What are the hidden costs of a state education?

[belledechocolatefluffybunny]

Ds's first school:
Trips times 2
chairs
fundraising-plants, books, charity (red nose/book day/children in need)
school uniform
lunch
reading books for ds as the school did not have any that were appropriate for him.

Was getting very confused there, there's another 'fluffy'!

There are no state schools/catchment that offer all of that around here mrz.

yes there is a new head and she is soooo fantastic, I will be in tears when DS2 leaves in July

Yup, there's another belle aswell

The head's make or break the school.

I see belledechoc, but in all honesty, it is still not something you had to pay but something you choose to pay. I tend to see "cost" as something there is no escaping from rather than a voluntary thing. In reality, it does indeed cost you/me but no one really forced you/me to pay, we choose to, so once we payed we cannot really complain that it is to much.

well DS1 is about to start at a state school that offers art, swimming, etc etc in fact most of mrz's list, apart from martial arts maybe.

All as part of the school timetable tho, maybe it doesn't count on advantage rating unless they are after school classes???

most do around here ...

but we are in a disadvantaged area

Would have loved to MrsZ and in fact thought I had but it turned out that by offering French they meant for one term to the year 2's and then one term to the year 6's before they all transfer to the local high school which offers Spanish and Mandarin
Again swimming was/is year 4 one solid week for 2 weeks of intensive lessons and that was your lot.
Compare that with swimming every week for an hour, on top of normal 3 lessons a week of PE from year 1 upwards it's then just one of many things you can relax and leave to the school freeing up time to spend with the DC's, money is the least your worries.

I think making parents feel obliged to buy their child a chair for school changes it from being voluntary. No parent wants their child to miss out, you don't want to say no to the school either so it is more of an obligation.

Goodness, the state school ds moved from in September had a football club and a gardening club, nothing else. There's a huge variation on what's on offer in state schools.

We teach MFL from nursery in all year groups all year so by the time they leave they've had 7 years of MFL.

We have our own pool so available all year for all classes.

We actually teaching Zulu as an add on for one term in honour of the World Cup

oh I missed out the gardening club and the football training and cricket coaching and tennis ...

There really is such a variation on what schools offer, I do understand why so many people are anti-private schools, especially when their state school offers so much. Not every school is the same though.

(fluffy sits and wonders how her chair is doing)

dds school extras (not lunch clothes etc)

£1 a week for swimming (yr5/6)
Football club £15 a term for external coaches (or free fortnightly but cancelled often run by teachers)dd does a combination
Guitar £5 a week (optional)
Trips are mainly local & on foot. Dd1s summer day out is £2.50
Yr5 residential /yr6 residential (about 75% go) up to £200 each.

I do get cross when we get letters about trips etc and there's a 'voluntary' contribution. It always adds 'if you cannot pay this all at once please see mrs hitler the school secretary for ways to pay in installments. Eh? What's 'voluntary' about that?

I'm not anti private schools there is a place for both but I feel your initial post is flawed.

Maybe, the point is that there's no such thing as a free education. People on here in particluar go on about how fantastic their child's state school is, how private schools should be banned etc, there's no or little acknowledgement that not everyone has access to a good state school.

It depends on your interpretation of 'education'. The state provides teachers, buildings and facilities to deliver the NC. This is a free education. Most schools will try to provide extras but will be limited by how much support they get from voluntary help, local community etc.

But there is free education just it doesn't include all the extras. and yes dare I say it ...in my school every child gets a free lunch

True hocus. Ds's last school 'education' consisted of photocopied printed sheets (ds has told me that they must have been recycled as they had errased answers on them), if he thought he was good at maths he could try the harder side of the sheet

So yet again those in the middle are shafted If you want to live in an area where there's low crime and the neighbors don't have 2 heads or rob you then your local school is seen as privileged and therefore the parents can fund the computers, libraries etc.
The well off don't care because they'll just use private and those in "deprived" areas don't seem very deprived to me, wonder what would happen if the so called middle earners all started putting down their local council estate school as their first choice.

I did that mamatomany, the last school ds went to was in a middle area, he was badly bullied and bored so I moved him, to a small school on the same road.

School is in an area of low crime, no two headed neighbours

people are never done banging on about how they have no good state schools around them, belle. I don't think any mnetter is in any doubt on that score.