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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

Who can afford private schools in the UK?

999 replies

wjchoihk · 12/02/2013 17:18

Hi. I am not sure if this is an appropriate question to ask here. But I have always wondered how rich you should be to send children to private schools in UK. Fees are anywhere from 3000 up to 10000 per term. Even allowing for wide gaps in income, thinking of 'avearge' UK wage of 26,000 pound, math simply don't add up for a normal life with such high fees. I also know only 7% of children go private though.

How much of private parents live on "inherited" wealth and how much on simply superior current earnings? I have my kids at SW London privates but I wouldn't be able to afford this without current int'l expat package. Some parents at my kids' schools LOOK and ARE very very rich but most of them LOOK quite down to earth. But I can't ask....

OP posts:
TotallyBS · 14/02/2013 23:36

Pugs - some comp areas do compete for your 'business' as well. There are 5 comps in our catchment and the top 3 do put in a lot of effort to get our business. But I hear.what you are saying. In some areas schooi are always oversubscribed so there doesnt seem to be much put in to raise standards in order to attract your 'business'.

pugsandseals · 14/02/2013 23:38

Sorry Seeker - I mistook you for being in the Kent selective system where you get a choice of 5 or 6 different grammars, or 5 or 6 comps like where I came from. That really did drive standards & encourage competition between schools!

seeker · 14/02/2013 23:39

You can't say selective state has "more chance for most" if only 23% get in. And. As I said, areas with selective education do not do better than comparable aras with comprehensive schools. So in what way does selective schooling improve education?

pugsandseals · 14/02/2013 23:40

BS - that is just why we have opted out of our local system to go private!

pugsandseals · 14/02/2013 23:43

The competitive culture it provides Seeker, means that in the main it encourages kids to be competitive in their work too. DD sank in our 'no-choice' local schools because it was acceptable to do the minimum effort & she accepted this as the norm.

pugsandseals · 14/02/2013 23:45

Where does 23% come into it Seeker? Surely 100% will get a place somewhere? Or is it completely school A (grammar) or school B (comp) in your area? No number of grammar or comp to choose from?

TotallyBS · 14/02/2013 23:48

seeker - why do you keeping putting down your schools?

When it suits you it's look how crap the Kent GS system is compared to comp areas. But if I were to criticise sec mods its a case of look at how great my sec mod school is so in ya face selective school snobs.

Don't you find this so contradictory?

TotallyBS · 14/02/2013 23:50

Oh no pugs. Run! Hide! It's one of seekers bug bears. You don't have comps in GS areas. They are secondary moderns. Many a poster has been spanked hard for this transgression.

sykes · 14/02/2013 23:52

I work desperately hard to send my children to private schools. As does my husband. We were both fortunate enough to have been educated via the grammar school system. Am a bit drunk, so bear with me, I hate the fact that we can pay for something that is intrinstically bad.

pugsandseals · 14/02/2013 23:52

But I called them sec mods before & she didn't seem to understand me! Confused

TotallyBS · 14/02/2013 23:54

Sykes - pay for something that is intrinsically bad? Are we still talking about education or have we moved onto horse burgers?

pugsandseals · 14/02/2013 23:54

Keep it going guys, I'll be back in the morning when I hope Seeker might have answered some of my questions. This is turning into a proper grown up debate! Shock

TotallyBS · 15/02/2013 00:01

Pugs - in Kent 23% of kids go to a GS while the remaining 77% go to a sec mod.The reason why i know is that seeker slips these figures into most threads even when, like this one, the subject is private schools and how much it cost.

By the way, how did the feck did we get from there to the inequality of the GS system in seekers back yard? Grin

happygardening · 15/02/2013 00:05

"happy with respect the best in the state sector can most certainly compare on the educational front to the best in the independent sector. The playing fields might be less showy for sure, but those don't really go to the essence, do they?"
Convince me yellow.
And in answer to your question my DS has "moderate" but apparently presenting in a rare way (1 in 400) SEN he wouldn't have got into DS2 school and I've personally found 9 schools down the road, an equal mixture of state and independent, is that all teachers bar the occasional exception (this person can be in both sectors) completely fail to grasp what seems to me to be a pretty simple concept. I know I work with children and am professionally trained but its not difficult to grasp I've explained it to a variety of laymen and they seem to get it. So frankly I'm tired of paying for something I'm not getting so I might as well listen to the same crap and hear the same excuses and not pay for it!

HelpOneAnother · 15/02/2013 00:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

sykes · 15/02/2013 00:23

My hugely intelligently repost is piss right off.

HelpOneAnother · 15/02/2013 00:29

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Succubi · 15/02/2013 05:34

Genuine question. If someone is against a selective education (namely, seeker) why did she let her children sit the 11+? Is the 11+ compulsory where she is? If not, then I have to agree with other posters that it is the hight of hypocrisy.

However if children in her area can only be allocated a government funded school place by means of an exam at 11 then why would you accept the grammar school place if you have such strong views on selective education? Simply turn it down and send your, in Seekers case, her daughter to the same school as that attended by her son.

Her son's would have elements of selection but by turning down the grammar school place her sons school would get the benefit of a more mixed academic cohort which is what she wants?

It rings too much of do as I say but not as I do.

merrymouse · 15/02/2013 06:00

I don't really think seeker is being inconsistent.

In a grammar school area, the top streams are in one or two schools and the other streams are in others. Obviously this will vary from county to county and some grammars are more selective than others, but essentially that is the point of the grammar school system.

To stop your child from going to grammar school you would have to stop them from taking the exam (and in many areas most children will be taking the exam) or tell them that having passed the exam they can't go to the grammar school. I'm not sure how you would do this if all the other children, teachers and parents knew that your child was clearly academically best fitted for the grammar school.

Of course some people might feel that this system also forces them into private schools/home ed, or feel that the whole public system is too inflexible/underfunded to provide a good enough education for their particular child.

Succubi · 15/02/2013 06:10

Thanks Merry but I am still confused . I must confess that I am not the brightest and sometimes I need things explained with a diagram. Are you saying that you don't have to sit the 11+ but because most parents do it would be unfair on the bright child not to?

Surely that's the point. If you believe that selection is divisive then actions speak louder than words. Don't follow the majority, refuse to sit the 11 + and strive for a mixed ability education.

My personal view is that selective education is a good thing.

merrymouse · 15/02/2013 06:24

A mixed ability education isn't available if all the high achievers (at 10/11) are in one school and everybody else is in another.

Grammar school 'culture' varies greatly from area to area. However, in some places not sending your child to the grammar school would be comparable to telling the teacher that you refused to let them be in the top set for maths.

Its not just the parents. By 10/11 children have strong opinions about their secondary school. The parents don't sit the 11+. The children do.

What I am saying is that if, given the options you have available, your child is overwhelmingly best suited to the grammar school, sending your child to the 'secondary modern' because you believe in comprehensives doesn't really achieve anything.

I don't think seeker's opinion is that odd. I used to live in a very selective grammar school area. Whether you liked the system or not (and many parents didn't), you couldn't really avoid it.

merrymouse · 15/02/2013 06:29

(Or, you can avoid it if you have the resources to move house/pay for a different school, which is what many people do).

Succubi · 15/02/2013 06:39

I see, so I am right. It is the hight of hypocrisy to say the system forced me and my 11 year old made me.

I struggle (as others have on this thread) to understand how she can be so vocally aggressive about selective education and yet not practice what she preaches.

I have yet to meet a parent who does not want what is best for their children. In my case I am of the view that my boys will do best in the private system. Now that you have explained it to me I respect the fact that seeker has opted for a grammar school because it is best for her child what I do not respect however are her views on selection.

Succubi · 15/02/2013 06:41

Or Merry you can stand by your convictions and make a stand by not moving house, not paying for a private school and NOT accepting the grammar school place

merrymouse · 15/02/2013 07:06

I haven't really read the whole thread so don't know what seeker has been saying.

I am just arguing that on this point she is correct. In some counties, if, for instance, your child wants to take the biology class with the children who are aiming to study medicine, you have to go to the grammar school. Teachers do not expect to teach Oxbridge candidates at the secondary modern because the system assumes that those children have been at the grammar school since they were 11.

Where there is a grammar school system, the schools are designed to do different things. It isn't either/or.