Private schooling

zcrat41

I'm amazed at the negativity towards private schools here. I went to a private school from age 5 to 18. Private does not mean white middle class, we had scholarship kids, kids with no money, Jews, Catholics, Chinese, Russian and European students. It was the best thing my parents could ever have done for me.

I too have a lot of friends that went to the local state. I'd say 2 out of 20 have got successful careers. From my school it's more like 18 out of 20.

I will be trying
V Hard to send my kids private. I do think there's an old boys (and girls) network that I do see giving mine and my brothers peers opportunities and contacts in life. Around us the facilities are a million times better and pretty sure ( although will be checking after this thread) that the teachers are better qualified.

And you get to learn Latin - the syllabus I believe for he more traditional and rigorous going above and beyond learning for exams.

emsywoo123

Are you really surprised at the negativity? It's a money saving site-independent education does not really fall into that category

This has been debated many times, and there is always a very anti-private bias.

I am sure the OP will base his/her decision on more than this thread though.

zcrat41

You're right emsywoo - I wasn't very erudite as I was on my phone and half asleep!

I do think that just because this site is moneysaving that all it's members have to wear hair shirts though. If you can afford it, or if you can make sacrifices that mean you can choose to afford it then why not look at the pros and cons. In order to do that some of us need to be brave and stand up and say hang on, there's actually an awful lot of benefits to private schooling. To be honest, the only thing I can think of as a negative is that if my parents hadn't, they would have had more money!

Skinto_7

Zcrat,

My view was and is only my opinion, and it could be argued only those that have attended both, private and state schools, are qualified to accurately assess which is best.

I still think the attendance at private schools is about 90% made up from those from a wealthy background, and as I say IMO does not fully prepare you for life and meeting and dealing with those who are maybe not so well off. (only my opinion)

I went to what would have been considered, at best an average school but most probably a rough school, and although I saw fights on a weekly basis, people who turned up to school high on drugs etc, I also saw people from the roughest of council estate knuckle down and leave with results that would have made many from private schools proud. All of which I felt made me more streetwise, rounded and able to deal with anyone from any background.

I haven’t done a poll, but from the guys I was friends with at school who I am still in touch with (about 15 or so) 2 are company directors, about 7 or 8 are in management positions and the rest are doing trades (employed and own businesses)

Out of the 15 all are under 30 and I would say all but 2 are earning over £30k, don’t know if that counts as successful or not right enough.

As for facilities, due to my work I have a first hand knowledge of the facilities in state schools and can tell you that due to the surge in new build schools over the last 10 years, the facilities are top notch, which most private schools would struggle to match, there are obviously still many needing improved but with regards the newer built ones, the facilities are excellent.

I am not knocking private schools, and I am sure they give you every chance to be a success if you are willing to do the work, however I also feel the same about state schools and just think the greater variety of backgrounds you are exposed to their prepare you better for the real world once school is over.

FBaby

adelight wrote: »

Some schools just seem to train people to sit exams and you don't learn how to work independently.

I think this is a very pertinent point. A friend of mine teachers English at college for students sitting the baccalaureat. They are the top pupils, some of them come from the local high school (poor reputation academically) and the others from the top scoring secondary school (catholic) in the county. She says that the difference in teaching the children is massive. All are high achievers, so do well in terms of results, but the ones coming from the catholic school are way behind in independent learning. The high school kids are told what to do and just get on with it, the ones from the catholic school need to be taken through the whole assignment point by point, ask tons of questions and almost expect their papers written before they even start! She has taught that same class for years and it is the same each year.

We had a choice of two high schools for my daughter, one with a better reputation although both are considered good school. We all agreed with the less popular one for that exact reason. The ethos of the school is result oriented, but also to get kids to take ownership of these results. They are taught to be thinking for themselves, to be confident and industrious. The other school did reinforce that they valued being protective of the children, especially the first year. My children are very mature and confident and the other school suited our expectations in terms of preparing them for real life much better.

kara7758

An acquaintance of mine has placed both her children in a private school. The youngest is only 3 years of age. Consequently she has had to sacrifice family holidays, treats etc and really economize to provide education that basically she is already paying for via NI.
Doesn't make sense to me at all, especially when she is in a catchment area for some excellent schools and basically she is excluding her children from their peers in the local area as the private school is a fair distance from home.

emsywoo123

zcrat41 wrote: »

You're right emsywoo - I wasn't very erudite as I was on my phone and half asleep!

I do think that just because this site is moneysaving that all it's members have to wear hair shirts though. If you can afford it, or if you can make sacrifices that mean you can choose to afford it then why not look at the pros and cons. In order to do that some of us need to be brave and stand up and say hang on, there's actually an awful lot of benefits to private schooling. To be honest, the only thing I can think of as a negative is that if my parents hadn't, they would have had more money!

Oh, I have defended private schooling more times than I care to remember on this site!

At the end of the day, people will make their own decisions. I would be amazed if anyone read this and thought "oh, maybe I will pop little Bert into a private school"

Equally, no one will read it and think "right that's it, little Bert is leaving prep and going to state school"

I don't know why I went for Bert. I might start calling DS that as I keep calling him by DD's name :rotfl:

zcrat41

Emsywoo - I LOVE the name Bert - it's on our top 5 if the one I'm pg with turns out to be a boy! Well, Albert anyway.

Lunar_Eclipse

cherylim wrote: »

In my own opinion, schools aren't the place for education. I don't intend that to sound stuck-up, but I think the education that matters will be taking place outside the school environment. For that reason, I'll send my child to a state school and save some money.

I agree with this, although interestingly it's partly why we've opted for private education for secondary school. It's because we're striving to give them an excellent all round education, as opposed to a vast quantity of excellent exam results, which they'd get at our local state school since they could take 12-14. Both my children are academically gifted, one exceptionally so.

We wanted a positive, energetic and happy environment where the vast majority of kids play in school sport teams, have music lessons, do DofE, take part in exciting (overseas) charity work and so on. Where art and drama are exceptional and encouraged, where it's cool to work hard and achieve in whatever it might be. There is no reason for this not to be a state school (all schools?), conversely it doesn't happen in all private schools. (I also agree with the poster who said those in private school often do well because of the homes they come from.)

It is at huge financial sacrifice. We're at the beginning of the journey to trying to make it happen.

In answer to the question as to whether it's worth the cost, I think it depends. It depends on how you define a good education, what you're trying to achieve, what your child is like, the schools you're choosing between, the financial consequences, what you'd most regret and so on. Financially, it's probably not worth it, for the majority of schools. We were told, by our state school Head, to save our money and give it to our kids for house down payments.

However, if you get the right child into a brilliant school instead of an average one, state or private, it could make the world of difference. You also will never really know.

I was privately educated, DH state educated. Both my kids were/are thriving in state primary schools and sometimes I think we've been foolish to make our life unnecessarily difficult, financially speaking. I have no doubt that they'd have thrived in the local secondary school, but I find our local (excellent) state schools a bit soul destroying. There's far too little creativity, inspiration and developing children as individuals.

tyllwyd

My daughter is at a state secondary school which is an 'outstanding academy'. We are happy that the teaching is good enough there that she has the opportunity to achieve good results if she puts the effort in, and we simply don't have the money to send her to public school.

We have noticed a big difference in one area though - she is keen on drama, so she entered the 'mid-Somerset festival' to do a solo drama piece. We paid for her to have about five or six lessons from a drama teacher and otherwise rehersed at home. When she got to the festival, almost all of the other kids had obviously entered via their public schools. You could see that she looked underprepared compared to them - to try to get a level playing field, we would have had to throw a lot more money at it paying for private lessons.

And I've seen the same thing in other inter-school competitions - her school does what it can, but a few practices in lunchtime doesn't bring the kids up to the same level as the public school kids who have obviously had pretty intensive coaching.