Private school fees (merged)

sassybooboos

why dont you visit some of the primary schools first to check them out.my 3 yr old just started the nursery at local state primary school and i am really shocked. the school is really strict and the ofsted report was better than some of the private schools reports.

she has to wear uniform, and already they have got her reading her first book and counting to 10.

im sure i wasn't reading until i was 5 (possibly because i was thick) or have schools now got a lot better.

i would love to be able to put my daughter in private schooling when she is older but know i will never be able to afford it. i would be worried she would get looked down on from the snobs when i turn up in my corsa to drop her off after they have got out of their rolls royce.

just got to hope she gets a scholarship like her dad did.

borntobefree

The op seems to have decided "all" state primary schools are inferior to "all" private schools. The truth is that plenty of kids (including my own:D) do very well at state schools and there is plenty of evidence to back this up. Thus, you are probably wasting your money but you don't want to hear this as you are blinded by your own predjudices. I have no objection to people wasting their money, feel free to do so. But don't let your own blind predjudices write off a whole sector of education and insult the intelligence of the rest of us who choose to use this sector as if we somehow can't work out who's getting the inferior product.

stellabgh

borntobefree wrote: »

The op seems to have decided "all" state primary schools are inferior to "all" private schools. The truth is that plenty of kids (including my own:D) do very well at state schools and there is plenty of evidence to back this up. Thus, you are probably wasting your money but you don't want to hear this as you are blinded by your own predjudices. I have no objection to people wasting their money, feel free to do so. But don't let your own blind predjudices write off a whole sector of education and insult the intelligence of the rest of us who choose to use this sector as if we somehow can't work out who's getting the inferior product.

As I mentioned at the start, I am talking about schools in my area. I couldn't care less where anyone else's kids go, if you're happy with their school that's great! I think you're just as guilty of prejudice as me, after all we can only base our opinions on our own research and experiences.

I'm new to these boards and frankly I don't think I'll be sticking around. Very few people have answered my question and it's just turned into a debate about private versus state schooling.

emsywoo123

borntobefree wrote: »

The op seems to have decided "all" state primary schools are inferior to "all" private schools. The truth is that plenty of kids (including my own:D) do very well at state schools and there is plenty of evidence to back this up. Thus, you are probably wasting your money but you don't want to hear this as you are blinded by your own predjudices. I have no objection to people wasting their money, feel free to do so. But don't let your own blind predjudices write off a whole sector of education and insult the intelligence of the rest of us who choose to use this sector as if we somehow can't work out who's getting the inferior product.

decided to remove my reply to this post for fear of continuing the debate.

halia

stellabgh wrote: »

You'd be surprised. I was at a state primary and had extra tuition to 'keep up' with the private schools but it didn't come close. I was a straight A student at primary and when I went private I was straight Cs and was always behind everyone else. They had all been taught *how* to study, *how* to manage your homework, *how* to write to a decent standard. Thay had learnt other languages that I hadn't. Extra tuition just didn't cut it.

but surely it depends on the extra tuition? if you got a french and spanish tutor, a music tutor and then found someone to do some targeted work on study methods wouldn't that work?

This is what I plan for DS, state primary then if the state secondary isn't any good its going private.
However I've an education budget and thats to pay for; language lessons from age 5 (earlier they learn easier it is). Music lessons, sessions with NLP practitioner (also a friend) who works on learning methods like magical spelling, recall, handlign numbers etc.

however to answer OP question, talk to the school itself they often have good advice about how to save for fees and spread the cost.

also talk to the secondary schools you like and find out which primaries (private and state) they accept the most pupils from. For example here there are decent primaries but terrible secondaries. There's a very good and reasnable fee paying secondary, I found out that most of their 11yr old entry is from one fee paying primary, however entry at age 7 is more mixed.

halia

btw its interesting to do a full cost comparision, to move to an area with a good state secondary would cost X in terms of move / increased house prices/ increased commute/ reduction in job opportunities for me.
The state secondary doesn't offer languages except french and only does voilin and trumpet music tuition via the peri service.
They are a sports specialist college and have very few art facilities
DS would still in all liklehood have to get a bus to school.
The before and after school clubs etc carry a charge of £5-£15 a day

In contrast the local private school costs £8k a year, that includes a swimming pool, lake for rowing, clubs/homework supervision from 8am - 6pm, very good new library, excellent art facilities inc stage, lovely grounds with an environmental wildflower meadow plus sports pitches, french, german, italian, spanish and classical languages all offered as standard GCSE options.

And he could walk there (5 minutes) every day!

borntobefree

Why did you post on here? You should have posted on the savings board if you wanted savings advice. I think you did set out to offend.

emsywoo123

borntobefree wrote: »

Why did you post on here? You should have posted on the savings board if you wanted savings advice. I think you did set out to offend.

The OP is new, maybe she did not know about the savings board, and saw other threads about schooling on here, so went for that! I have no idea why you seem so offended by this thread anyway. If you are so concerned by it, ignore it!:D

stellabgh

borntobefree wrote: »

Why did you post on here? You should have posted on the savings board if you wanted savings advice. I think you did set out to offend.

I have only made a handful of posts (most on this thread), I don't know this site very well. I thought this whole forum was about moneysaving and this looked like the only place to put something about schools.

I absolutely did not intend to offend. Besides, the only people who could be offended by my original post are those with a chip on their shoulder. This will be my last post here, I'm very disappointed with the attitude of some people. This forum has obviously been taken over by people who want to drag everyone down to their level.

borntobefree

stellabgh wrote: »

people who want to drag everyone down to their level.

That'll be the very "low level " of people who send their children to state schools then, will it?

By the way, when was the last time you were in a school? You keep harking back to "when you were at school". How many decades ago was that? You say that you are not arguing from a position of prejudice but your views seem to be based on your experiences years ago, not actually on what goes on in schools today.