why do private schools do better than state schools?

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True, large classes are a nightmare. My entire GCSE experience was in large classes with people who didn't want to bother.

This happened to me too. Hardly anyone bothered and the teaching was poor. In some classes, it was "read chapter one and answer the questions". We never discussed the work at all.

Reply 41

MatureStudent36

Original post by JPL9457

i once asked a friend who moved from a private school to my state school and he could not put his finger on why private schools usually do better than state schools. the only reasons i can think of are that: a lot of private schools require an entrance exam, which means that they do not get any very unacademic people; intelligence is somewhat inherited, usually the really clever people i know have some really clever parents (although i know someone who is on As and A* at GCSE and his dad is a postman who left school with no qualifications); the pupils will be more willing to work hard and lastly, private schools are less likely to have disruptive pupils.

are there any other reasons that i have missed out?

It may be something to do with background and breeding. Middle class people produce middle class children who have middle class study ethics.

Reply 42

honeyandlemon

I think languages is especially a subject that in general is far better taught in public schools than it is in state schools.

In many public schools kids are taught languages from when they are small as opposed to learning from year 7 or 8 so they start off with far more exposure. Languages is mostly practice so smaller classes are far better. Not to mention from what I can see a lot of public schools offer a greater variety of languages than state schools do.

I went to one of the top grammar schools in the South East (an all girls state school) and my French class at GCSE was beyond appalling. We had around 5 girls drop out of the class and not even sit the GCSE and nothing was ever done to improve the class. I dread to think what languages is like at a lot of rough comprehensives.

Reply 43

young_padawan2

Original post by paddyman4

Personally I think that private primary school is a better investment. Succeeding early in numeracy and literacy is very important.

Surely it's more important when doing your GCSEs?

Reply 44

cambio wechsel

Original post by young_padawan2

Surely it's more important when doing your GCSEs?

Why's that?

Reply 45

paddyman4

Original post by young_padawan2

Surely it's more important when doing your GCSEs?

I think by the time you are doing your GCSEs, not much difference can be made either way.

The most important thing is that you enter secondary school with good literacy and numeracy.

By year 7, your GCSE grades can already be estimated by your literacy and numeracy levels, and the effect of the school is secondary.

Reply 46

username1002982

Original post by cambio wechsel

Why's that?

I'd agree with them. Good,numeracy and literacy can easily be encouraged at home, but once you hit GCSE, it's more important to have a good teacher and environment as parents aren't able to make as much of a (positive) impact seeing as it starts to specialise more.(Can't help with GCSE History if you never did it/the period, etc.) In terms,of qualifications and future impact, school also has more of an input at secondary level.

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Reply 47

ThatPerson

I think it is class sizes combined with environment.

Reply 48

bm127

I can't believe this even had to be asked.

Private schools have more money, so can afford better equipment, facilities and can afford to hire the best teachers, who in turn get to teach smaller classes and a greater range of subjects.

Entrance exams too, it's the same reason grammar schools (on the whole...) do better than state schools.

Reply 49

Origami Bullets

Having been to both (state primary, private secondary), I've long been of the opinion that the success of private schools has very little to do with the education itself that these schools provide.

The people who go to private schools (for the most part)
- have parents who are interested in and willing to invest in their child's education. They're supportive and see academic achievement as being important. That attitude rubs off on the kids
- parents are likely to be relatively well off financially (though there are exceptions), and there are various studies that show that parental income is the most accurate predictor of education achievement.
- they're selective, and so can weed out the really thick ones who will take up too much of the teachers time, and the disruptive ones
- if kids are disruptive, they are much more likely to come down on it. It's much easier to expel a kid from a private school than a state school, if need be.
- there's a culture of high expectations, in terms of both academics and behaviour. This is reinforced by the teachers, parents and indeed the pupils themselves. If only getting a C or not doing your homework is not socially acceptable, then you're going to push yourself harder. This then tends to act as something of a virtuous circle.

Edited to add: I very much think that facilities and class size are secondary to academic achievement. Up until Y11 I was regularly in classes of 30+ in my private secondary, and came out with grades of A*AAAAAAAAB. I can't say much for the facilities either - we had some grass pitches and netball / tennis courts, but they were nothing particularly special; other than that we had two halls and a bit of grass outside. In fairness, the science and art departments were quite well stocked, but for the most part everywhere else it was all peeling paint and wooden desks that must have been as old as my grandmother. None of this horse riding or swimming pool nonsense. I recently had cause to visit a local state school which gets fairly terrible GCSE results; their buildings and facilities are SO much nicer than those I went to school in as it's been rebuilt relatively recently and I doubt that class sizes were any bigger than mine.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 50

419

It's the environment. If all your friends are getting As, you're going to work hard to get As as well. But if they're getting grades from As-Us, the subconcious incentive to work harder from an A grade is somewhat lost. And also, parents are likelier to be educated themselves so there's another extra subconcious push.

And also the resources. The staff to student ratio matters alot.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 51

Joinedup

Original post by paddyman4

I agree that it's important to go into secondary with good literacy and numeracy, but I doubt it's worth paying extra for providing the school isn't a train wreck. it's all pretty easy for the parents to supplement what the school is doing if they can be bothered. Ks 1&2 workbooks are as cheap as chips.

Reply 52

johnmark

This is because there is usually more discipline as compared to state schools and also presence of conducive learning environment. The students also have more easier access to their lecturers.

Reply 53

johnmark

This is possible due to more discipline in private schools than in state schools, students have easy access to there lecturers, conducive learning environment and so many other reasons.

Reply 54

Pika-Profiterole

Original post by apolocreed

Not to be pedantic but a public school is a private school (a)

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I think they are trying to say state school?

I think most of the time, private schools do better than state school because state schools usually have a big class... and some students not really care about education, especially when they are in year 7-8. (but once they are in GCSE, they become more hard working as they see education as the most important) whereas in private schools, most students are all independent and see education as important.

Reply 55

forfrosne

Smaller classes, better teachers as a result of better pay, and the possibility of being selective which state schools do not have.

Reply 56

rac1

Study from Chile http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/chbbcchwp/147.htm

So many threads on this already.
https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?hl=en&authuser=0#hl=en&authuser=0&q=+site:thestudentroom.co.uk+private+vs+state+schools&sa=X&ei=EzU_Ue3JF-mJ7Ab8yYGIBg&sqi=2&ved=0CHcQrQIwBg&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=c60bda62866a8f75&biw=1241&bih=567

Reply 57

Astrtricks

Original post by apolocreed

Not to be pedantic but a public school is a private school (a)

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Not to be pedantic but a public school is a private school which is a member of the headmasters' and headmistresses' conference

Reply 58

anonymouse01

Original post by sabian92

True, large classes are a nightmare. My entire GCSE experience was in large classes with people who didn't want to bother.

I hated it and came out of it with 1 C, 5 Ds, 2 Es and an F. Probably my attitude of "if I don't like it I won't bother" didn't help either :biggrin:

Did you get into college with those grades? What did you study and what do you do now

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Reply 59

sabian92

Original post by anonymouse01

Did you get into college with those grades? What did you study and what do you do now

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I did yeah, I had to start with a level 2 BTEC though as no A-level 6th form would take me (trust me, I tried and my own secondary didn't have one), so I started with a Level 2 in Music (God knows why, it's my most useless qualification, not even worth the paper it's written on...), then I did a Level 2 in IT, went on to the Level 3 in IT and now I'm aiming for DDM/DDD which is the same as AAB/AAA at A-level.

I dossed about at school, I admit but partially it was down to not enjoying the subjects, my teachers being useless and the people in my classes being so disruptive I couldn't work anyway. A popular game in my English class was "Let's see how many big heavy dictionaries we can throw before somebody get's seriously injured or we get caught" :rolleyes:

That being said, I'm not lacking in actual intelligence I just didn't try with subjects I didn't like. I loved German and was predicted an A* but unfortunately meine Lehrerin die Schule verlassen, wie es geschlossen wurde :frown:

(The school was closing so my teacher left).

I have a learning disability which makes it bloody hard to concentrate for any serious length of time too, which obviously can cause issues. It's sometimes misconstrued as sheer stupidity unfortunately.

Ah well, I've got a conditional place at Liverpool John Moores to study Forensic Computing in September so that's good. Just gotta get those grades!

Another thing to take away from this post is that GCSEs are not the be-all-and-end-all of your education. Sure, you might think that bad GCSEs mean you've ruined your future but if you work hard at college (even if that means starting at a level below A-level/Level 3 BTEC) you can turn your situation to be better. I thought I'd royally buggered my life up when I left school and while I'm not exactly out of the woods yet as I don't have my degree, I got a hell of a lot further than I thought I would.