Really need a Plan B.....

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

I'd say at that age there are better things to spend the money on. £6k goes a long way.

You can easily find private tutoring or out of school classes for languages, music, and a billion other activities. Numeracy & literacy you can encourage yourself, the real key here is to get them to do it under their own steam because they are doing something they are interested in. Give them access grown up / older age group books about things they are interested in and they will the information up like a sponge and their literacy will benefit too. "Toys" are a good investment. Coloured torches, prisms, magnets, rocks, fossils, magnifying glasses, bug hunting kits, cameras and so on are all relatively cheap and even really cool stuff like microscopes and oscilliscopes arecheap. Get a microscope you can attach a camera to, or a macro lens, and he'll be happy doing basic arithmetic to work out the exposure without even realising he's doing it. A Bigfoot is £25 and a great introduction to basic programming concepts. Hook a synthesizer up to an oscilloscope and there are hours of fun to be had and at the end of it an awful lot of stuff has been learnt, without even trying.

And after all of that you'll have £4-5k free to spend on a family holiday, or days out fossil hunting or to museums or even just time off during the school holidays.

Your only looking at it in pure financial terms - like I said, for me it is about them going to school, enjoying it and wanting to go there. It's about having good quality people around them, the best facilities, the best social environment. The private school we applied for didn't have stuck up people in it - yet the quality was the best we had seen. If they are spending most of their days somewhere then you want them to get the most out of it. I never look back at my school days positively and that is not something I want for my kids.

[eek]

You lot are completely missing the point of private schools - it's who you get to know, not what you know.
Like it or not private (i.e. public)-school educated people are at the top of almost every institution in the UK and there is an informal old-boys network. Which I use to the max, of course

That explains everything.

[DimPrawn]

You lot are completely missing the point of private schools - it's who you get to know, not what you know.
Like it or not private (i.e. public)-school educated people are at the top of almost every institution in the UK and there is an informal old-boys network. Which I use to the max, of course

Sas, I know the special school you went to was only for special people like you, but it's not the same thing.

Okay?

[sasguru]

That explains everything.

See what I mean by you being stupid?
It explains very little.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

You lot are completely missing the point of private schools - it's who you get to know, not what you know.
Like it or not private (i.e. public)-school educated people are at the top of almost every institution in the UK and there is an informal old-boys network. Which I use to the max, of course

WHS - the friends who I know that went to private school are definitely of a different social class to those who didn't. They certainly are not arrogant but you can tell from their manners, their approach etc that they are from a good background. That's the type of stuff money can't buy....

[russell]

WHS - the friends who I know that went to private school are definitely of a different social class to those who didn't. They certainly are not arrogant but you can tell from their manners, their approach etc that they are from a good background. That's the type of stuff money can't buy....

Yes money can't buy manners, but it can buy beautiful women, fast cars, big houses and amazing travel, but who cares if you are not a polite toff who was probably rogered throughout his teens by a prefect.

[sasguru]

Yes money can't buy manners, but it can buy beautiful women, fast cars, big houses and amazing travel, but who cares if you are not a polite toff who was probably rogered throughout his teens by a prefect.

Shame you're just a poor, working-class tosser then, eh?

[sasguru]

WHS - the friends who I know that went to private school are definitely of a different social class to those who didn't. They certainly are not arrogant but you can tell from their manners, their approach etc that they are from a good background. That's the type of stuff money can't buy....

You wouldn't see them in a BMW with > 100K on the clock, for example.

[eek]

You wouldn't see them in a BMW with > 100K on the clock, for example.

Nah it will be either a Ferrari or similar (recent money billionaires) or a clapped out people carrier (the relatively poorer part of a very old school billionaire family). Both are long term friends of mine living on the same street off Regent's Park.

Both examples show one thing. Cars don't show anything apart from how interested the driver is in cars.

[russell]

Shame you're just a poor, working-class tosser then, eh?

Lovely manners and very polite, if you went to a private school I would tell your parents to ask for a refund!