What are the main reasons for choosing a private school?

[beelegal]

My sister-in-law and I were chatting over tea this afternoon about private schools for my nephew, who’s coming up to secondary age.
She’s been to a few open days earlier this year and was particularly taken with one school nearby. However, during the headteacher’s speech, he said: “The teaching is the same in all schools — what we offer is more outside the classroom.”He then went on to highlight the school’s pastoral care, facilities, and wide range of sports and activities.

Perhaps we’re being a little naïve, but we’d always assumed the teaching itself would be better in a private school. For example, my daughter once had Maths taught by a PE teacher at her state school. We thought that in the independent sector you’d have subject specialists — a highly qualified Maths teacher for Maths, for instance.

We also imagined class sizes would be much smaller, with more opportunities for a child who isn’t particularly sporty but enjoys academic study. Yet the average class size was around 25, which isn’t especially small.

Pastoral care is so vague that schools all seem to determine themselves if theirs is good. All the private schools claim excellence.

So it does raise the question: if the teaching really is no different, why not choose a state school and simply join a local hockey or swimming club at the weekend — which would be far more affordable?

Given fees of around £25,000 a year, what are the real advantages of private education, and what justifies that cost?

Very true. Just exaggeration around hobbies.

because eating pizza and drinking beer with friends whilst working all hours to scrape a first on 69.6% doesn't look quite so "flowery" for potential students' parents.

She is running Friday cinema club... eating popcorn, watching a movie, discussing it... much more in her wheelhouse than cricket, rowing or rugby.

Yeh but a potential parent isn't going to spend too much time worrying about the authenticity of hobbies BUT it does sometimes help eg DD is very horsey so knowing the teachers who also were gave her a connection with them, leada to conversations etc.
As a parent all I'm looking for is degree level/subject and whether a teacher is qualified plus tenure.

We're in an area with a super selective grammar (as well as half a dozen general grammars) it has no limit on from where it takes students. Kids travel 90 minutes by train and bus to get to this "local" superselective.

The teaching is no different when it happens but in most private schools the teachers are spending very little of their time on crowd control and disciplinary issues so there is more teaching time. Class sizes being smaller also makes a difference and I would guess, though have no stats to show that staff burnout and stress absence is lower so a lower rate of cover lessons and non-specialist teaching. But the teachers have the same knowledge and are qualified to the same level. But the open day is the sales pitch and an important part of that is how to ease the conscience of the politically left-leaning parents who might feel guilty about buying privilege, and to feed them a script for how to defend their decision. Any reason given for why a particular parent made a particular decision will heavily depend on the context and the questionner.

I have never heard of an all girls state that isn't a grammar! I'd have loved this. Whereabouts are you in the country @Hiptothisjive ? As my name suggests we are looking at options for 6th form as the VAT has/will have swallowed up what we were going to use.

You sound quite bitter around your DD's qualifications and activities. Did you feel she didn't do well or that she is somehow getting a job "above her station"? Very odd for a parent to be suggesting their kid scraped a degree and spends their time pissing it up so shouldn't work at a private school. Would that have been OK at a State in your opinion?

I'm incredibly proud of my daughter. She did, and is doing, incredibly well.

She had no time for hobbies at uni as she was challenged by the course she was on. Putting drinking beer and eating pizza would not have been deemed suitable for her mini biography, even though, realistically, that was all she had time for.

Has nothing to do with state or private. Just time.

the problem is that if you start putting geographical limits on selection it pushes more people to just spend more money to get housing in the right area. The real solution to that is to have more selective schools. There's clearly a big demand. If we weren't so hamstrung by the ideology behind comprehensive education we could be providing more better schools for children of all abilities, and there wouldn't be so much demand for expensive private schools.

Agree 100%. 1 size fits all fails.
We need more: grammars, free schools, technical skills schools, vocational schools etc.

I'd add single sex state schools that aren't hothouse grammars. Would have loved these and still can't find anywhere in the country with one despite googling...

Yes definitely. It is proven that girls perform better in single sex schools. Plus the option to have safe single sex spaces.

I went to an all girls state school in the early mid-90s. It was really well regarded but the local council decided to save costs and merge it with the nearby boys only state school when I was about to go into Y9. It was an unmitigated disaster. Most of the teachers from the girls school decided not to move across to the new school and the headmaster of the boys school stayed on, consistently showing favouritism towards the boys. Within about 6 years of the merger (so 3-4 years after I left) the school was ranked in the bottom 10 in the country in terms of GCSE results and ultimately shut down.

My experiences at that school led me to swear I would never allow my own children to attend a poor school as I know that I wasn’t able to reach my own full potential in that environment.

We’ve sent DD private for secondary (2nd week of term so far) and she is loving it. The local State school is “ok” but I’d heard too many stories from other parents to be confident that it was the right school for her. We’ve been fortunate (if that’s the right phrase) that we inherited money when MIL passed away 5 years ago which added to our own savings will be enough to pay for DD and eventually her younger brother to go private.

I have never heard of an all girls state that isn't a grammar!

Loads of catholic schools are single sex

I can think of 4 girls state schools (not grammar) near me just like that (south east London). None religious.

There are no single sex schools in our whole county which aren't also independent schools.

This is what I mean, education is a complete post code lottery! London wins the lottery and the NE/Midlands lose.

Prendergast and Eltham Hill in SE London. Lots of Catholic state girls schools here too. Plumstead Manor was also all girls until fairly recently. I didn't realise this was rare

Because you live in London where the majority of the top state schools in the whole country are situated.

This is why people who live in London don't fully get what the rest of the country is dealing with. None in my county either.

Yep and why we get "what's wrong with state schools?" thrown at us constantly

Interestingly I've just googled state funded non-selective boys only schools in my county and had over 6 options...must just be girls who don't get them. It actually makes me really angry considering how we know girls are treated in mixed sex schools that these options aren't nationwide.

There are plenty of all girls state comps in London. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Highbury Fields, Parliament Hill, Camden School for Girls, Clapton Girls Academy, Hornsey School for Girls, Mulberry, Central Foundation Girls, Walthamstow School for Girls, Ellen Wilkinson, Sarah Bonnell. Lots more I'm sure in other boroughs. It's a fairly normal thing around here, and they aren't all high achieving.

@6thformoptions I live in Hertfordshire - we have lots of single sex state comprehensive schools - both boys and girls.

My niece is at a girls school in Hertfordshire. So not just London but I’m sorry that you don’t have this option where you live.

It’s possible that London has more because it has a more international population who prefer single sex education for their kids. In my experience it’s often the dippy hippy liberal lefty lovey parents who think co-Ed is great and single sex old fashioned.

My old school (private, C of E, Home Counties) recently went co-ed which I feel quite sad about. But I know that girls schools can lose a lot of girls at sixth form.

But can't you understand that many other places don't?

@twistyizzy yes of course I can! The poster I quoted specifically asked "Whereabouts are you in the country".