Peter symonds - private schools

[duckbilly]

A few of my child's contemporaries at a private prep are going to Winchester college "for 3 years and then on to Peter Symonds as a better chance of going to Oxbridge" .

This feels like playing the system- surely Oxbridge are attune to this or is it really the case people can attemd a state six form after over 10 years of private education and play the state education card?

I’m not surprised but I’m sad to see all these parents plotting their childrens futures in such a calculated way. What if these kids don’t want to oxbridge - you’re setting up for failure at some point in their life if they don’t meet theses high expectations required of them. Or is a thinly disguised excuse for not having the money for private sixth form?

If you are in the upper 6th at Eton this year you are only allowed to consider Oxbridge if you have 11 x 9's at TAG GCSE and are predicted 4 x Astars and even then no one is allowed to apply for PPE because no Oxford college would ever offer to an Etonian in 2023.

?
Are you sure about that? No Etonian will be allowed to study PPE at Oxford? That’s taking positive discrimination to a new and highly dubious level, if true!

Meanwhile in the real world, most Eton sixth formers continue to apply to Oxbridge - there were 208 applications in 2021 - with a very respectable acceptance rate better than almost any state school and not far off the best independents.

www.keystonetutors.com/news/oxbridge-which-schools-get-the-most-offers

It won't work moving from private to PS or Hills Road or similar as Oxbridge use the contextual data against where they took their gcses not where they attend sixth form. Thus is they get a place at Oxbridge from a state sixth form they are as likely to have got it had they remained at the indie.

PS and Hills Road get a good number of students but not as a % of cohort.

It won't work for contextual offers.

But

the answer seems unclear if you ask will wanting their 'state to private ratio' to look better bias them in favour of these excellent state 6th forms compared with the 'feeder' private schools.

Which is why I sort of feel that the 'state' figure should only include those who have done both GCSEs & A levels in state schools, and not those who have switched.

This is false. She very clearly made that up. Thank goodness some of us not only have family members at these said institutions butt we also know old boys who are still very closely linked with the Schools

@duckbilly all middle class parents 'play the system' in some way. Privately educating your children all the way through like you will is also considered to be playing the system by many, so why are you so upset that others are doing it in a slightly different way to you?
Somehow we need to get to a place where the brightest, most able children in our nation are going on to become our doctors, lawyers, politicians etc because then we will nourish our country for growth. And thank goodness, finally, we are starting on a journey towards making sure it isn't those children whose parents are able to pay unbelievable amounts of money in fees who get in most easily to the best universities. There are bound to be some issues along the way, one of which you have highlighted, but hopefully over time we will find the best children not the ones who have the most wealth behind their education.

@soweneo do I sound upset? I don't think I do. And yes I am aware my children have an advantage going to a private school. I work very hard to make that happen and am not ashamed to say that.

@soweneo also I believe I am not playing the system. I am paying for my child's education, contributing large swathes of tax to fund other's education who cannot afford it.

People that can well afford private education but choose not to take it, thus taking up a space of a more deserving child and over stretching resources- perhaps they are playing the system???

I don't think sending a child private is playing the system.
I think sending a child private and then switching to state at the last minute in order to fool admissions departments into counting your child as state educated is playing the system.

I also think it is fine for wealthier parents who could otherwise go private to use the state system. The more wealthy / educated / articulate / interested (yes I know these aren't synonymous) parents who use the state system the better as they are then more likely to push for improved standards for all and not be fobbed off.

If all MPs had to send their children to a local non selective comp (none of this Grey Coats or RC schools nonsense) then maybe state education would be better funded. (And yes I know there are loads of reasons why this wouldn't be practical.)

My DS is in U6 at an independent and whilst not being banned from applying to certain universities he was told it was "pointless"

'Pointless' because he's not bright enough, or 'pointless' because they think he will be thrown into a reject pile immediately due to being privately educated?

As he's predicted A star and A at A level it's pointless because he's privately educated

1 A star or 2?
If only 1 and they are talking Oxford/Cambridge/LSE I can see their point

If 2 A stars then unless you are saying the uni never takes any private school that seems a bit suspect to me. Unless of course the rest of the year group tends to get all A stars so your DS is underperforming for the institution.

Is 'my DC was told not to apply to Oxbridge because they were at private school' going to become the new 'my DC didn't apply to Oxbridge because they preferred a course elsewhere' ?

Wow, cynical much? You do realise that Oxbridge isn't the best at everything? You sound a little Oxbridge star-struck.

Hills road clamped down on this a bit (at least when I went there)

Very few of my classmates had been at private school before. Those that did we're doing an A level or two that weren't offered at their private school.

No I'm not really. But I find some of the statements occasionally on here a bit 'doth protest too much'. I fear it will be easier for some parents of privately educated kids with good but not stellar grades to say 'told not to apply because private' rather than 'school thought they weren't up to it' (or just staying quiet).

It to me is a bit like 'oh I could have got all A grades but I didn't bother to revise much' for old GCSEs. Wanting the accolade without actually earning it.

I am quite sure that for certain students or certain courses 'Oxbridge' isn't best even though they might have got in.

Former Symonds student here. I went from a private all girls school to Symonds and it was the best possible place for me to find my independence. Got 4 As at A Level, as did many others. SEN support was also great. Under Neil Hopkins (pretty sure he retired many moons ago...) it was very much a 'you do your not, we'll do ours' deal. I think the majority of us responded very well to that, and we all came from a real mix of educational backgrounds.

@TeenDivided
2 A star and 2 A's and we aren't talking about Oxbridge. It was actually Exeter the school advised against as they haven't had a single off from Exeter in the last few rounds.

After having one DS go through Oxford and the utter nightmare of his MH spiral from the workload I'd never encourage any of my other 2 children to apply there. It's definitely not for everyone.

Fair enough, and I'm sure that some will. Similar to the whole grammar school 'we didn't actually want it anyway' charade. But certainly at our school (private selective) there are plenty who apply to Oxbridge, plenty who both get in and don't get in, but also plenty with stellar grades who don't apply because they genuinely prefer either an overseas uni or a different UK uni which either suits their subject or their personality better. Oxbridge definitely isn't the right/best place for every course or every person.