In what respect is Private better than state education?

[halfrom]

Reading many of the posts I came to the conclusion that Private wasn't always better than state.

My main reasoning is A) If an entrance exam i.e 11+ is passed and the teachers at a particular school are supposed to be brilliant teachers, then why are some under performing students asked to leave. Surely the teachers can teach them to their required level. B) Some teachers are hand picked for ability as was my dh as a leader in a very specialised subject has visited most private/ Independant schools when required. However, he has also taught joe bloggs from down the street. Hence the children had same tutor, gained same results. Joe bloggs paid far less as a school didn't charge more. A friend has dd who has private Drama and speech coaching on saturday, does exams through I imagine same board as Private schools, and is a fantastic public speaker. So how do Privately educated children gain?

"top universities give everybody who applies an equal chance"

Sure about that, talkinpeace?

seeker
yes, I am.
the hoops they have to jump through now linked to aimhigher mean that its verging on positive discrimination (which my kids will benefit from!!)
the RG unis are MUCH more aware now of what they have been missing out on (ie some REALLY bright kids at schools with crap careers departments)
and know that they will climb the tables if they seek out the hidden talent

think of it as value added
turning a C2DE kid from a crap comp into a high rated PhD is just SO worth it to a top RG
especially if they can repeat it!

I think it's interesting that both Yellowtip and Seeker have/had DC at top-performing grammar schools who are at/are aiming for Oxford. I wonder if their opinions would change if their only state option was a poorly performing school. It's very easy to attack other people's choices from that vantage point.

I don't believe that Yellowtip has attacked other people's choices. She has taken issue with their rhetoric and their delusions.

Fair point theta. I don't buy into the rhetoric and delusions either. There is no question that the GS that Yellowtip's DC attended/attend is fantastic but not everyone is lucky enough to have a school like that as an option, and parents can only base their choices on what is available to them.

Joanna- I do have a child at a high performing grammar. But I have a ds who in September will be starting at a High school which most of the posters on this thread would sell a kidney rather than send their child. I have one child who is the beneficiary of th grammar school system and one who is the victim of it.

So yes, my moneynis definitely, as they say, where my mouth is.

Oh, and to add to my credentials, I also have a god child at "a top public school", another at a prestigious London Prep, and a variety of friends and relations with children at all sorts of educational provision in this country and abroad, including a couple who home educate.

One thing I will never understand is why private schools have uniforms that makes the poor kid stick out like a sore thumb in the average high street.

So other parents can see them and think 'oh, they look nice and well behaved, lets send our DC there!'

JoannaPancake I'm not sure how you know precisely which school my kids attend, I'm fairly discreet. It would take some digging, especially for a new poster. Even then you might have put two and two together and come up with five.

The uniform thing is interesting. My dd goes to a high achieving (sorry to have to keep calling it that, but it is relevant) grammar school, and when she started they wore sweatshirts like a primary school. They now wear cotton jumpers instead but no tie and no blazer. They are definitely the scruffiest kids in town- but with the best exam results. There has certainly always been an unspoken "that school wear kilts and that school wear cutaway coats- we wear sweatshirts because we don't have to show off how good we are" vibe going on!

My ds moved from private to the state FE college. We'll know if this was really a good idea when we get his AS results later this month.

He says behaviour is BETTER there than at his v. posh private.

The private school taught to the GCSE exams relentlessly. At the private school, there was a lot of oafish behaviour, including bullying, and including some gross-out sexual bullying of girls on the school bus. The boys I met were anything but polite.

At his prep school, which is widely regarded as one of the best in the UK, the little dears often smashed computers - staff often came in at 8am to find them all trashed - and one teacher with a twitch and stammer was completely unable to manage the classes he taught; he is now at an ever posher prep up the road. French teaching was dreadful, again due to crowd control problems, and sexual experimentation by the riverbank was common among boarders. Boarders did badly academically because nobody made them do their prep. Some very rich parents bought teachers' time for their sprogs and heirs, leaving other shortchanged. Sport was incredibly important.

That's the downside. The upside? He won a scholarship £300 a year, don't fool yourselves about these. He had a few really gifted teachers at both schools, who fired in him a lifelong love of their subjects. He made lots of friends. He got excellent GCSEs. But overall, I'd say it wasn't worth it, not for us, in our area. if I could do it all again, I wouldn't send him to either school.

Oops, sat on 'send' prematurely.

Joanna how on earth do you infer an attack on others' choices from a poster who says in terms that she has no interest in those choices and would buy in education herself if she needed to and could ? .

I did have a quibble about some of the reasoning in various posts which skew a narrow argument about the relative merits of the top schools in both sectors to a pointless comparison of non-comparable schools and then beyond that to the supposed wholesale sanctioning of appalling state provision wherever it exists. No need to defend myself there.

FWIW none of those kids of mine through the UCAS process ever set out at the start of their secondary education with an eye on any particular prize. Once through their first exams when Oxford seemed a reasonable punt, they had one. But no game plan, ever. How at the start of secondary would I or they know that that's what would suit them best?

manic the uniform is a mystery to me.
DD has to waer a shckingly unflattering kilt. When she was having her first fitting I started singing Step We Gaily and we both pissed our sides laughing.

DS on the other hand, sports a pollyester blazer and trousers from Tesco!