Private schools your views

[Squiglet]

I wouldn't send my daughter to a private school... They don't prepare you for the outside world... they are very insular...and I say this being a kid that went to private schools..

I went to St. Theresa's RC all girls school, Ryde IOW until it closed down, they I went to Upper Chine All Girls Boarding School, was originally a day pupil, then boarded for a while (yes that was fun ) then I went to Farnborough Hill RC all girls school, as my dad moved around a lot with his job.

So all in all... a few. And well I hated them all, never fitted in.. I always questioned things, always wanted to know more...And private schools have much stricter policies on these things. I also had a tough time, because my parents really couldn't afford to send me to private schools, so I got in on scholarships and bursaries. Which then makes you even more of an outcast because you're only there because your cleaver not because daddy has 5 ponies, yatch and a Ferrari.. Quite frankly I got sick of it... theres so much of that going on in the school

I think when I went to the local high school (my request as I had had enough of penguins and constant snobbish behaviour from the girls) I learnt a lot more about other people. I think I learnt more in general about the outside world.

So no even if I had the money I wouldn't send my children to private school... They need to learn to interact with people from every back ground and the only way they can do that is by going to public schools.. Plus the nearest, decent private school is over an hour's drive away... So not close... The nearest private school is an English curriculum based school...and omg is it crappy.. Honestly.. they don't even teach the children enough Spanish to get by on...and they have the silly 6/7+ exams... No child at 6 should be made to take exams, that's ridiculous!!!! It costs a fortune, you have to buy a uniform, as well as all the books, and stationary, and then your kids aren't even taught properly.. My friend send her daughter there, she's 6 months older than Tia, and still can't read or write English yet...my daughter can in three languages AND she's just been diagnosed with dyslexia... so... its not worth it..

 

[maybebaby]

I forgot to say I was home educated until I was 11 then went into a private school after that. The only downside to the home education is that you don't tend to develop social skills until later in life and as a result I was very shy until I was about 15.

I would only consider home educating my children if the only ohter option was a poor or overcrowded school. If I ever did go down that route I would make sure they did lots of activities at weekends or in the evening so they didn't miss out on making friends their own age.

 

[beanie]

They need to learn to interact with people from every back ground and the only way they can do that is by going to public schools

The only downside to the home education is that you don't tend to develop social skills until later in life

To a point I can see what you are saying but I don't agree with this 100%. It depends on what your child s being exposed to. I was a very confident child, great in social situations until I was introduced to the lovely experience that is bullying, which completely erroded my self esteem and made me hate meeting new people. Even now I am extremely uncomfortable in social situations and if I can would like to avoid interacting with people I don't know. If that is the sort of social interacton my child was getting from school then I would take my chances with her feeling isolated. I am aware that I am writing this from my personal experience, such as you are writing it from yours but people are different and one size does not fit all which seems to be the case in our education system.

Instead I believe that a child can be confident socially, and still be homeschooled. I know a couple of mums that home schooled their children and they meet up regularly, go out to trips, their children are members of differnet groups such as guides, judo etc and their children are very confident and have no problems in talking to diferent people. One of them had a child that went to college - their first experience of a structured education and they settled in great and did very well academically, ended up going to Uni.

 

[Squiglet]

Private schools have as much bulling (I believe more) than state schools... I've taken the brunt end of bullying from both private and state school systems, and state schools tend to have stricter policies on it and are more likely to take action against it... In private schools there is too much politics...

On the whole I would have preferred to home school my daughter... Mainly because my experiences in school were just a hugely traumatic period of my life... I would never EVER want to be a kid again for the reason of school... nor inflict that kind of torture on any of my children.

But then I know my daughter would get lonely without other children, company and friends to interact with. So if you are lucky enough to live in an area where there is a good home schooling network then fine...and unless your child is like me, a very nervous, shy child, then home schooling needs to be supplemented with some other social activities.

 

[Urchin]

Mason has his SATS this year.

TBH I'm not too bothered about it because

a) they don't tell the kids they are important or anything, they just say "today we are going to do a little test"

b) The way they are marked has changed, they now use the assessments they have made all year round, not just the SATS scores to mark your child, the SATS are just a part of their final score. That way if they have a bad day on SATS day it's not the end of the world.

c) I know they even if Mason gets a "low" score, it won't affect who he is or how much I love him, and he won't care cos he won't know

 

[beanie]

Home schooling is become more of an aceptable alternative, not just for "earth mothers" and hippies I like the idea of making learning fun, I remember in one of my primary schools (I had an army education where the class sizes were smaller) we would have a theme every term and everyhting we did was around this theme, so .e. if it was nature we would be out in the woods finding out different facts about the trees and plants etc etc then be encouraged to get our family involved so we would go out at the weekend trying to find things to take inot school, or asking our parents stuff etc. I just loved it. It was when I got out of army education that I freally struggled, and just hated the rest of my school experience.

 

[emma28]

I was a weekday boarder at high school. We lived in such a rural place it was the only option. It's not privately run but there were term boarders there that paid privately.I would guess the experience is similar anyway, the only dfference being that it was mixed not single sexed. And I loved it. I met people I would never usually have met and did things that I would never have got to do if I'd had to go home everynight. I got asked to leave in the upper 6th and HATED not being there. The only bad thing I would say is that I don't like being on my own now and I'm sure that is a result of living with and sharing dorms with others for all those years. The friends I made there were amazing and we are all still really close,more so I think because living together for years makes you family really...

I loved my time at school, purely because I boarded and whilst I obviosly don't want to sent my children away, it did wonders for me and I'd love to be able to give them that chance too...

 

[Becs]

The Grammar schools are top in the country where I live so I hope our kids will get into one of them, but yes I would consider paying for a private school. We still haven't decided. Mind you a baby on the way would be a good start

 

[katyk]

I wouldn't send my daughter to a private school... They don't prepare you for the outside world... they are very insular...and I say this being a kid that went to private schools.. {...}
So all in all... a few. And well I hated them all, never fitted in.. I always questioned things, always wanted to know more...And private schools have much stricter policies on these things. I also had a tough time, because my parents really couldn't afford to send me to private schools, so I got in on scholarships and bursaries. Which then makes you even more of an outcast because you're only there because your cleaver not because daddy has 5 ponies, yatch and a Ferrari.. Quite frankly I got sick of it... theres so much of that going on in the school

I think when I went to the local high school (my request as I had had enough of penguins and constant snobbish behaviour from the girls) I learnt a lot more about other people. I think I learnt more in general about the outside world.

So no even if I had the money I wouldn't send my children to private school... They need to learn to interact with people from every back ground and the only way they can do that is by going to public schools.. .

That's what I think, exactly, social skills and learning about the real world is the important thing. We can't protect people from the real world, if we do they will just encounter it later and it will come as a big shock, as it did for me.

Though hearing what some of the other ladies are saying about kids possibly ending up in schools where getting 3 GCSEs is the norm, I can see why private school would seem necessary.

My parents made me go to the village school, it was a state school but due to the area, still quite 'good' (if you like that sort of thing.)

When I was doing teacher training I had one placement at a 'good' state school, another at a bad one, I looooved the bad one, the teachers were actually nice, the kids didn't think they were better than everyone, and were actually better behaved than at the good school. There was a caring, friendly atmosphere as opposed to a repressed formal cold atmosphere.

Having said that, I don't think I could have enjoyed school no matter where I went, there's bullying etc at all of them I suppose-- but I can dream

 

[Becs]

The Grammar schools are top in the country where I live so I hope our kids will get into one of them, but yes I would consider paying for a private school. We still haven't decided. Mind you a baby on the way would be a good start

 

[katyk]

I wouldn't send my daughter to a private school... They don't prepare you for the outside world... they are very insular...and I say this being a kid that went to private schools.. {...}
So all in all... a few. And well I hated them all, never fitted in.. I always questioned things, always wanted to know more...And private schools have much stricter policies on these things. I also had a tough time, because my parents really couldn't afford to send me to private schools, so I got in on scholarships and bursaries. Which then makes you even more of an outcast because you're only there because your cleaver not because daddy has 5 ponies, yatch and a Ferrari.. Quite frankly I got sick of it... theres so much of that going on in the school

I think when I went to the local high school (my request as I had had enough of penguins and constant snobbish behaviour from the girls) I learnt a lot more about other people. I think I learnt more in general about the outside world.

So no even if I had the money I wouldn't send my children to private school... They need to learn to interact with people from every back ground and the only way they can do that is by going to public schools.. .

That's what I think, exactly, social skills and learning about the real world is the important thing. We can't protect people from the real world, if we do they will just encounter it later and it will come as a big shock, as it did for me.

Though hearing what some of the other ladies are saying about kids possibly ending up in schools where getting 3 GCSEs is the norm, I can see why private school would seem necessary.

My parents made me go to the village school, it was a state school but due to the area, still quite 'good' (if you like that sort of thing.)

When I was doing teacher training I had one placement at a 'good' state school, another at a bad one, I looooved the bad one, the teachers were actually nice, the kids didn't think they were better than everyone, and were actually better behaved than at the good school. There was a caring, friendly atmosphere as opposed to a repressed formal cold atmosphere.

Having said that, I don't think I could have enjoyed school no matter where I went, there's bullying etc at all of them I suppose-- but I can dream

 

[Anna B]

If i had any children, and i had the cash, I would send them to a private school-I do work in one though, so I am a little biased!!

The class sizes are much smaller, the range of subjects 9and ways the subjects are examined) is much broader, the facilities are often better, an at a school like the one I work at, the kids get to mix with others from all around the world (its a boarding and day school, with 60% foreign intake).

 

[Minxy]

Even if I had, I wouldn't.

My very basic socialist values lead me to believe everyone is entitled to a quality education, not just those that can afford it.

I'm not naive enough to think the state school system offered is as good as it gets, but I'm willing to shop around state schools and support Stanley's learning in any way necessary when the time comes.

But it's a principle, and I'd never pay.

 

[Becs]

The Grammar schools are top in the country where I live so I hope our kids will get into one of them, but yes I would consider paying for a private school. We still haven't decided. Mind you a baby on the way would be a good start

 

[katyk]

I wouldn't send my daughter to a private school... They don't prepare you for the outside world... they are very insular...and I say this being a kid that went to private schools.. {...}
So all in all... a few. And well I hated them all, never fitted in.. I always questioned things, always wanted to know more...And private schools have much stricter policies on these things. I also had a tough time, because my parents really couldn't afford to send me to private schools, so I got in on scholarships and bursaries. Which then makes you even more of an outcast because you're only there because your cleaver not because daddy has 5 ponies, yatch and a Ferrari.. Quite frankly I got sick of it... theres so much of that going on in the school

I think when I went to the local high school (my request as I had had enough of penguins and constant snobbish behaviour from the girls) I learnt a lot more about other people. I think I learnt more in general about the outside world.

So no even if I had the money I wouldn't send my children to private school... They need to learn to interact with people from every back ground and the only way they can do that is by going to public schools.. .

That's what I think, exactly, social skills and learning about the real world is the important thing. We can't protect people from the real world, if we do they will just encounter it later and it will come as a big shock, as it did for me.

Though hearing what some of the other ladies are saying about kids possibly ending up in schools where getting 3 GCSEs is the norm, I can see why private school would seem necessary.

My parents made me go to the village school, it was a state school but due to the area, still quite 'good' (if you like that sort of thing.)

When I was doing teacher training I had one placement at a 'good' state school, another at a bad one, I looooved the bad one, the teachers were actually nice, the kids didn't think they were better than everyone, and were actually better behaved than at the good school. There was a caring, friendly atmosphere as opposed to a repressed formal cold atmosphere.

Having said that, I don't think I could have enjoyed school no matter where I went, there's bullying etc at all of them I suppose-- but I can dream

 

[Anna B]

If i had any children, and i had the cash, I would send them to a private school-I do work in one though, so I am a little biased!!

The class sizes are much smaller, the range of subjects 9and ways the subjects are examined) is much broader, the facilities are often better, an at a school like the one I work at, the kids get to mix with others from all around the world (its a boarding and day school, with 60% foreign intake).

 

[Minxy]

Even if I had, I wouldn't.

My very basic socialist values lead me to believe everyone is entitled to a quality education, not just those that can afford it.

I'm not naive enough to think the state school system offered is as good as it gets, but I'm willing to shop around state schools and support Stanley's learning in any way necessary when the time comes.

But it's a principle, and I'd never pay.

 

[Magic Monkey]

I wouldn't send my children to private school as I would never be able to afford anyway!

BUT private schools do not have to be inspected regularly, they do not have to follow the national curriculum. So other than exam results, how would you know if a school was a good school? In my opinion there are lots of things that are more important than exam results to a child's education, such as a nurturing and supportive environment.

I also think that a decision depends on an individual case, there are some children who will flourish in any environment, others that need smaller classes and more support. However, private schools do not always offer this. I know someone who recently moved their child into a state school because the private school she was in offered no support for special needs.

 

[libs]

I went to one age 11-16 and loved it and would send Josh to one in a flash if we could afford - as it is we took him out of our local authority area and into another as the standard of secondary education was so poor. But it's not just the standard of education - I wanted him to go to a school than enforced discipline and expected high standards in everything from manners to dress. I was sick to death of working in high schools that said it was fine for children to swear as that was part of the culture and which bred an atomsphere of well done even if no effort had gone into work, or it was wrong. I was also sick of getting staff at work who had this put into them at school and then couldn't understand when we siad things weren't acceptable at work

 

[fifi211]

Me and my sisters all went to state schools and we all received a very good education, fortunately the schools in our area are very good and perform well in the offsted reports. I do think it is a bit of a tuffy question though because I went to state school I think there is nothing wrong with it, but obviously you want the best for your kids.