Living expenses

[sasguru]

Money well spent imo. When os jnr is of school going age it will be private without question.

Disagree. Buy a house in a very good comprehensive's catchment area. They do exist. This has the double benefit of preserving your house price as other parents will always be desperate to buy there.
Plus I happen to believe that children are better served by associating with a normalish cross-section of society than stupid but rich toffs.

[TheFaQQer]

Disagree. Buy a house in a very good comprehensive's catchment area. They do exist. This has the double benefit of preserving your house price as other parents will always be desperate to buy there.
Plus I happen to believe that children are better served by associating with a normalish cross-section of society than stupid but rich toffs.

Never did me any harm

One of the things in the Economist talks about buying a house in a good catchment area, and then you can sell it on and move once the children have left school.

Some state schools will pull out all the stops to keep good children there, for example arranging extra courses so that they might stay on to get better grades and boost the results average. Like all good investments, though, educating in the state system requires some careful monitoring and be prepared to pull them out and go somewhere else if necessary.

[oracleslave]

Disagree. Buy a house in a very good comprehensive's catchment area. They do exist. This has the double benefit of preserving your house price as other parents will always be desperate to buy there.
Plus I happen to believe that children are better served by associating with a normalish cross-section of society than stupid but rich toffs.

I think we will have to agree to disagree then. As I went to a private school my entire school going life I would like to do the same for my kid(s) and will do so unless circumstance prevents it.

I would agree with your second point regarding associating with a cross-section of society. I believe it to be possible to do this and go to a private school provided as a parent you put the effort in.

[sasguru]

Never did me any harm

.

Neither did my going to a crap inner-city comp
Which proves what? That the school matters less than the personal qualities of the person, I suspect.

[scooterscot]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7276730.stm

You shallow creatures!

So I know this Teacher who works in a private school, in the pub the other night he tells me the biggest stress, apart from the 6 day week, is coping with parents when trying to explain to them that their little angel thick as treacle. Still we'll take your money.

[The Master]

What was the conclusion?

On balance, not good value for money given the steep and on-going rise in fees, not justified by results. Exam passing factories, they called them. Although, as always, there are exceptions.

They made the interesting observation that spectacular results, including Oxbridge entry, are being achieved by bright pupils in schools given the Ofsted red card. They say it's because those schools are desperate to improve their league table standing and so are hiving off the brighter kids away from the trouble makers, given them extra tuition, lots of one-on-one teaching and so on.

[DimPrawn]

Disagree. Buy a house in a very good comprehensive's catchment area. They do exist. This has the double benefit of preserving your house price as other parents will always be desperate to buy there.

Plus I happen to believe that children are better served by associating with a normalish cross-section of society than stupid but rich toffs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6413811.stm

Lefties are toying with the idea that all school places are allocated on a lottery system. What's that going to do to house prices close to good schools?

[TheFaQQer]

Neither did my going to a crap inner-city comp
Which proves what? That the school matters less than the personal qualities of the person, I suspect.

Those who have the aptitude to do well will do well regardless of school.

I'm not sure how good either system is for an average or below average pupil though.

[Sausage Surprise]

Private education is also about contacts for later life. Ever heard of the "old school tie"?

[scooterscot]

The rental alternative for a 3 bed house in SW london is not as enticing as you seem to think and somewhere between £1000 - £2500 dependent on area anyway.

That's still loads of cash though, I mean loads. Was given land recetnly on one of the Western Isles and I'm building a holiday house. Almost like this one The cost of raw materials per month is not costing me more than you're spending on mortgage the now.

London is different, it looks like it's part of the UK but it's not, look on the map you really think it's part of Britain but really it's not, you're playing on an international scale living in that city, it used to be part of Britain but not anymore.