Putting kids through private school, or moving house to get to a better school

[Troll]

For those of you who have kids, have you considered putting them into private schools? Or already done so? How do you mentally get round to the idea of having to pay fees for that amount of time?

I put 3 through Private education Aged 11-18 - but I wanted them to do the local Primary school to learn how to deal with the wider society
It hurts having to find the fees out of taxed income each term.... fook does it hurt - best advice would be to get the first one in and then discuss with the principle bringing the other two across - remember that everything is negotiable and usually they will be very accommodating with fees & bursaries - so you should get significant discounts for the siblings and try locking in the fees for the duration of all 3 being there- without any of the yearly increases as they do love ratcheting up the fees so you may find any discounts are eroded after 2 years - did I mention it hurts?

Once the first gets past their O levels try giving notice that they will be leaving to take their A levels at a local school ( usually more discounts / bursaries will materialise as they need good academic results to sell to the next generation of fee payers - they will have an "expectation" that the child will continue on through A levels but it is not a legal requirement so becomes a good bargaining tool) If your child flunks his O levels then consider pulling them out early anyway to save cash - & useful as a threat to the kids if they don't study hard as the schools are very social and they will miss their mates

Is it worth it - depends on how good your local is - certainly would consider the option of moving to a better catchment area but only if admission is guaranteed

Was it worth it to me - on balance yes but cannot be certain what the outcome of keeping in the local State school would have been

& as mentioned fook does it hurt

Of course the next big question you face is which private school to pick and do they board or go as day students....

Bang goes the early retirement

+ Villa
+ Yacht


HTH

[Troll]

... sorry forgot to add - on reflection the best approach all round would be to find God and hook into the religious schools (except Islam) - they look after their own and educationally deliver + it also gives your kids something to rebel against

[northernladuk]

Strange one on class sizes, my primary class had 40 kids in, I don't know how she kept them all up to speed. Amazingly 22 passed 11-plus, which filled nearly a quarter of the grammer school intake. I think most other schools chipped in 5 at most.
Not sure this was the case every year but that teacher must have been doing something right...

I would argue a string of good teachers is the answer here, particularly in the final two years and those two teachers will have bust a gut to fix anything coming up from less able or dedicated teachers. My other half got 100% through of a class of 34 2 years ago but by god she had to work hard at it. The fact the school is in a good area helps a lot to be fair. Very little second language or bad parenting issues to deal with etc.

Point to the OP. When going for a school go speak to them. Don't just take the tables as read. There is much more to it than stats. A smaller class with a few children with learning problems can skew the results horribly. Look for the value add of the school or find out about their funding. Some get extra funding for children with greater needs so parents with children that need that may gravitate towards that school. Reading the figures properly could reveal the by individual score the children actually do better than at a school one that has no extra funding and less extra needs from the children but a high percentage pass rate... if that makes sense.

[eek]

Some get extra funding for children with greater needs so parents with children that need that may gravitate towards that school.

Not anymore as the Pupil Premium is supposed to cover that and represents £600 for every child on free school meals at anytime in the past six years (it rises to £900 in April).

To be honest what you really want is a school with a proportion of both working class parents who get the premium, with enough middle class aspirational parents to ensures the children that are bright are pushed by similar. Its one reason why our children attend a CofE school. Oh and CofE schools have tough faith admission criteria because the church doesn't want children from that approach (its aiming for a minimum of 80% admission based on standard non-faith criteria).

Oh and don't argue that 80% rule. That was from the archbishop when I discussed that exact issue with him last year.

[psychocandy]

That's a bit too smug.

It's about more than that. A below-average school drags everyone down, because the teaching is compromised by less able classmates, poor pupil behaviour (it doesn't take many idiots to feck it up for everyone else), and good teachers sodding off to more rewarding jobs.

Saying that a child should succeed there if they have an ideal character is unrealistic because few children have an ideal character, and sometimes things are beyond one's control.

True enough. If the school is crap then there's more opportunity to be the same as everyone else and not bother.

However, I will stand by my comments that anyone can do it regardless of the school they go to/background. Like I said, I went to tulipey school, lived on tulipey council estate, single parent old man worked in a factory for 40 years.

Still managed to go to Uni and get decent jobs thereafter.

[psychocandy]

... sorry forgot to add - on reflection the best approach all round would be to find God and hook into the religious schools (except Islam) - they look after their own and educationally deliver + it also gives your kids something to rebel against

Same with Welsh medium schools in Wales. On the whole better than the bog standard comprehensives....

That's where my son is going anyway. Additional advantage that he gets to speak another language. (At 9 hes already fluent in both)

(yes, yes, I'm sure I'll have comments about Welsh not being a proper language etc).

[d000hg]

Of course anyone can achieve (if they have a decent brain). But they will do so despite school not because of it. The especially gifted or disabled children are not the primary focus of schools.

Children don't generally like homework and lessons etc so maybe you have a curiosity gene (I'd say I am similar though I was lucky to go to decent schools).

[Old Hack]

We looked at this seriously and decided to move to an area with great schools and have not been let down. I'd advise anyone to find a good school and move. Grammar and private school is tough; you think you have money, but you're up against some incredibly wealthy kids and the 12k fees are nothing when you start to think about the school trips, other expensive sports gear they need and just to maintain friendships. We have some friends here currently who have 3 kids in Private education. They have a Joint income of £175k and are as poor as church mice. There's a lot of bullying, regarding status, in the school. If daddy is a code monkey only earning low 6 figures, they aren't going to be invited to the best of parties, and as for the parents, they're worse; the wife has never been invited out to any drinks with the mummies as she is 'only' a middle manager.

Seriously.

[Old Hack]

Of course anyone can achieve (if they have a decent brain). But they will do so despite school not because of it. The especially gifted or disabled children are not the primary focus of schools.

Children don't generally like homework and lessons etc so maybe you have a curiosity gene (I'd say I am similar though I was lucky to go to decent schools).

d000hg, this isn't actually true across the board. It might be in a tulipe school, but most schools stream, or fast track gifted or talented kids. My eldest is currently being fast tracked in Maths, English and History, along with about 5% of the other kids at her school.

Where there are issues, is at home where no one supervises homework, or cares about it. That's where you can make a major difference to your kids education.

[DodgyAgent]

d000hg, this isn't actually true across the board. It might be in a tulipe school, but most schools stream, or fast track gifted or talented kids. My eldest is currently being fast tracked in Maths, English and History, along with about 5% of the other kids at her school.

Where there are issues, is at home where no one supervises homework, or cares about it. That's where you can make a major difference to your kids education.

And if the kids do not want to do homework (like mine) then it is very wearing having to kick and cajole them all the time. But we have to do it.