Private school extras fee dilemma

fred246

ViolaLass wrote: »

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/teaching-learning-toolkit/reducing-class-size/ although I got the number wrong. Sub-20 or even sub-15 seems to be what helps.

Not very specific research I am afraid. Our local school sixth form had very low class sizes because it wasn't particularly popular. The sixth form college was fantastic with better results and larger classes. I can't imagine a private sixth form guaranteeing low class sizes. If they've ten in a class they're not going to employ another teacher. My daughter's language classes had under ten just because languages weren't popular.

ViolaLass

fred246 wrote: »

Not very specific research I am afraid. Our local school sixth form had very low class sizes because it wasn't particularly popular. The sixth form college was fantastic with better results and larger classes. I can't imagine a private sixth form guaranteeing low class sizes. If they've ten in a class they're not going to employ another teacher. My daughter's language classes had under ten just because languages weren't popular.

Well, yes, other factors affect education, not just class size. This should not be surprising.

The EEF isn't saying "all small classes will do brilliantly and all large classes will do badly". Any single effect that strong would be the Holy Grail of education research.

My point about private schools being able to afford to sustain the less popular subjects remains too. State schools will at least be tempted to drop those options as they will be relatively expensive.

fred246

ViolaLass wrote: »

My point about private schools being able to afford to sustain the less popular subjects remains too. State schools will at least be tempted to drop those options as they will be relatively expensive.

Doesn't really make sense. I know private schools won't be as efficient but they won't really want to pay teachers to teach subjects where there aren't any pupils in the class.

Sarastro

I think this sounds a bit crazy. I'd get out of it. Send your daughter to state school - sorry but most of us went there and we did okay. Spend the money you're currently paying on some additional tuition or activities if you think it needs it.

ViolaLass

fred246 wrote: »

Doesn't really make sense. I know private schools won't be as efficient but they won't really want to pay teachers to teach subjects where there aren't any pupils in the class.

Your comments so far in this thread haven't filled me with confidence regarding your knowledge of private schools. Maybe you should do some research before opining further.

fred246

ViolaLass wrote: »

Your comments so far in this thread haven't filled me with confidence regarding your knowledge of private schools. Maybe you should do some research before opining further.

You are saying that private schools are very good at teaching subjects that no-one wants to study. Having one pupil in a class learning a useless subject that no-one wants to study doesn't sound a great idea. However you are saying that is one of the great benefits of private education.

Gloomendoom

fred246 wrote: »

You are saying that private schools are very good at teaching subjects that no-one wants to study. Having one pupil in a class learning a useless subject that no-one wants to study doesn't sound a great idea. However you are saying that is one of the great benefits of private education.

The first thing my wife commented on when she saw one of my old school photos was the very high staff to pupil ratio.

ViolaLass

fred246 wrote: »

You are saying that private schools are very good at teaching subjects that no-one wants to study. Having one pupil in a class learning a useless subject that no-one wants to study doesn't sound a great idea. However you are saying that is one of the great benefits of private education.

Not quite what I said. I said that one of the benefits of having more money is that a school can fund the less popular subjects. Obviously not classes with no students in but classes with few pupils.

How do you know those subjects are useless? And in any case, what does your opinion of the subject matter? A pupil wants to study it, a school has the resources to offer it. That's the point. I'm not arguing that this is a benefit to wider society, only to that pupil, but that's something the parents are paying for.

ManofLeisure_2

fred246 wrote: »

I can't imagine a private sixth form guaranteeing low class sizes. If they've ten in a class they're not going to employ another teacher.

Fred, it isn't a case of whether you can 'imagine' what private schools do or not. If you can't offer an opinion based on fact, what use is it to the OP or anyone? The fact is, if a pupil within the private system wishes to study a subject, eg Dutch, and there is a low take-up, schools often team up with another school to enable this. This was cetainly the case for one of my son's, who wished to study Dutch. Obviously, this doesn't always happen, but personally I've known it happen quite a lot.

pearl123

Plus sometimes the subject matter does not matter. It how the student extracts the information from the subject material and writes which matters.