Would you send your child to a private school?

Accountant_Kerry

sarah, do you worry about entrance exams etc for secondary school if she has been at a state school before this? i am no sure how hard these really are just wanted your opinion

pollypenny

If you live in the catchment area for a good state school, why not use it. We moved so that my two could attend a good school.

One way to tell the quality of the school is to find out how many teachers have their own kids there. I t certainly applied to mine.

Secondly there are some dire private schools around here. Parents with pretensions think they are helping their kids - sadly not.

ladybez

this is always a difficult one. I attended a state Grammar School and my oh a Secondary modern. Sorry showing our ages!! When our dd's were in year 6, albeit 7 years apart, we offered them the choice between a fee-paying or state school. The fee-paying scholls we visited did not have the right "feel" the girls said. That left us with a problem as our local comp had had a poor reputation for about 50 years. In the end we managed to get them both into non-priority area schools. They did, and are doing well. We will be going through the same again next year with our twin boys, whilst they will also be offered the chance to be paid for, they have already said they don't want this. One wants to go to the same school as dd1, the other the same a dd2!! Will have to wait and see how that pans out.
One poster mentioned the additional cost of fee-paying schools, such as uniform trips books etc. Since dd2 went into year 10, she has had a new uniform and pe uniform, 4 revision guides, trip to USA offered, entrance for trampolining comp, as part of one of her GCSE;s and Sports leader exam, also as part of GCSE course and it is only the start of November!! So any senior school can be expensive.
Do what you feel most comfortable with.

SarahLou

Accountant_Kerry wrote: »

sarah, do you worry about entrance exams etc for secondary school if she has been at a state school before this? i am no sure how hard these really are just wanted your opinion

Sorry about the delay in my reply. I forgot which board this topic was on so its taken me a while to find it!

I honestly don't know the answer to your question but I would like to know. It is something I have contemplated to in my quandry....

Do we send DD to a state infant/junior/primary school only for it to potentially not push for the best out of her and for her to lag behind (despite best efforts from mum & dad to get her up to scratch academically) only for her to not be "good" enough to pass the entrance exams in later years? Or so we plonk her straight in to independent education so as she starts off on the right foot, i.e. once she's in, she's in, sort of thing? (Based on the proviso that she can sustain some level of intelligence enough to not be completely overwhelmed by education as a whole - as shes only 3 and a half its difficult to be sure at the minute!) I would hope she'll take after her parents - in that we were both level headed, relatively intelligent (ish!) but keen to learn.

Esoog

My brother went to a private school and he's a fancy accountant that lives in the Virgin Islands now...whereas I'm not , he came over and I was his plus one (ooer) at a school friends wedding and all his fellow private school friends have big fancy jobs, not one of them is unsuccessful.

I should add however that the choirmaster at his first boarding school turned out to be a complete sexual predator and was locked away for many years, and in all seriousness that is obviously more of a risk at a private school.

clairehi

Accountant_Kerry wrote: »

http://www.st-francis.herts.sch.uk/

this is supposed to be one of the best ones in my area. hmm........

this is very close to where I live. i have just applied for my DS to go up next year to our local state secondary school which has "outstanding" OFSTED. although it is oversubscribed, all kids applying within catchment area have been given a place in the last 2 years. House prices not particularly high in our area compared to rest of Herts so are you slightly further away?

PM me if you like.

Jewel_2

My daughter goes to a local private school (15 minutes drive), I went to a state school from hell, which is the reason we sent her private.

To be honest, some of the better state schools are probably better than some private, but it depends what you want. Outstanding academic success isn't top of my agenda, and never has been. I chose it because it had big fields, it was in the middle of the country, there was a lot of singing and innocence, and every child is valued equally (its not an entrance exam school). The classes are small and the bullying policy is very strict. The kids come skipping out of school even now, and parents listen to the teachers. BUT, this is one school, the one a few miles down the road is extremely academic and there is an entrance exam.

I wanted to create a love of learning and because I had such a bad time, this was the only way forward for me. However, I also have friends who were educated privately who would never send their children privately.

I suggest have a look - you'd be surprised how 'normal' some private schools are, not all the parents are snooty (many like us struggle to send them there).

The other things its great peace of mind - I can ring the headteacher, get through straight away, discuss a problem, and see her that afternoon if I want to. I can book meetings with teachers anytime.

Tammer

I suppose it's a question of priorities.

If I had the cash then yes I'd send a child to a private school. My girlfriend summed up the difference between private and public schooling as "At private schools it's not uncool to be clever".

The amazing thing is that many people wouldn't consider sending their kid to a private school but would happily blow £3000 on all the stuff for a newborn and £20k on their wedding.

Jewel_2

Tammer wrote: »

I suppose it's a question of priorities.

If I had the cash then yes I'd send a child to a private school. My girlfriend summed up the difference between private and public schooling as "At private schools it's not uncool to be clever".

The amazing thing is that many people wouldn't consider sending their kid to a private school but would happily blow £3000 on all the stuff for a newborn and £20k on their wedding.

Yes, you are so right.

Jewel_2

Esoog wrote: »

My brother went to a private school and he's a fancy accountant that lives in the Virgin Islands now...whereas I'm not , he came over and I was his plus one (ooer) at a school friends wedding and all his fellow private school friends have big fancy jobs, not one of them is unsuccessful.

I should add however that the choirmaster at his first boarding school turned out to be a complete sexual predator and was locked away for many years, and in all seriousness that is obviously more of a risk at a private school.

Why? They don't have to board, and I don't see any other reasons why it's more of a risk?