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private vs state education

Reply 20

11

Private, got a pretty good education and it was a nice place to be.

I'd send my kids to a private school if I can afford it. Being single sex had its pros and cons, I wouldn't have a strong opinion either way when it came to advising someone else, depends entirely on them. My children'll just choose for themselves whether they want to go mixed or not, I guess.

Reply 21

samba

6

public grammar.

I'll give my kids the choice...

Reply 22

Oldmannow

18

poppyache

What type of secondary school did you go to?
State or private?
What were the pros and cons?
Where would you send your kids? (Hypothesising... or not- i.e. where do you send your kids?)

If you went to a private school did you feel you got ripped off? Or better life experience?

Any comments appreciated

private:

pros: prestige, amazing students, amazing teachers, old boys network, facilities, opportunities, extra-help, no as some people put it "delinquits running round with knives" (this is done the road at the local state - worst in southwark), sporting opportunities, all those trips to other countries etc etc.

cons:
:confused:

ill do my best to get my kid(s?) into a top private school like my one or some place like Westminster, Harrow etc...obviously preferably in London...dont want them to end up spending their life in some random private school in the middle of the country side (or up Nooorth) where no one would want to live :wink:

(oh..and not a mixed private school either because nearly all of those are crap and are wannabees with a false sense of grandeur :p:

e.g. Alleyns..obviously some are exceptions like Westminster where they have mixed 6th form)

cant say i was ripped off seeing as all decent private schools charge around the same amount of money.

Reply 23

lol_nl

There are no real private schools in the Netherlands anymore.
I go to a kind of a public funded private school, so it's actually still quite close to a private school.

My school is regarded as snobbish and elite in the region, although the admission standards are probably the same.

Pros:
-education level high
-relatively small classes
-good atmosphere, never fights
-nice and clean, even toilets are very clean most of the time

Cons:
-lack of large range of extracurriculars
-lack of people of different backgrounds (at my school about 90% is white probably, some 8% Turkish or Marrocan and the other 2% Asian or black. And I'm Asian :rolleyes:

and I'm forced to interact with white people, but not all are accepting foreigners; some are really xenophobic).
-lack of sense of community (also due to lack of extracurriculars).
-useless strict rules and punishment (once half the class forgot to do their homework and had to copy the index pages of their Dutch book... most people did it in 3-4 hours (some spent 6 hours but didn't finish), and it had to be handed in the next day).

I would send my child to a good public school. One thing that really lacks at snobbish and elite schools is that you don't meet a large variety of people of different backgrounds. In my class my classmates nearly all have parents that are either rich businessmen or intellectual academici (at the local university). Nearly all types of people are present at public schools, so you won't have the feeling you're left out because you will always find people with similar interests and identity (not literary).

Reply 24

squirrellywrath

I went to a state secondary school and got bullied the s*** out of..... other than that it was ok though.

Before that however, I was home educated, and I will DEFINATELY home educate my children.

Reply 25

Segat1

16

Hasn't this subject been done to death?

Reply 26

retro-pixie-chic

i went to a private school from age 2-16

Pros- small (maximum of 20 in a year), community like, you knew everybodies name, teachers could give more attention to you as an individual. good gcse record

Cons - big jump and shock into a larger college community. 20 girls - in other words lots of bitchiness between us and you couldnt escape them. Not enough freedom. im very sheltered.

i would send my children possibly to a private school but to a mixed sex one and one which is a little larger. or i'd definitely consider a state grammar.

um, only referring to my private school i do feel a little ripped off because the facilities werent great and i think (and my parents) think they should have sent me to one that was a little more expensive but you got far more for your money

Reply 27

Zoecb

11

Home education is a messed up way to grow up imo. The school experience links EVERYONE together, you learn how to make friends, how to cope with situations, and it's a change of scenery. You can't spend 24 hours a day with your parents, it would have driven me mad.

Reply 28

miss_world

3

State Comprehensive.

Pros: Wide variety of people from all sorts of different backgrounds, (mostly) dedicated teachers, made loads of good friends, the school really did try to do the best for every pupil, and it was just generally a nice invironment to learn in.

Cons: The usual, there were bullys, delinquents and people who tried to disrupt classes but the school were usually really good at sorting these people out- they did their best anyway. The school itself was also a bit shabby, and some of the facilities were not so great, but meh what do you expect.

I will definitely be sending my child to a state school no matter how much money I earn.

Reply 29

soup_dragon87

squirrellywrath

I went to a state secondary school and got bullied the s*** out of..... other than that it was ok though.

Before that however, I was home educated, and I will DEFINATELY home educate my children.

Home education is an excuse for unbelievably control freak mothers to watch their children every damn second. It does the child no good in terms of social development.

Pah, send them to boarding school, infinitely better.

Reply 30

supercat

2

I went to a state comp.

Pros: Everything! Great friends, great people, amazing teachers. It was a really close, tight-knit community. The lessons were brilliant. I ended up with very very good exam results. The school was flexible - allowing me to take an exam they didn't actually offer. When I was off school sick for ages, they made sure I always had work to get on with and kept me up to speed. When I returned, they bent over backwards to make sure I was ok - from allowing me to come back to school slowly, to letting me leave if I needed, to letting me sit in my own room for exams. Ace trips - we went from the Isle of Wight to the Battlefields to New York. Great facilities, including lots of very good computers and a TV studio. I thought I was sheltered, but when I got to uni I realised I really wasn't compared to others, so obviously it also made me more aware. Got it for the price of my parents' taxes.

Cons: I find it really hard to think of any. I suppose there were a few people who didn't want to be there and were a bit disruptive but it didn't affect me adversely at all.

Hypothetical children: My preference would most definitely be state comp/state grammar. However, I am quite aware that sometimes it's not quite so easy, and if I lived in an area with poor state schools I would consider private education.

Reply 31

squirrellywrath

soup_dragon87

Home education is an excuse for unbelievably control freak mothers to watch their children every damn second. It does the child no good in terms of social development.

Pah, send them to boarding school, infinitely better.

woah, calm down with the sweeping judgements there?! :wink:

Reply 32

Apricot Fairy

16

I went to a state comp and it didn't do me any harm at all. Got good grades and did plenty of extra-curricular stuff and had lots of friends. Can't really think of any particular drawbacks, except the discipline was a bit poor, but it didn't really affect me.

I would send my kids to a comprehensive, unless my partner was dead set against it and we could easily afford to send them to a private school, in which case it would be a very down to earth day school. My ex-boyfriend is your classic public schoolboy tragedy, and I think if he'd lived at home with his mother like a normal child and gone to a normal school he wouldn't be nearly so repressed.

Reply 33

Apricot Fairy

16

soup_dragon87

Home education is an excuse for unbelievably control freak mothers to watch their children every damn second. It does the child no good in terms of social development.

Pah, send them to boarding school, infinitely better.

I know plenty of people whose social development has undoubtedly been hindered by the fact that they went to boarding school...

Reply 34

Liv_B

I go to a private international school. I grew up in the Middle East and so the public schools here are only Arabic speaking.. There are 4 international schools here and I go to the best one (not bragging, just had the opportunity to go here), and I love it. The teachers REALLY care, the people are great and the school is awesome. I know it made me into a different person than I would have been if we'd stayed in England (we were living in a kind of rough area before) and I've made friends that I will definitely have for life. The only downside is that there is a LOT more pressure. Our school offers the IB, and if you don't take it then you're looked down upon.. Only 4/49 people in my senior year aren't doing it. There's a huge pressure to suceed, but now I'm going on to do Law which I don't think would have really been in the cards for me where I was before...

I will definitely send my kids to a private school. I'd like to send them to an international school but it depends on the situation.

Reply 35

AisAis

13

Well I've always been to a non-selective comp. and I've always been against private education. However, I've changed my mind recently.

Everything was great up until I started secondary school. My middle school had about 400 people in it, there was a sense of community, we had lots of fun, the teachers were close with everyone, everyone knew eachother's names, etc. The only downside is that I know I wasn't pushed academically but I didn't care about that at that age and I think maybe that was a good thing.

My current seconday school:

Bad:

* Too large - 400+ in a year group in a joke.
* NO sense of community whatsoever.
* In lower school you are given the extreamly bad teachers and are in very mixed classes with all the badly behaved students.
* There's hardly any setting which makes learning difficult.
* Teachers download PoperPoints from the internet and I have spent my GCSEs years just copying them down lesson after lesson. That's not learning.
* Everyone goes out at lunch so no one mixed with other people.
* Hardly any teachers or students know other students' names.
* There's not enough space for everyone to have lunch so when I was in year nine we didn't have any indoor space to have lunch, we had to stay outside.
* There are lots of obnoxious chavs.
* Classes are 30+
* The libary is about the size of a classroom.
* There are no clubs apart from sports for people who already play them outside school.
* They are very strict with uniform but not with monitering work.

Good:

* Lots of different people.
*Ummm..... we get quite good GCSE pass rates for this area.
*There are a few very good teachers, although I was only lucky enough to have any during year ten.

If I had the option of going private for my A levels I'd definatley take it.

For my own children I'd give them a choice when they were about to start GCSEs/ A' levels.

Reply 36

F1 fanatic

16

I went to a fairly average Comprehensive, and providing the local school was decent I'd send my kids to state also.

Pros:

More self-motivated/independent - a child has to push themselves
cheaper!
More experience of a wider variety of people and cultures
More relaxed

Cons:

Can lack opportunities with regards higher education
Can look down and be picked on for being clever, or can be pedastalled - both leading to confidence issues
less training for examinations which would benefit the average student
Bigger class sizes, more disruptive classes.

Reply 37

FoeGeddaBowDeet

Talya

My kid is getting the best education I can afford.

but that doesn't necessarily equal private school, does it?
The best education you can afford, even if rich, might be a grammar school.

Reply 38

Talya

16

HenvY

but that doesn't necessarily equal private school, does it?
The best education you can afford, even if rich, might be a grammar school.

Indeed. But I envisage being able to afford private school. If not, I'll move to a house in an area with decent schools.

Reply 39

ShinyApple

14

Sorry to be the one to do it, but...

If you aren't already aware then let me inform you that:

Public schooling does not always equal good schooling.

There are plenty of public school out there which are awful. Headington School, Oxford is an excellent example.

private vs state education

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