constant battles on the subject of private versus state education, so why didnt anyone mention this before?

[vvvodka]

dc just been put into private school. and they do games. lots and lots and lots and lots of games. and i dont have to scout around for decent footie, or karate or whatever, they just do it all at the school, coz the school organises it. he now does about six hundred percent more sport than he ever did in his ofsted outsdanding state school.

and he meets a bigger variety of people. more skin colours, more accents, more cultures, just more variety of everything. not just in his school, but also in the schools that they go off to play matches against and that come to their school to play matches with. in dc1's entire seven year career at the outstanding state primary, he never once met another childf rom another school in an event organised by the school.

so far, i am very very pleased with it. i just am surprised that no one ever mentioned it on the state versus private threads on here. or maybe they did, and i had tuned out at this point? or is ofsted fibbing about that particular state school being outstanding?

Yeeees.

The school I teach in would open your eyes I think Quatt.

Bingo hall owner! You are soooo middle class!

I don't think there are many younger parents no, I suspect this would be the same at the more 'middle class' state schools - it's quite well-documented that middle class parents are having children later.

what not people actually in trade ?

money

The 'age of the parents' thing is not something I had thought about until recently when I was sussing out or local state school. Some of the parents were the age of my niece.

I am not sure if it is a good/bad thing or irrelevant.

You are laughing at me Am I not being terribly enlightened and broad-minded in allowing the DCs to mix with the offspring of bingo hall owners?

lol @ bingo hall owner and fisah and chip shop owner. SPot the common word

Now if you child was mixing with the daughter of a bingo caller and the son of the chip fryer I WOULD be impressed!

"and he meets a bigger variety of people. more skin colours, more accents, more cultures, just more variety of everything"

More of everything except perhaps people who can't afford football, karate or whatever. More everything perhaps except people who seriously know what it's like to struggle financially in life. More children who think that everyone can afford football, karate, the latest trainers, pony parties..

I will not criticise anyone for educating their child privately but stop bashing the state sector please.

I meet two girls who have both been privatly educated and went this last summer to India - yes the trip was funded by the parents, but on that trip they had to work at two schools building toilets in one and helping with the children in the other.

Both girls said it was three fantastic weeks where they had nothing but admiration for the chidren they were with who had nothing.

They found there lives camping in the outbuilding of the school with no toilets and no elcetric quite an experiance.

You don't have to experiance things just by going to a state school, yes state schools have a variety of pupils, but it isn't the only way.

Girls from my dd's state school - and many of the state schools in the area do the same, Ivykate!

Exactly - you can go to school in private or state and still mix with poverty.

I don't think I understand the point you are making - sorry.

ivy is saying you don't need to grow up amongst poverty. You can just spend a heck of a lot of money to have a working holiday amongst poverty instead - lol

and spend a fortnight in goa at the end of it

That school sounds a bit Claustrophobic tbh. What if your child is not popular, or bullied, or just needs a break.

I feel strongly that extra-curriculum activities should be quite seperate from school to benefit from different people and experiences.

I also think it is a bit lazy to just hand your child over to the school for everything.

"ivy is saying you don't need to grow up amongst poverty. You can just spend a heck of a lot of money to have a working holiday amongst poverty instead - lol"

That's what I thought she was saying, but I was giving her the benefit of the doubt!

"I also think it is a bit lazy to just hand your child over to the school for everything."

Ah, I've been found out ... I don't think it is necessarily just laziness though. There's an element of extreme busyness as well.

But d'you know, the blardy schools expect so much involvement, it's scarey. And they expect you to take them to extra sports coaching and stuff.

state versus private debate. i should have known it would turn into that old thing.

oh well.

Yes I agree with those who say that the OP's state primary needs to look over the parapet.

My DCs' non-outstanding inf and jnr schools involve them in footie matches/bands/choral events/inter-school exchanges etc.

It's not something that only goes on in private schoosl IME.

Agree with hat and MI about the games. It's hardly astonishing really that when you pay £££ to a private school you get footie coaching thrown in.

The ideologues are in short supply on this thread.

Are there private schools that offer football coaching then? Surely the better schools only teach rugby ...

oh well in that case private deffo not for me

Rugby = wrong shaped ball!

The better schools teach the Eton Field Game.

sorry, to late to read through whole thresd but DSs school go to week long trips to activity parks every year from y3 and one 3 day trip to france in year 6, and have away game for sports(so they mix with differant people all the time) they have numerous amount of after school clubs to keep them occupied.

i spent 1 year in private education at the age of 15 and it was the worse thing ever. i know it was only one year but it really made me realise at a young age that money really isnt everything!!!

ive spent my short life in poverty. richness and inbetween! and had state and private education. and the most happiest when i im poor and in state education!!!

just because you pay for it doesnt mean your child is better for it! x

vvvodka, were you seriously expecting that lots of other parents of privately educated parents would be piling in to say something along the lines of "oh yes darling now you've seen the light" along with perhaps a few state school hardnicks who might say "goodness me we were totally wrong in our assumptions about private schools, they really are wonderful" and maybe a few others saying "oh I must work harder and then maybe my dc can join yours in utopia"

Because otherwise I really fail to understand how you could possibly imagine that your thread would be any different from the 101 other threads that have gone along pretty much the line of this one.

Because it isn't really a surprise that your school offers more than the standard state school - did it not market itself that way? After all private schools need to offer fairly hefty inducements to get parents to pay for something that they can get for free.

As for the "surprising" ethnic diversity, did you think that only white people could afford to pay? There are rich people who come from different ethnic backgrounds, in fact quite a few - it totally depends on the ethnic and social mix of the area the school draws from (and what else is on offer - the single sex/religious affiliation is sometimes an additional draw). Plus if it's a boarding school or plays against other boarding schools then the rich kids from overseas are very sought after by public schools.

Oh and as for Ofsted, it would be very unreasonable if it had to include schools like Eton (or any very well funded private school for that matter) in it's rating system for state schools, as very few state schools would have the same facilities. Doesn't mean that the previous school wasn't very good (and in any case many competitive sports only really get going at secondary age)