Private Schools

[Muggins]

I'm generally fascinated by people in the world who went from nothing to something. What were their backgrounds, education, family, family wealth etc.

It got me thinking. I don't have kids but always wondered whether a private school education would get them further in life...

Is life experience worth more than classroom hours and exam results? Is a combination of education and experience the happy medium?

Let's put aside the finances required to fund private education and assume they were available to you in the current set up...

What would you do??

Talk to me.

 

[steken1]

Without a doubt I'd send my daughter that route if it was open.

The first half hour of every lesson in our school was spent throwing stuff at each other and baiting supply teachers into mental implosions. The second half was a repeat of the first.

IMO your responsibility as a parent is to give your children the best start in life you can provide.

People who talk about thier kids being street-wise, seeing different sides of life etc are deluded. If you bring them up right and they have anything about them to grasp the chances you gave they will never need to know that stuff because they'll never live in that world.

Know what I mean.

 

[neil999]

theres so many variables on this one

 

[Azzurri]

Politics in 5,4,3,2,1...

 

[Joao Moutinho]

I can see this thread ending badly.

But it's a no from me on private education

 

[Muggins]

theres so many variables on this one

Talk about the variables mate, there is lots to take into account.

 

[roydo]

I think it depends on what path in life someone is likely to take. Stockbrokers, Lawyers, Bankers, Politicians, for example, would probably benefit from the Old School networks that the top schools provide, but, in general, Entrepreneurs, Inventors, folk in the Arts and the like can generally make it on their own, without the need to fall back on OSN.

I know plenty of people who have had mega bucks spunked on their education by parents, but most have ended up in pretty normal jobs, Estate Agents, Insurance, so it is no guarantee of "success", whatever that means.

 

[Muggins]

I don't think this is political lads.

Think about it from a neutral position and more of a physiological angle as to what they might experience and the consequences of that.

I trust you guys to get involved with input or just swerve posting. There's loads of other threads on GOT, trust me, I checked.

 

[Kurt.]

Do you do 'home visits muggs ?'

 

[Brennan]

I'm generally fascinated by people in the world who went from nothing to something. What were their backgrounds, education, family, family wealth etc.

It got me thinking. I don't have kids but always wondered whether a private school education would get them further in life...

Is life experience worth more than classroom hours and exam results? Is a combination of education and experience the happy medium?

Let's put aside the finances required to fund private education and assume they were available to you in the current set up...

What would you do??

Talk to me.

Well if i hadn't gone to the school i did and had gone to the local state school there's no way i'd be in Uni. Nothing to do with the cost, but the fact that my local school has 30+ people per class, makes it easy for people like me who like to sit at the back and take the piss to coast along. In the school my parents sent me to from 11+ there were at most about fifteen or sixteen people per class, and often less as i went up to A-levels.

I think the cost obviously needs to be taken into account. My school was £4000 a year, which is a hell of a lot less than many other private schools (the internet tells me the average is £11,500). Spending money doesn't guarantee improved results though, there is a private school more local to me (Rydal Penrhos, if anybody is interested) which costs £20000 per year minimum and also achieved worse results across the board than the local state school last year. It looks ace on the website, and they do all the cute things like sailing and horse riding, but the actual academic results are crap.

It's less about the money and more about the experience. There are state schools out there which offer a similar and probably in some cases better experience than private schools, and there are private schools which are no way worth the money.

 

[Muggins]

Do you do 'home visits muggs ?'

Kurt I'm scared of you.

 

[Azzurri]

Private school yes.

Boarding school no.

 

[Joao Moutinho]

There's so much good free education out there. If at the beginning of secondary school I could see my child was not academic then I wouldn't force them into it. Primary school is way too early to send them private. Because they gain some much life experience at that point

 

[Brennan]

Private school yes.

Boarding school no.

This...

 

[Brennan]

There's so much good free education out there. If at the beginning of secondary school I could see my child was not academic then I wouldn't force them into it. Primary school is way too early to send them private. Because they gain some much life experience at that point

Don't really think private school stops a kid that young from learning any other life skills than a state school kid would really. If anything it's as they get older that learning in a more 'protected' environment can be an issue.