Trust me, I jumped between three different state schools (as well as a private school for a couple of terms) and the academic pressure was still immense wherever I went (not that it struck myself as a problem, it evidently impacted others negatively though).
The area I live in has a high density of schools, so you hear of a lot of different experiences; 9/10, everyone has an awful time Year 7–Year 13. Fun is essentially prohibited across the board anyway, that isn’t unique to your private education. Plus, you could find yourself put on detentions just for sitting on windowsills or trying to hide indoors when it was cold. The number of times having a laugh or making too much noise in the corridor had you under suspicion alone was ridiculous. I have only known two types of people to pass through education without a hitch:
Those naturally granted with the perfect life, with a perfect home and perfect supportive parents, with no personal issues, that somehow find themselves favourited by every teacher just for existing, regardless of their academic ability.
Or...
Individuals who are so nonchalant about their education, they willingly spend all of their time disrupting classes, thriving off being irritants to the teachers, putting 0% into anything, not caring about failing or being in trouble, and only valuing school for the cliques they can reign while somehow avoiding permanent exclusion (although suspensions are frequently tallied up).
The pressure was always put on the wrong people as well, usually those having a hard time. We lost our on-site counsellors, career advisors and learning support team due to cuts; on top of that, while you are being beaten up over your grades, the teachers have no time for you because all of the departments are underfunded and understaffed.
My school (the one I ended up attending the longest) was not the worst as a grammar school, but the regular secondary school that sat nearby was only just given enough money to keep everyone imprisoned—I recall some attempt being made to improve the place (because it wasn’t bad, they just lacked provisions and opportunities), but as soon as they received the funding boost to invest in a small farm (some small and larger animals, to offer a Level 2–3 BTEC in Animal Care to students) the money was relocated to the top performing local grammar school. Like, all of the schools (academy, regular, grammar, or whatever) were just shafted unless they were the TOP school in the area.
The conditions worsened though (and I am talking 6 years ago now), to a point where we started paying to join clubs at a local private school just because our own schools couldn’t afford to invest in anything decent. It was depressing being bound to classrooms that were falling apart but could never be repaired, watching teachers leaving or being made redundant (always the best ones), every year involving fewer science practicals because they were too costly and no longer counted as “relevant” to our education, and our previously partly-funded student exchange trips (for languages) mounting up to three figure numbers because they were unnecessary to the curriculum—despite the clear benefits they carried.
In many places, if you didn’t get it, you were given up on. No intervention was introduced to help you understand your work. You were just dumb and that was that. Not that the school could help, because every teacher was responsible for in excess of 100 students. If you were a straggler, you would learn to accept it; they were only going to give you a millisecond of additional explaining time, before multiplying the pressure on you in classes, assuming that would force you to grow a second brain and catch up on your own 🤔
End of the day, I believe the only friends of mine who enjoyed their secondary education, and the experiences that came with it, attended the private school I went to for their after school clubs.
Initially forgot to add that I did actually attend a private school for a couple of terms and that it provided a greater educational experience than anything afterwards. It’s just unfortunate we went from being relatively well-off family to suddenly having no money. I would have stayed there any day.