I went to a private school. AMA.

How much do you pay per year?

Have you ever felt like your view of society etc is slightly skewed?

I ask because, being from the other end of the spectrum in terms of the education I've recieved, I feel like my view is skewed quite a bit, and I've often made assumptions about the general populace that don't hold true at all.

At mine, roughly £10k per year. But I think it's gone up to about £12k now.

What kind of assumptions have you made?

My view of society probably did get skewed in a way. I always knew that there were people who didn't have much money or did things that aren't considered to be "posh", but then I underestimated what a high proportion of people that was.

How much were your school's fees, what grades did you get (GCSE/A Level) and would you say it was worth your parent's money? Do you think you would have done as well (grades-wise) if you'd gone to a state school?

Just out of interest, what do your parents do career-wise?

Sorry, I'm not sure if your referring to me or someone else

Just out of interest, what do your parents do career-wise?

Can't speak for OP but at the one I went to, most of our parents were expats and the tuition was covered by the companies they worked for, so like Shell, NATO, EPO, Maersk, Heineken, etc. It was a job perk to help them be willing to move countries to continue their job. Of course some of the kids just had rich CEO parents but the vast majority of us were just regular. My dad certainly wouldn't have sent us to my school if he'd had to pay for it himself

Also, people think that you're rich because your parents pay this. A lot of parents, like mine, work 14 hours a day to get us to the school. I rarely have holidays (every few years) and only get things except food on my birthday and Christmas. We don't have it as easy as people think at least.

Just gonna address your last comment.

Trust me - you have it very, very easy. The idea you think you don't is kind of ridiculous to me. My parents also work hard, and I have a very privileged life (I go on holidays, get presents, etc) but they climbed up to where they were from being extremely poor as children. My mother never had a present, or a birthday cake or a holiday, during her childhood. In fact, her parents could barely pay for food. The state education system was awful (Cornwall in the 70s/80s) and to get out of the situation, my dad entered the forces, because there were no jobs in the town (not even minimum wage jobs - awful area). He's now an engineer and I live an amazing life - all because of their hard work.

The reasons I'm telling you this? You go to a £14k a year school, you have holidays every few years and you get presents every Birthday and Christmas. Understand how easy your life is and how lucky you have it. You are rich - the fact your parents can afford a £14k school alone shows that, but you ALSO get holidays and presents? Please. You're privileged. Don't pretend you aren't - don't say **** like "people don't realise how tough we have it" that you were intimating by saying you don't have it easy. You don't know how easy you do have it. Be grateful you're so lucky (I sure as hell am).

I guess it really shows the difference in our upbringings - I've been taught to be understanding of how good it is to get a present at Christmas, not complain because 'we only go on one holiday every three years because I go to a £14k/year school!' Gosh, how pathetic.

I am at sixth form in a private school and personally think that I would have got the same grades I did regardless of what school I went to.
Honestly, even if I could afford to send my kids to private school (if I have kids!) I wouldn't send them to a private school. I think we live a very shielded life away from the rest of society and has led a lot of people to become weak as people and not be able to stand up for themselves or get their hands dirty. Most people in my school look down at those who have 'average' schooling as they call it and expect everyone to have money and buy expensive cars with expensive holidays.
As my parents were not particularly well of, they had applied for a bursary for me and I passed the means test and was the only person in my school to have 60% of my fees subsidised. So I don't really come from the same background as every one else in my school and feel like an outsider sometimes when everyone is showing of their expensive designer gear, without any idea of hard work because everything was handed to them on a platter!
Not trying to bash my school, but I do think that most people don't understand or have much knowledge of what society is like in general!

Just out of interest, what do your parents do career-wise?

+1, same experience.

The tuition for my international schools usually ranged from £20-30k, covered by the company my dad worked for - in his case: Shell, BP and Saudi Aramco.

I think more of my friends now have exec parents as they've parachuted up the career ladder with international experience. My dad personally hit VP of Engineering, a couple others are now Global CEOs, CFOs, SVPs etc.


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