The Big Choice: the State school or the private one - are we thinking with our wallets??

[scampadoodle]

Ok, just to add to all the other threads like this today.

DS1 got into the private school he/we liked, but no scholarship. We will also almost certainly have a place at the local state school.

PS is lovely, not super-hot house, but high-achieving. Fees are a lot though & would have an impact on our family life (and we'd really feel it if DC2 went private too). It's about 45 mins, an hour journey each way. He would probably enjoy it there & hopefully it would polish him off a bit. I'm slightly worried that it leans more towards humanities than sciences (not good for DS1) BUT I could be wrong about this as it was just an impression I got on Open Day.

SS is great. Streaming. Latin. It has a very mixed intake but those who do well, do well IYSWIM. It's only been good for 2-3 years though, before that it was awful. If he knuckled down DS1 would do well (that is a big 'if' BTW). I do like the idea of sticking within the local community though, & we could afford tutoring if we felt he needed topping-up.

But are we just being stingy at not taking up the opportunity for the private school? The thought of not having to worry abut school fees is very very tempting...

Even MI5 are looking for linguists and political science graduates as opposed to English Literature graduates.

A linguist is as if not more likely to have some knowledge of latin that and English Lit grad. And the reading of ancient latin texts gives you an insight into everything we now call politics.

"And the reading of ancient latin texts gives you an insight into everything we now call politics.

This is very true - BUT you need to go an awfully long way with Latin to get the point where you are able to discuss the political insights of the texts in meaningful way. A few years/GCSE won't get you there.

"Privileged/well off parents can give their children the same artistic/cultural/sporting opportunities whatever school they go to,"
Your statement revels how little you really know about the opportunities available at some independent schools. Unless I purchased a helicopter I couldn't even provide my DS with half the opportunities my DS participates in at his school and if I lived in central London and had nothing to do all day I still doubt very much if I could provide the depth and breath that he has on offer and as part of a normal school day.

"50 years ago only posh kids went to university where they inevitably studied
the Classics"

Really? My dad went to Oxford in 1950. He came from a council flat in Wandsworth, where my grandma spent the rest of her life.

Admittedly he did study classics though.

My mum went to Leeds university in 1950-ish, to study modern languages. Also from a working-class family.

Oh, happygqrdening- yes I do know that for boarders at Eton they have the most extraordinary extra curricular events.

But I was talking about most people at most schools.

Nothing wrong with a spot of Latin. My older daughter is doing it (compulsorily) at her non-selective comp, along with French and German. She'll also do triple sciences when it comes to it, in same local comp.

I do wish people could grasp that exceptions prove rules- rather than discredit them!

Motherinferior- surely some mistake! You're absolutely sure that's not a private school?

Not just Eton seeker.

I don't see the connection between being able to read ancient Latin texts and having an insight on relations with China.

The diplomats and senior Foreign Officer staff from yesteryear were mostly Oxbridge Classicists. And didn't they do such a wonderful job with Israel and Palestine?

As I said, the era of the gifted amateur has passed. Employers read the various reports that have gone on about how the Taiwanese and South Koreans are out innovating us because they are churning out science and engineering graduates while we are churning out "well rounded" generalists.

Triple science also offered at our comp not all do it but its there. No latin but three if not four MFLs and all encouraged to do one as we were told its required by many RG universities.

Happygardener- there is no more point comparing the top 3/4 public schools with the average private school than there is comparing the average comprehensive with some drug- ridden gang controlled comprehensive in a channel4 drama.

I think 3/4 is not being very generous most big name boarding schools will have a lot of extra curricular opportunities although I do accept that a small handful may offer an even broader and more extensive range.

Notgood - The fact that you know someone who was WC and went to university 50 years ago doesn't invalidate my statement. There are always exceptions.

^the Taiwanese and South Koreans are out innovating us because they are churning out science and engineering graduates while we are churning out "well rounded" generalists.

Is that all we want our children to become? Someone able to out innovate a South Korean or a Taiwanese? If this is the direction we all want to go, I'm getting off the train. Sorry for being so last century.

The Arts are a big sector in the UK - we would be crazy to turn our backs on them in schools and not nurture the skills and talents of the next generation. But Latin is not the money spinner.

"Is that all we want our children to become? Someone able to out innovate a South Korean or a Taiwanese?"
And lets add in the Chinese, Indians and lots of others. I think UK PLC would like us and in fact needs us to out innovate all of these if we are to maintain our global position economically.

"Notgood - The fact that you know someone who was WC and went to university 50 years ago doesn't invalidate my statement. There are always exceptions."

Two someones. In any case, it wouldn't invalidate your statement if you had qualified it by saying that this was general case, but you didn't. You said, "Only posh kids went to university."

And actually, thinking about it, happygardener, if I threw Eton fees at the situation, I could probably recreate an Eton level of extra curricular activities for my children!

Hear hear to Bonsoir. By all means lets support the scientists and engineers more effectively - and provide triple science for all - but not at the expense of the arts.

Fifty years ago was 1963. It was precisely the time when working-class kids, who'd had access to state education (albeit the grammar school system, which is for another discussion ) were all going to university. On grants. It's when new universities - like the one my father taught in - were exploding across the UK. It was the advent of the campus novel, and the student movement. It was not purely the preserve of posh kids. You're going to have to locate that further back. You're historically inaccurate.

" It was not purely the preserve of posh kids. You're going to have to locate that further back."

Or project it forward a few years.........

And I am ROFLing at the idea that only Classics was being offered by universities. Are my father's French/Spanish degree and my mother's in English (both from Oxford in the 1950s) non-existent then? What about all the academics who were around at the time?

"We are churning out "well rounded" generalists"

Actually, I don't think we're churning out those, either. The one problem I have with the dc's state schools is the rejection of culture. I'm not a religious person, but I enjoyed singing two hymns every morning when I was at school. I feel that knowing the words of Jerusalem, or even We Plough the Fields and Scatter all adds to my... roundedness.

When I was a school governor I suggested that the pupils of the school, who ate their lunch with a background of pop music, could perhaps be played some different genres of music too. Oooh, light blue touch paper... The Deputy Head quivered with indignation and spouted that the children couldn't access classical music. And other music was explored in "units" in the proper music lessons. Sigh.

The next time a thread gets started about how the British Establishment is dominated by well off Eton/Oxbridge Classicists I'll sit it out while you wheel out your family anecdotes