How did your DCs school do in the GCSE tables?

[LadyGlencoraPalliser]

DD1's got a crummy 38% on the 5A-Cs including English and Maths.
This pisses me off for several reasons.
Results have been declining for several years and this is the first time the figure has dipped under 40%.
The school is utterly complacent about its results and doesn't see them as a problem - they explain them by pointing to the supposedly difficult intake.
This is entirely disingenous - there is only one local primary among their feeder schools that could be said to have a lower than average SATs score and they account for only 10% of the intake. Many of the primary schools in the area, including the one my children attend, have very, very good results, well over the national average.
I do not understand why the school feels it is acceptable to fail its pupils in this way.

I think you've always been upfront about that Xenia. I certainly don't believe people pay for better teaching or brighter children in private. So in a sense, I repsect the fact that you know what you're paying for. I think many other people really honestly don't know why they pay, or whether they're getting value for money.

Maybe you have a heightened need to keep your children within your own social circle/job circle - I don't know. My belief is that children are individuals, and need to find their own place in the world, and the better equipped they are to move comfortably in different environments, the happier they are likely to be.

Of course, in reality, many children do end up doing similar status jobs etc - my kids are all intending to go to University for instance. But I hope it wouldn't bother me hugely if one of them had some other exciting plan instead. It's about balance isn't it? If you shape and mould your child's life too much up to the age of 18, they could have a really hard time later eg drop out of Uni/ form poor relationships etc

Interesting that some people feel they have to choose private schools to mix with "posh" people! Those who really are "posh" don't usually use the word "posh" when speaking - would be as bad as saying the word "toilet"!

I certainly know why I pay- it is because my extremely intelligent son was failing academically in the state system at 6, and was diagnosed with various personality and mental disorders (one decided he was probably autistic at 4 because he preferred sitting in with his anatomy textbook to going out to play football) by the four infant school teachers he came in contact with in his first three years at school. I wanted to find a school that would be a better fit, or at least make some attempt to accommodate him or even make him feel accepted for for what he was.

Since the age of 7, he has attended: a high achieving prep school (moderately good choice, although a little restrictive for him), a state school in Canada (big success), a really laid back independent prep (very, very big success), and an independent secondary (very successful, he is predicted mostly A and A* at GCSE this year). When I think back to the withdrawn, unhappy little boy he was in year 2, I have no regrets at all about switching him into the independent system. I actually believe the pattern of early "failure" would have become a habit for him, and he would not be anywhere near where he is now in achievement.

Middle child is a high-achieving studious type, and could have gone and succeeded anywhere, but it seemed churlish not to give her the same opportunities as her brother in terms of extra curricular opportunities, drama etc... Also, frankly, I couldn't be bothered with handling the different holiday dates that sending her to the local school would have entailed.

Last child, also extremely bright, was actually showing signs of clinical depression after three years in the state system. Am not in the slightest bit sorry we switched her to a school (the laid-back prep also attended by her brother and sister) where she was able to be herself and heal from those three years. She is now flourishing at a highly academically selective girls' secondary school.

Gosh you've had a raw deal there, and obviously not had much choice other than to pay. Awful.

and when you can't afford to pay, these threads make you feel like you're really doing your children a disservice and they will forever be a failure. but that's they way mn is. isn't it.

southeast- I know we are lucky that we can afford to pay, but honestly given the mental health state of child 1 and 3 at 5/6/7, our choices at the time were either paying or home schooling. We decided the best long-term option was for me to go back to work and to pay fees for them.

SEA - I can see what you're saying, but honestly, your children will be fine. 93% of children are state educated you know! It's just a fact that some people have kids who don't fit easily or cope well and need a very specific type of environment, which in itself brings it's own problems. We all have to live and function in the real world at the end of the day. Be thankful that your children can do fine in a more mixed environment.

And I speak as someone with children in each sector, so I'm not fervently pro or anti anything, I'm simply aware that too many people who do have a choice get so hung up on it. The kids aren't any brighter in private, the teaching isn't any better, there will be a mix of excellent, good and ordinary anywhere (in fact here, where the state schools are very good, I'm more impressed with the teachers in ds's state school than dd's private). The other issue you always have to remember is that once parents start paying, it's very difficult to say anything other than you think private is better, because otherwise you look a bit silly for parting with your dosh!!

87% at our school

You confer massive advantages on a child if you pay as duchesse is doing. it's one of teh single most beneficial things you can do to a child to improve it's life chances. Yes 93% get by in the state system and a few do to on to do well but why take that risk if women can work, earn money and pay fees? Don't you owe it to your children to do that where you are a woman who picked a career with a high enough pay packet to afford that?

Oh Xenia don't be ridiculous. You can cherry pick any particular issue and use it to try to prove statistically that your children will be happy and successful, but real life is a little more complex!

If you wanted to put your child in the absolutely optimum position you would have to ensure a lot of other things too - live in a particular part of the country, eat the right foods, use your leisure time in a specific way.... oh and getting divorced would be out of the question as that statistically is more likely to put your child at an educational disadvantage, as well as being more likely to be unhappy.

Get real Xenia!

Do people really look at schools when they apply for jobs?
Based on the fact that most parents choose schools its a bit silly.

I look at the person, how skilled they are, how they will fit into the team,their potential etc

I am always very aware that they probably had no choice about where they went to school. (Although I have let my children have a say in where they go - it's their life!).

I'm more interested in degree rather than GCSE/A level tbh. And all the other skills that make people good at their job, which thankfully often don't have a lot to do with where they were schooled!

The wizard unfortunately they do. A relative of mine with a very good degree was turned down for a teaching job comp as he had been privately educated. Now doing very well teaching in the private sector. I throughly disapprove of such a narrow minded approach!

He was actually told he was turned down for that reason? I've come across people who believe that they may have been turned down for such things, but without actually having sat in on the interview process which is of course confidential, you're not really going to know are you??

Maybe another candidate was better!

gosh happywomble

I don't put O level results in at all nowadays. Barely mention the school either.

I have interviewed and never look at schools or results.
TBh even the degree can be irrelevant.

It's one of teh simpler ways to buy them advantage if you have the money - 50% of parents woudl if they could afford it and 6% of children go to prviate schools but 50% of those at Oxbridge are from there etc etc on and on right through to our boardrooms, cabinet, senior ranks of just about anything.

But obviously other things count too.

People amy well not look at the school or results but confidence, accent, appearance all those things stay with you for life, ability to talk about whatever hobbies you developed there.

Are you only confident if you do this?
Might you be good at a non establishment job without these?
Of course.
Why are you so amazingly bothered?

boardrooms and cabinets.... I rest my case

Or you might see he went to Harrow and think " god all that money and effort and he is still a chinless wanker wonder"

More likely imo.

a braying one.

Oh, for goodness sake Xenia, please stop talking such tosh. More than a 'few' state school pupils are successful.

Yes, there are a disproportionate number of privately educated individuals in the top jobs, that doesn't mean to say it is right, nor that they deserve to be there. Some do, I am sure, some don't. I don't know how you can be so proud of buying your way through the education system.

There are much more intelligent children in the state system than let's say, for instance, Prince Harry.

And that is no more of a sweeping statement than yours about the 'few' state school pupils.

I am beginning to see that my problem with so many of the private/state school debates on here is that I simply have a different view of 'successful' and 'acheiving' to other people. I have no idea what my DC will be when they are grown-up. Anymore than I seriously had as a child. So how can I define 'successful' except in my DC's own terms? If they get to the place they want to be at 30 then I suppose they will be successful - whereever that place will be. And if they've had a good time getting there, then good on them!

What other real measure is there?

I can't make my children determined and focused, or academic, that has to come from them (with encouragement from us). So to a large extent they might have the best facilities and opportunities in the world and still not make the best of them. Alternatively they may squeeze the best of what is available out of a bog-standard comp.

A friend of mine was turned down for a teaching job for which she was more than qualified (Cambridge degree, good postgraduate teaching diploma) on the basis of one of her A level results. My mother in law, applying for a supply maths teaching post retirement (from teaching maths, with a maths degree) in her early 60s, was asked to supply proof of GCSEs in Maths and English. Besides the fact that she had been teaching maths to S standard in a high achieving school for over 40 years, she didn't actually do O levels- they didn't exist back then. So GCSE results do seem to matter, certainly way beyond what might be considered sensible. It's a mad world...