Why is it fair for people with money to get a better education than me?

The title is more of a crowd drawer than my actual opinion, I'm still undecided on the 'private school issue' but I'm prepared to swing either way so convince me otherwise TSR.

I was just speaking to a girl who told me she wants to do Law in KCL, and she told me her brother got 12 A*s and she got 8 A*s. Me and my brothers went to state schools and I never got a single A*, one had mostly Cs and one had mostly Ds. So I've done much better than my brothers.

At first I thought wow for both to get such good grades they must have really good parents. But then I decided to ask "Do you go to a private school or state school?" She answered "Private school."

For both to have done so well having gone to a private school, I'm assuming this a common thing? Where as my school is a band 1 state school (Top band) and the highest achieved grade was 11 A* and 1 A, the second was 7A* and it went down from there out of 200 people. My GCSEs were considered well above average for my school. I can't however apply to the top Universities because my GCSEs aren't as good compared to, say, people on TSR and I am a hard worker.

So why is it that people who go to private schools get better grades? Why is their standard of education so high and why can't teachers in state schools copy it?

I'm just wondering, so discuss.

Oh, and I don't think there are welsh private schools are there?

Before anyone tries telling me their own opinions or situations e.g "I went to a private school and failed all of my GCSEs" here are some facts taken from the BBC and elsewhere.

8% of Children go to private schools, 92% go to state schools.
50% of Oxbridge undergrads are from private schools.
More than half of all students in Private schools come out with A or A* GCSE grades.
38% of all children getting three As or better at A-level are from Private schools.
"Pupils at private schools are more than three times as likely to get AAB in the key A level subjects that help candidates gain access to top universities as those in state schools, according to the first analysis of its kind released by the government." ~ Nick Clegg

(edited 11 years ago)

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Reply 1

Charwas

it is not fair, but nor is the world we live in.

Reply 2

Id and Ego seek

lol awks, I went to private school and didn't get any A*s.

Woops.

Reply 3

jpye11

Having been to both, I think it's fair to say the private school kids worked harder. Why is another question...

Reply 4

Drewski

Why is it fair for someone with more money to have better clothes than me?

Reply 5

Tiger Rag

A private school isn't always better than a state school. They could just be more intelligent than you?

Reply 6

Aramiss18

Original post by Drewski

Why is it fair for someone with more money to have better clothes than me?

Not an equal comparison. Education should be the great equaliser, not whether you have D&G underwear or not.

Reply 7

im so academic

Original post by Miracle Day

Should've worked harder. Stop making excuses for yourself.

No, it's not fair, but what do you propose? Scrapping private schools? That will never happen.

Reply 8

swbp

I guess that **** gettin' eaten

Reply 9

clareyyyyyyy

I attended a state school and got 10 A*s and 2As.... which was by no means the best grades in the year either...
Depends on the state school I guess. It was a catholic school though, but does that really have all that much bearing on the situation?

Reply 10

jpye11

Original post by Miracle Day

So you think there's a different atmosphere in private schools? Interesting.

Well yeah when your parents are paying for the education and you can see the sacrifices they have to make to do so, you'd have to be a ****ty kid to not work hard.

The people who worked the least tended to be really rich anyway, and just got good at sports instead.

When I went fees were about 3k per year, so a lot more middle class people were going. Now I think they are closer to 10k so maybe it's changing towards upper middle class.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 11

Drewski

Original post by Aramiss18

Not an equal comparison. Education should be the great equaliser, not whether you have D&G underwear or not.

Only in an idealised utopian world. In the real world that'll simply never be the case, no point pretending otherwise.

Reply 12

Beebumble

Original post by OU Student

A private school isn't always better than a state school. They could just be more intelligent than you?

What would be the point in paying for it then. :s-smilie:

I think the main priority should be to make state schools better, especially those in large cities, never mind what private schools are doing.

Reply 13

im so academic

Original post by Miracle Day

I'm not making excuses, I should of worked harder. But the fact is I probably would have gotten better grades if I went to a private schools.

That's why people pay for private schools, otherwise they wouldn't be fulfilling their purpose. It's to give children an extra advantage.

Reply 14

exe

No it isn't fair, and you may not necessarily have gotten better grades if you went to a private school, plenty of people who do get bad grades. That said - it's definitely an enviornment that's better for learning. You can't exactly blame private school students or their parents though, they're just trying to make the best for themselves/their kids. Bring back grammar schools, I say

Reply 15

jamesvancollier

To be fair, I used to go to a private school, but now attend a VA school (still very high standard) I find thy people at my current school work harder and achieve better grades

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Reply 16

Aramiss18

Original post by Drewski

Only in an idealised utopian world. In the real world that'll simply never be the case, no point pretending otherwise.

So you don't disagree that it is morally wrong for children to have a better education and therefore prospects due to their birth but think it's something we should just accept as it would be extremely difficult to equalise? I think adults owe it to future children to be more ambitious with policy.

Reply 17

emanuela15

From what I remember of state school, it might be class size? When I was in my local state school, we had around 20+ people in a class. In my private school now, we have around 10. Also, not meaning to point fingers, but the teachers in my state school weren't very supportive of the slackers in lessons - extra help was pretty much out of the question

Reply 18

Drewski

Original post by Aramiss18

It's human nature.

Some kids are predisposed to illnesses because of their birth. Whether it's morally wrong or not frankly doesn't matter. The idea that the younger generation has to do better than the one that went before it is inherently bad because somewhere along the line someone has to miss out in order for someone else to get that gain.

Reply 19

Miracle Day

I've put up some statistics from the BBC which obviously shows that people do better in Private schools, doesn't matter if you tell me I should have done tried harder or I should have done better the bottom line is people have an advantage if they go to them.