were born.

Have you seen the GCSE Science curriculum?

Have you seen a child working towards level 1 in your lab?

Criticims of science curriculum notwithstanding...

We have five years to work with them in the senior school....

Why do you want to hold them back? So sad.

So Scienceteacher how many of your p level students have got a C grade?

You are avoiding the question. Do you teach pupils on P levels? Pupils who arrive with not a word of English in Yr 10? Pupils who haven't been to school, anywhere, when they arrive in Yr 8? Pupils who have been to 15 primary schools or are on their third or fourth senior school? Who have no books in their house at all except maybe a copy of the Qu'ran?

I don't want to hold them back at all; I want to help them all I can but that doesn't mean I can get them all grade C and it certainly doesn't mean I'm failing them if they don't get it.

The real world is right here but you don't seem to be living in it.